Local History in Britain after Hoskins; Report on the Conference July 2009
Firstly, I would like to thank the Kent Archaeological Society members for their generous support in awarding me a bursary towards the cost of attending the ‘Local History in Britain after Hoskins’ conference. As a second year PhD student researching a regional study of Kent, I found the conference invaluable with regards to inspiration and encouragement.
The conference was jointly organised by the British Association for Local History and the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester. The aim of the conference was to ‘celebrate the subject of local history that W. G. Hoskins helped to create’.
One hundred and seventy five delegates attended the Gilbert Murray Conference Centre at Oadby, Leicester. Guests included W. G. Hoskins’s daughter and grand-daughter who received a warm welcome at the conference dinner. The conference was divided into the eight themes of Local History Now, Culture and Belief, Community and Society, History of Local History, Family, Population and Migration, Identity and Belonging, Making a Living in Town and Country and Sources, Methods and Techniques. Over fifty papers were delivered in parallel sessions by professional academics, research students and local historians representing local history societies around Britain.
The aim of the conference was achieved with papers that celebrated the wide variety of questions and key issues in local history, through a remarkable range of sources and techniques of analysis. The timing of the delivery of the papers had to be strictly adhered to, so that delegates could easily move between sessions without disturbing the speakers. The papers were so engaging it was a shame that there was so little time for further discussion in the conference auditorium. Not to be deterred, friendly banter and earnest discussions of the papers took place during the conference breaks.
The excellent papers of Dr Gillian Draper, Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh and Professor David Killingray and the plenary lecture of Sarah Pearson highlighted the rich diversity of local history topics currently researched by Kent historians and KAS members: from death in 14th century Rye; Hythe butcher graziers of the late medieval Kent countryside; the impact of immigrant communities on British local history and Sandwich ‘completest’ medieval town.
I presented an aspect of local history in Kent, with the latest approach for PhD students to outline their research in a poster format. My poster detailed sources, methodology and a casestudy sample, to illustrate Punishment and the New Poor Law in Kent: with specific reference to the recording and reporting of offences committed in workhouses 1835 to 1934. This enabled me to discuss my research and receive constructive criticism in a less formal setting than delivering a paper at a conference or seminar.
The conference was very enjoyable, friendly and thought provoking with pleasant accommodation and food. One highlight of many was the Saturday afternoon trips into the Leicester landscape with excellent guides from the Centre for English Local History.
After the closing remarks of the conference, delegates could be overheard asking when the next conference would be: a fitting tribute to all the hard work carried out by the conference organising committee and to the local historians who delivered the papers.