The Struggle for Community Empowerment

Congratulations to all the activists in Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network (CEN) for surviving for ten years. CENs are about linking the voluntary and community organisations in a local authority area to have an organised voice on policy and strategy with their local authority and other public sector organisations. They were set up as part of the Labour Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy. They help ensure that groups link with each other, work together, share information and ideas and work to influence their local authority and other public sector agencies. They prevent groups slipping back into their silos of disengagement, and assist groups emerge from their silos. They are an important part of the glue that the community and voluntary sector and its mutual predecessors have always provided holding groups of place and interest together - without which society fragments into chaos.

Powerlessness

Wandsworth saw what happens when chaos is unleashed – the trashing of Clapham Junction in the August riots. The more I discuss the riots with others the clearer it becomes that leaving aside the stupidity, the destruction, the criminality, the riots provided an opportunity to the powerless to exercise power and to create fear among the more privileged. The social divisions that have been accentuated by Wandsworth Tory polices since 1978 were sharply seen when the next day the cleaning army poured out of the better off areas.
The sense of powerlessness, and the anger than goes with it, is going to be intensified as the deep cuts and the New ‘grind the’ Poor Law required by the ConDem Government betrays more people in the ‘socially deprived’ areas, and creates more such areas. The Big Society initiative is a fig-leaf talking much of the right language but meaningless in terms of the alleged handing back of power back to local communities. The ConDem planning proposals will allow developers to ride rough shod over the wishes of local people. Its reduction in the number of MPs, and the resultant creation of cross local authority constituencies, will make it more and more difficult for local MPs to champion the causes of the people in the large number of neighbourhoods as they try to keep up-to-date with the policies of 2 or even 3 local authorities. Its draconian cuts are damaging hundreds of community and voluntary groups at local level and those operating regionally and nationally. Yet the demand for their support and services is growing because of the economic crisis created by the bankers and the Government’s New Poor Law. Groups are in danger of cocooning themselves in their silos because they do not have the time and people/financial resources to engage in the important task of networking and developing partnerships, with each other and with the struggling public services.

Labour’s Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy

Networking and partnership were seen to be very important in the Labour Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy. It required the newly formed Local Strategic Partnership co-ordinating bodies for public services to have as members Community Empowerment Networks. These were the vehicles created to enable the community and voluntary groups to link together and have an equal voice around the Partnership table.

The theory was fine, and in my capacity as Policy Development Officer at the British Association of Settlements & Social Action Centres, I spent a lot of time advocating that members engage in the Networks and LSPs, and with representatives of other community development organisations helped the Local Government Association to develop guidance for local authorities on effective engagement of the community and voluntary sectors. The Government recognised that it had to fund the Networks directly if they were not to be controlled by the local authorities.

The implementation proved much more difficult, but CENs were established in all those local authority areas which were given neighbourhood renewal status. I advised bassac members on practical aspects of engagement, and after I became redundant was contracted by bassac to support the development of the Pentagon Partnership of the 5 Tyne & Wear CENS to engage with the local economic development partnership created by the now former North East Regional Development Agency.

Helping WCEN to Start

Despite not being in the highest priority of ‘social deprivation’ Tory Wandsworth had been declared a Neighbourhood Renewal Area so that the Government could not be accused of only designating Labour authorities. The formation of the CEN stalled and the Government Office for London insisted that it engage someone to help kick-start it. I was contracted to do that and set up a small office, helped the Board to become a working unit, set up preliminary systems, supported the CEN representatives at the LSP table, set up information sharing mechanisms, organised events and the recruitment of the first full-time lead worker. Crucially I negotiated the safeguarding of unspent money to add to the next year’s financial budget so that the CEN had a large sum of money. The Board agreed not to build up a large staff because the funding would drop back down substantially the following year. Instead it adopted a strategy of funding groups to do pieces of work such as community and user consultations and to begin to support the development of neighbourhood networks.

Independence

Wandsworth CEN was different from the others. The Borough had no Council of Voluntary Action to be the host organisation. So the CEN became a registered company. Along with the will not to be driven out of existence by an unfriendly Council, especially after the Labour Government betrayed CENs by ending direct funding and giving it to local authorities. Within a year many CENs around the country had disappeared, some allegedly because they were ‘not fit for purpose’ judgements made by local authorities which continually show they are ‘not fit for purpose’.  Many Councils of Voluntary Action colluded with the slaughter as they had seen the CENs as rivals to building their fiefdoms.

