Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener’s historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all ‘make’ history.
Programme 3
15 April 2008
Vanessa Collingridge and the team discuss listeners' historical queries and celebrate the many ways in which we all 'make' history.
Smothering
A listener in West Yorkshire retold a family story about a woman who visited a farm close to Leeds in the early years of the twentieth century. She asked for a cup of water but made it clear that the cup should be broken because she was on her way to York to be 'smothered'. What could this mean?
Making History consulted Dr Elizabeth Hurren, Senior Lecturer in Medicine at Oxford Brookes University. Elizabeth believes that the key to answering this question was the woman’s intended destination – York. Leeds had a very good hospital given the conditions of the day so why head for York? Elizabeth told Making History that she feels the woman might have had a skin disease, such as psoriasis, and was on her way to York to receive treatment which might have included mud or other substances being smeared over her at a spa – hence 'smother'. York had a history of treating skin diseases and mental illness thanks to its Quaker community.
There is, however, another meaning of 'smother' from the nineteenth century – infanticide. However, would the woman be so open about her intentions if this was what lay behind her journey?
If you have heard another meaning of 'smothered' where you live please contact Vanessa and the team. Contact details below.
Dartmoor Stone Rows
The Neolithic Stone Rows of Dartmoor have long puzzled antiquarians and archaeologists. What was their intended purpose? Making History listener Roger Hutchins has worked on Dartmoor for 30 years and he has come to the conclusion that they were a grand navigation system which helped early traders navigate on and off Dartmoor.
Making History reporter Richard Daniel put Roger's theory to local archaeologist Dr Tom Greeves. Dr Greeves didn’t discount it but made it clear that there is little evidence for any theory about their purpose. However, Dr Greeves has recently made his own discovery, a new stone row higher than any of the others at a place called Cut Hill. Radio carbon dating at the University of Plymouth reveals that this row may well be 1,000 years older than those of the second millennium BC that are found elsewhere.
Suffolk is well known for its wool churches built on the wealth of manufacturing industry in the 15th century. However, sheep were important in the harsh economic times of the 13th and early 14th century – particularly on the poor, sandy soils of the Suffolk coast. Here, poorer people would rely on sheep for milk and maybe cheese. With the Black Death of 1349, the population of England was halved.
Those that survived found it easier to find work and this was well paid because labour was short. No longer did people have to rely on sheep for milk, this was the beginnings of Suffolk’s famous (cattle) dairy industry which exported milk and cheese (Suffolk bang was used by the navy until the rise of Cheshire cheese two or three hundred years later) to London and the Continent.
Further reading:
Mediaeval Suffolk – An Economic and Social History, 1200 – 1500, by Dr Mark Bailley. Published by The Boydell Press ISBN 978 184383 315 4
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. 