History Nexus / History Websites

The Long, Long Trail 'cuts through myth and misinformation to present the facts of the British Army in the First World War' I'm not sure exactly what 'myth and misinformation' The Long, Long Trail is referring to here, they certainly don't go into details of what the site is purporting to counter. There has been revisionism from (some) historians on WWI, namely that Germany were the aggressors so consequently the war was necessary and the millions of Allied casualties didn't die in vain. For an example of this read the military historian Dr Gary Sheffield's item on the BBC website: 'In Blackadder Goes Forth, Baldrick opined that the war began when 'Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry'. His garbled version of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary reflects popular opinion: that the issues were not worth the ensuing bloodbath. Most modern scholars would not agree. Germany and Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers) are seen, at the very least, as creating the conditions for conflict. Some go much further, blaming Germany for planning and waging a deliberate war of aggression.' http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/origins_01.shtml Perhaps I'm being far too simplistic here in my analysis of this matter in claiming that some historians are apologists for this slaughter. Certainly, one such individual who has wrote some embarrassingly cod material on German barbarity during the Great War, Max Hastings, is aware of much of the futility of those that died: http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,1810320,00.html The Long, Long Trail itself gives brief explanations of the battles and the military composition of the British Army. There's also a very informative section on researching individual soldiers records: http://www.1914-1918.net/grandad/grandad.htm My Grandad fought in WWI, but upon asking for details we were informed that much of the military information from this period was lost during the WWII blitz. I'm not sure how thorough the German airforce were in this case and how much information was lost.

Welcome Gavin. Gavin's Investigations of a Dog is one of a number of interesting history blogs out there and is also the home of the Military History Carnival: http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/military-history-carnival/

The last survivor the 1914 Christmas Truce is interviewed in 2004: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1376965,00.html

I would be useful to have an introduction on this site. It would make it clear just what the site is about and the information users will find on it. There's also a really annoying Mircosoft DRM pop-up that asks the user to update their software. No idea why that is there.

There's some really useful information on this site. It's exciting to read that there is an ongoing digitalisation of the Northern Star. The Star was the Chartist paper founded and edited by Feargus O’Connor, a character that has always held out a particular interest for me. There was an active Chartist group in Romford right throughout the period. It has always been my intention to write an essay on this, and having the Northern Star online would greatly assist me in that endeavour.

This is a gateway to researching trade unions for genealogy purposes rather than a catalogue of information itself. Contains a time line of TU history in Britain, "family trees" for todays major unions, a trade union a-z, and a history of a number of past TU's including the United Operative Masons Association of Scotland, the Association of Correctors of the Press and the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staffs. It's direction of approaching genealogy that I never considered before. The following page gives users a guide to researching their family past through the TU movement: http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/Further%20research.htm

I just changed the title from www.christmastruce.co.uk to as it is. The previous title was breaking the layout of the site.

This looks a promising project. That book you listed Andy is quite an interesting read, hardly an epic of 'Making of the English Working Class' historian standards, but worth an examination. The last chapter is quite intriguing: What would have happened to 20th century history if the unofficial truce had held?

I've never heard of Lilian Douglas until now so thank you for bringing her to my attention. History through photography is an interesting approach (a new category Andy?) Not sure about Douglas' photos though. They have a bit of a Victorian rural idyll about them.

British people have a quirky character that is quite a source of amusement for our Continental cousins, and this website is about quirky British history! It's worth noting that Strange Britain is one of a couple of hundred history websites chosen to be archived by the British Library here: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/subject/14.html

This is probably the oddest, but most inspiring events in modern history - the World War One Christmas truce of 1914. As Rifleman E. E. Meadley of the Queen's Westminsters is recorded on the website as writing: 'You will be very much surprised to hear I had one of the best Christmas Days I have had for years. On Christmas Eve I went to the trenches and the Germans were singing carols to our men and we were singing to them. They then shouted to us 'A Merry Christmas, British comrades. You English are fine singers." After that some of our men went out and met some of the Germans halfway. One of our chaps gave a German a Christmas pudding and the Germans in return gave hima bottle of wine and some cigars. Then they arranged that there should be no shooting on either side till after midnight on Christmas Dy they kept to their promise. I must say the Germans were very sporty and wanted to arrange a football match with us for the Christmas afternoon which, however, when the time came fell through. On Christmas Day our men were walking about in front of the trenches and talking in a friendly way with the Germans and asking them how long they thought the war would last and also exchanging souvenirs.' What is so special about this website is that it is based, or aims to be based, on user contributions. Called 'Operation Plum Pudding', readers are encouraged to research their local papers for letters from the front detailing the truce. More information here: http://www.christmastruce.co.uk/howtkpart.html It's worth reading Stanley Weintraub's Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914 which is still available on Amazon for a reasonable price. A short piece of work, this book would make, and I'm not being facetious here, a great Christmas present.

I like the entry on Cayo Evans. Either nutter or hero, that's for sure.

This is an informative site, not too sure about the inclusion of Tom Jones and Catherine Zeta Jones though. Hardly Welsh heroes - they moved out of Wales and to the US as soon as they possibly could!

I see what you mean Sid. Appalling. It's just lists of cataloged material only available to academics. I bet national Welsh hero Aneurin Bevan is turning in his grave!

It's good site, especially content. The content isn't comprehensive but it ties in with the exhibitions or books of the Eastside Community Project. Just as a note though, I presume that this website design has been paid for. It fails on many points to reach accessibility standards as laid down by the international body W3C: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ Accessibility website guidelines were introduced in the 1990s to allow all those with physical impairments to have full access to the world wide web just like all us likely one's who are able bodied. Unfortunately, even in 2007, these guidelines are just not met by most sites. As a tip, if you have funding to pay somebody to design a website then ask them to make sure that the intended site reaches WCAG AA (double a) standard. If they can't or don't even know what that is, take your business somewhere else.

