RSS 1.0History and Archaeology
The History and Archaeology Department is based in a modern purpose-built building at the heart of the University's main Chester Campus. The Department of History and Archaeology has very good links with heritage, museum and archive agencies within the city of Chester, from which students are able to benefit during the course of their studies. The Department is also one of the leading research units within the University. The research interests and specialisms of the Department are diverse, ranging over the medieval, early modern and modern periods, and over local, British, European, American and international history.
This collection is licenced under a Creative Commons licence. Copyright belongs to the authors. The collection may be reproduced for non-commerical use and without modification, providing that copyright is acknowledged.
Recent Submissions
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Nationalising bodies, shifting loyalties: Exhuming the war dead in a changing EuropeThroughout Europe, thousands of national cemeteries contain the bodies of soldiers killed in the two world wars, each carefully divided according to nationality. Yet, as this essay argues, determining the nationality of the dead was never so clear cut. Focusing on burials within Britain, it explores four categories of dead that demonstrate the fluidity of national belonging. The first group are the erroneously identified dead, who had been incorrectly identified during conflict. Second are the unwanted dead. These were the bodies of spies or people branded as traitors, who were stripped of their nationality post-war and barred from national cemeteries. Third are the contested dead; soldiers who died in the uniform of one army, but were later reclaimed by another country. Finally, there are the convenient dead, who were simply assigned a nationality in the wake of conflict. Military cemeteries, as the article concludes, were artificial creations, based not only on national identity, but also on post-war decision making.
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Later medieval ecclesiastical vestments: Commercial networksThis chapter foregrounds the form and materiality of the St John’s textiles by exploring commercial networks across the period 1300 to 1500.
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Book review: Frank Trentmann, Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022Book review of Frank Trentmann, Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022
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A meeting of peoples: PAS metalwork, material, and documentary evidence for cultural exchange in Anglo-Saxon Shropshire and the Mercian West MidlandsThis paper analyses the intractable and fragmented history of Shropshire from c.500–1050. The written sources for this period are extremely poor in Shropshire’s case but are now being enriched by excavations and, more widely, by PAS finds and sculpture. The concept of ‘persistent places’ in the landscape is used to pursue key sites through specific episodes in Anglo-Saxon Shropshire’s history that can be established by reference to the wider historical events within the emerging kingdoms of England. Through this mechanism, a more detailed picture emerges of how Mercian Shropshire gradually came together so that by the eleventh century, the new shire had been created as a stable entity with rich cultural relationships in the face of external threats from its surrounding polities: Welsh, English and Viking.
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A reassessment of the Galli and the Archigalli of Magna Mater, their differences and their citizen status in RomeAcademics have regularly debated the question of how the Galli, priests of Magna Mater/Cybele, fit into the Roman social milieu. Several have argued that membership of the Galli was restricted to foreign citizens only (citing Domitian’s legislation) whilst others have argued that the chief priests—the Archigalli—were Roman citizens, while the ‘lower’ Galli were non-citizens, thus separating both within the Cybele cult. These views remain prevalent in modern discussions on the cult, and have not undergone significant scrutiny or analysis. By assessing these views and the existing material and literary evidence for the Galli, this article argues that the Archigalli and Galli were indistinct in terms of behaviour and affiliation. Moreover, this article uses archaeological and literary evidence to suggest that the Galli most likely included Roman citizens among their members, contrasting with the prevailing view of them as foreign residents in Rome.
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Living amongst and with trees: Botanical agency and the archaeology of plant-human relationshipsThe last decade has seen a significant change in the way the humanities have approached the study of botanical life. Termed ‘the plant turn’, this questions traditional views of plants as a largely passive form of life, seeing them instead as living beings capable of acting upon and with other elements of the world. This paper argues that such a perspective offers significant potential for the archaeological study of human-plant relationships. Using a case-study on the lives of trees and humans at the early Mesolithic settlement at Star Carr (UK) it shows that by viewing plants as active participants in past worlds we can achieve a richer understanding of both non-human and human life, and the complex ways they interacted with each other. It also suggests that by making more of this approach, archaeology can help address our own, contemporary relationship with the botanical world.
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Great works by great men? Rethinking linear earthworksIntroducing the sixth volume of the Offa’s Dyke Journal (ODJ) for 2024, the introduction surveys the contents and recent related research published elsewhere as well as the main Offa’s Dyke Collaboratory’s activities during late 2023 and 2024.
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Today’s Offa’s Dyke: Heritage interpretation for Britain’s longest linear monumentHow is Offa’s Dyke interpreted for visitors and locals in the contemporary landscape? The article considers the present-day heritage interpretation of Britain’s longest linear monument: the early medieval Mercian frontier work of Offa’s Dyke. I survey and evaluate panels, plaques and signs that follow the course of the surviving early medieval linear earthwork from Sedbury in Gloucestershire, north to Treuddyn in Flintshire, and along stretches away from the surviving earthwork and north to Prestatyn, Denbighshire along the line of the Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail. Critiquing for the overarching narratives and envisionings of Offa’s Dyke the first time, I identify how anachronistic ethnonationalist narratives pervade its interpretation: pertaining to the origins of both England and the English, and Wales and the Welsh. As such, the article provides a baseline for further research into the contemporary archaeology and heritage of Offa’s Dyke and affords insights of application to other ancient linear monuments in today’s world. I conclude with reflections and recommendations for future heritage interpretation of the monument in relation to the national trail, the border and borderlands identities.
