ENGLISH DISCOVERY PROJECT

The aim of this project is that people, especially the young, should know of and appreciate the many aspects of our lives that are influenced by our Englishness. We hope it will be highly readable and fun, easy to dip into, though with some unexpected depths.

The project, under the stewardship of our English Culture working group, is ongoing. This English Discovery project will use an alphabetical structure, like an encyclopaedia. The first issue will have just one entry under each letter. Later issues may have both major and minor entries covering themes ranging from people, roles, events and inventions through customs, traditions and attitudes to places, things, literature/art, sport and food/drink.

The work is intended to be both informative as a whole and a handy reference. It will be aimed mainly at young people, though it should be of interest to adults also. Teachers may find it useful when comparing cultural traditions with their classes.

FIRST ISSUE: SINGLE ALPHABET

THE ANGLES

English written history starts with Tacitus, a Roman Writer, nearly two thousand years ago. He wrote about the tribes of Northern Europe. He said that the honour of the Angles stood as high in peace as it did in war. They were also noteworthy, along with neighbouring Germanic tribes, for their worship of "Mother Earth". They lived in Angeln, which is now in Southern Denmark. When Roman power declined in the 5th century, various small groups of Angles sailed westwards over the North Sea and settled in the areas which later became called East Anglia, Mercia (the Midlands) and Northumbria (Northern England and Southern Scotland).

In this way, the Angles, and similarly the Saxons in the South, created the English landscape that we know today, roughly between the years 450 and 600. The towns, villages, fields, woods and tracks of the year 2000 were nearly all in place well before the year 1000. Some of the Celtic/British people stayed living alongside the Anglian newcomers, but the Angles Germanic culture (most similar to modern day Dutch and Danes) was completely dominant in all areas such as language, jewellery and clothing, building types, religion and burial rites and place names.

As is suggested by their tribal name, the Angles gave the name "English" to this land and to its people. However, the idea of an English people was not present among the early settlers. They identified with much smaller village and tribal groups. As these grew into the larger early Kingdoms mentioned above, they would sometimes fight one another for supremacy and even ally with "foreigners" such as the Welsh against other English Kingdoms. A racial or even a cultural identity as "English" did not seem to exist for hundreds of years.

One of the earliest references to an English nation as we might understand it today comes from a Northumbrian Angle called Bede. He wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English people in 731, our earliest written reference to an English identity, almost three hundred years after the early period of settlement began.

Other famous Angles to look into include:

Penda was the last heathen/pagan King of Mercia. A famous warrior and, like most pagans, tolerant of the new foreign religion, Christianity. He had a long and vigorous reign before dying in battle against the Northumbrians.

Offa was the King of Mercia who built the famous Offa's Dyke between England and Wales. He ruthlessly expanded the Mercian Kingdom to its largest extent in the 8th century and was the most powerful ruler in England.

Aethelflaed was a famous warrior queen and daughter of Alfred the Great. Known as "The Lady of the Mercians". She led her troops into battle against the Danes and won from them the East Midlands for the Wessex/Mercian alliance. With her brother, she ruled all of England up to the Humber by 920. For many people she shows the respect and equality freely given to women by the tribes who made up the early English folk. Her successors united all of England for the first time, but under the domination of the Wessex royal house. A southern rule that continues to the present day.

The Lindisfarne Gospels are a beautiful 8th century illustrated manuscript from Northumbria, which can still be seen in the British Museum in London.

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BILLY BRAGG

Billy Bragg has a claim to be one of our modern English heroes.

Not only as a musician/vocalist/song writer.

Not just for bringing social issues and social questions back into popular music and popular culture at a time when most lyrics had been trivialised into individualist indulgence within an invisible culture. (He was not the only 70's/80's icon to do this of course.)

Not just for a brand of socialism and social justice that spoke up for the common English people in a way that any of our forbears in the 900+ years since the occupation would have warmed to.

It was George Orwell (see his entry) who observed: "England is the only country in the World where the intellectuals are ashamed of [rather than proud of] their identity." Throughout most of the twentieth century any of us who put our heads above the parapet to declare for England or Englishness (or even to point out that the ordinary English people on the estates had been abandoned by the liberal cosmopolitan elites) would be at once accused of chauvinism, nationalism or worse.

Enter Billy Bragg, with Left wing credentials so right on that it was impossible to lay that slur on him! His greatest achievement, we want to argue, has been to make pride in English identity o.k. again to an important section of society ... and to do so in a modern way, without taint of ethnic prejudice.

BIOGRAPHY

· Born December 1957
· Forms first band during punk birth pangs in 1977; release several singles then split in 1981.
· Joins a British Army tank regiment briefly before buying himself out for £175.
· Works in record shop; develops love of blues and politically-inspired folk music; embarks on solo musical career armed with electric guitar, amplifier, and willingness to support almost any act that will take him.
· Records Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy album; reaches UK Top 30 in early 1984 when reissued as Go! Discs first album.
· Material becomes more overtly political after observing effect of Conservative Thatcher government on fabric of British society and treatment of the mining industry in particular; becomes fixture at political rallies and benefits, especially during 1984 Miner's Strike.
· Devotes time and energy to Red Wedge, created with intention of encouraging young people of voting age to use votes in 1987 General Election (implicitly for Labour).
· Has Top 10 hit with 3rd album, Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, in 1986.
· Has biggest hit in May 1988 when double a-side charity single featuring two Beatles songs is UK No 1. Releases Worker's Playtime album, which concentrates more on emotions than politics in September and is UK Top 20 hit.
· Enters the 90s with The Internationale, most political work to date; includes The Marching Song of the Convent Battalions and The Red Flag. Releases Don't Try This At Home in 1991 to critical acclaim and chart success.
· Takes time out to concentrate on family until 1996 and release of William Bloke, which balances the personal and the political unsentimentally and also returns to "one man and his guitar" approach of earlier career.
· Approached by Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora to set some of her father's 2500 unfinished lyrics to music; the result is 1998's Mermaid Avenue album.
· September 17th, 1998 - release of biography Still Suitable For Miners by Andrew Collins.
· Moves to Dorset from London. Becomes involved in local politics. Launches http://www.votedorset.net/ prior to June 2001 UK General Election, tactical voting campaign intended to unseat the Conservative MP in Bragg's constituency. Also appears in segment of C4 archaeology series talking about his affection for Dorset's Cerne Abbas Giant.
· Begins campaigning for reform of House of Lords, writing and publishing political pamphlet A Genuine Expression of the Will of the People; available in electronic form on http:///www.votedorset.net. Is also working on England, Half-English, which explores ideas re identity and Englishness. Take Down The Union Jack released as single and enters the charts nigh-on date of the Queen's Golden Jubilee, echoing irony of the Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen being the UK's No 1 single at time of the Silver Jubilee and Ghost Town by The Specials being huge hit at time of the Royal Wedding in 1981.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

1983 Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy; Brewing Up With Billy Bragg
1986 Talking With The Taxman About Poetry
1987 Back To Basics (2 disc compilation plus Between The Wars EP); The Peel Sessions
1988 Workers Playtime
1990 The Internationale (7 track mini-album)
1996 William Bloke
1998 Mermaid Avenue/2000 Mermaid Avenue Volume II
2002 England, Half-English [as Billy Bragg and The Blokes]

WEBSITE: http://www.billybragg.co.uk/

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COBBETT

William Cobbett certainly deserves a place among the great radicals of English history - a tribune on behalf of the common people in their distress.

Perhaps the most penetrating and balanced analysis of Cobbett the radical is given by Raymond Williams in his classic book 'Culture and Society' [Pelican 1961 etc]. Williams notes that Cobbett was active at a turning point in history: when the protestant reformation of the sixteenth century was bearing its sour fruit in the industrial revolution; when the American and French revolutions were turning the world upside down. He argues that although Cobbett was not an analytical thinker he had "a sureness of instinct" in understanding the changing social reality.

Though home educated, Cobbett was a natural journalist and writer, best known today for his 'Rural Rides' - an account of a journey on horseback through a fast changing England. In his own time, his paper 'The Political Register' (which ran from 1803 till his death in 1935) had a large circulation: it made him by far the most influential radical in England - and the one most feared by the establishment. At different times he was taken to court, sent to prison, forced into exile.

Raymond Williams argues that Cobbett's stature lies in bringing together two strands of opposition to the tide of change: -

• The Countryman: A 'conservative' resistance to the destruction of the social fabric by the 'modernising' forces of both revolutionary Jacobin state democracy (in France) and property based economic individualism (in England).
• The Tribune: A 'radical' identification "by instinct and experience" (Williams) with the labouring and/or destitute poor.

