Author: Jack Russell

Hello, I am the author of HistoryTalker, Jack Russell and a couple of others. I hope you enjoy my work.

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An odd old story about the Old Grammar School

As you all know I am a historian. Part of this involves going to archives and researching. Long before the pandemic I was interested in the Black Death in Coventry.

So I went to the Coventry archives to see what documents they held and discovered that others had done the work for me. The documents relating to the Black Death were well known and commented on.

One set really caught my eye. They were legal documents from 1347 detailing two cases. The first was squatters in houses rented by Eleanor of Aquitaine (yes her, she lived in Coventry) who refused to pay their rent. The second related to the Master of the Hospital (yes those Knights) which was housed in the building where the Old Grammar School is now. One day the Master had been bringing supplies into the city when he was accosted by Richard Prior of the Cathedral and certain Council members who assaulted the Master and stole his supplies.

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The Sea Peoples

The Bronze Age was a good time to be alive, it comes after the Neolithic Stone Age and the invention of farming. Populations increased and monuments that amaze us to this day such as Stone Henge were created.

Meanwhile in the Middle East we see the first great civilisations. On Crete we see the Minoans, mainland Greece the Mycenaean civilisation, we further east we see the Hittites, Canaanites and the powerful kingdom of Egypt. These civilisations throve in an atmosphere of peace and war. They traded together, cross pollinated each others culture and arts and regularly engaged in warfare. This is the age of the chariot, the heroic champion and the famous Trojan war.

This state of affairs continued and must have seemed like normal life. Harvests were collected, kings and queens ruled and wars rumbled on until a series of catastrophes caused what is known as the Bronze Age Collapse during the 12th century BC. First there was a super volcano explosion on the island of Santorini and Helka III on Iceland caused a volcanic winter that brought famine to Egypt and by extension to the rest of the northern hemisphere. Failing crops caused unrest and social collapse as well as greater conflict amongst the civilised states. Furthermore we see migrations of the Dorians in Greece and the infamous Sea Peoples from the ‘west’.

When I teach the Bronze Age Collapse I joke that the Sea Peoples are a little bit like ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ we don’t know where they come from and we don’t know where they go. They are mysterious and sweep in from the west and plunder the east. The eastern powers already under strain from climate catastrophe and earthquakes are destroyed. The Sea Peoples then continue to move west and potentially pick up collaborators from amongst the Greeks. The Hittites send pleading messages to the Egyptians for help but they and the Canaanites fall to the pressure. It is only the Egyptians who are able to stand against them, resist them and even defeat them. Never one to let an opportunity pass the Egyptians then may have settled the survivors in Israel as a client state to protect the Egyptians trade routes to the Red Sea and onto the Indian subcontinent.

So why did the Sea Peoples destroy Bronze Age Greece its because their descendants would be known as the Philistines of Biblical fame and archaeology of the earliest Philistines does show Greek pottery. Its fun to imagine that Golliath of Gath might have been the Great, great grandson of a Greek hero like Agamemnon.

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When you roll into bed aching and exhausted having given everything and think… that was awesome!

Daily writing prompt
In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled?
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One of the questions on Alpha Course is ‘what makes you happy?’ It is a very important question and one that we should ponder. Happiness, since the 19th century, has been seen as a primary good in itself. Happiness and the pursuit of happiness appears in the US constitution. It is fundamental to the modern concept of the good life.

This is not the first time I have blogged about private experiences but I think that this topic is too important to avoid. What makes me happy? The alternative is unhappiness and in my life I have been unhappy and know what that feels like. Its not good and I would say that it is not the intended human condition. In fact the feelings associated with unhappiness are intended to get you out of the situation that is making you unhappy. In contrast the feelings associated with happiness make you want to wallow in it, delight in it and be the proverbial pig in it. When I am happy I feel smooth, quick and clever. I am more myself (EDIT: My wife would like me to add that I am also much easier to live with!)

So what makes me happy. Lets look at literature for an example. I think the happiest people in literature are the Hobbits. A profound creation by JRR Tolkien. The Hobbits contrast with the Ratlings from Warhammer 40K in that they do not live hedonistic promiscuous lives but contented lives that focus on ‘growing food and eating it’, they keep the law because its the law and as Thorin says at the end of The Hobbit if more people loved cheer than horded gold the world would be a merrier place. This is not to say that the Hobbits are merely drunken, gluttons obsessed with food they are also strong and resilient.

