Podcast: The Queen is not Amused – Christine Trent

The year 1843 saw both the publication of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and the issuance of the very first Christmas card. Developed by Sir Henry Cole, a civil servant who not only assisted with the creation of the Penny Post but was also instrumental in management of the Great Exhibition in 1851, the [...]

The town of Mold in northeast Wales has its own fascinating history dating back to the 11th century reign of William Rufus, but became infamous for its riots in the summer of 1869. Friction between Welsh coal miners and a particularly abusive English mine manager would result in military interference would leave several dead bodies [...]

England in the early 19th century was rife with bad harvests, disease, and poverty.  Parliament developed the concept of workhouses to assist the poor, by providing them with housing and meaningful work to do.  This plan met with varying levels of success, but was mostly disastrous.  Worst of all was the Andover Workhouse in [...]

The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas through Egypt and thus provides a quicker shipping route from west to east, was inaugurated in an elaborate, weeks-long ceremony in November of 1869. It was promoted not only as an engineering wonder, but as a means by which permanent international peace and harmony would [...]

Imagine the most pestilent, disease-ridden, rat-infested prison in 19th century Great Britain.  Now drop those conditions into a harbor and you have a prison hulk.  Only used for about a century, these floating dens of misery were responsible for countless prisoner deaths.

Opened on May 1, 1851, by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Great Exhibition was the first of the World’s Fair exhibitions of culture and industry. Albert, the Prince Consort, was a major force behind the exhibition, which contained some 100,000 objects, by nearly 14,000 contributors. Britain occupied half the display space inside with [...]

The causes of the Crimean War (1853-1856) were complicated, as they usually are.  During the years leading up to the war, France, Russia and Britain were all competing for influence in the Middle East, particularly with Turkey.  In addition, Russia was angry with Turkey over the maltreatment of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. [...]

In the 1850’s Sidney & Elizabeth Herbert were the political power couple of their time.  Sidney was the Secretary of War during the Crimean War, and Elizabeth was his ardent supporter.  Together, they brought forward a young nurse named Florence Nightingale to rescue the Crimean debacle, and the course of nursing was changed forever. [...]

  Perhaps the most disastrous theatre fire in Britain’s history occurred in 1887 when Exeter’s Theatre Royal—built to replace another theatre that had burned down just two years earlier—burnt down during an evening performance.  Around 200 people were killed and about 100 children were orphaned. Many of the victims were from the city’s poorer [...]