Local hero - William Willett

William Willett 1856 - 1915 - campaigner for Daylight Saving Time

         William Willett lived most of his life in Chislehurst, Kent and worked for his fathers well known building company.

         When riding his horse early one morning, Willett noted how many blinds were still down in the houses he was passing in Petts Wood due to the bright sunshine. Using his own money, in 1907 Willett published a pamphlet titled "The Waste of Daylight". He suggested that by moving the clocks forward in April and back again in September, the evenings would remain lighter for longer which would increase daylight recreation time and also save £2.5 million in lighting costs.

         Two years later and after campaigning in parliament with men such as Winston Churchill, the idea was still no closer to becoming reality. It was the start of World War 1 that really pushed the idea forward as Germany had already introduced the scheme. On 21st May 1916, the clocks were advanced by an hour in order to boost war production.

        Willett did not live to see Daylight Saving Time become law as he died of Influenza in 1915.

There is a sundial in Petts Wood, set permanently to Daylight Saving Time to commemorate him and his house is marked with a Blue Plaque. His body rests in St Nicholas' Churchyard, Chislehurst.

Willett is also the great-great-grandfather of the Coldplay singer, Chris Martin....as if he hadn't contributed enough!

A review of a historical drama by Rachael Greaves 8E

 

 Rachael Greaves in 8E has written a review of a historical drama that she watched.

Ghost Adventures is about a man called Zack Baygins and his team Nick and Aaron on the search for what he saw on video. I believe that it is a very historical show and that everyone should watch it because it gives you a thought about “are there things that no-one can explain?”

This episode of Ghost Adventures is set in The Kings Tavern where they are investigating the mystery of a Spanish dagger that was found in the fireplace along with three body and also the murder of Madeline the tavern owner’s (Richard King) who may have been murdered by Richard King’s jealous wife with even the Spanish dagger found in the fire place.

 
Ghost Adventures is a very believable show due to the voices and images that they capture with their cameras because many believe that ghosts are real but on the other hand many believe that the voices and anomalies that they claim to see could just be dust or a bug flying through or that the feelings they claim to feel as a spirit passes through them are fake and that they are lying, or even if they claim that the spirits pushes them that actually they just slipped on a loose floorboard.

What Mrs Buteux's Year 9 History class found interesting when doing their own reading.......

Tehiliah Jackson found the war between China and Japan interesting because she didn't know that there had been a significant conflict between China and Japan.

Reanne Quashie read an article about how Zoo's came about and how they discovered that during the Middle Ages animals were locked up for human entertainment, it was only in 1907 that animals were contained in enclosures that were designed to look like their own habitat. Reanne found it interesting to discover how zoo's evolved and how sometimes human beings were also part of the exhibits.

Ashton Kiely read an article about underage soldiers going to fight in World War 1, Ashton found it interesting to consider why young men who were underage would want to go and fight in a war. Lizzy also read the same article about underage soldiers and considered how propaganda helped encourage soldiers to join the war, as they only promoted the positive aspects of war and not the reality. Lizzy found out that the youngest soldier fighting in the war was 12 years old.

The article about underage soldiers was clearly quite popular as more than 10% of the class chose to read it, Tamzin Nash believes that this popularity is because the young men fighting were of a similar age to them.

Welcome Back to Chislehurst School for Girls History Department!

Welcome back to our current and new Historians....here are a few highlights of what you will be learning in the coming year.

Year 7

Who are you and where do you fit into the History of Britain.

The Norman Conquest and how William I kept control of England.

Religion in the Middle Ages and the relationship between Church and Crown.

The Renaissance, Henry VIII and the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.

James I, Charles I and The English Civil War

Parliament and Monarchy, The French Revolution and the role of politics in our lives today.