My take away from this is that to be happy the individual should enjoy their work and the benefits of their work. The Hobbits liked the view of a well cultivated field not just, I suspect, for the eating later on but out of an appreciation of the hard work that had gone into taking a field, harrowing it, seeding it, cultivating, weeding and watering it until that barren land becomes fertile. And that is what makes me happy, I love hard work and a good solid result. I remember making my wife’s wedding ring as part of a workshop on the Valentines day before our wedding. It took all day and transformed scrap gold into a shiny new ring by my effort (and the jewellers skill).

So I admit it, what makes me happy is being like a Hobbit. I want to be strong enough to maintain my little hill of beans and strong enough to keep it. That involves hard work and determination in everything I do. From chopping wood for the fire, battling the brambles and ivy that threatens to take over my garden to working hard during the day and coming back to a meal with my family.

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The tyranny of Money

Daily writing prompt
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
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In Babylon 5 there is an amazing line. I do not know the character but he’s played by the same actor who played Chekov from Star Trek and he is a baddy. He says “being a freedom fighter is great, but it doesn’t pay” or words to that effect. This is one of the great laws of the universe. If playing Fortnight, lego or writing blogs paid the bills we could do it forty hours a week or more. Alas they do not but lets imagine a world where the bills are paid and I can do whatever I like.

One unpaid job that would be lots of fun would be a professional “church crawler”. Sounds odd doesn’t it? But in fact it would involve visiting old building and looking at them. I could look at the stained glass, the carvings and all the other ancient and interesting features of the church. In real life this is something that I do. One day I discovered that a church near where I grew up had meisercords that were unknown to scholarship. I hightailed it back to Cheshire and went to see them and found that the cheap Warborton family had installed blank meisercords.

Another fun job would be hotel inspector. I am sure that they do have quality assurance people who check the quality of hotels but I bet they are a subspecies of the spreadsheet people. In my world these hotel inspectors would go on holiday to hotels and would rank hotels in the same way people rank wines.

The ultimate job would be a blog writer. If I could spend my time just researching and writing blogs I would be a very happy man.

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The Romans defeated the Carthaginians by not knowing how to quit.

Daily writing prompt
What’s the trait you value most about yourself?
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The Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Empire were the great rivals of the ancient world. An upstart rabble of Europeans started a war with an ancient civilisation of great antiquity. In fact the fate of the world stood in the balance. If the Romans had lost Carthage would have dominated the Mediterranean and potentially Europe. It is an interesting thought of how the world would be a different place.

The Romans did not do very well. Their greatest general of the war until Skipio was Fabius who was famed for not engaging Hannibal. Hannibal terrified the Romans because he was a tactical genius who could turn the Romans great strengths against them. With the Roman armies wrecked repeatedly, their territory occupied, allies turning against them and 10% of their male population dead Rome was in trouble. Everyone was expecting Rome to come to terms but Skipio had different ideas. First he did the incredibly Roman thing of having a dinner party. He forcibly invited his patrician friends to his house, pulled down the front wall and had the party in full view of the plebs to show them that the elite were backing Rome. Then the Romans didn’t give up. They simply refused to surrender or come to terms with Carthage. They were very polite about it and treated their envoys with respect and with due regard but they used the word ‘no’.

I think this is a lesson to us all and one that I try to do in my life. Simply not giving up. I am a man who has had a lot of set backs in my life and for a long time I took it personally and would retreat and lick my wounds. Now I realise a wonderful truth, just because something has defeated you it doesn’t mean you have lost. Imagine that, how could you not live your best life if you had the power to be undefeatable?

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Publish or Die…

Daily writing prompt
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
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Over the years I have been given lots of good advice by people who do not take it themselves. My father in particular was obsessed that I would run over the cord with the lawn mower but I never did, he however, murdered at least three hedgestrimmers by cutting energetically through the cord. Never take advice from someone who does not follow it themselves.

During my time in the TA I met some very remarkable men and women whose experience serving their country contrasted with my own four years of service. But one day after a difficult run a very experienced soldier told me not to worry about other people but to focus on myself and my performance. I think that this is excellent advice to follow. Don’t look around at the people who are better or worse than you, rather focus on being the best person who you can be.

