Hampshire HistBites

Winchester is an old city filled with a rich and exciting history, echoes of the past can be seen all around as you walk through its streets - if you only know where to look. Join Instagrammer Miss_WinchesterUK as she highlights some of the unusual facts throughout the city: discover where you can walk in the footsteps of royals; what curious rhyme you can find on a gravestone at the Cathedral and...

We've all heard the name and seen the logo but what is Hampshire Fare and what do they do? In this podcast, we go in search of answers and finds a quiet success story behind some of the best of what the county has to offer. This is our final episode of the Heritage Open Days 2021 festival, we plan to be back for Season Six in November 2021.   For more information visit our website by clicking...

All history ultimately depends on archives of some kind – documents, film, sound recordings and increasingly digital files. There is a huge range of such archives of all sizes and levels of sophistication. Often, to properly research a subject, it is necessary to “roam around” sources. This often comes up with some surprising finds. In this podcast, specially recorded for Heritage Open days local...

Thomas and Douglas, two Winchester College boys have specially recorded this 'Edible England' podcast and in it, they share the history of 'school food' at the Winchester College. They have delved into the school archives to discover fascinating insights into banquets organised by the school founder, and have also interviewed Old Wykehamists (former pupils) for more recent memo...

In this special podcast for Heritage Open days recorded by Hampshire Cultural Trust we explore Edible England in World War II - from 'field to fork'. On our website you will find more information about this episode including Nick's biography and some great links to Hampshire Cultural Trust; visit our website by clicking here

Oral history is about recording someone's own words about what has happened in their lives or it could be a recording of their views and recollections of a specific event in history. In this podcast specially recorded for Heritage Open Days, we cover how to approach recording oral history, what to think about before you start, what is involved if you decide to deposit them in an archive and w...

" 1100 was an odd sort of year for some. William II had been King for a while, following the death of his father, William the Conqueror, but William II was not a good king, so might that explain this strange tale of mystery and intrigue." Aisha Al-Sadie, Learning Officer at Winchester Cathedral in the latest Hampshire HistBites podcast shares a strange tale that is full of mystery and in...

It is the start of Season 5, a very special season to celebrate this year's Heritage Open Days festival. We begin with a fascinating podcast on traditional bell ringing in Hampshire, with the help of podcaster Cathy Booth from Fun with Bells and experts Chris Pickford, Elizabeth Johnson, and Micki Nadal. In this special Heritage Open Days podcast, our experts discuss what traditional bell rin...

Everyone has heard of the Spitfire - one of the most successful aircraft ever produced and one of greatest iconic pieces of design. But how many of us knew they were designed in the magnificent setting of an oak panelled ballroom in an 18th century mansion?! Join David Key as he shares fascinating stories about the Hursley Park near Winchester and the very important part it played in the Second Wo...

Queen Matilda, otherwise known as Matilda of Boulogne, was arguably one of the most important English queens of the twelfth century. However, she seems to be overshadowed by, and sometimes even confused with, her cousin, the Empress Matilda, who opposed King Stephen during the civil war period known as the Anarchy.  Join Catherine Capel as she considers the role the Queen played as a military lead...

It’s amazing how we can learn so much about a place from its past, and Winchester is no different! Dating from the Anglo-Saxon period, Winchester’s folklore not only tells us more about the city, but it also highlights some details about an unusual creature: the English version of the Old Norse Valkyrja.   Join Dr Eric Lacey as he shares with us the story of the valkyries in the Water Meadows, how...

“Get thee to a nunnery” Hamlet declares to Desdemona in Shakespeare’s play, but for women in medieval England, being sent to an abbey or convent was not necessarily a penance. Taking orders could be as advantageous as an arranged marriage, providing women with a good education and positions of power and authority. In the medieval era Hampshire’s Romsey Abbey was the church of a Benedictine nunnery...

Having been moved from place to place for over 200 years, King Alfred the Great's roaming remains finally came to rest at Hyde Abbey in 1110: a newly formed Benedictine house. With such a regal presence, the Abbey became a hugely popular pilgrimage destination until its destruction during the Reformation. But now the history behind the burial place of one of Hampshire's most famous resid...

