History Festival Roundup - Week Three
29 May 2020
We can't believe this year's extraordinary History Festival is nearly over. Thank you to everyone who has joined in by reading articles, watching videos, scrolling through online exhibitions or commenting and sharing posts.
This week began with a weekend of nautical content and went on to cover such diverse topics as tourism, war and sport. Locations like the Breakwater, the Royal William Yard, Dartmoor and Plymouth's historic houses and churches have been in the spotlight.
This week's highlights
Some of the best things from the past week include some fantastic vintage posters from days gone by. These stylish images paint an idealised view of familiar landmarks, and remind us of a time when train holidays in Britain were really popular.
One of this week's themes was sport and the festival shared some great insights into the city's sporting history with archive images of Plymouth Argyle and a video about Jimmy Peters, the first black man to play Rugby Union for England, and the only black England player until 1988. He played for #Plymouth from 1902-1909 and is buried at Ford Park Cemetery.
Fred Crisp's powerful photographs (one of which is shown at the top of this page) highlighted the devastation that Plymouth endured while the Blitz was in progress during a day focused on war and conflict.
Bronze Age Dartmoor
And finally, going back much further in time, the festival travelled a little beyond the city to share Dartmoor National Park's account of the moor's Bronze Age history complete with some wonderful videos and learning resources. A separate post also gave more information about some of the astonishing Bronze Age finds that were discovered in 2011 at Whitehorse Hill.
The final Friday quiz for this year's festival is now live. You'll be able to find it, along with all this year's quizzes, on the festival website for some time, so you can keep on testing yourself and your family and friends about Plymouth's past.
The last weekend of the festival is coming up and is dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage. There are lots of great articles and features scheduled for the next two days. Keep following and let us know what you're enjoying via Facebook and Twitter. Have a great weekend!