So it was really nice to have been invited to attend the AGM and 10^th Anniversary of Wandsworth CEN on 22 November. It has survived by developing partnerships with other public sector agencies like the Health Service which has seen its value. The attendance was way above my expectations showing its success in engaging a diverse range of local organisations. After the formal AGM a short DVD about its work was shown. Lord Maurice Glasman reflected on the value of networking and reciprocity within the community and voluntary sector and with the public sector agencies.

St. Mary’s Primary Reading Support

I had the opportunity to make some comments in the discussion. I held up the front page of that day’s Evening Standard boasting about the £100,000 donation from the Ukrainian billionaire Kostyantin Zhevago to St Mary’s School in Battersea for reading assistance, a gesture of support for the newspaper’s reading campaign. I indicated that this was an absolute disgrace and a reminder of the ‘social deprivation/betrayal’ of some neighbourhoods in the Borough. I explained my role in the CEN and the importance of the budget decision, and referred to the funding betrayal by Labour. I suggested that the community and voluntary sector had been practicing the Big Society for centuries, and had been not the Third but the First Sector because of the failures of the State and private enterprise to meet needs.

The Importance of Knowing The History

I did not have time to develop the importance of understanding and preserving knowledge of the history of the Wandsworth community and voluntary sector other than to mention that the former Council of Social Service had been shut down by the Tory Council in 1968-71 and that the Wandsworth Association of Community & Voluntary Organisations was also undermined in the 1990s. Malik Gul, the current Director of WCEN, picked up the historical theme in his closing remarks and there is scope for developing work on preserving archives and telling the stories.

An important part of that history includes the ideas around neighbourhood and service delivery that led in 1973/4 to  Wandsworth Housing Aid Society and Wandsworth Poverty Action Group presenting ideas to the Council for cross-department neighbourhood decentralisation. These were rejected by an otherwise progressive Labour Council as ‘too revolutionary’, but at least helped ensure that there was engagement of residents associations on Housing Action Area Steering Groups, and the creation of Department local area offices bringing access to services closer to more people. Following the decentralisation experiment in Walsall, Wandsworth Labour picked up the ideas in the 1980s, but it could not get elected again to majority control of the Council.

So congratulations to all the activists in WCEN for surviving for ten years.

Its Annual report 2011 with its 10 year review can be seen on www.wcen.info.

Note:

The Evening Standard reportage on 22 November on St. Mary’s can be seen on:

www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/get-london-reading/article-24012735-billionaire-backs-our-battle-to-save-school.do

There have been updates since including profiles of the mentors:

www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/get-london-reading/article-24015017-on-your-marks-get-set-read-our-volunteers-step-out-at-st-marys.dov  

HSAN Diary 2

HISTORY & SOCIAL ACTION NEWS DIARY – 2

Published by History & Social Action Publications. Compiled and edited by Sean Creighton. Dates of events for potential inclusion should be emailed to sean.creighton1947@btinternet.com. December 2011

Croydon Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Festival 2012. I am delighted to be able to include events (highlighted in green) in the Croydon Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Festival throughout 2012 to mark the 100^th Anniversary of his death. It includes the world premiere of his opera Thelma, and a performance of Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. More events are still at planning stage. As a member of the SC-T Network I am on the Festival Committee. A brochure is being finalised. Further events (inc. outside Croydon) will be included in future editions of the Diary and posted on the SC-T Network website: https://sites.google.com/site/samuelcoleridgetaylornetwork.

