UK historians what’s you favourite piece of obscure uk history and any good resources to learn more about it?
Posted by apple_kicks@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 56 comments
Arm chair historians welcome to share what they know too
OllyDee@reddit
Hereward the Wake was once a well-known name, but I don’t think many are aware of him these days. An Anglo-Saxon outlaw that rebelled against William the Bastard, and might have inspired outlaw tales like Robin Hood.
irishstreams@reddit
He gets a mention in the Likely Lads Christmas special!
OllyDee@reddit
Does he actually? Well there you go, probably well known until pretty recently then I’d guess.
petewarden@reddit
I'm from the fens and grew up with Radio Hereward (which boringly is now called Heart Peterborough) so there were some reminders locally.
jollygoodvelo@reddit
Everyone is taught in school that England has not been invaded since 1066 but this strangely ignores the Dutch invasion in 1667 (though the Government/monarchy were not overthrown.)
apple_kicks@reddit (OP)
Tories invited them to invade which is wild part i remember reading
WhiteKnightAlpha@reddit
Tories didn't exist yet in 1667. If this is about William of Orange though, the Tories were on the other side. The name was originally used as a slur for supporters of King James II, back when he was just a prince suffering from a bad case of Being Catholic. Some of their opponents invited the Dutch to invade to remove James.
Ceres1500@reddit
Also, there was an attempted invasion by the French in 1797, they landed in Wales and fought an unsuccessful campaign for a few days.
HamsterEagle@reddit
I thought they got drunk and then fled when approached by the local fish wives.
Ceres1500@reddit
Yes, that was part of it - the women wore traditional costumes with red material and they were mistaken from a distance for soldiers, I think.
Mrslinkydragon@reddit
That was the sacking of Chatham docks. There was a big festival in medway
No_Ring_3348@reddit
You're getting the de Ruyter raid on the Medway confused with Big Willy's Special Military Operation
Axiotus@reddit
I'll always enjoy knowing - the Hundred Years War in the UK started, supposedly, in 1337.
As someone who got into leetspeak when I was a kid, that really stuck with me.
No_Ring_3348@reddit
Between 400 and 600 CE, there is no British history, just speculation written 100+ years later. The only contemporaneous writings we have are St Patrick's autobiography and a letter he wrote, and he wasn't exactly a historian, and that's it. The King Arthur legend arose from this time, which gives you an idea of just how confused events became in later retellings. It has always fascinated me.
LethargicOnslaught@reddit
Isn't there a conspiracy theory around this being a missing century or 2 and actually we're currently in either 1826 or 1926?
dospc@reddit
Yeah but it collapses as soon as you realise that it may have been the dark ages in Western Europe, but the Islamic world, China, India, the Byzantines etc all have written records of this time.
No_Ring_3348@reddit
Yep Fomenkoism, Garry Kasparov is a famous proponent. Complete and utter bullshit of course.
LethargicOnslaught@reddit
I was thinking of the unimaginative named Phantom time conspiracy theory in which the AD calendar was made up by the Holy Roman Emperor to make sure that his reign fell on the year 1000AD. Also nonsense, but thanks for introducing me to Great Tartaria, I enjoy looking through the looking glass at conspiracy nutters every now and then.
No_Ring_3348@reddit
Now we're having the exact same experience of 'oh wow, there are two of these people?!' and that's the beauty of knowledge exchange!
whatwhenwhere1977@reddit
It’s not that obscure but I really like The Anarchy. A drunken boat disaster causing a long running civil war, a female queen who has been largely ignored. Oh and plentiful medieval misery.
Source: Wikipedia https://share.google/V4JDLYV9tX7clVzNa
OllyDee@reddit
Matilda was robbed.
whatwhenwhere1977@reddit
Oh definitely. But still so impressive
Careless_Soup_109@reddit
A great-grandniece of Napoleon was married to a godfather of Charles III, our king.
Smooth_News_7027@reddit
Napoleon VIII and Arthur Wellesley (to be the 10th Wellington) worked for rival Private Equity firms at the time of the 200th anniversary of Waterloo. That’s a long running rivalry for you!
Careless_Soup_109@reddit
One can imagine the drama!
FantasticWeasel@reddit
Jonas Hanway (1712-1786) was the first man in England to popularise men carrying umbrellas. Hackney coach drivers were mad at him because they were used to getting more work when it rained and thought umbrella use would affect this.
He was on a crusade to stop tea drinking.
ProfessorYaffle1@reddit
One of my favourite little buggests is the fact that when Wellington won the battle of vitoria in 1813, amoungst the stuff captured was the French Marshal Jourdan's baton.
Wellington sent it back to the Prince Regent who responded saying "You have sent me [...] the Staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of England.'
Except the British army didn't have Batons / Staffs for Field Marsahlls, so one had to be hastily designed. And (tradition being waht it is, a baton then became part of the ceremonila gear of a Field Marshal
I
Frankyvander@reddit
Related because it’s from the Battle of Vitoria.
A cavalry regiment was nearly able to capture King Joseph Bonaparte, however he escaped.
As a consolation prize they were able to loot his baggage and to this day the silver chamber pot is used as ceremonial mess ware by the successor regiment.
kendoddsdadsdeaddog@reddit
Isn’t there also a piano somewhere as well
Frankyvander@reddit
that could be the Tipu's Tiger, an instrument that was captured in India and is currently in the Victoria and Albert museum.
it has a piano in it
welsh_cthulhu@reddit
The Battle of Fishguard in 1797 - the last time mainland Britain was invaded - is a hilarious rabbit hole.