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More than a moment: German Jews and the First World WarWith the spotlight on the census, other aspects of the German-Jewish war experience gradually faded into the background. In the post-war years, few people wanted to talk about army rabbis or Jewish sailors. The charitable efforts of synagogue communities or Jewish female volunteers in hospitals and at railway stations was also quickly forgotten. What had once been an extremely varied and diverse experience of conflict descended into little more than a public battle over statistics. For the most part, this narrative of national sacrifice rewarded with a brutal betrayal has been the mainstay of historical writing too. Yet, for German Jews, the census was always just a single brief moment in what was a much longer First World War.
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What to do with the dead?Tim Grady explains what the treatment of German and British dead following the two world wars reveals about the two nations’ ongoing relationship.
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Book Review: Comrades Betrayed: Jewish World War I Veterans Under HitlerBook review of Comrades Betrayed: Jewish World War I Veterans Under Hitler
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The Liberty of Whitby Strand: The Origins and Significance of a Jurisdictional ImmunityThe medieval abbey at Whitby, North Yorkshire, controlled a jurisdictional immunity from royal administration, which was territorial and was known as the Liberty of Whitby Strand. Since Frederick William Maitland, historians have analysed such jurisdictional immunities as an index of royal authority and power. However, the surviving documentation for jurisdictional immunities means that it is often difficult to establish precisely when they were created or what franchises they included. Whitby Abbey claimed that the Liberty of Whitby Strand originated in a grant of King William I and this was accepted by the Victoria County History at the beginning of the twentieth century. Since then, the Liberty has been almost completely ignored. This article revisits the evidence, suggesting that it is possible to pinpoint its origins with rare precision. It argues that the Whitby monks forged a series of charters to persuade King Richard I and King John to transform a narrower portfolio of franchises into the wider territorial Liberty. This article further considers the politics surrounding its creation under Richard and John, and its implications for our understanding of royal authority and power.
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Burying the Enemy: The Story of Those who Cared for the Dead in Two World WarsPerhaps surprisingly, local people embraced these graves, often caring for them with considerable tenderness. Tim Grady explores the history of this curious aspect of postwar community.
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Archaeo-media: breaking the binary and building agency in archaeological news reportingThe role of news media in the dissemination of archaeological research isbeginning to receive some attention, but this is inadequate when consideringthe scale of the news media as a tool for public archaeology and mass-distribution of archaeological research in digital news sites. Archaeologyneeds to urgently address this oversight and begin to construct appropriateand sustainable working relationships with the news media, founded ona critical evaluation of current strategies, to regulate the information that isdisseminated through this medium. This paper takes a British perspective,though the themes and necessary improvements have global significance.I suggest that we begin to appreciate the role of the archaeologist in theconstruction of knowledge through the mass media by embracing ‘archaeo-media’- a neologism here proposed to explore the intersections and interac-tions between archaeology and news media.
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Book Review: Étienne Anheim, Laurent Feller, Madeleine Jeay and Giuliano Milani (eds), Le Pouvoir des Listes au Moyen Âge – II. Listes d’objets/ listes de personnes. Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2020. Pp. 320. EURO 22A book review of Étienne Anheim, Laurent Feller, Madeleine Jeay and Giuliano Milani (eds), Le Pouvoir des Listes au Moyen Âge – II. Listes d’objets/ listes de personnes. Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2020. Pp. 320. EURO 22.
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A Tale of Two Risings: Was the second civil war in England and Wales pro-royalist or anti-parliamentarian?This chapter reconsiders the origins, nature and leadership of the two main risings during the so-called civil war in Wales, namely the rising which began in Kent and which spread to Essex, ending in the siege of Colchester, and the rising which began in Pembrokeshire before spreading to other parts of South Wales, ending in the siege of Pembroke. It highlights the complexities in branding either pro-royalist or anti-parliamentarian in tone.
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A Tale of Two Cities: garrisons, strongholds, fortifications and sieges in the English civil warThis chapter explores the nature and role of garrisons and garrison warfare in the English civil war, focusing on the role of defended towns, refortified castles, fortified mansions and other strongholds. It goes on to compare and contrast Chester and Gloucester as strongholds and their role in the civil war.
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The triumphs and tribulations of Sir Thomas Myddelton, summer and autumn 1644Via a series of his often lengthy and quite detailed letters of the time - the full texts of which are transcribed and reproduced within the paper - this article explores Sir Thomas Myddelton's military campaigns and activities along the borders of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire during the late summer and early autumn of 1644, a period when he achieved some significant victories but also found himself frustrated and unable to make major advances into Wales, for reasons which are explored here.
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The nursery of the king's infantry? Reassessing the civil war in Wales, 1642-46This article reassesses the nature of the civil war in Wales and in particular the apparent support for the king found in most of the Principality. It explores royalist allegiance afresh, questioning the depth and strength of that allegiance, finding evidence for strained and waning support for the king's cause from quite early in the civil war and assessing both how and why parliament was able to secure most of Wales very quickly and without a fight in the latter stages of the war.