In arguing that labour, as the workers only property, should have the same rights (to be owned, held back or traded) as all other property, Cobbett had "stumbled across" (Williams) the central contradiction of liberal individualism. For to extend the sacred right of property to this whole new class would "threaten the economic basis of a society built on just this principle".

This leads directly to the issue of class. For Cobbett's time was also a turning point in the nature of resistance, in the understanding of class, in what it meant to be a radical.

The undermining of cottage craft industry by the new factory methods of Cobbett's own time, combined with the third great wave of enclosures (many by act of parliament) had the effect of destroying most village communities and their oral traditions of resistance ('their story'), and at the same time provided cheap subsistence labour for the industrial revolution proper.

Cobbett's contemporary and sometimes adversary Thomas Paine represented the way that things were to go: the new radicalism of the Left as we have come to know it. In contrast, Cobbett, though he didn't use the concept, stood in the 'Norman Yoke' tradition of resistance by an occupied, crushed and despised English people: attempting to defend their culture and way of life against arrogant overlords driven by greed.

So let us honour William Cobbett as a great English radical. Let us remember the older meaning of class as a people oppressed. Let us speak up, as he did, for the content and quality of English society against 'modernising' forces and a centralising State.

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DEMOCRACY

"To start with a definition, democracy derives from two Greek words meaning people power. Until the nineteenth century democracy was used in its proper sense, with most social thinkers - even those who framed the constitution of the U.S.A. - regarding it as 'undesirable'. Today that same constitution is held up as a model of democracy for the world to follow!"

[Wall to Wall Democracy - MFME - 1991]

Democracy remains one of the most debased words in the English language. What passes for democracy in England (and our sister peoples, and in most other 'democratic' countries) is more accurately described as elected oligarchy (rule by a few) - and a very limited one at that. Not talking about better voting systems! Our oligarchs have much more on their minds than the will of the people, even if that 'will' was not being shaped by an un-elected and unaccountable mass media.

So why is this form of elected oligarchy valued so highly by so many people in England? A partial answer is that we are told we have democracy! Another part answer is that an elected oligarchy is certainly better than an un-elected one: we can at least change our governors at times. A more significant answer is that we started (in 1068) with a brutal alien over-lordship that could do as it pleased with us. Every small step in reining in this absolute power was achieved at great cost - from the earliest gallows fruit to the force-feeding of the suffragettes. So it seems churlish* to belittle what has been achieved.

* A Norman put-down on the English smallholder or ceorl.

Given that perfect democracy is just about impossible in a group bigger than one where people can meet face to face, the question is how near can you get; how near should you get? Just a few clicks away from this first online version of the Scrapbook is the highly regarded Exploring Democracy page of this Site. [In Democratic Devolution pages.] Even this doesn't go far enough into the problem.

What it does do, for several alternative models, is make a distinction between representatives and delegates.

A representative, once elected for a given term, is not accountable to his/her electors. In theory they are free to vote "according to their consciences". In reality they are accountable to party managers and whips who in turn are driven by the 'real politics' of an unreal world of power jockeying and interest lobbying. Not for nothing did the Chartists demand yearly parliaments!

A proper delegate is always given a mandate by us: may be re-instructed; may be recalled for consultation; may be replaced. With the "directly elected is best" mantra this would not be easy one member of parliament (another Norman-French word!) would be re-instructed by thousands of us, all well enough informed on the particular issue? No chance! Obviously the number of electors per delegate needs to be fairly small. One option that would make this possible is Cascade Democracy (see Exploring Democracy page) where the delegates at the first group level would nominate and mandate one or more delegates to the next level - and be in a better position to hold them to account than the greater numbers who nominated them.

Sometimes a permanent new level might not be needed at all: just sideways partnerships or confederacies of various local groups or authorities coming together (via their delegates) as necessary. The effect of this cascade thinking combined with sideways or confederate thinking is to upgrade the importance of groups in our society - whether a (say) twenty strong residents group from local streets or a (say) twenty strong working party of delegates from various local authorities in an area.

Once these face-to-face groups are seen as really important building blocks in any attempt at half-decent democracy, the next step is to understand the dynamics of these groups. This leads to notions of complementary (or not!) human types - the cutting edge of current work in Devolve!

Further information to those learning/teaching in this field will be available on request.

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THE ENCLOSURES

The very term Enclosure* is able to stir passion and controversy even today: it was close to the centre of inter-class conflict for many of the centuries that followed the Norman occupation of England.

[* Originally and more correctly 'Inclosure' according to the informative pages posted by The Land Is Ours: 'The Norman invasion and inclosure, the theft of Britain' Note that the terrible highland clearances in Scotland "when sheep ate men" are almost recent events. Our concern here of course is with the enclosure of England.]

It is common to speak of "The Enclosures" as one event or process. For a better understanding one should distinguish the different historical phases, the very different motives or objectives and also differences in what was being enclosed: common grazing lands ("the commons"); the wastes (normally higher less fertile ground beyond the cultivated areas); the open field systems (basis of co-operative rather than individualistic farming); whole village communities...

In the conquest period enclosure was by arrogant power - the fruits of victory - and for privileged use: the massive royal hunting forests are an example. [In fact William is reckoned to have claimed one quarter (!) of England for himself and another quarter for the Church (reward for the Pope backing the invasion with ships and money!). However, much of this land was not enclosure in the true sense since most of it was leased back down the feudal chain in return for obligations of produce and service. The people faced groaning taxation and ruthless punishments but, unless victims of the scorched earth reprisals (as in the harrying of the North), the ceorls/villeins continued to work their holdings.]

From perhaps 1250 to 1400 high prices for English wool due to continental demand led to widespread enclosure of land for sheep farming. This was driven by the greed of the great landowners (especially the Church) and resulted in major people clearances and a new class of landless labourers. The ghost village of Old Ingarsby in Leicestershire is one example of once thriving communities exterminated.

Colin Ward, in his chapter on the early squatters, notes that depopulation following the black death reversed the enclosing tide for a time, with land reverting to open grazing and waste (an important source of timber for the smallholder and landless peasant).

From the early 1500s onwards open land was again being encroached upon, the pressure coming from two directions: landless commoners and big landowners. The former attempted to claim squatting rights while the latter used acts of parliament and other means. It was during this century that the confiscation and disposal of Church lands by Henry VIII brought a whole class of newly rich merchants etc into ownership of land.

After a further pause caused by the anti-enclosure policy of the early Stuart kings (Charles I on the side of the angels??) the enclosures began again with a vengeance in the mid 1600s and were to continue for two hundred years, culminating in the General Enclosure Act of1845. [Today all significant land is in State or private hands.] The powerful landowners who then, in effect, controlled Parliament, patronised the Church and operated local justice . . . used a combination of manipulation, intimidation and private Acts of Parliament to get their way.

However, the driving motive (and justification) was no longer profit from sheep but higher rents from tenants who used 'more efficient' agriculture. The more extreme claim is that the industrial revolution would not have been possible without both the 'liberated' manpower and the additional food produced by the drive to enclose.

In fact some recent studies show that the innovations in both crop rotations and tools that led to more productive (but still human scaled) agriculture were pioneered in the collective open field systems. For a balanced academic analysis of a complex subject try Michael Turner, 'Enclosures Re-opened' in Refresh 26 (Spring 1998). As he concludes: "If in so many ways the gains from enclosure are in doubt, yet the damage is plain to see, then we must ask ourselves: if it wasn't broken, why did we fix it?"

The answer to his question surely lies in the long history of the conquest and subjection of England: 'They' fixed 'Us'.

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FOOTBALL

Nowadays football is thought of as a quintessentially English game, associated with mud and cold rain and Bovril and outrageous pay packets and, sadly, hooliganism.

However, its origins are surprisingly ancient and varying forms of the game can be found in many cultures. The Vikings, Toltecs, Romans and Celts had their own versions - some of them having shadowy connections to dark, sinister rituals. Meanwhile, in Renaissance Italy, the inhabitants of Florence played "Calcio" (from "calciare" - "to kick" in Italian) in the city's main square on the feast day of its patron saint, St John the Baptist.