The ancient tradition of silk weaving is not just alive but flourishing at Hampshire’s very own silk mill, housed in its original building in the little town of Whitchurch. Emily Briffett talks to some of the team at Whitchurch Silk Mill and discovers that the fabric and ribbons produced here over the years have clothed both the famous and the infamous. A segment of the silk used for the wedding d...

When it comes to swanky guest lists it’s hard to beat the roll call of visitors to Hampshire’s Titchfield Abbey over the centuries. Henry V stopped off here en route for the campaign in France that inspired Shakespeare’s famous St Crispin’s Day speech. Later Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou here and Elizabeth I and Charles I were among the Tudor and Stuart monarchs to drop in for a visit.  But T...

Hampshire during the English Civil War was a pretty miserable place. Looting was rife and the population politically divided and plagued by disease. Into this gloomy scene came the London rope-maker William Franklin, a self-proclaimed Messiah, who set up camp in Andover in 1649 with his female companion Mary Gadbury. Was he a visionary or a blasphemer? Local historian Alex Beeton talks to Julie Dy...

On Sundays and feast days and in times of celebration and mourning bells ring out from Hampshire’s churches, abbeys and cathedrals to mark the occasion. It’s a practice that has continued since Saxon times, but where are the county’s oldest church bells which once rang to sound the curfew, or to remind households to cover their fires overnight? And where were they made?  Phil Watts, Bells Advisor...

May 12th is International Nurses’ Day and in this podcast we celebrate the life of one of Hampshire’s most influential Victorians, the nurse and campaigner Florence Nightingale. From her home at Embley Park near Romsey, she set off for the Crimean War where she introduced pioneering hygiene measures that saved countless lives and established a template for modern nursing. Her ‘Wash your Hands’ mes...

Among the treasures on display in Winchester Cathedral is the ancient Sigmund Stone, excavated from the remains of the Saxon cathedral on the same site. Carved on this stone fragment is a scene from the Old Norse Volsunga Saga, a compendium of tales that provide a window into the treacherous and brutal Viking world. Aisha Al-Sadie, Learning Officer at the cathedral, takes us back to the time of wo...

Hampshire-based explorer John Pilkington continues his travelogue, recounting to Emily Briffett how a childhood love of maps led to his wanderings in far flung corners of the globe. Here he regales us with tales of tracing dinosaur footprints in Bolivia, witnessing the birth of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, getting stranded in Antarctica, tracking down Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and becoming the...

Inveterate traveller John Pilkington talks about following the trail of Marco Polo along the ancient Silk Road to China, where he discovers a surprising link between Suzhou, the Venice of the East, and Hampshire’s Whitchurch Silk Mill. Among the highlights of his travels, he tells Emily Briffett, are his travels among nomadic people in Afghanistan and traversing high mountain ranges between Pakist...

St Swithun’s archivist Elly Crookes talks to Julie Dypdal about the school’s eventful history and its fascinating archives-which include letters from Christina Rosetti and William Wilberforce. Educating girls wasn’t a priority in Victorian England but the pioneering founders of St Swithun’s School in Winchester helped to change that in Hampshire.  By the end of the 19th century its female pupils w...

What was life like for women in Emperor Nero’s court? This knotty issue is just one of the preoccupations of Carey Fleiner, senior lecturer in Classical and Early Medieval studies at the University of Winchester.  In this episode Dr Fleiner talks to Ingrid Tofteng about Nero’s wives, Pompeii and the Vesuvius eruption of 1944-and how the influence of the Roman Empire has reached down through the ce...

If you find yourself on St Giles Hill or walking along Chesil Street in Winchester, listen out for the ghostly whistle of a steam train or the clang of a signal bell.  Here, at the foot of St Giles Hill, was Cheese Hill (later Chesil) Station, opened in 1885 as a stop on the ill-starred Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway line. From here Hampshire strawberries were carried to London, race hors...

How will future generations regard the Covid-19 pandemic and the way it changed our lives? Here in Hampshire, Zoe Viney of Wessex Film & Sound Archive  run by and based at Hampshire Record Office in Winchester is helping to create a record of local life in lockdown through the project Making History: Making Movies. In this latest episode she talks to Eleanor Andrews-Steele about her work curat...