Guest blog by Dr Elizabeth Hallam Smith Jane Julia Bennett, née Wright, Deputy Housekeeper and then Housekeeper to the House of Lords, holds a remarkable place in the history of Parliament. For she was the only woman to occupy a …
This blog was written by Dr Edward Taylor, Library Assistant at the House of Lords Library. I recently gained the opportunity to volunteer for the Collection Care team at the Parliamentary Archives. One of my tasks was to audit a …
If the Parliamentary Archives ever staged a poll to find what is our most popular archival collection, without a shadow of doubt the Lloyd George Papers would come out on top. Deposited in 1975 its immense range of contents have …
The sixties will be forever remembered as a decade of immense change within Britain and beyond. For many social historians the starting point for all that followed was the boisterous summer of 1963. Its events would ultimately affect Parliament, Politics, …
Since World War Two numerous youth movements have emerged whether they be mods and rockers, countercultural hippies, or punks. Yet none of those disparate trends quite shook the establishment with the dangerous abandonment of the late eighties/early nineties underground rave …
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Insurrection at Demerara in 1823 when enslaved people in Demerara decided to revolt, demanding full emancipation. This blog will discuss the internal and external changes that led to this event, the rebellion …
This blog was written by Dr Victoria Thoms, Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) Coventry University and a Coventry Site Director for the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Programme. I was inspired by an earlier two-part instalment of this blog …
Sixty years ago, this summer Tony Benn MP took on the establishment and won them over. Historically changing the law by disclaiming a hereditary peerage he didn’t want in the first place. Allowing him to continue his burgeoning career once …
Almost too surreal is the strange consequence of a snail in a bottle. Not a Goon Show sketch this was a Year Zero moment for negligence courtesy of the highest court in the land, the House of Lords Judiciary. Here …
The personal papers of William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate were placed with the House of Lords Record Office (today’s Parliamentary Archives) in May 1973 by his widow Viscountess Stansgate and son Anthony Benn MP. Unfortunately, a considerable proportion of …