Oddly enough, the development of football in England - where the game found its feet and flowered and where the modern game began - also has its roots in religious holidays. Since the 12th C a ball game resembling a cross between football, rugby, and a brawl has been played every Shrove Tuesday in Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Coming to be known as "mob football" and regarded as little more than violent street battles by some, it was possible for the match to go on for days as players tried to get possession of the ball and often resulted in broken windows, limbs and, occasionally, fatalities. Described as an unsophisticated, local event (some would say nothing has changed) with village pitted against village and umpteen players racing around the streets and across country in hot pursuit of the ball, these Shrovetide matches were played elsewhere throughout the country until the late 19th C.

Football was always seen as a rowdy, vulgar folk game played by farm boys and apprentices, using balls stuffed with horsehair or rags. It belonged to the "common" people and was looked down on by the great and the good hated it because it kept men from more "godly" pursuits; from the 14th century onwards successive monarchs from Edward II to Elizabeth I and law-abiding clerics, sheriffs and mayors tried - and failed - to get football banned (it also discouraged men from practicing archery prior to the wars with the French, for one thing). However, Henry VIII had a pair of football boots made by Cornelius Johnson the Royal Cordwainer in 1526, most probably for Shrovetide games - although ironically the king had once banned football on the grounds that it encouraged riots - and Oliver Cromwell is reported to have played football at Cambridge University in the early 1600s.

The sport continued to grow among working-class communities and by the 1830s was seen as a way of keeping energetic youngsters out of trouble at home and in the school; rampant individualism was seen as a major problem at the time, and through football children could not only let off steam but also learn the values of working as a team.

Paradoxically, however, the genesis of modern football probably came with the expansion of public schools in the mid-19th century, when organised games that emphasised order, discipline, and team spirit were a fundamental part of the curriculum. It wasn't quite the same game as before, of course; this was a more "gentlemanly" form and existed in several different versions, each with its own rules. It wasn't until after the introduction of the game into the universities and the birth of the Football Association in October 1863 that these regulations were standardised; the first football rulebook was published in November 1863 and soon "football" was used specifically to describe Association Football - at this time "a game overseen by gentlemen for young gentlemen."

But for a while, association football struggled. Far from its humble beginnings, most "serious" football clubs were "for gentleman only"; the new rules were frequently ignored by teams and the idea of paid professional players was frowned upon; in the 1890s Rugby Union was so popular in the North of England that some feared soccer would never take hold in the popular consciousness there.

It took time before the game we know today started to take a more familiar shape; but all the game's major innovations such as international matches (1872) and the first full-time league (1888) came from England. It was also helped by the arrival of inexpensive, mass-produced playing equipment and the need for flat pitches and better playing techniques because of the lighter, smooth, round play balls.

Professional football was finally legalised by the FA in July 1885 as a response to the growing numbers of working class football players and increasing income from rising attendance figures. The amount of new teams being formed led to the creation of the Football League in September 1888, and the addition of a second division in 1892.

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LADY GODIVA

Lady Godiva is the symbol of the city of Coventry, where her best-known history took place. She flourished from 1040 to 1080 AD and was a rich landowner, an Anglo-Saxon gentlewoman, a helper of the poor and a first tax protestor.
Her husband was Earl Leofric, a rich man and, whilst not directly thought of as cruel, he was a somewhat greedy tax collector on behalf of King Canute. He set a high tax called Heregeld - basically, a tax to raise an army - on the traders of the town of Coventry, a tax that would break many of them and leave most of their servants unemployed and hungry.

His young wife was shocked when she heard of it and went to him to plead the case for the townsfolk. According to the testimony of some traveling clerics of the time, he challenged her to ride naked through the town on market day, before he would lower the taxes. It is probable he thought she would do no such thing. However, she did.
Clothed only be her long blonde hair, she rode naked around the market place. Her maidens and bodyguard were within call, and the trades people had been warned, so nobody was peeking. The Peeping Tom story, sad to say, comes a long time after and was possibly an attempt to denigrate the effort of a very resourceful and determined woman.

The earl was deeply impressed by her daring and relaxed the taxes; King Canute's reaction is not recorded. The influence of the lady over her somewhat autocratic husband, not unusual in Anglo-Saxon England, caused a great deal of donating to churches and the building of a monastery. Lady Godiva was always concerned about the poor and she gave to the church so that the monks and nuns could do good works.
I am not sure I applaud the tongue in cheek estimation of her exploits found on the web. Mr. Kraus described her as nagging her husband. I'm rather glad she did.

"So, what was Lady Godiva? A visionary; a social climber; a patron of the arts; a dilettante of the worst order?
"In any estimation, she had the guts to follow her convictions, and may have brought a degree of enlightenment to a small corner of 11th century England. And, probably, no one went to Hell because of it."
© Jerome C. Krause

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HASTINGS

Harold Godwinson, who was killed at Hastings in 1066, was in many ways the last truly English king of England. This battle is no longer seen today as the inevitable triumph of a superior culture. The victorious Normans took over a prosperous well-organised land with a legal system which respected human rights and female equality. They completely replaced the English aristocracy and spoke in French and Latin for hundreds of years after the conquest.

There were many English rebellions against the new rulers, but they were in local areas, with no national leader to unite behind. William, the new king, was ruthless and eventually managed to conquer all of England except the Lake District. Almost a third of the English people died violently or by starvation as a result of the Norman Conquest. On his deathbed, William asked God to forgive his cruelty towards the English.

After many generations, the "Norman" aristocrats came to see themselves as English. They built many castles and new churches, which we can enjoy today. At the time and for hundreds of years afterward, they were bitterly resented by most English folk.

All the commonly used words in modern English come from Old English and Scandinavian. The Normans brought in many new words from French and Latin. These can be useful to give different shades of meaning. Sometimes they are merely pretentious, where a plain English word is understood by everyone.

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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The Industrial Revolution was a massive social, economic, political and demographic event - or rather process. So much so that the technical and logistical achievement is either overlooked or taken for granted. This very limited snapshot looks mainly at the middle period from the point of view of some of the engineering advances. In an age when information, communication and software are centre stage it is hard to comprehend that heavy engineering was once the cutting edge of technology.

In fact, the agricultural revolution of the 1600s-1700s (regarded here as a technical feat rather than a social upheaval) made the industrial revolution possible. And the early industrial achievements like digging the canals (or navigations - hence 'navvy') and economical conversions of coal to coke and iron to steel were necessary foundations.

One of the first modern engineers was Matthew Boulton (born Birmingham 1728). He collaborated with the brilliant Scot, James Watt, to perfect the first modern (stationary) steam engine in 1774, and first adapted its use from pumping to driving machinery.

The Cornish tin mines also produced fine engineers, though English pathfinders were not far behind. George Stephenson (born Newcastle 1781) was ten years younger than Richard Trevithick (steam road carriage 1801). Stephenson further improved steam traction and laid down the first railways in England at Hetton (1819) and Stockton - Darlington (1825), beginning the era of modern transportation. However, it was Timothy Hackworth (born Newcastle 1786) whose heavier, more reliable engines probably ensured the financial success of the first public railway company. [The Hackworth Trust has now joined forces with the National Railway Museum to create a fitting tribute at Shildon near Darlington: a site where history lives.]

It is important to understand that in engineering each advance depended on earlier developments - and not only in design. Good steels and better forges and turning lathes made possible effective steam engines. This engineering feat then made possible other advances. What England excelled in at this time was a fast accumulation of interacting knowledge and skilled labour, plus other resources.

In a wider sense, most English engineers have been civil engineers: constructors of canals, bridges, harbours, reservoirs, dams, roads, tunnels and so on. Probably their greatest collective achievement to date has been the Victorian sewage systems under modern cities.

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JUSTICE IN ENGLAND

Any of us who give a bit of thought to the whole system of justice in England today soon realise that there are two parts to it.

One aspect can be called 'sideways' justice, dealing with our relations with each other: notions of fairness, compensation and restrictions on 'over the top' vengeance. These feel about right but need to be criticised for (a) remoteness; (b) slowness; (c) legal ritual (d) cost (especially the legal gravy train). [Talking here not only about civil law but some aspects of criminal law.]

The other face of justice can be called 'top-down' justice, concerned with the maintenance of 'law and order': the state and the status quo. The underlying mixture of contempt and paranoia is evident at times.

To examine further we need to step back into our history. In order to do that we need a head (and heart) shift away from our two-dimensional world of people (individuals) and states. For most of history society was more 'organic' and complex than this with family groups, clans, tribes: not just names for collections of people but social, political and legal realities.

