Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history.
Series 11
Programme 5
17 May 2005
Smallpox isolation ships
Listener Chrissie Philips-Tilbury remembers her grandmother telling her that, as a very small girl, she was sent with her younger brother to live with relatives in West Hartlepool because her parents both died on a smallpox isolation ship on the River Thames in the 1880s. Chrissie wanted to know more about these vessels, so Making History arranged for historian Peter Higginbotham to take her on a journey to find out more about them and the fate of her great-grandparents.
Peter Higginbotham's website has detailed information about the isolation ships and the workhouses of Victorian England.
Making History listener Ernest Bull recalls a tale his late grandfather told him when he was much younger. Ernest's grandfather had been serving in the army on Hounslow Heath in West London around 1906, and he spoke of a man flying 'in a kite'. Ernest contacted Making History to find out who that man was.
That man was Samuel Cody - a forgotten pioneer in British aviation history.
David Hurley of Pontypridd nominated local museum curator Brian Davies for his work in restoring a pit winding mechanism at the Hopkinstown colliery in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales.
Pontypridd Museum
Bridge Street, Pontypridd CF37 4PE
Tel: 01443 490748
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to: Making History BBC Radio 4 PO Box 3096 Brighton BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presented science and current affairs programmes for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for BBC Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald. 