Date	Time	Area/ Location	Event
To early 2012		Aldgate	Archival Tales: Uncovering Inter-war Black History Black History. Exhibition by Gemma Romain delves deep into the Library's collections to uncover hidden Black histories from 20s and 30s Britain. The Women's Library - Note 1.
Until 4 April 2012		Aldgate	All Work and Low Pay: The Story of Women and Work. Free. This exhibition demonstrates the extraordinary range of jobs done by women over the past 150 years, from forging iron chains to assembling fine electrical components. It also charts women's struggle for workplace equality and recognition. Women’s Library - Note 1
NOVEMBER
Thursday 24			The Right Kind of History by Sir David Cannadine, Jenny Keating and Nicola Sheldon which takes a look at the teaching of history in the 20th century is published today. (See interview with Cannadine in The Guardian Education, 22 November: www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/nov/21/history-teaching-reform-david-cannadine?newsfeed=true
Thursday 24 & Friday 25	3-8pm (Th) 8am-6pm (Fri)	Vauxhall	Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea: Open Days about the latest up-to-date information about the VNEB redevelopments: Northern line extension; proposed improvements for pedestrians, cyclists, and local public transport users; planned improvements to existing streets. 3D model of the whole area.Venue: Market Towers, 1 Nine Elms Lane, London.
Friday 25	2pm	Salford	Strawberry Thieves Choir. Songs telling the story of worker’s struggles from 1649 linking historic events to current efforts to resist cuts and privatisation. WCML, 51 The Crescent, Salford. 0161 736360. www.wcml.org.uk.
	6-8pm	Balham	The History of Chocolate. Talk by Sara Jayne Staynes, Director of the Academy of Culinary Arts and food writer. Includes a chocolate tasting and a glass of wine as well as sample chocolates to take away. To attend ring 020 7228 4873. Organised by the Thurleigh Road GP practice, with the Battersea Society. Venue: The Studio, 88a Thurleigh Road. £10 (includes raffle)
Saturday 26	10am-6pm	Liverpool St	Histories of Activism Conference. Organised by Northumbria University's Histories of Activism research group, in association with the Society for the Study for Labour History. It will explore forms of political activism across Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Conference programme: www.sslh.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=29. As places are limited, those wishing to attend should contact Vanessa Sherriffs at vanessa.sherriffs@northumbria.ac.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to register their interest.
	1pm	Ditto	Society for the Study of Labour History AGM; as part of above Conference.
	11am-5pm	Battersea	Christmas in Battersea High Street. Organised by Battersea High Street Traders Association. Battersea High Street (York Road end)
	9.30am-4pm	Kings Cross	Inspiring School History. The British Library, St. Pancras, 96 Euston Rd., NW1. Presentations: Michael Wood - Local History and the National Story; Christine Counsell - Disciplinary history for all: why it matters, why it is achievable and why we should not give up; Workshops focussing on a range of strategies to enrich students' learning in history. Resources exhibition, An opportunity to view the British Library's Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination exhibition. £120 inc. lunch & refreshments. Limited number of places available at a reduced rate for PGCE interns of £90. Places are allocated on 'first come' basis. For booking details go to www.schoolshistoryproject.org.uk/conference/courses/regionconf.htm.
Saturday 26	12.40m & 4pm	Manchester	Engels and Marx Part 1. New Manchester Walk starting at Oxford Road station and Part 2 the same day at 2pm starting outside St Anns' Church. Price £6 waged /£5 concessions. Further details at www.newmanchesterwalks.com
	2-5pm	Chiswick	West London Labour History Day. Louise Rawe on the Bryant & May Matchwomen’s strike 1888. Ivan Gibbons on Ramsey MacDonald and Ireland. £4/£2. Labour Heritage. Labour Party Hall. 376 Chiswick High Rd, W4. Refreshments. Contact John Grigg: 020 8743 4189; john.grigg@btinternet.com.
Monday 28	7pm	Carlisle	The Silk Road in History from 55BC to AD550. Professor John Thorley. Historical Association Branch Event. Old Town Hall, Carlisle, CA3 8JE. Prospective members are always welcome. For further information, please contact Ian Mason, branch secretary on 01228 819146
Tuesday 29	11am	Manchester	The Pankhursts. New Manchester Walk starting outside Malmaison Hotel. Price £6 waged /£5 concessions. Further details at www.newmanchesterwalks.com.
	5.15pm	Russell Square	Traversing the Arabian Seas: The 'Worlds' of British Trade in the Indian Ocean, 1680-1760. Timothy Davies (University of Warwick). IHR British Maritime History Seminar. STB7, Basement, Stewart House (next to Senate House – Note 2).
	7pm	Plymouth	Did Democracy Cause the American Civil War? Dr Adam Smith, University College London. Historical Association Branch Event. Theatre 2, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth. Visitor tickets £5, concessions £3. For more information, please contact Alan H. Cousins, 3 Fore Street, St Germans, Cornwall PL12 5NR. Tel. 01503 230106; email a.cousins345@btinternet.com