This is a well designed and visually appealing website, based on the aforementioned villages in Scotland. In particular ii concentrates on the local school with the introduction of selective entries to the school log book over the decades and photos. Importantly it invites readers to contribute by giving them an opportunity to fill out an on-line form. Every local history site should have a similar form as it will be used by those that visit the domain. Although there is a section on religion in the locality it would be nice to see some writing on local industry, which up until the 1960s was coal. Links at the bottom of the menu lead to the following sites: uk-web-index.co.uk, UK Villages online, British villages, Local History Trail, Local History Web Ring, Scottish History Online. This allows the user to continue reading on some of the subjects presented and ties in nicely with similar local history sites.

I remember as a child going to Hanningfield reservoir in Essex with my father, and in deepest summer, when the water was it its lowest, you could clearly see the tower of the church which stood in the middle of village that used to reside there. I have no idea what the name of that former village was, but it left in me, at that young age, a sense of discomfort which, as this statement makes clear, still resides with me today. When I think of abandoned communities the most prominent in my mind are St Kilda in the far Western Ilse's of Scotland and Capel Celyn. Both are covered, amongst much else, in this website. Capel Celyn was a village in north Wales and was to be demolished to make way for a reservoir built by the Liverpool Corporation. The resistance to this lead to the rise of Welsh nationalism in the form of Plaid Cymru and even the paramilitary Free Wales Army. St Kilda was evacuated in 1930 as the island, due to its depopulation and extreme isolation, was not not fit for inhabitation. The section on the history of St Kilda is particularly illuminating. Perhaps I would disagree with the author's statement that the organic democratic society to be found there was a form of “communism”, and the text as well throws up some questions. The actual owner of the island, Reginald MacLeod, stated the residents of St Kilda had been "tenants of my family for a thousand years". Which, with such a tiny population, brings into the question of inbreeding. I'm not being flippant here, it just seems impossible that all the islanders were not related in some way. There must have been regular contact with other communities in Scotland to have been able to sustain this community over the centuries. I was listening to a former resident of St Kilda being interviewed on Radio 4 not so long ago. Even now in her dreams she is pulled back to St Kilda, running through the village, as she did when she was a child. In think that what is the real card in this website is the section on psychology. I think it is an absolute necessity to try to introduce a deeper narrative that ties in all these case studies – just presenting individual examples is not enough. There needs to be a glue that ties it all together. The chapter on the psychology of abandonment – both in the collective and individual sense – is still a work in progress. But what is written needs, I feel, some revision. There is a big jump from the case studies to what is quite academic writing on psychology. It can and should be done, but it will really take some skill to seamlessly bind them together into a single narrative. As a last point, there are two very separate sections, one entitled “Places” the second “Other Places”. I really think that the author/webmaster should tie them together into one section and one list. It would make navigating the website easier for the user.

I first saw this website a while ago. There doesn't seem to have been hardly any new additions to it since. Technically very competent, but there is no substance here what so ever.

It is quite an interesting illustration of how local history can be brought into a local government site. If anybody has anymore examples then please post them up. The choices posted up are quite arcane in many cases, but then this reflects an area that has a quite bizarre contemporary mix and historically has been quite quirky. No mention though of Victoria Park which surely is one of the most famous green spaces in London. It was the site of Chartist rallies, Oswald Mosley appearances and the famous ANL Rock Against Racism events of the late 70s. Also too no mention of of Dalston Theater which was the home of a massive 19th century music hall and then lately of the Four Aces blues club and the Labyrinth nightclub. Why? It was demolished by Hackney council a couple of years ago to make way for office blocks despite a fierce local campaign! For further details read http://opendalston.blogspot.com/

This is third in a Google search for Kempsey, which is a village in Worcestershire. This is a good example of using Yahoo's Geocities to host a site for free. The downside of this though are the adverts which tend to be a bit intrusive on the text. This site gives a brief run down of the history of Kempsey, starting in the Iron Age, through to the Roman period and then on to Saxon origins of the area with the village being named after a Saxon chief called 'Kemys' The industrial revolution reveals for this rural area: 'In 1841 a 4' 2", 8lb. 1 oz. carrot was grown in Kempsey.' A very apt comment on our frozen rural 19th century rural hinterlands. The creator of this site, Andy Morrall, now lives in Hong Kong, but is on the list of links at Local Histoy magazine which Is where I originally found it.

Considering it's the infamously incompetent Hackney council, this is quite a competent and interesting section to their local government site. It would be interesting if this information was incorporated into a walking tour.

My first thought was, what a great idea for a site! And then I looked at the recent comments and there have been hardly any submissions over the last year. There is a disclaimer from the creators though: 'This site is on limited circulation at the moment, and is only supposed to be a mySociety demo, not a big posh project like PledgeBank. It may not be obvious, but the most important feature of YourHistoryHere is the construction of an underlying system for collecting and sharing geographic annotations in an open syndicated format, so you can use the yummy local data people leave for your own purposes. We're building two sites that show how this can be useful, this one and Placeopedia.com, and we'd love to share the code for other ideas.' Seems to been built as a coding test run for larger projects. What a shame they have decided not to promote it.

To be honest with you - I'm not really a TV watcher. But the site is very impressive nevertheless, although as I haven't watched the programmes featured I have no idea what the site adds to the TV content.