Going first right back, say 4,000 years to the very early 'English' (and other) peoples in the forests of Germany and Eastern Europe (yes, we are all migrants!) two things can be noted. First, the dense forest with small clearings worked against the great social (and therefore legal) hierarchies of the Middle East at that time and encouraged personal/small group initiative. Second, the still earlier changeover from hunting to agriculture was also a changeover from a fully collective economy ('primitive communism') to a village-based economy that had three elements: reward for (close family) effort; mutual support (e.g. at harvest time all would pitch in); fairness (e.g. in allocation of best and worst field strips). This last was the starting point for sideways systems of justice.

Moving to Anglo-Saxon England (as we did) the amalgamation of tribes into a few kingdoms had created real hierarchies and the emergence of top-down law alongside mediation law. However the legal hierarchy was not just (or even mainly) about rank. It was a cascade of social groupings, each with local jurisdiction and wider obligation. The local moots were essentially participatory. Further, because the English were still their own people, there was a sense in which even kings were first among equals. In the Danish areas the social and legal systems were more egalitarian and family slaves were almost unknown.

Justice was based on the group as much as the individual. If a person was wronged then the whole extended family or clan was wronged and bound to seek redress. Likewise the family of the wrongdoer was held accountable for that wrong and liable to make amends. This sideways accountability included kinsfolk vouching for the innocence of the accused - or not: the roots of the jury system.

Even before the conquest the continental church, using church law, was strengthening hierarchy and increasing the tithing (milking) of common folk. Hereward the Wake was banished from England for relieving a priest of his gold and returning it to the poor!

The Norman conquerors took over the forms of the English legal system (as historians are too keen to point out) but with a very different spirit and intention. The aim was to control, intimidate and extract from a sullen conquered people. The Lord's right of the first night (with a village bride) was an extreme example.

Since then, a long history of passive resistance punctuated by uprisings and riots has brought terrible reprisals but also set some limits to legal impositions. Also periods of conflict within the 'Norman' establishment have been opportunities to win back some legal rights - though not enough to prevent such disasters as the legal robbery of the enclosures.

What of the two faces of justice up to today?

Sideways justice has progressed from old English custom law to modern case law (based upon precedent) though increasingly overlaid with statute law. There is also increasing use of arbitration in some areas of dissent. These mainly positive features are hindered by the factors noted above, plus a spreading use of litigation as we defend our individual corners.

Top-down justice - having eroded the local autonomies and structures that once shielded us from the direct impact of the state - is now legislating right into our personal lives. Also the right to trial by jury - or even to a trial - is now under threat. Couple this with mass media shaping of our needs and values - Duke William would be green with envy!

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KING OF THE BARDS:    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - 1564-1616

If you were to ask anyone the name of the most famous English playwright ever, chances are that they'd name William Shakespeare - but the surprising thing is that actually we don't know as much about him as you might think and that there are only two pictures of him that experts consider to be authentic!

What's known is that he was born in April 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. The third eldest of eight and the eldest son of a respectable family, Shakespeare received a classical education at King's New School, an establishment built and maintained solely for the education of the sons of prominent citizens. He studied there until he was forced to leave to help his father in his business when the family's fortunes declined. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway of Shottery, who was eight years his senior and three months pregnant at the time. They had three children: Susanna (1583), Hamnet (d. August 1596) and Judith (1585).

Details of Shakespeare's life are sketchy until 1592 when the minor playwright and pamphleteer Robert Greene dismisses him as an "upstart crow" - although it hasn't stopped people inventing stories about these "missing years". Some suggest he was a schoolteacher, others that he was employed as an ostler, a scrivener, and even a butcher; but a more likely possibility is that Shakespeare was employed as a teacher, one who wrote and performed plays with his class. A travelling theatre company may have visited Stratford and, being short of staff, taken Shakespeare into service after being impressed by his early dramatic work, wit, natural talent, and skill as a scrivener. Again, we can't know for sure, but it's a plausible idea.

Greene's jibe shows that by the 1590s Shakespeare had become successful enough to make him jealous. It tells us about Shakespeare's fame in the London theatre world, that he was an actor, playwright, "play-mender", and poet and that his play Henry VI Part 3 was so well known that its characters were reference by other writers and could be recognised by one of its lines. By now he would probably have written The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, possibly Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry VI 1-3, Titus Andronicus (the play for which he was most famous during his lifetime) and maybe even Richard III. He was also associated with a number of acting companies, including The Queen's Men, Pembroke's Men and Lord Strange's Men, and may have been a "freelance" writer who worked with several outfits at a time.

Everything came to a halt in January 1593 when the London theatres were forced to close due to an outbreak of the plague. During this time professional companies needed to tour with smaller troupes and Shakespeare was forced to seek employment through the social connections he'd made - for instance, in 1593 he dedicated his hugely popular long narrative poem Venus and Adonis to 19 year old Earl of Southampton, who may well be the young man to whom many of Shakespeare's Sonnets were dedicated and who may have paid him handsomely as a result. But Shakespeare was probably still writing plays, both to entertain his aristocratic friends and with an eye to the theatres reopening once the outbreak of plague was over.

When the theatres reopened in the spring of 1594, Shakespeare had the opportunity to really establish himself when he joined The Lord Chamberlain's Men along with Will Kemp and Richard Burbage. Richard's father James built The Theatre, where they performed, and Shakespeare bought shares in the company, which meant that he was part owner and manager and thus shared in the profits. He was the company's principal writer and wrote roughly two plays a year until around 1611-1612, when he seems to have retired to Stratford after building up a nice little nest-egg of property investment in the town.

The years 1595-1599 were particularly notable for Shakespeare. The Chamberlain's Men, for whom he was the principal actor-manager, became the most popular acting troupe in London and for whom he produced a steady stream of plays. In 1599 he became part-owner of The Globe, London's most prestigious public theatre after the lease on The Theatre expired in 1597 and the company had to move to another theatre nearby called The Curtain. The Theatre was then dismantled by members of The Chamberlain's Men and a group of workmen and rebuilt as The Globe theatre, which was owned by a syndicate including Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, Shakespeare and Will Kemp. When James I became king of England after the death of Elizabeth in 1603, The Chamberlain's Men were granted royal patronage and became "The King's Men", giving 11 command performances before the King.

During this time the character of Shakespeare's work became darker, perhaps reflecting the more cynical mood of the new reign; for a time after Elizabeth's death there was a definite all-pervasive sombre "fín de siécle" mood in the air. The change in tone may also have been the result of events in Shakespeare's own life. His father died in 1601 and in the same year came the rebellion for which Shakespeare's patron Southampton was one of those condemned but later reprieved, leading to a cooling of relations between Shakespeare and Southampton's circle. Others claim that Shakespeare had to modify the types of plays he wrote either because tragic plays had become more fashionable, suiting the mood of depression of the time - or else because the boy actors who had played his strong female roles had all grown up, left, or died. Still others suggest that the stress of writing "Hamlet" brought about a period of depression which would obviously be reflected in his work - though the answer may in fact be less bleak than more gloomy minds would allow: that perhaps the security of his employment with the most prestigious acting company in London meant Shakespeare could now write about the things that interested him most.

In 1608 The King's Men began to put on performances at their indoor theatre, The Blackfriars, which meant the company could take advantage of the use of stage lighting, stage effects and music, which were difficult to use in outdoor theatres. The tone of Shakespeare's work becomes noticeably more cheerful, with plays full of light, romance, magic, reconciliation, and fun, reflecting the taste at court for masques, which were extravaganzas of song and spectacle. No one knows the reason for the change in Shakespeare's work, but it may be simply because he had emerged from his depression of the early 1600's and matured - or that, as a master showman, he merely began writing to suit the prevailing popular taste.

Shakespeare's last great play is considered to be "The Tempest", and some people believe that in Prospero's great final speech, Shakespeare reveals his own thoughts about life and the theatre - though of course, we can't know for certain. His three final plays were collaborations with John Fletcher, The King's Men's new dramatist; "Henry VIII" (1613), "Two Noble Kinsmen" (1613/14) and the now-lost "Cardenio", though little is known about the latter.

In his later years, William Shakespeare returned to Stratford. In the summer of 1614 he was caught up in an enclosure dispute, but in the main he seems to have surrounded himself with friends and family and lived contentedly until his death in 1616, when he was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford beneath a slab bearing the inscription: "GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,/TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE./BLESTE BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES, AND CURST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES."

However, some people don't believe that Shakespeare wrote his plays - they claim that he was too poorly educated and too ignorant of the world to have created such great works. Others point to the fact that local records don't describe Shakespeare as a writer - which is true, but there's no reason why officials in Stratford should be very interested in his activities in London; particularly as actors may still have been regarded as being a bit "shady".

