14/01/2014

Available for over a year

Helen Castor and a cast of leading historians, together with listeners, discuss the latest historical research from across the UK. This week - the British work camps that time forgot and the return of the Diggers to a London suburb. Helen is joined by Professor Justin Champion from Royal Holloway, University of London and Professor Malcolm Chase from the University of Leeds to shine a light on the ways people of different political persuasions have used land and community to tackle social and economic ills. Tom Holland visits an occupation at Runnymede, where the name of the seventeenth century Diggers has been taken by protestors closely aligned to the occupy movement. Meanwhile at Carstairs, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Dr Fiona Watson meets up with Dr John Field from the University of Stirling to look at the site of a 1920's work camp that history has forgotten. Remarkably, it was one of hundreds that were established in Britain from the 1870's through to the Second World War. Contact the programme: [email protected] Produced by Nick Patrick A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.