Historical Bench
'If history repeats itself and the
unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from
experience.'
George Bernard Shaw
This Senior History society meets during the Christmas and Lent terms and invites distinguished historians to address students on a wide range of historical issues. Its primary aim is to stimulate interest in, and thought on, history beyond the syllabus. Although geared predominantly to the Sixth Form, the Historical Bench is open to all students and it is not uncommon for audiences to exceed a hundred people. Lectures in recent years have included:
- Dr Catherine Holmes (University College, Oxford) speaking on Norman Sicily.
- Dr Rosemary Horrox (Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge) speaking on the Black Death.
- Dr Richard Rex (Queens' College Cambridge) on Luther and the Reformation.
- Dr John Stephens (Edinburgh University) on the Renaissance and Reformation.
- Dr Leslie Mitchell (University College, Oxford) speaking on Lord Melbourne and on "How to handle the French" Anglo-French relations, 1780-1830.
- Professor Edward Royle (University of York) speaking on Chartism.
Dr Allen Warren (York University) on Gladstone and liberalism.
- Dr John Walton (Lancaster University) speaking on "Fish and Chips and the English people".
- Dr H Pogge von Strandmann (University College, Oxford) speaking on the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact.
- Mrs Susan Pollack, a survivor of Auschwitz, speaking on her experiences of the Nazi Holocaust.
- Dr Carl Watkins (Selwyn College, Cambridge) on Death in the Middle Ages.
- Fr Leo Chamberlain, former Headmaster, speaking on the meaning of history.
- Dr Michael Sewell (Selwyn College, Cambridge) on Afro-American relations, the Second World War and the Cold War.
- Dr Allen Warren (York University) on Gladstone and Ireland.
All talks are very well attended (c.60 students) and stimulate considerable question and discussion afterwards. They prove to be invaluable in not just developing knowledge of syllabus topics, but in also extending the range and nature of History open to our Sixth Form.