No-one seems to have questioned the fact that Shakespeare wrote "his" plays until the 18th century, when all sorts of patronizing theories arose because no-one but an aristocrat could possibly have written these fine works: now there are many conspiracy theories about the "real" author of Shakespeare's plays. The most popular alternative authors have included Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere; more bizarre candidates have been Queen Elizabeth I and Daniel Defoe, who wrote "Robinson Crusoe"! In their book "The Shakespeare Conspiracy", Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman argue that "William Shakespeare" was a spy who was killed by Sir Walter Raleigh.

Whatever the truth - and it may be this is exactly what it appears to be - despite being a victim of snobbery and having his very existence questioned, Shakespeare's work still continues to be performed and viewed as relevant today - not least because he introduced 2000 new words to the English language. He was a popular writer of his time who tapped into what people liked and could tailor his work to fit the prevailing mood; but his treatment of universal themes and psychology mean that the drives and feelings of his characters are still recognisable today - literally "all human life is there".

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THE LEVELLERS

The Levellers were seventeenth century radicals whose ideas helped to shape the American and French revolutions and the English reformers of the early nineteenth century. During the English civil war, Levellers demands for a wider sharing of power and the right of the governed to a say in their government were encapsulated in the document "An agreement of the Free People of England". This was debated at the Council of the Army meeting at Putney church chaired by Oliver Cromwell in 1647.

Levellers held themselves to be freeborn Englishmen, entitled to the protection of a natural law of human rights. These rights were only loaned to parliament, which should therefore be elected on a wide popular vote. They felt that the relation of master and servant had no ground in the New Testament and did not accept the need for an exclusive priestly class which claims to speak on behalf of God, still less the need for a king who was claiming a divine right to rule.

Their demands included religious toleration, trial by jury, all legal proceedings to be conducted in English, no arbitrary prosecutions, no imprisonment for debt, an end to tithing and the freeing of trade from monopoly restrictions. They sought to make law accessible to the common person, a very ambitious objective. Aspects of the archaic British legal system, including its closed shop nature, survive and flourish to this day. They wanted to transfer the legal powers from London to monthly courts within every Hundred, made up of locally chosen juries of 12 men. They saw this as a return to English freedoms taken away by the hated Norman rulers and they championed the system of English common law.

The Diggers, or True Levellers, as they described themselves, advocated absolute human equality, even, most unusually for the time, between men and women. They also anticipated today's green movements in seeing the earth as "a common storehouse for all".

Naturally, the ideas of the Levellers were considered extremely dangerous by those with a vested interest in the preservation of privilege, property and power. However, their eventual violent defeat as an organised political movement could not obliterate their ideas. When the American Congress set out their political principles in their Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776, their ideas were taken straight from the English Levellers, over a century before.

Levellers are often claimed as inspirational today by both socialists and liberal intellectuals.

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WILLIAM MORRIS 1834 - 1896

William Morris was born in 1834 in Walthamstow, then a village on the edge of Epping Forest. His father, a wealthy businessman, left William mining shares when he died which gave him considerable financial independence. Morris entered Oxford University in l853, originally intending to become a clergyman. However his fascination for the mediaeval pageantry of Scott's novels and Oxford itself, still in many ways a mediaeval city, led him to write romantic poetry. In the holidays with Edward Burne Jones he explored France and Belgium visiting mediaeval cathedrals and galleries of the mediaeval painters.

Even as a young man Morris was a controversial figure. He felt that 'all the minor arts were in a complete sense of degradation'. As an adolescent he had refused to enter the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851 opposing the ostentatiousness of the mass production of the objects and stressing the importance of the quality of workmanship.

After University Morris became articled to a firm of architects in Oxford but a memorable meeting with Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood influenced him to attempt to become a painter. At Oxford he joined a group of Pre-Raphaelite friends to paint murals in the Oxford Union. At Oxford he fell in love with and married Jane Burden, Rossetti's model and worked with Philip Webb to design Red House where he was to live with Jane. Here, equipped with his interest in architecture and painting and his skill in embroidery and woodcarving he enthusiastically set out to make all the furnishings of the house with Philip Webb and his pre-raphaelite friends.

Despite his idealism Morris always displayed a strong practical streak, and so in 1861 he set up the Firm with a group or other artist/craftsmen to produce murals, wood carving, stained glass metalwork and furniture. He became a passionate advocate of the importance of true craftsmanship, the unity of hand and brain, which he felt was not compatible with the life of the modern wage earner under the capitalist system.

Despite his unhappy emotional life while Rossetti and Jane were having an affair in the 1870s Morris consoled himself by travelling extensively to Iceland. This experience led him to write: "I learned one lesson there… that the most grinding poverty is a trifling evil compared with the inequality of classes". He joined the Social Democratic Federation and later the Socialist League and took a very active part in the organization, extensively lecturing throughout the country.

When Morris died in 1896 he was revered as a man of many talents as a poet, an artist and a craftsman who had created designs for wallpapers, tapestries, stained glass, embroideries and carpets. He was also a successful businessman yet an ardent socialist who was committed to the revolutionary transformation of England. His concern for the place of art in society along with his understanding and compassion for all the working people of England place him as an influential thinker who has given us a lasting legacy through the 20th and 21st centuries.

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NORMANS

The part of France now called Normandy developed as an independent state during the early 10th century. A Norwegian called Rollon was defeated by the French king at Chartres, but in the treaty that followed the battle Rollon was granted control of Normandy.

The fledgling Duchy grew in power, but the Norman leaders were ever at war with French kings and there was little love lost there. One of these leaders even has a record in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, when, it says, William Longsword took Normandy and held it 15 years.

The Normans Vikings gave up their roving life, built abbeys and churches, expanded their territory, fought the French and each other. Their language became French, despite them being a mix of Norwegian, Danish, Saxon, Flemish and Breton.

William the Bastard was the natural son of Richard 11, duke of Normandy; he inherited an expanding 'kingdom' when he was only seven in 1035. His life was troubled; illegitimacy on the continent was usually a bar to inheritance and he was often in danger of assassination from childhood; his life may well have made him both brave and ruthless. He was considered a competent leader; it is a pity, on reflection, that he was advised by his self-righteous cousin, Edward the Confessor, that he should be the next king of England after him.

English kings, including Cnut, had learned that rule was easier if you had the will of the people. Edward, like William, had been brought up in Normandy, where no such idea existed.

In England, Harold succeeded Edward in the traditional way, by election by the Witan. This was looked upon by William as treachery; there is a story of an oath of allegiance Harold swore over the relics of a saint; if it happened, it was under duress and a man like Harold might well consider the affair dishonorable. His brother, William's hostage then, did die in prison, where he had been since childhood. It had been Edward the confessor who had sent the boy there.

William's forces invaded and won the battle at Hastings on October 14th 1066. He didn't have a peaceful reign. There were uprisings by the English and by his own discontented barons. He was entirely ruthless in his dealings with his subjects. He was not a loved king.

The Normans introduced trial by combat, which didn't survive long, trial by 'swimming', which had a longer run and rule without consent. They used the old English bureaucracy to enrich themselves rather than the country.

As the Norman empire expanded and then waned, the control of England became more difficult and it was not until Henry 11, an Angevin, that firm rule was really established.

From the time of the 'harrowing of the North' and up to today, it seemed that kings had lost the understanding of rule by consent.

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THE ENGLISH OAK TREE

The oak grows to an old age- taking 60 years to produce catkins. It can grow to over 30 metres with a girth of up to 12 metres. The English oak is known as the common oak and is found in fields and woods. The Sessile oak is to be found mostly in the West of England and the Holm oak is common to the south of England. Oaks have grey brown barks that are rough and gnarled.

The Oak has long been associated with druids as the word 'druid' is possibly derived from 'duir' the old gaelic name for oak. Traditionally couples were married under oak trees as they were often seen as trees in which the gods lived. The oak has been associated with many periods in history. It is said that Robin Hood living in the forest, spent much of his time living and meeting under great oaks with his merry band of men. Herne the Hunter is believed to still inhabit an ancient oak tree. Edward the Confessor preached under a gospel oak in Hampstead to gain support for his kingdom. Charles 11 hid in an oak tree to avoid capture by Cromwell's men and the tree was then named the Royal Oak.

Oak trees had many healing qualities as both the bark and leaves were used in medicinal preparations. Carrying the acorn was also believed to give protection, luck and preserve youth.

