Knowing Where you Stand:

An Introduction to Local History

Day: Tuesdays, 7.30pm-9.30pm

Dates: 3 October to 5 December 2023 and 23 January to 26 March 2024

Venue: Stafford Rugby Club, ST16 2TT

Cost: £100 per term

We live in an age of information, in which the materials and resources needed to explore local histories have never been so accessible. Yet many people are unaware of the riches that lie close to their fingertips, in local archives and online, or lack the confidence to make use of them.

Staffordshire Archives and Heritage Service and Keele University have partnered together to deliver a history course that explores these resources, teaches the skills needed to study them, and illuminates over a thousand years of Staffordshire history along the way.

Through a structured learning programme delivered by Keele University academics and using original source material from Staffordshire Archives and Heritage collections, you will explore the lives of those who came before us, gain insight into their everyday worlds and the cultural conditions that shaped their way of life. Participants will also learn how different types of source material shed new and varied perspectives on the past. At the core of the course is promoting awareness of available sources and teaching the skills needed to study them.

The course covers the 7th to the 21st centuries, divided into two terms. The first term runs from October to December 2023 and the second from January to March 2024; each can be booked separately and students are welcome to book just one or both terms. The first term is focused on the medieval and early modern periods (seventh to seventeenth centuries), and considers peasants and lords, monks and priests, and transformations in densely inhabited countryside and growing towns. The second term turns to the eighteenth through twentieth centuries (the long revolution of modernity), and examines urban and industrial lives, the creation of new forms of community and infrastructure, and an increasing diversity of religious expression.

The course is suitable for anyone with an interest in local history wishing to develop their knowledge and skills. Please see below for an indicative session outline for term two.

Each term is priced at £100, a rate subsidised by funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the Staffordshire History Centre Project. To book a place, please email hannah.grangesales@staffordshire.gov.uk.