TH2022 Ep02 Samuel Pepys

Season 2022 – Talk 02 – Samuel Pepys

In the talk  Samuel Pepys Judith Edge tells about one of her heroes, a man who lived through many perils in his 70 years.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Perilous times:

Judith tells us about the perils that stood waiting for people in the 17th Century. In the case of Samuel Pepys there are more perils than for an ordinary person.

Childhood:

Childbirth is very dangerous in the 1630s as many mothers die giving birth or soon after. A child that survives birth may not have a long life. Pepys has 10 brothers and sisters but only three live to adulthood.

Civil War:

This is the time of the English Civil War. London is for the ‘Parliamentarians’ (Roundheads) and so fortifications are built around the city. Today few people know about them or where they are.

Illness:

For many years Pepys suffers great pain from bladder stones. This is a time when surgery is extremely dangerous. There are no anaesthetics, its before people understand the need to sterilise surgical implements, before the detailed medical knowledge and care that exists today.

To undergo a major operation means that one is in great pain and desperate because there is a great risk of a painful death. Luckily Pepys survives the operation.

Pestilence:

At this time the poor live crowded together and there is basic, at best, sanitation and because of this London is overrun with rats. In 1665 the rats bring the plague. There are regular plague outbreaks but this one is much worse than usual. Even though there is the plague, Pepys reports that this is one of the best years of her life!

The Great Fire of London:

Much of our knowledge of the Great Fire in 1666 comes from Pepys diary. He is at the heart of the action taken to stop the fire.

He is rowed down the Thames to warn the King of the danger. Later he arranges for sailors to help with the demolition of buildings to create fire breaks.

His home is safe!

Politics and plots:

In the 16th and 17th Centuries people in public life often have enemies and, because Pepys is so tolerant of others, he falls foul of the ‘Exclusionists’. They want to rid England of the chance of a Roman Catholic King and a return to Catholicism. The Earl of Shaftesbury and Titus Oates are amongst the plotters.

Prison:

A dangerous place for both evil deeds and sickness. In 1679 Pepys spends some months in the Tower of London because of trumped up charges.

Listen to the podcast and hear Judith tell the full story.

Please note:

This podcast is a recording of a talk given remotely over the internet.

About this podcast:

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History  Group.

The Farnham u3a site is here.

You can also listen using Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use as the theme music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2022

UKRJ S1 Ep 18 Our return to Paddington

Our return to Paddington – UK Rail Journeys Series 1 – Episode 18

In Our return to Paddington our two steam locomotives power us out of Wales and up the Great Western mainline to Paddington.

Click on a ‘thumbnail’ to view the photographs for this podcast:
Watering at Craven Arms:

We stop for water at Craven Arms. It takes quite a long time to water both our locomotives! At least we expected to stop at Craven Arms today – unlike on Sunday.

Hereford:

We reach Hereford and our passengers have the chance to get off the train and take a look at the famous city. The city, at the heart of Herefordshire, is on a loop of the River Wye. There is the cathedral in golden-stone, there are half-timbered houses, many independent shops and the Old Market.

We have a couple of hours to enjoy the sights of the city.

Gloucester:

Another service stop. Our locomotives are supplied with both coal and water. Enough coal for us to reach our final destination at Paddington.

Dinner is in full swing when we reach Gloucester but there is enough time for passengers to get a photograph of the catering team..

Reading:

We’re running late by the time we reach Reading where we say goodbye to some of our fellow travellers. Safe journey home!

Paddington:

We reach Paddington just over an hour late. We left our hotels over 14 hours ago and have been travelling ever since. It has been a wonderful trip – my thanks to everyone involved in delivering it.

Listen to the podcast to hear the full story of our journey back to Paddington.

That’s it!

This is the last podcast in the first series of UK Rail Journeys – there will be more!