The oak is greatly revered as a giver of a rich harvest of acorns in the Autumn feeding many of the woodland animals. Acorns have been used over the centuries for magic and religious purposes and often for fertility reasons.

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SYLVIA PANKHURST

Sylvia Pankhurst was a socialist feminist born in 1882, the daughter of radical parents, humanitarian lawyer Dr Richard Pankhurst and his wife Emmeline. She was brought up in Manchester where her education was unorthodox as she and her two sisters were educated by governesses who promoted independence and self-awareness. Sylvia's home was a frequent meeting place for radical friends where there was a continuing atmosphere of political and ideological ferment.

In 1900 Sylvia received a scholarship to Manchester School of Design, later studying at the Royal College of Art in London, where she gained many prizes. During this time Sylvia also travelled to Venice to study mosaics and Florence to study frescoes. Unconventional as always, in Venice she managed to force the Academy to let her study and draw the human figure. Women usually had to be content to draw from plaster casts of statues. She found many areas of unfairness at the Royal College of Art and even persuaded Kier Hardie (a family friend) to ask a Parliamentary question about the discrimination against women students.

Sylvia used her artistic skills to serve the causes she believed in. For the Women's Social and Political Union (founded in Manchester 1903 by her mother Emmeline and sister Christabel) she designed calendars, posters, publicity materials, banners and 20ft high panels for the WSPU Fair in 1910. Sylvia was a pacifist in the First World War designing many anti-war posters. She also drew and painted studies of women working in the mills and women chain makers and craft workers as well as portraits including chalk and watercolour studies of Kier Hardie. However eventually she gave up her artistic career to concentrate on political work for the WSPU.

However when this movement abandoned its early links with the labour movement and the suffrage campaign during the First World War Sylvia concentrated on helping working class women campaign for the vote. She was also a prolific writer publishing many pamphlets, editing newspapers and books including the history of the Suffrage movement in 1911.

In 1927 Sylvia's son Richard Pankhurst was born. His father Sylvio Corio was an Italian socialist. Though Sylvia lived with him she was opposed to marrying and taking a man's name. Near the end of her life she led a campaign against the Italian occupation of Ethiopia where she lived until her death in 1960. She is remembered today for her tireless activism and her commitment to winning the vote for women of all classes.

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QUAKERS

The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers as they are better known, stand in both the long English tradition of radical dissent from orthodoxy and authority and also in the great tide of revolt against the established church in Europe that was the reformation.

'Founded' by George Fox towards the end of the 1640's - it was a process rather than an inauguration - Quakerism may be looked at under its religious and its social aspects (though many Friends, then and now, would not distinguish between them).

In religious terms they shared with most puritans of the times - Presbyterians, Independents and many Baptists - a rejection of the hierarchy, ritual and hypocrisy of the established church. This was a common assertion that the road to their God did not lie through the bishops and priests.

Yet these other groups still denied the possibility of direct contact with God and took the Bible as the one true rock, the fixed embodiment of God's word. They also followed the Calvinist conviction that we are all born with original sin and eternally damned unless saved by belief.

In contrast the Quakers (and a few other sects before them) held dangerously radical views: that each individual had something of God in them; that each could tune directly with God if they listened to the spirit within; that God was growing and evolving with his universe; that the Bible was not always right; that there may not be individual life after death - or at any rate what mattered was being true to God's light in this world.

No wonder the Quakers were hated on all sides and heavily persecuted once religious freedom (or rather chaos) came to an end with the Restoration of 1660.

The social views of the early Friends were no less radical and subversive. If everyone had something of God in them then social inequality and rank made no sense: a direct threat to the social order. Their rejection of war and enlistment was possibly a greater threat, for all states and empires rely ultimately on the power of arms to expand and maintain their control.

[Although this is not a detailed account, mention should be made of William Penn who helped found the territory (later State) of Pennsylvania on Quaker principles, including a fair treaty with the Native Americans - which lasted for 75 years - and peace between nations. Had that example been followed the world might be a different place today.]

Like other dissenters, Quakers benefited from the relative religious tolerance after 1689. As the century of social upheaval drew to a close the 'English' (soon to be British) State became more sure of itself and began again to reach out for empire. The English people put away their dream of a different social order and resigned themselves to their grumbles and their poaching.

During the following centuries the early fire of the Quakers mellowed and they became known for good works, for campaigns against particular injustices, for social welfare. With both the church and army barred to them many Quakers turned to business, where their reputation for integrity went before them. Both Lloyds and Barclays banks began in the coffee houses of London, where wealthy merchants felt that they could trust Friends to look after - 'take deposit of' - their gold.

Likewise in the social arena Friends later sought influence and social improvement in the corridors of power rather than in open challenge. John Bright was perhaps their best-known politician in the nineteenth century.

Witness of conscience continues to be an important aspect of Quakerism. As members of a peace church many Friends have taken a principled stand over issues such as nuclear armaments and paying of taxes for war. Their commitment to dealing with conflict creatively has led to mediation work in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, Sri Lanka and other conflict zones.

With the coming ecological, economic and social crises at the end of the growth age the witness of Quakers to their inner light will be sorely tested.

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JOHN RUSKIN

John Ruskin was born in 1819 the son of John James Ruskin a prosperous businessman and partner in the sherry firm of Domecq. His mother was deeply religious and intended that her son should have a career in the church. However Ruskin had an unconventional childhood accompanying his father on his business to many great houses all over England and Scotland and even in Europe. During these travels throughout France Switzerland and Italy he started to write poetry, make extensive pencil sketches of the scenery and architecture and keeping detailed geological diaries.

His love of art and architecture developed into an enthusiasm of writing about art. He defended the 'truth to nature' of the Pre-Raphaelites and embarked on a series of volumes of Modern Painters, which mixed art criticism with social concerns. Throughout his life he continued to write and lecture lecturing extensively on the work of Turner and publishing annual reviews of the painting shown at the Royal Academy.

In 1848 he married Effie Gray though this marriage was annulled on the grounds of non-consummation and Effie eventually married the painter John Millais. During his life Ruskin alternated between periods of intense activity such as writing and cataloguing the watercolours drawings of Turner and bands of depression and physical illness.

He became passionately interested in political and social economy being increasingly concerned about the conditions in which most people lived in Victorian England. He also developed a keen interest in the education of workingmen, teaching and persuading other artists to teach at the Working Men's College in London. During this time he also founded many socialist projects. He became Slade Professor of Art at Oxford and wrote extensively on art and architecture.

When his father died Ruskin inherited a considerable sum of money some of which he invested in setting up schemes such as the St Georges Guild a scheme of agrarian communism where he persuaded friends to also give a tenth of their income to.

Ruskin was a complex man with diverse interests. He was a mentor of many artists of his time such as the Pre-Raphaelites, and the artist illustrator Kate Greenaway, whilst publishing essays on political economy and being a supporter of Octavia Hill.

In 1871 he bought Brantwood then a dilapidated villa on the shores of Lake Coniston, which he gradually renovated together with the gardens and estate. Over the next few years he was beset by frequent bouts of madness and spent the last decade of his life before he died in 1900 as a recluse at Brantwood.

Though many of his well-intentioned social experiments failed, Ruskin undoubtedly had a lasting influence on many diverse issues that are still relevant today such as preserving the green belt, reviving the rural economy of the Lake district, town planning and the National Trust.

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SAINT MONDAY

Everyone knows about that 'Monday morning feeling', whether it is having to go to work or heading off to school or college for another week or simply having to forget the pleasures and relaxation of the weekend. However, few people realise that up until the mid-nineteenth century, the work pattern that we know today of working Monday to Friday (formerly Monday to Saturday) was unknown. It only became established in order to suit the demands of the new mechanised industries of the Industrial Revolution.

In his 1898 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable', E Cobham Brewer gives two definitions of Saint Monday. One is: "A holiday observed [both] by journeymen shoemakers and other inferior mechanics, and by well-to-do merchants". The other relates to a story concerning the death of one of Oliver Cromwell's 'zealous partisans' - a man named Monday - while Cromwell's army was encamped at Perth. Cromwell duly offered a reward for the best eulogy written on Monday's death and the prize went to a Perth shoemaker. Cromwell was so pleased that he was said to have made a decree that henceforth Monday should be a holiday for shoemakers. The winning entry goes as follows: "Blessed be the Sabbath Day/And cursed be worldly pelf/Tuesday will begin the week/Since Monday's hanged himself."

In fact, the notion of St Monday is much broader than this. It refers to a more natural work rythm than the so-called 'nine to five'.