Wednesday 30	All day	Nationwide	Trade Union Day of Action
	10.30am	Gateshead	TUC march and rally. Assemble Gateshead Civic Centre, march to rally at Spillers Wharf, Newcastle from 12pm.
	2pm	Salford	Radical Gardening. George McKay. Talk about his book. Working Class Movement Library. POSTPONED DUE TO DAY OF TU DAY OF ACTION
	7pm	King’s Cross	Financial crisis: where we are and how we got here? Greek Professor of Economic Theory, Yanis Varoufakis, discusses the fundamental and historical problems within Anglo-Saxon capitalism. Housmans - Note 3.
	7.30pm	Stockwell	'Hang Ups', a short film by ShadowStage Productions combines contemporary shadow theatre and digital media techniques based on a short piece by award-winning writer Eley Williams. Part of Lost Theatre’s Festival programme of 5 minute works 28 November to 1 December. Tickets £5/night. Leon Conrad, multi-talented resident of Kennington, is part of SSP: www.shadowstage.co.uk. Lost Theatre: http://losttheatre.co.uk.
DECEMBER
Thursday 1	7pm	London	3rd Positive Money Meetup in London. Hub Kings Cross, 34B York Way, NI. www.meetup.com/Positive-Money/events/40813952.
	7.30pm	Nottingham	The Assassination of Spencer Percival, Prime Minister, in 1812. Dr Gordon Pentland (Edinburgh University). Historical Branch event - all welcome. Room B14, Department of History (Lenton Grove), University Park, Nottingham.
Saturday 3	10.30 for 11am	Liverpool St	Young historians take to the street: school students tackling the big picture of race, protest and immigration control. Martin Spafford. In 1995 thirty 11 year olds in an East London school spent several months looking at the world of asylum seekers and the politics of immigration control. Last year ten 15 year olds from the same school worked with historians to investigate fascist assaults on the East End over time and how local people have responded. These projects took them onto the streets, into detention centres, to Parliament and even into direct confrontation with organised racism. Present and former students from George Mitchell School will show clips from their films and discuss with their teacher Martin Spafford the impact of such projects - at the time and in later life – on their politics and values. Public History Discussion Group. Bishopsgate Institute – Note 4.
	1-5pm	Battersea	Christmas on St John's Hill (between Plough Road and Marcilly Road)
	2-5pm	Battersea	Christmas in the Garden. Come along to the Doddington Community Roof Garden, and enjoy an afternoon of Christmas cheer: carols, tree decorating, children's activities, mulled wine and apple juice. Venue: Doddington Community Roof Garden, Doddington Estate, Battersea Park Rd.
	7.30pm	Wandsworth Town	Bach B Minor Mass. South West London Choral Society 125th year Anniversary concert. Its President, the counter-tenor, James Bowman, will be one of the singers. St Anne's Church, St Ann's Hill, Wandsworth, London SW18. www.swlcs.org.uk/people.html. Many of my readers will know the Society’s Vice-President Lilias Gillias, a Labour and community activist.
Monday 5	5.30pm	Senate House	A 'movement that moves': the settlement movement in Britain after the First World War. Dr Mark Freeman (University of Glasgow). IHR Voluntary Action History Seminar. Torrington Room 104, 1st floor, South block, Senate House – Note 2.
	7.30pm	Battersea	No Political Evictions in Battersea. Public Meeting. Wandsworth Against Cuts and supported by Battersea & Wandsworth Trades Council and Defend Council Housing. Speakers: MPs John McDonnell & Austin Mitchell; Emma Norton (Liberty); Eileen Short (Defend Council Housing); Chaz Singh (Education Activist Network). Doddington Estate Community Centre, Charlotte Despard Avenue, Battersea Park Road (behind Tesco). Visit www.wandsworthagainstcuts.co.uk and sign on line petitions against cuts and in defence of playgrounds.
Tuesday 6	5.15pm	Senate House	The South Sea Company (working title). Patrick Walsh (Trinity College Dublin). IHR British Maritime History Seminar. Venue to be announced. Senate House – Note 2.
			The Cost of Inequality. Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy by Stewart Lansley (published by Gibson Square). Launch of. Some of my readers will remember that Stewart was a member of Wandsworth Poverty Action Group/People’s Rights and developed jointly with another member the idea of Housing Allowances at the time of the Housing Finance Bill controversy.
	7pm	Newcastle	North East Popular Politics Project Panel. Four Project members will introduce their work followed by a discussion. North East Labour History First Tuesday meeting. 7pm. Irish Centre, Gallowgate.
Wednesday 7	7pm	Aldgate	Gertrude Tuckwell: 'Lose not these things that we have wrought’. To mark 150 years since the birth of Gertrude Tuckwell. Tuckwell led the Women's Trade Union League and campaigned for many issues including women's political and employment rights. With Catherine Hunt, Coventry University and Chris Coates, TUC Library Collections. Women’s Library – Note 1. SOLD OUT
