It has been another busy year for the History of Parliament, with the publication of long awaited projects, ventures into new online platforms, and the end of an era at the helm. Here is our Public Engagement Manager Connie Jeffery with a look back at the past twelve months.
2023 has been a year of many milestones for the History of Parliament, none more so than the publication of our House of Commons 1640-1660 volumes. Comprising nearly 9,000 pages fitting into nine volumes, and taking nearly thirty years of research, this long-awaited project was sent to print in the summer of 2023. Generally regarded as the most comprehensive collection of information and analysis ever compiled on the parliaments of the Civil Wars, we are delighted to see the volumes now on display in reference, University, and personal libraries across the country- and beyond.
To mark this landmark publication, in July friends, colleagues and contributors of the History of Parliament gathered in Speaker’s House to celebrate. Guests heard from Dr Stephen Roberts, editor of the House of Commons 1640-1660 volumes, before the chair of the History of Parliament, Lord Norton of Louth, formally presented a set of volumes to Sir Lindsay Hoyle to be entered into the Speaker’s personal library.
This reception was just one of many events held to celebrate the publication. In October some of the team behind the Commons 1640-1660 volumes headed to Huntingdon, home of Oliver Cromwell himself, to discuss their research in collaboration with The Cromwell Association, and a month later representatives headed to Baltimore to present some of the findings from the project at the North American Conference on British Studies. Early in 2023 we also launched a temporary blog series to tie in with the publication (all of the blogs from the ‘Commons in the Civil Wars’ series can be seen here) and Dr Stephen Roberts appeared on the World Turned Upside Down podcast, as well as answering ‘everything you wanted to know about the history of British Parliament’ on the HistoryExtra podcast.
But the mid-17th century focus doesn’t stop there! We are delighted to announce that Dr Roberts will be giving this year’s Annual Lecture, on 22 January, titled ‘Power and the Culture of the Commons in the Long Parliament’ (you can sign up to attend here), and in February we will be heading to the National Archives to discuss the project and the use of archival materials in a ‘hands on’ workshop event (tickets here). And the team are now hard at work researching the House of Lords 1640-1660!
Our other colleagues have also been very busy with events this year, many of which were carried out in partnership with external projects. We hosted two receptions in collaboration with St James’s House publishers in 2023, celebrating our two most recent book projects; in January we welcomed guests to the Cholmondeley Room in the House of Lords to celebrate ‘Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster’, and in September History of Parliament staff, trustees and friends gathered in Westminster Abbey to mark the publication of ‘75 Years of the National Health Service’. This most recent publication is now also available to download for free here.
In April we co-sponsored a conference at the University of East Anglia, titled ‘Politics Before Democracy: Britain and its world, c.1750-1914’, and in July our eighteenth and nineteenth century teams supported the ‘Organise! Organise! Organise! Collective Action, Associational Culture and the Politics of Organisation in Britain and Ireland c.1790-1914’ conference at the University of Durham.
We were also pleased to partner with the Letters of Richard Cobden Online project, based at Leeds Beckett University, for this year’s Schools Competition. Launched in the spring of 2023, the competition asked KS3 students to take inspiration from Richard Cobden and examine how political campaigns of the past can inspire those of the present. The winning entrant, from Lawnswood School in Leeds, was inspired by Cobden’s use of the written word to spread his ideas, and conceived a campaign called ‘Black Voices Matter’, intended to increase the presence of Black authors within school libraries. The winner was awarded their prize by Lord Norton at an event in Parliament, which also acted as the launch of the Cobden Letters site. Dr Simon Morgan, Principal Investigator, explained the project further on our blog.
Finally, in November the Public Engagement team were joined by representatives from all sections at the Institute of Historical Research and School of Advanced Study’s ‘History Day’, introducing our project to a wide audience of students and heritage professionals.
This year we also held the ‘Parliamentarians on their Past’ series; a number of events intended to highlight the work of our groundbreaking Oral History Project. In July we welcomed the Petitioning and People Power in 20th Century Britain project to the Jubilee Room to discuss their work and how our interviews with former MPs have helped with their research, and in November we gathered in the House of Lords to introduce the project to former members of the Commons and parliamentary staff. However, our largest event in the series took place in June, marking the anniversary of the 1983 General Election. This event saw a panel, consisting of historians Robert Saunders and Helen Parr, former Conservative MP Matthew Parris, and the History of Parliament’s Emma Peplow and Priscilla Privatto, discuss clips from our oral history archive and reflect on the wider historical context of the election, in front of a sell out audience. A full run down of the event can be read in this blog.
The Oral History Project itself continued to go from strength to strength in 2023, with many new interviews being completed, and in the summer we welcomed an intern, PhD student Alfie Steer, who provided invaluable work for the project, including blogs like this on this impact of all-women shortlists. A big thank you to Alfie and to all of our brilliant volunteer interviewers.
Speaking of blogs… It has been a busy year online for the History of Parliament too, as the global social media landscape continues to change at a rapid pace. Now, as well as the usual places, you can find @HistParl, @theVictCommons and @GeorgianLords on BlueSky and in the spring our Public Engagement Team launched our page on TikTok! Highlighting interesting figures, key events, and unusual stories, head over to the @HistParl channel to find videos like this, explaining why turnips proved so dangerous for 19th century MPs…
The History of Parliament blog covered a wide variety of subjects in 2023, including a series on political factions and a topical exploration of coronations throughout history, and we were glad to host many guest blogs from external contributors. However it was Dr Robin Eagles’ piece on Queen Charlotte that took the top spot in this year’s ‘Top of the Blogs’. In fact, it became our most read blog in the history of our site! You can find a full count down of our most popular blogs for 2023 here. Thank you to everyone- staff and guest bloggers alike- for their contributions.
Finally, 2023 saw some personnel changes within the walls of Bloomsbury Square. Early in the year we were delighted to welcome Dr Alex Beeton to the Lords 1640-1660 project as a Research Assistant, and in the summer it was announced that Dr Jennifer Davey would be taking over as Director of the History of Parliament. Jennifer took up the post in December and has hit the ground running! We would all like to say a big welcome to Jennifer, and we know that staff and followers alike are looking forward to seeing what this new era for the History of Parliament will bring. Read more about the appointment here.
Of course, this means that at the end of this year we said goodbye to Dr Paul Seaward, who led the History of Parliament as director for 25 years. Paul was central in establishing the institution’s status as the central place for parliamentary history, and used his passion and expertise to engage academic, public and parliamentary audiences alike. We would like to say a huge thank you to Paul for all of his work and support. Paul’s infectious energy and encyclopaedic knowledge will be sorely missed, but we know that he won’t be a stranger! Paul will be giving the 2024 Centre for Intellectual History Carlyle Lectures lectures in the New Year, and we are sure he will pop up at some of the upcoming History of Parliament events! Paul can also still be found discussing his research on X @pseaward.
Many thanks to all of our staff, supporters and friends for another great year for the History of Parliament, and I am sure you are as excited as we are to see what the new year brings! As ever, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via email or social media with any questions, queries or comments.
Wishing you all a happy New Year, and here’s to an exciting 2024!
CJ