Gorffennol Mini Edition March 2024

This journal is published by students and staff at the Department of History and

Department of Classics, Ancient History, and Egyptology at Swansea University.

retrieved system, or in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in

writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form or binging or cover

other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this

condition being imposed on subsequent publisher.

iii

Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… … p. iv.

HIH237: Professor Louise Miskell …………………………………………… .. .....p. 1.

Hamish Ramsden’s, A forgotten pandemic: What was the human cost of the 2001

Foot-and-mouth

outbreak? ................................................................................................

p. 2.

Ryan Dorney’s , Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and the ‘English’ People:

The Venerable Bede and the formation of an ‘English’ identity ………………

p. 14.

Rhiannon Hazell’s , Was women’s mobilisat ion during the First World War a

watershed moment for the introduction of female suffrage in

Britain? ...........................................

p. 27.

HIH3377: Professor David Turner and Dr Sarah Crook ……………………… p. 40.

Abby Rowland’s , How important is race to the history of sexuality? …………… p. 41.

HHC200: Dr Hilary Orange ………………………………………………………

p. 53.

Abigail Miller’s , How have links to literature, film or television influenced the

experience and management of heritage

sites? ..................................................................................

p. 54.

Epilogue

p. 69.

Introduction

This Mini-Edition of Gorffennol, produced independently by the Swansea University

History Society, exists to fight a very unfortunate injustice. The Coronavirus

Pandemic restricted the opportunities of thousands of students. In this instance, it

prevented them the opportunity to have their works published, and thus showcase

the best work that our student body produces.

This edition includes five submissions from three modules, namely The Practice of

History , A History of Sex and Gender , and The Past in the Present: Exploring

Heritage Practices and Debates. We have included a small description of each

module prior to the published essays, written by the relevant module convenors, to

ensure our readers have an understanding of the foundations of these essays. For

our fellow students, this will not just allow them gain an insight into the work they

may be doing or will do later in their degrees but also hopefully inspire them. Each

essay is also accompanied by a brief written by its author. We hope this will better

contextualise the essays by portraying what drew the authors to their chosen topics,

what they learned from undertaking their research and how the module benefitted

their studies more broadly.

We are very proud of this project and thank both the student body for their

submissions and the Department of History, Heritage and Classics for their support.

We hope this Mini-Edition will be a valuable resource to students in the future, as

well as useful for the future editorial teams of Gorffennol.

Thank you for reading, we hope you enjoy these high-quality essays.

Matthew Stevens History and Politics BA President of Swansea University History Society

HIH237

The Practice of History

In HIH237 The Practice of History, second-year students have the chance to plan

and carry out a substantial original research project (3,000 words), with guidance

from their seminar tutor. The only stipulation is that their chosen topic must relate to

their seminar group theme, and it must draw on primary historical sources. We think

of this as a kind of ‘mini - dissertation’ experience for students, to help them build

towards the final year dissertation module which involves a year-long, 10,000-word

piece of research. As a stepping-stone towards this, the HIH237 assignment helps

give students a sense of what kind of topics might work for a research project; how

to identify and use primary source evidence effectively; and how to plan and

organise their own unique study. Some students go on to develop an idea for the

final year dissertation, based on their experience of doing the Practice of History

research project. Even for those who do not build on it directly, we hope that

successful completion of the HIH237 assignment inspires them to feel confident and

excited about doing historical research and makes the prospect of doing a final year

dissertation feel a bit less daunting.

Professor Louise Miskell

Hamish Ramsden

This essay, written towards the end of my second year, was part of the Practice of

History module. The module was subdivided into different seminar groups and

worked towards preparing for our dissertations. My seminar group focused on

Disasters in British History. Each week would feature a different disaster in British

history to analyse and new research skills to develop. Inspiration found me,

unashamedly, while binge- watching the series Clarkson’s Farm on a Sunday

morning. It reminded me of an article I had read about the 2001 Foot and Mouth

outbreak that had plagued the British countryside. Further reading that inspired this

essay was Catherine O’Byrne’s Remembering the ‘Piper Alpha Disaster’, which

focused on the personal testimonies of disasters and was a subject I looked to

explore further. Initially, I thought the topic might be a dead-end due to difficulties

gathering primary source material. Still, after a few days, I began to find numerous

diary accounts of the families and communities which suffered due to the outbreak of

FMD. Many were asked to keep official daily diaries during the outbreak, which

formed the core of my primary sources. I found the testimonies to be all too relatable

to the national lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was from this I

formed the basis of my question: What was the human cost of the 2001 FMD

outbreak? I found this essay to be a stimulating subject and a valuable medium for

developing my independent research skills in preparation for my dissertation.