	7pm	King’s Cross	Remembering Colin Ward with Carl Levy and Ruth Kinna. Presented by Anarchist Studies The latest issue of ‘Anarchist Studies’ is being launched today at Housmans to celebrate the life and work of Colin Ward. Ward was one of the best known anarchist writers of his generation and his work on children and play, urban architecture and plotlands, squatting and criminology, water resources and public transportation - to name a few pursuits - broadened his appeal to a wide range of architects, historians social scientists and activists – as well as anarchists. Ward was the editor of ‘Anarchy’ (1961-1970), perhaps the best English language anarchist revue. Housmans – Note 3.
Thursday 8	4-6pm	Battersea	Christmas on Lavender Hill. A festive art collaboration, from the Arts team at Avant Garden and the children at local schools. Working with the artists, the children have created their own lanterns that will lead a procession of light down Lavender Hill to the Gideon Estate, meeting up with The UK Gospel Choir for some carol singing. The official celebrity 'switch-on' is at 5pm across the road from LIFE Hair salon (69, Lavender Hill). Enjoy a complimentary bowl of curry to warm you up, courtesy of Noiya Restaurant and sip a glass of mulled wine at Elephant on the Hill. Organised by Lavender Hill Traders Association.
Saturday 10	2.30pm	Bournemouth	Britain and Decolonisation after 1945; British Counter Insurgency Campaigns 1945- 1967. Prof David French, formerly University College, London. Joint Lecture Historical Association branch with Bournemouth Natural Science Society. Free. Bournemouth University.
Sunday 11	6.45-10pm	Battersea	Battersea Midwinter Revue: Celebrating the Left in Music, Drama, Satire with Battersea stars, Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Su Elliott, Clause IV musicians, Hot Tamales jazz ensemble and many others. Lower Hall, Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 (entrance off Theatre Street). £20 ticket + glass of wine. Table of six (buy five + get one free) £100 + free glasses wine. £10 concessions ticket + glass of wine. Cheques payable to Battersea Labour Party. Online payment to Unity Bank Sort Code 08-60-01, Acct no 20081290 – giving reference: BLP Revue. Ticket sales will get email acknowledgement. Tickets will then be delivered within local area; otherwise for collection at entrance to BAC Lower Hall on the night. For further information, please contact p.corfield@btconnect.com; tonybelton@btconnect.com; beccyprice85@gmail.com. Organised by Battersea Labour Party.
Monday 12	5pm	Senate House	Slavery, Piracy and Party Politics: Gulliver's Travels and the Imperial Crisis c. 1715-1728. Steven Pincus (Yale). IHR Imperial and World History Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research. Athlone Room (Room 102). Senate House – Note 2.
	5.30pm	Ditto	William Cuffay, Black Chartist and Londoner. Keith Flett. London Socialist Historians Seminar. Room G34 South Block, Senate House – Note 2.
Wednesday 14	5.15pm	Ditto	Space, place, and popular politics in northern England, 1789-1848. Katrina Navickas (University of Hertfordshire. IHR Long Eighteenth Century Seminar. Court room, South block, first floor – Note 2.
Thursday 15	5pm	Ditto	Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know? The United Kingdom in 1820. Malcolm Chase (Leeds). IHR British History Seminar 1815-1945. Bedford Room G37. Senate House – Note 2.
			Closing Date for submission of proposals for papers for the Black Church Conference (see below).
JANUARY
Friday 6	8pm	Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Festival Civic Reception Launch hosted by the Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Graham Bass in the Mayor’s Parlour, Croydon Town Hall, Katherine Street. During the evening there will performances of SC-T’s music. By invitation only.
Monday 16	6.45 for 7.15pm	Kennington	Cholera on the Lambeth Waterfront: the outbreak of the 1840s. Talk by author Amanda J Thomas on her new book about the living conditions and fate of Lambeth's forgotten waterfront community - and how her research has shown that cholera could strike again. Friends of Durning Library. Durning Library, 167 Kennington Lane. £2 towards costs (inc, refreshments).
Tuesday 17	6pm	Durham	The Jarrow Crusade: Protest & Legend. Dr Matt Perry, University of Newcastle. Historical Association Branch event. St Giles' Church Hall, St. Giles' Church, Gilesgate, Durham. For further details: Professor G R Batho, Miners Hall, Red Hill, Durham, DH1 4BB. Day Tel: 0191 370 9941 Evening Tel : 07980276467. E-mail: gordon.batho@btopenworld.com.
Wednesday 18	8pm	Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – ‘A Background.’ A talk by Jeffrey Green, author of ‘Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a Musical Life’ and acknowledged authority on S C-T, followed by a short recital of some of SC-T’s songs sung by Jane Streeton and Greg Tassel. Venue – The Sanderson Room, Trinity School, Shirley, Croydon.
Wednesday 25	7.45pm	Tunbridge Wells	The presence of black people in Kent since 1600. David Killingray. Tunbridge Wells Museum.