I once met a significant academic in my field. To be honest I thought that he was dead but at a conference I saw his name on a name badge and was amazed to meet one of my heroes. If you meet a hero do not hold back ask for an autograph, a photo, a chat or advice because the worst that could happen is that they say no and nobody dies from being told no. This guy was bemused but friendly and gave me some excellent advice. He told me to publish, publish, publish because when you stop you die.

Last I asked my grandfather on his death bed for a piece of advice but he was too far gone and did not respond. My last piece of advice for you is never wait too long.

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Please just let me read…

Daily writing prompt
What could you do more of?
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As a historian I read a lot to try to keep up with my topics but it is never enough and there are always fun distractions. My main topic is the study of History as opposed to history. For the uninitiated that means I study not what is said but how it is said and what the underlying subtext is.

This obviously takes a lot of concentration and is often interrupted by the cat who regularly wants to be fed or loved. The cat is called Zach.

I am also a husband and father and these take up a lot of time. In fact I have got to the point of writing at 4am when they are not awake. The cat is though and if I am awake and doing something he feels I can do something useful like feed him, let him in or let him out and sometimes watch him eat. He loves that. He wants me to stand and watch him eat his food.

I also have a job which starts at seven and finishes at four. I drive to a school, deliver a workshop and then drive home again. I resent these nine hours where I can not write or read but I do get two hours of thinking time whilst driving. Unfortunately I spend this time thinking about how I should be reading.

I should be reading. I should be keeping up but there are too many distractions. Life gets in the way and despite all that being a husband, father, pet owner and a workshop leader is not a bad way to waste time that should be spent reading.

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The Abolition of Slavery, 1833

Daily writing prompt
What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
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Great Britain has a chequered history ranging from the blackest evil to the best and I think that best was the Abolition of Slavery and then the creation of the West Africa Squadron to rescue captured Africans.

The clip above is from the film Amistad (1997) which is a film I can not watch without crying. It is heart breaking but the end of the film shows the West Africa Squadron attacking and destroying a slave fortress which I would argue is the correct and best use of weapons.

Furthermore I have skin in this game because Thomas Clarkson the abolitionist is a relative.

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Collecting Coventry, an Exhibition

Collecting is something that humans like to do. From the Roman Empire we learn that the Emperors collected dinosaur bones, spider webs and books. I myself have an unnaturally large collection of Warhammer 40K models and from this exhibition we learn that the City of Coventry has been collecting for centuries. The cities collection is spread out over the institutions of the city including the Guild Hall and the Council House but is largely concentrated in the Museum.

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On Wednesday last I attended the Collecting Coventry Exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry. The Herbert is a dear place to me and I regard it as one of the best museums in Coventry. The founding principal of the museum was that it should house the kinds of work that people would want to see and I don’t think that this exhibition disappoints. With the range of exhibits there is something for everyone. Of particular interest to myself was the Ogden stone found in Coventry. A very mysterious object to be found so far from Scotland and Ireland where they are far more common.

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The exhibition covers two rooms and is fully accessible with a lift and stairs. It runs till the end of the year and is free to access.

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Heritage Open Day, Lunt Roman Fort

This year we choose to go back and visit a museum that I used to work at and really like. I personally think that it is the best museum in Coventry (and the West Midlands) and it is called the Lunt Roman Fort. The tour of the site took about an hour and a half and covered the main features of the site in great detail. I honestly could not fault it and that is one of the main joys of a historian. Rich and George did an excellent job and were clearly very happy and confident in their Roman costumes and personalities.

The Lunt is the worlds only partially reconstructed Roman Fort in situ. The reconstructions date from the 1970s and are now over fifty years old meaning the reconstruction has been there longer than the Roman occupation. Lunt is a mysterious site because first it is atypical and second it does not appear in the literature. The site is not constructed like a typical Roman Fort in a playing card shape. This one has wiggly walls and a Gyrus. The Gyrus is a fascinating structure that seems to be a horse training ring although that is debated. The site also has reconstructions of a gateway and an granary building. The granary contains a small but well stocked museum including finds from the site.

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