Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history.
Series 13
Programme 5
16 May 2006
Woad (Isatis tinctoria)
Making History visited Ian and Bernadette Howard on their farm in Norfolk to find out about the rediscovery of an old industry - the production of woad.
Woad has been grown in Britain since the Neolithic and is mentioned by Julius Caesar around 54 BC in The Conquest of Gaul (De Bello Gallico):
"The population is exceedingly large, the ground thickly studded with homesteads ... and the cattle very numerous ... hares, fowl, and geese they think it unlawful to eat, but rear them for pleasure and amusement... Most of the tribes do not grow corn but live on milk and meat, and wear skins. All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour, and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle. They wear their hair long, and shave the whole of their bodies except the head and the upper lip. Wives are shared between groups of ten or twelve men."
Commercial production of woad probably began in Anglo-Saxon times, but it was after the 13th century that the industry really took off with the demand for dyes from the cloth export trade.
Sable Island
Making History listener Andy Alston contacted the programme to find out more about the wife of an ancestor who was born around 1820 on Sable Island, a crescent-shaped island of shifting sand some 200 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. Andy wanted to know what people were doing there at that time.
Making History consulted Sheila Hirtle, co-author of a book on Sable Island (see below).
Sable Island lies in treacherous waters and has been the site of hundreds of shipwrecks over the centuries. Portuguese, Spanish, French and British seafarers all knew of the island, which has a supply of fresh water that could allow survivors to live for many months. However, continuous habitation did not begin until 1801 when the Canadian colonial authorities decided that a life-saving establishment be set up. The practice of going to sea to rescue people from ships in distress did not begin until the mid 19th century, and the first lighthouse was built in 1873.
Book
Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle, Sable Island: The Strange Origins and Curious History of a Dune Adrift in the Atlantic (Walker & Co, 2004)
Arthur Mee's Children's Newspaper
Following several letters, calls and emails to the programme, Making History consulted author Maisie Robson about the history of The Children's Newspaper, which was founded by the journalist Arthur Mee in 1919 and published weekly until 1965.
Anglo-Norman Dictionary
Making History consulted Professor David Trotter from the University of Aberystwyth about the new online Anglo-Norman dictionary.
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. 