Saturday 28	10.30am-4.30pm	Aldgate	Opening the Cage Door. This day will look at some of the most prominent strikes of the 19th & 20th century when many working women were forced to protest against low wages and poor working conditions. With contributions from Louise Raw, author and historian, Anitha Sundari, University of Lincoln, Ruth Pearson, University of Leeds, trade unionist Viv MacKay, and curator of 'All Work and Low Pay', Clare Rose. £16 / £14 concessions. Women’s Library – Note 1.
Monday 30	7pm	Carlisle	The General Strike and the Railways: strikers and volunteers. Professor Robin Smith. Assembly Room of the Old Town Hall, Carlisle, CA3 8JE Historical Association Branch event. Prospective members are always welcome. For further information, please contact Ian Mason, branch secretary on 01228 819146.
Tuesday 31	1pm	Croydon	Lunchtime Concert by students from the Croydon Piano Centre at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon featuring piano music by SC-T.
FEBRUARY
Saturday 4	10.30 for 11am	Liverpool St	The 1984/85 Miners' Strike: Re-claiming Cultural Heritage. Michael Bailey (University of Essex) & Simon Popple (University of Leeds). Shortly after the 1984/85 miners' strike had come to an end, the socialist historian Raphael Samuel noted that the meaning of the strike would be determined not 'by the terms of settlement ... or even by the events of the past year but by the way in which it is assimilated in popular memory, by ... retrospective understanding both in the pit villages themselves and in the country at large'. The significance of Samuel's remark is that, though the 1984/85 strike was a decisive defeat for mining communities, it is imperative that such communities are encouraged to participate in the creation of new representations and social rituals that seek to democratise the mediation of the strike. Not only because such texts hold out the promise of raising public awareness of what actually happened twenty-five years ago but because they also provide affirmation for those miners and families most affected by the strike-action and the subsequent closure of pits. This presentation discusses the two AHRC/BBC funded projects undertaken on this between autumn 2007 and summer 2009 by a small team from the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds. Public History Discussion Group. Bishopsgate Institute – Note 4.
Thursday 9	7pm	Aldgate	Friends from the Vera Holme Archive: Edith Craig and Evelina Haverfield. Find out about two of the women who had strong ties with leading suffragette Vera Holme. Sandy Wilson presents highlights of her research on Evelina Haverfield, a member of the National Union of Suffrage Societies who took part in many demonstrations and spent a time in Holloway prison. The Women's Library – Note 1
Thursday 9 & Friday 10	6pm	Croydon	Thelma – My discovery of Coleridge-Taylor's manuscripts. Pre-performance talk by Catherine Carr (PhD) prior to:
Thursday 9, Friday 10, Saturday 11	7.30pm	Ditto	World Première performances of SC-T’s rediscovered opera THELMA, op. 72 by Surrey Opera at The Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon. Conductor – Jonathan Butcher, Director – Christopher Cowell, Designer – Bridget Kimack.
Tuesday 14	1pm	Ditto	John Law Trio Lunchtime Concert. Fairfield Halls, including some jazz versions of SC-T compositions.
Friday 17	Tba	Cambridge	Black people in English localities: sources and significance. David Killingray. British Association for Local History lecture series at Wolfson College, Cambridge.
Monday 20	6.45 for 7.15pm	Kennington	Chris Mullin, ex-MP, will talk about the third and final volume of his widely acclaimed diaries. A Walk-on Part, the first book chronologically, covers the rise of New Labour in 1994 -1999. Friends of Durning Library. Durning Library, 167 Kennington Lane. £2 towards costs inc. refreshments.
Thursday 23-Saturday 25		London	Challenging History Conference: understanding aims, audiences and outcomes in work with difficult and sensitive heritages. Since 2009, the Challenging History group has been working with heritage professionals, practitioners and academics in order to explore and interrogate issues raised in work with difficult, contested and sensitive heritages in a range of museum contexts, within and beyond the UK. The project acknowledges that all history is - to a greater or lesser degree - challenging, and encourages practitioners to consider how heritage interpretation can better acknowledge this complexity at its core. In 2012, we wish to bring together those working in disparate and diverse locations and disciplines to help explore the practicalities, limitations and ethical implications of work in this knotty area of heritage interpretation. The programme will foster collaboration and shared understanding between academia and the heritage sector, and offer opportunities for networking, demonstrating approaches and practice, and presenting empirical research. For more about Challenging History, or the conference (including registration) please visit http://challenginghistoryconference.wordpress.com/.
Saturday 25		Senate House	A history of riots. Speakers include Neil Davidson on 'From riots in Glasgow & Edinburgh in 1706 to riots in the Global South in 2011'. London Socialist Historians Group. For further details check up-dates on http://londonsocialisthistorians.blogspot.com.
MARCH