Year 8

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

Life in Victorian Britain

The Industrial Revolution

The British Empire

Suffragettes and Suffragists and why women got the vote

Civil Rights in the USA
World War 1 and World War 2


Year 9

World War 1 and World War 2 in depth with exam practise

Start GCSE studies - Medicine Through Time

Year 10

Medicine Through Time

Bodiam Castle (Controlled Assessment)

Year 11

Elizabethan England

Year 12

Anti-semitism in Weimar Germany 1919-1945

The USA - 1890 - 1045


Year 13

The Triumph of Elizabeth

The Spanish Civil War (Coursework)



Some good websites for you to be using for both extra reading around the specific topics that we are studying and for your own enjoyment are:

http://schoolhistory.co.uk/ 
http://spartacus-educational.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/

Bodiam Castle 2014

 

The History Dept. and Year 10 Historians visted Bodiam Castle in East Sussex on Tuesday and Wednesday to learn about the purpose of the castle and why it was built.

 

We had great fun and year 10 will be writing their reviews of the castle for you to read soon.

What interests 7W.....Ancient Egypt

So I asked 7W what they wanted me to write about and these were the things they came up with.
Ancient Egypt, the Titanic, World War 2 (rationing, air raids, Hitler and Anne Frank), the Industrial Revolution and the Beatles.

Here is one entry for now and I will follow up with articles on the other areas in the following weeks.

Ancient Egyptians - If I'm totally honest I'm not the biggest fan of the Ancients, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians etc. It's not that I don't appreciate how ingenious they were for building things like the Pyramids or Aqueducts but I just don't know a huge amount about them for me to form a solid opinion about them. So I thought I would write about the artefacts that were taken by Howard Carter and others when they discovered the tombs in the pyramids in the early part of the 20th century and whether or not these should be returned.

Howard Carter

Britain took control of Egypt in 1882 and it remained a British protectorate until it's independence in 1922. Many of the Egyptology (study of Ancient Egypt) that took place was while Britain was in charge of this area, partly due to it becoming fashionable in the aristocracy of England.

Howard Carter travelled to Egypt in 1891 at the age of 17 and worked with an archaeologist. In 1907 he was given his own commission by Lord Carnarvon, an English aristocrat.  In 1922, Carter and his crew discovered a flight of steps that led to a sealed door and a secret chamber. Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb where they found a huge collection of gold and treasures. A few months later, Carter opened the innermost chamber and found the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun. Carter remained in Egypt for the next decade while the excavations and removal of treasures took place.

Much of the debate surrounding Egptian artefacts has been around whether or not they should be returned to Egypt. One particular artefact is the Rosetta Stone which came into British posession in 1802 and has been displayed ever since, apart from during World War 2 where it, with other artefacts, were stored safely deep underground due to the bombing that was happening to London. The latest demand for its return was in 2010 where Egypt requested that a number of artefacts be returned, the Rosetta Stone being one of them. The Egypt delegates argued that while they were aware that there was no legal reason for the artefacts to be returned they argued that important icons should be in their motherland. Other countries have made requests for important items to be returned such as Greece's request for the Elgin Marbles and Nigeria's request for the Benin Bronzes. There are anti-looting laws that have been in place since 1954 to prevent artefacts being removed for either resale or display from countries however these laws do not apply to items taken before this time.

So the debate lingers on. Should artefacts be returned to their country or origin where they may not have the same care and protection as offered by museums in London, Berlin, Paris and New York who preserve them for the good of all nations or should they be returned to their country of origin regardless of the ability to preserve and protect these historically valued items? 

To read more visit.... 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/7563963/British-Museum-under-pressure-to-give-up-leading-treasures.html 

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/museum_and_exhibition/audio_description_tour/the_rosetta_stone.aspx

http://www.biography.com/people/howard-carter-20683395

Be a Historian for the National Archives!

The National Archives have been working for many years to make thousands of documents accessible on the Internet. They have been able to scan and make available thousands of documents from World War 1.

But now they need you to use your "tagging" skills to label these documents so that people can search for a date or a person or a location. This makes it a lot easier for families of relatives or people doing research to find the best document for them. It also means that you can help track an individual's journey throughout the war.

It is really easy and simple to do, I did some myself!

Follow the link below to help out the National Archives and therefore help out fellow historians!


http://www.operationwardiary.org/

Come and tell us in the History department what you learnt from this or comment below!

Have fun being a Historian!