Links:

To visit the Steam Dreams website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music in this podcast:

Steam Railway is licensed from AKM Music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2022

Tea – The Cup that Cheers TH2022 Ep 01

Season 2022 – Talk 01 – Tea – The Cup that Cheers

In the talk  Tea – The Cup that Cheers Richard Thomas takes us through the political economy of tea over the last few hundred years.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Types of tea:

We hear that tea first came from China. Apparently there is a record of the date when it was first identified. As Richard says, this is so accurate as to be unbelievable.

Indian tea becomes popular in the 19th Century. Ceylon also starts to produce tea when Thomas Lipton invests heavily in the crop.

More recently Kenya becomes a major tea producer.

Samuel Pepys:

Pepys is a committed tea drinker even though, in 1660, it is taxed at twice the rate of coffee. He writes ‘no person enjoyed with more relish the infusion of that fragrant leaf’.

It also has Royal patronage because Catherine de Braganza marries Charles II in 1662 and becomes England’s first tea drinking Queen.

Medical benefits:

It is initially sold as a medicine. Apparently it ‘clears obstructions’, ‘good for colds’, ‘helps headaches’ and ‘strengthens the memory’! It is also suggested that it slows cognitive decline. It’s a wonder cure!

John Wesley:

For many years Wesley is a fervent tea drinker. In 1746 he gives up tea because it is ‘harmful to health, wasteful and sinful’. He saves £50 a year because he is no longer buying the highly taxed product.

After 14 years he starts drinking it again because doctors advise him to and he has a large Wedgwood teapot made.

On the other hand…..

William Cobbett, a famed son of Farnham, claims that it is ‘a destroyer of health’, an ‘enfeebler of the frame’,  ‘an engenderer of effeminacy’, ‘a debaucher of youth’  and ‘a maker of misery in old age’. He argues that beer is more nutritious and cheaper!

Listen to the podcast and hear Richard tell the full story.

Please note:

This podcast is a recording of a talk given remotely over the internet.

About this podcast:

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History  Group.

The Farnham u3a site is here.

You can also listen using Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use as the theme music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2022

UKRJ S1 Ep 17 From Crewe to Shrewsbury

From Crewe to Shrewsbury – UK Rail Journeys Series 1 – Episode 17

In From Crewe to Shrewsbury our our two steam locomotives power us out of Crewe station and on to the Welsh Marches line.

Click on a ‘thumbnail’ to view the photographs for this podcast:
Crewe station:

The station, then on the Grand Junction Railway, has been open since 4th July 1837. It has a great historical significance and serves as a gateway to the North West because it is 158 miles from London.

There is the main line to Glasgow and lines diverge to Manchester Piccadilly, North Wales, Shrewsbury and Stoke on Trent. Just to the north the line to Liverpool Lime Street leaves the main line.

The famous locomotive works moved here in 1842 from Liverpool. In 1831 there were only 70 residents in the village of Crewe and so they built a town to house all the workers.

The coming of the LNWR:

The merger of the Grand Junction and the London and Birmingham railways in 1846, to create the London and North Western Railway, results in the largest joint stock company. There is great expansion at this time and in 1867 the station is rebuilt. In the 1890s records show that 1,000 trains pass through the station in a 24 hour period.

The Crewe Arms Hotel:

This is the first ‘railway hotel’ and dates from 1837. Queen Victoria is an early guest on her journeys to Balmoral. The hotel undergoes major rebuilding in 1880 and that is the façade you see today.

Today there are 61 bedrooms in the Crewe Arms Hotel. It operates as part of the Best Western franchise.

On to the Welsh Marches Line:

As we steam out of Crewe we are hauled by Mayflower and Bahamas. They will pull us all the way to our final destination, Paddington, this evening.

Listen to the podcast to hear the full story of our journey through the countryside to Shrewsbury.

Next up:

Join me in a couple of weeks for the final episode in this series when we  reach London.

Links:

To visit the Steam Dreams website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music in this podcast:

Steam Railway and The 50s 56 Caddy are licensed from AKM Music and The Tavern is licensed from Joseph McDade.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2022