Huge Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found

The UK's largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered buried beneath a field in Staffordshire. Experts say the collection of 1,500 gold and silver pieces, which may date to the 7th Century, is unparalleled in size and worth "a seven figure sum".

It has been declared treasure by South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh, meaning it belongs to the Crown...

The road to the exam begins

The final TMA has been completed (the resistance one, i am not that happy with it but its out the way!) Now i have the small matter of an exam in mid-October. When you have been studying a subject for about 7 or 8 months condensing all of that into a few weeks revision is a bit tricky of course but i do have a revision plan kindly provided by one of the OU tutors on the course forum.

These last couple of days i have been looking into the causes of World War 1, who was to blame, and some of the historiographical debates (Fischer, AJP Taylor et cetera). I have also been trying to finally get the Maier/Mayer different straight in my mind. Why couldn't these two dudes have had names which were more distinct?!

Shopfront at 73 Mason Road, Erdington, Birmingham, 30 May 1955

Shopfront at 73 Mason Road, Erdington, Birmingham, 30 May 1955
Originally uploaded by allhails

The maze that is Balkan politics

Well over 2000 words now, i am currently trying to made head and tail of the politics of 1940s Yugoslavia. Of course it is largely the same as it is now with splits on ethnic and political lines. You had Tito's pan-Yugoslavian Communists, Mihailovic's Serbian nationalists, the Croatian fascists, Italy, the Soviet Union, the Allies, oh and Nazi Germany too just to keep things interesting.

Operation Pied Piper

As well as being the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 2 today also marked the 70th anniversary of Operation Pied Piper, the mass evacuation of 1.5 million children, mothers, pensioners and vulnerable people from the cities to the perceived safety of the countryside. My Mother was an evacuee so i decided to see what she could remember of the time.

Not everyone was evacuated in September 1939, Mum doesn't think she was as she could remember sheltering from the German bombers so it was perhaps in 1940 when she, aged 5, and some friends were among children evacuated from Birmingham and sent into the countryside. She ended up in a hall somewhere near Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. Her older brother had gone elsewhere but Mum was told to "stay with Brenda" and so she went off with 4 friends to stay with the Rileys in a farmhouse near Donisthorpe.

The experiences of evacuees differed greatly, some were very well cared for while others did not have a good time. My Mum's experiences were "OK", most of the family looking after them were nice though there was some "spite" from others.

Whether that is why they decided to run away back to Birmingham, as happened when my Mum's elder brother joined them, is unknown. They sneaked away from the farmhouse and got on a bus for Birmingham. My Mum being told to not admit she was 5 so she wouldn't have to pay the fare! When they got back to Aston they were immediately spotted and then sent back to their evacuation house after no doubt a talking to by the police!

Mum's Mum came to visit them when she could though later on they got a cottage near to the Riley farmhouse and lived there for some time before returning to Birmingham once the threat from bombing had lessened, perhaps in 1942.