Prior to the 1850's workmen would observe not only St Monday but also sometimes even St Tuesday. However strange this may seem to modern ears, the results were effective. The working week (often in weaving or other home industry) would finish late on Saturday afternoon. Sunday would be spent attending church, visiting relatives and so on. Mondays, according to tradition, would be spent drinking with workmates and friends. Tuesday would be spent doing jobs around the house whilst recovering from Monday. Work would begin in ernest on Wednesday. During the rest of the week the momentum of work would gradually increase and it wasn't uncommon to work right through from Friday morning until Saturday lunchtime.

Despite the industrial revolution, the tradition died hard. In his classic 1970's essay 'The Secret People' John Fletcher reported that, in the Burton on Trent breweries, "a group of bloody minded coopers still cling to their Saint Monday".

To close, a couple of verses from the Billy Bragg ballad 'St Monday': -

I'm a hard worker but I ain't working on a Monday
I'm a hard worker but I ain't working on a Monday
A hard working fellow but I ain't working on a Monday
St Monday's still the weekend for me

Two dozen enquiries are on hold for me
My shift supervisor is staring hard at me
Nobody can say what the matter is
I'm trying to recharge my batteries

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THOR

Thor in Norse, Thunor in Old English, is the Pagan Thunder God of the Germanic folk, the strongest of the Sky Gods and slayer of giants with his magic hammer, Mjolnir. He is the son of the Earth Goddess and the hero of many adventures and battles against giants and against the Midgard serpent, which encircles the earth.

Most of our days of the week are named after the old Gods of the English: Tuesday is named after Tiw the God of Law and Justice. Wednesday is named after Woden, Odin in Scandinavian. Originally a war God, he later became God of runic knowledge magic and poetry, favoured by the ruling class and warriors. Friday is named after Frigg, the main Sky Goddess of women and relationships, married to Odin.

In old England, Thor was a fertility God of farmers and Mjolnir was used to bless heathen weddings. Thursday continued to be a popular day for weddings for hundreds of years into Christian dominated times. The Thor's hammer symbol is once again worn today by followers of the heathen or Odinist religion.

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THE UNDERDOG

One particular characteristic for which the English are known is that of being on the side of the underdog, one definition of which is: "one at a disadvantage and expected to lose". It appeals to our sense of fair play and dislike of seeing the vulnerable trampled on and taken advantage of by the strong.

We don't like to be failures, but at the same time there seems to be a suspicion of power and success in our psyches and so we tend to root for "the little guy who's up against it", the person we can most easily identify with. Just think of all the films, TV series, books and songs, etc, in which the lead characters face set-back after set-back and yet still come back and succeed against the odds - The Full Monty, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, even The Lord of the Rings all have seemingly powerless characters who ultimately triumph over adversity and provide us with an uplifting ending.

So where does this trait come from? The underdog may not always be in the right or deserving of support - least of all just because of their underdog status - but the English certainly have an inherent urge to kick against rules they feel are stupid or petty, even if in a small way, and we like to champion apparently hopeless causes - just think of how many people continue to be dogged supporters of unfashionable and unsuccessful football teams or bands!

Or is it simply sheer obstinate bloody mindedness? It's almost certainly a working class thing - it's easier to empathise with people in the same boat as you are, and much harder to imagine the rich and privileged as being "underdogs"!

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THE VIKINGS

Vikings is a word loosely used for Scandinavian raiders, traders and settlers between 800 and 1066. In England they mainly came from Denmark and Norway. In the East, Swedish Vikings founded the City-states of Novgorod and Kiev laid the foundations for the Russian state. The Vikings reputation as fierce and cruel raiders was given to them by their chief enemies, the Christian monks who had a monopoly of writing at the time. The Vikings positive part in the forming of England is only recently being appreciated.

Trade and towns prospered under the influence of Vikings. York, or Jorvik in Danish, is the best-known example of a town that flourished as an international trading centre but only after its capture by Danish Vikings in 867. Other towns were either founded by them or by Alfred and other English kings as fortified centres in response to Danish attacks. Many parts of Yorkshire and the Lake District were peacefully settled by farmers from Norway and Denmark. They gave Scandinavian names to their dales, fells and becks (or valleys, hills and streams).

Viking settlements can still be identified from place names. Those ending in by which originally meant a farm (as in Derby, Rugby, Grimsby) thorpe (as in Scunthorpe), toft which meant a plot of land (as in Lowestoft) or thwaite which meant a woodland clearing. There are many of these names in Northern and Eastern England today. This area used to be called the Danelaw. Is your home town in the Danelaw or the part of England controlled by King Alfred of Wessex in the ninth century?

The English language was strongly influenced by the Vikings - the 100 most commonly used words in modern English all come from Old English or from Scandinavian. The simple form of modern English (with no complicated word endings or cases) probably came about in order to help early English and Scandinavian speakers understand each other.

Many of our English ideals about democracy, freedom, justice and individual rights came from the culture of Scandinavian settlers. The word "law" is itself of Scandinavian origin. Jury system, when did this start and why?

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GERRARD WINSTANLEY

Gerrard Winstanley was born in the time of Charles 1 and was the son of a clothier in Wigan, Lancashire. He married the daughter of a London surgeon who held some property in Cobham and set up in business just before the English Civil War in the 1640's.

Unfortunately the war disrupted trade between London and Lancashire Gerrard business suffered and he was finally made bankrupt. He was forced to work as a hired labourer herding cows and was at this time profoundly influenced by the poverty he found around himself. Food prices were then at their highest level, the lower classes were facing severe economic hardship. Gerrard also became appalled at the powerlessness of the poor landless labourers who were at the mercy of landlords. He was inspired by a vision of an ending of property rights and the communal cultivation of the land. He wrote a pamphlet 'The New Law of Righteousness' which coincided with many other similar writings produced by other radical movements throughout the country.

Winstanley was a practical idealist who attempted to put his ideas into practice when he joined a digger community established by William Averred. This community was a group of about 20 poor men who went onto the common land at St George's Hill in Surrey in April 1649 in order to cultivate it. However these Surrey Diggers were persecuted by the local clergy and landowners and were finally attacked. Winstanley himself was beaten up by local landlords and was tried at Kingston court. The Diggers maintained that the Civil war had been fought against the landowners and the people had executed Charles 1st so now the land should be available for the poor to cultivate. The Digger ideology spread rapidly in 1649 so much so that the landowners together with the Commonwealth Government saw the movement as a threat and were determined to crush all the Digger groups.

By 1650 the Diggers were dispersed, they themselves not wanting to engage in force against their oppressors. Other Digger groups established themselves around this time in central and southern England but all were met with bitter opposition and did not survive.

Winstanley continued to write on his ideas for a utopian communism. He continued to defend the right of landless men and women to cultivate the wasteland (then almost a third of England's land) rather than see their families starve. He also advocated using land that belonged to the King, the Church and the Royalists, to provide for the poor.

Winstanley died in obscurity in Cobham in 1676 but his legacy of radical questioning our ideas on wage labour and property rights lives on. His views on women, marriage and education are radical and interesting too, but he will probably be most remembered for his insistence that "the Earth should be a common treasury for all".

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XMAS (see also "YULE")

A contraction of "Christmas" using the "X" from the Greek for "Christ", it goes without saying that our modern "Christmas" is considered to be a somewhat commercialised affair compared to what it may have been in the past. That said, it's a celebration that seems to have been embraced enthusiastically by all members of the community, regardless of religion or creed, as a time for exchanging gifts and getting together with friends and family.

It's said that "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is the source of many of the trappings of our "modern" Christmas, but our Christmas traditions have been adopted from a variety of sources down the centuries - and some are uniquely English.

For instance, we speak of "Father Christmas", rather than "Santa Claus" as the Americans do, and there are several differences between the two. Instead of having his roots in the tradition of St Nicholas, Father Christmas is rather more rooted in pagan tradition and a character from a medieval mummers' play who was rather more interested in wassail and mistletoe than in gifts for obedient children!

In addition, Christmas Crackers were invented by Thomas Smith from Norwich in the 19th century. The first Christmas card was designed by Englishman John Callcott Horsley at the request of his friend Sir Henry Cole in 1840, though it didn't go on sale until 1843, when 1000 cards were sold for a shilling each. The earliest known English carol dates to 1410 - but they were banned by Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell between 1649 and 1660 because he believed that Christmas should only be celebrated as a solemn and dignified (and quiet) event.