Saturday 10	10.30 for 11am	Liverpool St	Memory, place, identity. Christine McCauley MA (RCA) University of Westminster. ‘It started as an exploration of her troubled relationship with my father, a veteran of the Burma conflict during WW2 and resulted in 2 journeys to the North Eastern frontier states of India, searching for the remnants of the British presence there and the 'ties that bind' countries and peoples geographically so far apart. As a mixed media artist I use a wide range of media and techniques. The evocative potential of materials and processes is an important part of my practice.’ Public History Discussion Group. Bishopsgate Institute – Note 4.
Thursday 15		London	Youth and Policy Conference. Thinking Seriously about...Youth Work and Policy. Youth and Policy’s fourth ‘thinking seriously’ conference will explore current youth policy and consider its implications for the youth work field. The conference aims to bring together political, academic, managerial and practice perspectives for open dialogue about policy affecting young people and youth work. Over recent months, many events have taken place with subsequent policy implications for youth work organisation and practice. Following the implementation of Coalition spending cuts, the Select Committee on Services for Young People, and the riots of summer 2011, a conference to reflect on these events and their consequences in early 2012 is timely and useful. We hope that the conference will present a challenge to practitioners, managers and academics to consider the new landscape, and how policy and practice might be better shaped in the light of evidence and experience. YMCA George Williams College, Canning Town London. £90. Further details from conferences@youthandpolicy.org. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Thursday 23	8pm	Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor music inc. in recital by students from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance: Sonata in D minor, op. 28 for violin & piano, Trio in E minor op. 6 for violin, 'cello & piano and his Nonet, op. 2 for 2 violins, viola, 'cello, bass, clarinet, bassoon, horn & piano. Venue – The Concert Hall, Whitgift School, Haling Park, Nottingham Rd. South Croydon, CR2 6YT.
APRIL
Tuesday 3			Lunchtime Concert: Fred Scott, Megan Whitely, Cornelius Bruinsma, Nick Simonon (various items inc Samuel Coleridge-Taylor). In aid of Skeletal Cancer Action Trust. http://scatbonecancertrust.org. Fred is a member of the SC-T Network and on the Croydon SC-T Festival Committee.
Saturday 28	10.30 for 11am.	Liverpool St	Mandeville Legacy: towards a public history of Disability. Jon Newman, archive consultant. Jon Newman has been working with Bucks County Council, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and various sports disability charities to assemble a history of the changes to the treatment of spinal injuries patients and the development of wheelchair games - latterly the 'paralympic' movement - since the Second World War. Using the Revisiting Collections methodology in conjunction with hospital and charity archive collections he has worked with groups of former patients, athletes, hospital staff and sports administrators to both capture their responses to the 'official' record and to create new narratives. Public History Discussion Group. Bishopsgate Institute – Note 4. Note: Jon Newman is author of HSAP’s pamphlet Battersea’s Global Reach about Price’s Candles.
MAY
Tuesday 15	5pm	Russell Square	Black people in English localities: sources and significance. David Killingray. VCH Locality and Regional History seminar, IHR, Stewart House room 273 – next to Senate House – Note 2.
Thursday 24	8pm	Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Music Recital by students from the Royal College of Music, including Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 1, Fantasiestücke for String Quartet, op. 5 and his Clarinet Quintet in A major, op. 10. The Braithwaite Hall, Croydon Library, Katherine Street, Croydon.
Tuesday 29 & Wednesday		London	Black Church Activism and Contested Multiculturalism in Europe, North America, and South Africa. Conference at Birkbeck, University of London. Call for Papers by December 15: www.bbk.ac.uk/bih/news/blackchurchescallforpapers
JUNE
Monday 18 –Wednesday 20 (prov)		Preston	Whose history is it anyway? ‘Public’ history in perspective Conference. Location: University of Central Lancashire, Preston. Further details from Dr Andy Gritt, AJGritt1@uclan.ac.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
Thursday 21	Lunch-time	Kew	The Edwardian Roller Skating Boom. Sean Creighton. Talk with reference to archive material at TNA. National Archives, Kew.
Saturday 23	7.30pm	Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s A Tale of Old Japan will be performed in Summer Concert by the Croydon Bach Choir, conductor Tim Horton. St Matthew's Church, Chichester Road, East Croydon.
JULY
Tuesday 3 & Wednesday 4			International Conference: Can biography survive? http://ahrcbiographynetwork.com/?tribe_events=international-conference-can-biography-survive