TLDR: Load of French Army irregulars landed in Fishguard, and were defeated by pissed-up locals including women with pitchforks.
Historical_Cobbler@reddit
I’m currently house hunting but I keep finding historical houses, not always listed but I’m fascinated by reading the local history.
One house, had connections to Dr Palmer, from the 1800s, with the nickname of the Prince of poisoners, Dickens even wrote about him when he was in the Old Bailey.
He’s children died suspiciously, as his brother and wife and murdered a friend outside of a pub that’s still there to this day.
pickindim_kmet@reddit
In 1779, the sleepy and beautiful Northumbrian village of Alnmouth was struck during the American Civil War by American privateer John Paul Jones. He shot a cannonball at the church, which missed, and hit someone's roof and bounced off. Local oldies say on their local Facebook groups that the cannonball is still sitting in someone's garden as a decoration and they remember playing with it as kids.
Hyzyhine@reddit
Who also arrived in the Firth of Forth intending to ransom the town of Leith, whose cannon had been confiscated after Culloden. The minister in Kirkcaldy saw Jones’s ships at anchor near the island of Inchkeith, and when told that these were American privateers, he dropped to his knees and uttered a prayer that they would leave. Lo and behold the weather turned, a gale blew up, and Jones had to head back out to sea to escape the storm. Oh and later in his career, Jones served in Russia Catherine II’s navy; his career ended when he was found guilty of rape against a 10 year old girl; in his defense he claimed she was the instigator, and in mitigation said she was actually 12, not 10. A real charmer.
pickindim_kmet@reddit
Also in the North East, in the city of Newcastle there is a gravestone of a Native American boy who lost his life at the age of 8 months. His family were travelling performers and he sadly died when in town, and was buried. His name was Corsair and was from the Shontayiga tribe.
There's a wonderful book or two with obscure historical facts about the North East called Tyne and Weird, for anyone really interested.
Defiant-Tackle-0728@reddit
The worlds first ATM was installed in Enfield, Nirth London in 1967.
We all know that fact. But the paper vouchers which held the bank notes needed a radioactive isotope in the ink for the machine to read them. And did until the optical readers were introduced in the early 90s.
Another Radioactive fact that few seem to know is that Greenwich had its own Nuclear Power plant.
The JASON reactor was a low power research reactor installed by the Ministry of Defence in the Royal Naval College in Greenwich in the space beneath the Chapel designed by Wren.
It wasnt shut down and removed until 1999, 2 years after Maritime Greenwich gained UNESCO status who didnt know either.
A similar reactor was also in place on where the Olympic Stadium now stands that was operated by Queen Mary,University of London.
FirmDingo8@reddit
Wasn't the first person to use can ATM in the UK the actor Reg Vardy from the On The Buses TV series?
InteractionHairy6112@reddit
Here's Reg!
Defiant-Tackle-0728@reddit
It was.
Dolphin_Spotter@reddit
The Kilve oil fraud of 1921. A massive scandal that seems lost to.time.
The great Kilve oil scandal | wsfp.co.uk https://share.google/E6oCes69pqw4CNJH6
Krakshotz@reddit
In 1904, a Russian Naval Fleet (the Second Pacific Squadron IYKYK) mistook a fleet of fishing trawlers from Hull for Japanese torpedo boats (in the North Sea). Due to further incompetence, the Russian gunnery was so dreadful, they sank only one trawler, killed two fishermen and the chaplain of the Russian cruiser Aurora (friendly fire).
NinjaTigerB@reddit
Clan warfare as spectator sport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_North_Inch
No_Ring_3348@reddit
This happened at the First Battle of Bull Run and Waterloo as well, spectators brought picnics!
NinjaTigerB@reddit
I hope they had tickets
No_Ring_3348@reddit
It's quite a funny story:
Never such innocence again!
apple_kicks@reddit (OP)
I know this publisher does highland hema books for this style of fighting with targes etc
https://www.fallenrookpublishing.co.uk/book-tag/keith-farrell/
ThereIWasDigging@reddit
If you were born within the Hundreds of St Briavels (a village in the Forest of Dean) amd work for a year and a day in someones mine, you qualify to be a Freeminer and can work coal, stone and iron ore in said area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeminer
practicalcabinet@reddit
The Great Western Railway, in 1947, made an experimental snow blower by strapping two jet engines (the same as the ones used in the Gloster Meteor) to a flat wagon and pointing the exhaust at the tracks. It had its own battery and fuel tank, but they also had a second flat wagon behind it with a fuel bowser parked on top.
Apparently, it was quite successful at clearing snow, but the idea didn't catch on, likely due to either fuel costs or noise.
Old-Cauliflower-1414@reddit
Just posting this so I can find this discussion later.
It looks interesting 😃
HamsterEagle@reddit
The dramatic death of William Huskisson MP at the opening of one of the first railways is the first one I think of.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Huskisson
apple_kicks@reddit (OP)
Oh no. You know its not going to be good with this text
hhfugrr3@reddit
Sounds like a real life Mr Bump.
bambonie11@reddit
There was an accident at a brewery in London back in the 1800s where a giant vat of ale burst open and a fifteen foot wave of beer went down the street killing eight people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood?wprov=sfla1
apple_kicks@reddit (OP)
Oh wow used to work near there never knew of this history. Also area where 1665 plague started
SalamanderFew1357@reddit
If you want obscure UK history, focusing on specific regions or industries usually leads to much richer and less commonly discussed stories than broad national narratives.
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