We celebrate in a slightly different ways to our ancestors, and the English Christmas we know today has grown from humble beginnings; but it was always a fairly wild and rambunctious affair, with mummer's plays, feasting and dancing always being very prominent during medieval times and beyond.

However, what few realise is that by celebrating Christmas we are actually performing an act of defiance. Christmas was made illegal by law in 1647, and all festivities were banned by Cromwell, who believed that it was immoral for merry-making and feasting to take place on what was supposed considered to be a holy day: anyone caught celebrating was promptly arrested. This situation continued until the ban was lifted after the Puritans lost power with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

But it is said that the law banning Christmas has never actually been repealed and so is still on the statute books - and so by continuing to celebrate Christmas in England we are all acting illegally!

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YULE

In our modern world it's often hard to imagine what life must have been like during the long, dark nights and cold days of winter for our ancestors. For them the festival known as Yule was of great importance - not only because it was when they started to look forward to the arrival of spring, but also because it was a chance for them to brighten the dark days of the winter.

Yuletide, Christianised as the Christmas season, traditionally begins around 21st December, the Winter Solstice and the longest night of the year - also known as St Thomas's Day or, to some pagans, the feast of the Unconquered Sun - and includes the New Year period. The word itself is of very ancient origins and is thought to mean "wheel" - but no one knows for sure.

There are many Christian and pagan traditions associated with this festival which commemorates the fact that the days are beginning to lengthen and the nights growing shorter, and they contain symbolism to represent light in darkness, greenery amongst barrenness, and the gradual journey towards the renewal of the spring.

One of the Yule traditions we're most familiar with today is that of decorating the Christmas tree and using holly, mistletoe, and even ivy as decorations for the house. Traditionally Prince Albert is credited with bringing the Christmas tree to England when he married Queen Victoria - but it's more likely that it was a pre-existing English tradition that never really went away: some say that the early pagan English may have decorated trees in honour of Irminsul, the World Tree. Although many of us use fake trees these days, real spruce and pine trees are still decorated at Christmas; these evergreens, along with holly and ivy, are bright and cheerful and symbolise hope and immortality and life continuing through the dead days of the year when everything else has died.

Another tradition, though perhaps less common today, is the kissing bough, a globe bound with evergreens like box or rosemary with red apples hanging from ribbons in the centre, and with a sprig of mistletoe beneath. However, most people find it easier to simply hang a bunch of mistletoe where people are likely to stand under it - if they can find any, since in recent years mistletoe, a charm since Druidic times and ironically a symbol of fertility, has been hard to find.

A common figure in Western folklore is Jack Frost, a personification of the nippiest of winter weather and credited with leaving beautiful plant-like patterns on windows and frosting on leaves - although this is perhaps not so common now with our warmer English winters. His name is probably of Norse derivation; the Norsemen knew him as "Jokul Frosti" (icicle frost) or Jack Frost. The Saxons who settled in Britain had their Lord Snow and King Frost and during winter feasts a man would be chosen to represent the season and dressed in a pointed cap and ivy-draped cloak: he was treated with respect and toasts were drunk to him. Germanic folklore also has a tradition of an old woman who causes snow to fall by shaking out her featherbed - Mother Holde? - and even today people say that snow is caused by the Old Lady plucking her geese.

We've probably all had experiences of "carolling" around Christmas, when people (usually children) go from house to house singing carols and demanding - sorry - asking for money - but fewer of us may have encountered wassailers.

The word "wassail" comes from the Anglo-Saxon waes hal, meaning, "be whole" and wassailing is a toast or series of toasts drunk from a ribbon-bedecked communal wooden wassail bowl containing a mixture of hot ale or cider, pulped roasted apples, spices and sugar. In some places the custom was to carry the wassail bowl from house to house in the hope of receiving money or food. It's also customary to wassail apple trees in the West Country, where the firing of guns is claimed to encourage them to bud and be fruitful in the year ahead. A typical wassail might be along the lines of: "Wassail and wassail all over the town,/Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown;/Our wassail it is made of the good old ale and cake,/And God bless you, and send you a happy new year./And it's your wassail, our wassail,/And it's joy come to you and a jolly wassail./Hatfuls, capfuls, three bushel bags full/And little heaps under the stairs - hip hip hurray!"

Wassailers might be accompanied by Morris dancers and/or mummers, heavily-disguised actors in outlandish costumes, who performed plays with fantastical stock characters like St George and The Bold Turkish Knight which, with their themes of a hero being slain and then brought back to life again, echo the death and rebirth themes of the season.

Although the only Yule Log some of us will see at Yuletide is a chocolate Swiss roll decorated with icing sugar and a fake bit of holly, the original Yule Log was a log of fresh-cut wood brought into the house on 24th December and traditionally lit from the remains of the previous year's at sunset. A tradition supposedly dating from the 12th C and symbolising the light of the Unconquered Sun, it was believed that the log's embers would protect the house from lightning and the devil. In Devon and Somerset the Log's place was taken by the "ashen faggot", a bundle of ash logs bound with nine withies; as each band burst, a quart of cider would be passed round as a toast. Today, however, few people have the facilities to burn either a proper Yule Log or ash faggot and so make sure to burn a candle or have some other light instead.

The Americans call him "Santa Claus" - but to the English he is, and always will be, Father Christmas. This large, portly gentleman with his long white beard and red and white outfit owes much to Thomas Nast's famous picture of him and Clement C Moore's poem A Visit From St Nicholas - but his origins are actually much older and indeed darker.

Father Christmas has origins that are both Christian and pagan, and it's interesting to see how different traditions have combined to make the character of good cheer and generosity we know today. From Christian tradition is his aspect as St Nicholas, the patron saint of Russia, Moscow, Greece, children, sailors, prisoners, bakers, pawnbrokers, shopkeepers and wolves who gave anonymous gifts of gold coins to those in need. His feast day is December 6th and in many countries this is still the day of Christmas gift giving.

However, other commentators and folklorists have seen echoes of the god Woden/Odin in Father Christmas' red cloak, beard, and reindeer, linking the eight reindeer who pull his sleigh with some confusion about Woden's eight-legged steed - and early interpretations of Father Christmas often show him as a jovial man, garlanded with ivy. In fact, some would argue that Father Christmas is another example of Christianity assimilating pagan customs, rather than banning them - but we cannot know for sure.

In modern times we still see Yule as a time for renewing acquaintances with the family and with old friends, and for laying the old year to rest and beginning anew as well as for giving presents and having fun.

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ZONE

The word 'Zone' has a very wide range of meanings, usually implying space or geography, though not always literally: temperate zone, planning zone, danger zone and so on. It is used here to think about features of England that cut across the more usual talk of regions and districts, North-South divides and the like.

There many levels at which it can be useful to think of England as dividing (roughly) into Eastern and Western zones.

First, geology. The continental shelf of which England (and its neighbours of course) are a part is tipped up from West to East so that the older, harder rocks are exposed to the West and the more recent shales and clays, yielding fertile soils, cover much of the Eastern 'half'.

Second, climate. Most of us are aware that the prevailing westerlies blowing off the Atlantic bring greater average rainfall to the West. The East also has a bit more of a continental climate with sharper cold spells in winter and more prospect of heat waves in summer.

Third, influenced by the factors above, agriculture. To the western side of England pastoral farming predominates while the East has a higher proportion of arable land and some really high yielding soils.

Next, populations. The stream of successive invaders/migrants has generally been from East to West. Even though the proportions are still in debate, recent DNA sampling confirms that Anglo-Celtic population mixes are more in evidence in the West, as one might expect, while Anglo-Danish traits predominate in the East.

Moving into social history, this difference of temperament has been reflected in times of political and social conflict. In the struggles between King John and his barons that led to the signing of Magna Carta, the West was secure territory for the King while castles had to be stormed in the East (often to be re-taken again by the barons) as the Kings forces moved through a rebellious countryside. The pattern was repeated in the English civil war, with the Eastern counties hostile territory for King Charles and providing most recruits for Cromwell's new model army.

In more recent centuries population growth and mass migrations into new industrial zones (sic) - like the textile industry in the North West - have perhaps blurred the East-West contrast. By the 1800s relation to production (as owner or worker) was more significant for social relations than any geography.

For the future, it has at least been mooted that the lower population density, lower consumption bio-regions of the post-oil age will need to take full advantage of local seas - and that one possibility is a notional Celtic-Gaelic culture focused on the Irish Sea and the western approaches plus a nominally Norse-Germanic culture centred on the North Sea

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