Wednesday 4 – Saturday 7 July	Exact date & time tba	Oxford	The Revd Dr Theophilus Scholes (1856-c.1940): black Baptist critic at the heart of Empire. Paper at Baptist Historical Society conference 'Freedom and the Powers: Perspectives from Baptist History', Regent's College, Oxford. See www.baptisthistory.org.uk/basicpage.php?contents=news&page_title=News.
AUGUST
Wednesday 15	8pm	Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Birthday Celebration (on the actual day SC-T was born 100 years ago). Details to be finalised.
SEPTEMBER
Saturday 1	11am	Ditto	An SC-T Picnic Pilgrimage on the actual day he died, 100 years ago. Commencing at St Mary Magdalene, Canning Road, Addiscombe (parking available) we will walk to various houses, churches etc. where SC-T lived, worked, sung, got married etc. ending up at Aldwick, St Leonards Rd, where he died. Picnics can then be consumed on Dupass Hill Recreation Ground. If the weather is inclement we can eat our picnics in the Parish Church Junior School. Jeffrey Green, author of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a Musical Life will give informal talks along the route.
Wednesday 5 – Friday 7		Winchester	In the Loop 3. The voices of knitting. International conference. Keynote speakers: Carol Christiansen, Jonathan Faiers, Jessica Hemmings, Hazel Hughson, Martin Polley. Papers that cross geographical or chronological boundaries in the following areas are of particular interest: discovery and exploration; representation in film, literature, music, poetry and the internet; wellbeing and therapy; in sport; voices from across the world; adornment. Deadline for abstracts: March 1. www.soton.ac.uk/intheloop.
Sunday 16	6.30pm	Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Festival Civic Service - Festival Evensong at Croydon Minster, Church Street, Croydon sung by an augmented Minster Choir - Organist & Master of the Choristers, Andrew Cantrill. A celebration of music and the arts in Croydon! Evening Service (Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis) in F by SC-T Psalm 150, Laudate Dominum, ‘O Praise God in his Holiness.’ Chant by Sir C. V. Stanford Anthem ‘By the waters of Babylon’ Psalm 137 by SC-T Hymn tunes - Luconor, ‘Jesu, the very thought of Thee’ by SC-T and Engelberg, ‘For all the Saints’ by Stanford Organ voluntaries and solos also by SC-T & Stanford After the service the choir sing part-songs by SC-T as wine is served to the congregation.
Thursday 20 – Saturday 22		York	Histories of British Art, 1660-1735: reconstruction and transformation. “Court, Country, City: British Art, 1660-1735” 3rd and final Conference of University of York and Tate Britain. Conference spaces are limited and priority will be given to speakers. Call for papers by 2 March. Further information from claudine.vanhensbergen@tate.org.uk.
OCTOBER
Throughout		Croydon	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Exhibition. Croydon Public Library and a window display at Waterstones bookshop in the Whitgift Centre.
To be finalised	8pm	Ditto	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on Radio and Television. A rare opportunity to hear BBC recordings of two programmes about SC-T - Great Lives and Hidden History. Some lantern slides will also be shown plus a performance of SC-T’s ‘Cello Variations on an Original Theme. The Sanderson Room, Trinity School, Shirley, Croydon.
Ditto	8pm	Ditto	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G Minor, op. 80., will be performed by The London Mozart Players. Fairfield Halls.
NOVEMBER
To be finalised	8pm	Ditto	On writing a novel about Coleridge Taylor. Talk by Charles Elford, author of Black Mahler followed by a short recital of some of SC-T’s songs sung by Patricia Robertson and Paul Sheehan. Braithwaite Hall, Croydon Library, Katherine Street, Croydon.
DECEMBER
To be finalised	1pm	Ditto	Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Songs. Lunchtime Concert by the Trinity Boys Choir at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon featuring songs and part songs by SC-T.
Ditto	7.30pm	Ditto	Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. A Gala Performance. Trinity School Arts Centre, Shirley, Croydon.

Note 1. Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University, 25 Old Castle Street, London, E1 7NT. Talk events usually cost £8/£6 concessions. 020 7320 2222; moreinfo@thewomenslibrary.ac.uk

Note 2. Senate House is the venue for Institute of Historical Research Seminars. It is between Malet St , London, WC1 (from Goodge St Northern Line station) and Russell Square.

Note 3. Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London, N1. 020 7837 4473. shop@housmans.com. www.housmans.com. Cost of events £3, redeemable against any purchase.

Note 4. Public History Discussion Group. All meetings take place at the Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4QH. http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk. This is a few minutes walk from Liverpool Street station (in the direction of Shoreditch and Spitalfields market) and on the corner with Brushfield Street. Please bring your own coffee – lots of places nearby. Please direct any queries or suggestions for future sessions / offers of presentations to Dr Hilda Kean, convenor of the group: hkean@ruskin.ac.uk.

Compiled by Sean Creighton

History & Social Action Publications

November 2011