From January 2021, second year undergraduate students in History at the University of Gloucestershire undertook the following projects despite some of the obstacles presented by the pandemic. Some of these were exhibited at the Gloucester History Festival in September.
One of themes for the projects centres on tracing local legacies of slavery, and was triggered by reactions and responses to the Black Lives Matter protests, as well as the contests over historical monuments in Britain. These projects are tied to a broader review of Gloucester’s monuments and heritage which was lanuched by the City’s Race and Equalities Commission. Another theme centres on the experiences and hidden histories on women in Gloucestershire, and continues our tradition of focusing on the history of local women. Our students also wanted to apply some of their oral history skills by attempting to capture experiences of the pandemic for key workers. Click on the titles to see the virtual exhibits.
Legacies of Slave Ownership in Gloucester and Gloucestershire
This project made use of UCL’s Legacies of British Slave Ownership database to trace the local beneficiaries of the Compensation Act, which compensated owners of enslaved people when the institution was abolished in Britain.
Legacies of Slave Ownership in Pittville and Cheltenham
This project mirrored the one above, but collaborated with Pittville History Works to focus attention on one of Cheltenham’s most attractive residential areas. The students also examined the role of abolitionism in the town.
African American Abolitionists in Gloucester
This project looked at the visits of former enslaved black Americans who gave lectures at anti-slavery talks in Gloucester, as part of their wider tours on the British Isles in the 19th century, demonstrating the local and international dimensions of the abolitionist movement.
This project contributes to the women’s history of Cheltenham by exploring the life and work of one of its prominent twentieth-century educationalists and philanthropists: Lilian Faithfull (1865-1952).
This exhibit explores the much more contemporary experiences of life under lockdown, and sees students applying some knowledge of oral history as a research method.
This project comes from a student’s contribution to a project on the Rudge family’s excavations of the Evesham Abbey grounds from 1811-1834.
A project looking at local community participation in WWII in preparation for Remembrance Sunday 2021.
A project in collaboration with Pittville History Works on the history of schools in Cheltenham’s Pittville area.
Please click blog page to view blog posts written by students as they were conducting the research.
Cotswold Centre for History and Heritage 