A forgotten pandemic: What was the human cost of the 2001 Foot-and-Mouth

outbreak?

In the early months of 2001, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), long considered

by many, both in agricultural and scientific communities, as a disease of Britain’s past, began to rear its head after a thirty-year absence from the British Isles. 1 In less

than twelve months, the disease had claimed the lives of an estimated ten million

animals, such as cattle, sheep, and pigs. The disease, although never directly

claimed the life of a single person on the British Isles, wreaked havoc on the lives it

touched. Estimates have been made in the region of £3,000,000,000 for food and agricultural loss and losses in the tourism sector. 2 Although effective in gauging the

scale of the economic cost of FMD, these figures serve little to tell the story of the

human cost of the disease. Twenty years before the nation was plunged into

quarantines and lockdowns due to Coronavirus, communities in rural Britain had

experienced the hardships of isolation, separation of families, school closures and

forced business closures. Unfortunately, technology such as video calls and even

mobile coverage was unavailable to them. Personal testimony of those who lived

through FMD and media coverage from The Times , The Guardian , BBC , and The

Telegraph have been used to evaluate the human cost of the effects of FMD and

whether the lessons learned, which helped prevent the widespread outbreak of FMD in 2007 3 , were worth the price paid. The expiration of certain website domains

provided some limitations to the research of this essay, but this has not served as a

significant limitation. The county of Cumbria considered the worst affected area by FMD 4 , drew much of the focus for the research, but nationwide effects are also

presented.

1 Abigail, Woods, A Manufactured Plague: The History of Foot and Mouth Disease in Britain (London: Earthscan, 2004) p.138. 2 David, Peck, ‘Foot and mouth outbreak: Lessons for mental health services’ , Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , 11.4, (2005) 270-276, p.270. 3 Presented to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Anderson, Ian, ‘Foot and Mouth Disease 2007: A Review and Lesson Learned, (London: The Stationary Office, 2007) 4 Cumbria saw 44% of the overall U.K cases of FMD. Estimates placed 15,000- 20,000 jobs at risk equating to 9% of total employment. Peck, David, Stewart Grant, William McArthur & David Godden, ‘Psychological impact of foot -and- mouth disease on farmers’, Journal of Mental Health , 11.5, (2002) 523-531, p.523 and Vidal, John, ‘Foot and mouth leaves deep scars on rural Britain’, The Guardian, 30 August 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/30/footandmouth.johnvidal [Accessed on 17 April 2023] (Para 4 of 11)

To better understand why FMD was so devastating to those who endured the

outbreak, it is essential to understand the immediate consequences of the disease

on livestock. FMD is a highly contagious disease that affects cloven-foot mammals,

causing lameness, loss of appetite, painful blisters, and significantly reduced milk and meat production. 5 Although the effects of FMD on animals have been equated to that of common influenza in humans, and most infected animals will usually survive the infection, 6 it is the reduced milk and meat production that is considered the most

detrimental symptoms of the disease. Further, FMD makes any product from an

infected animal, whether meat, milk, or wool, unsellable on the international market. A single case is enough to ban sales from the infected nation. 7 Abigail Woods, a vet

who researched the history of FMD for Manchester University, writing in The

Guardian, claimed that the government regarded FMD primarily as an economic issue, not an animal welfare or public health issue. 8 This, coupled with large amounts of reporting of the disaster as an agricultural disaster, has led to many affected groups being overlooked. 9

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF) pursued the method

of mass culling of infected animals and the pre-emptive culling of non-infected animals as their primary weapon in combating FMD. 10 Criticism of the competency of

MAFF to handle the FMD outbreak emerged as a running theme throughout this

research. Alistair Campbell, press officer for Tony Blair, made several entries in his

diaries of his and the Prime Minister’s thoughts on MAFF’s han dling of the outbreak.

“Tuesday 27 Feb…no sense of the crisis being gripped properly and no confidence

in the machinery of government not convinced that MAFF could handle the crisis.”

“Wed March 21… We had pretty much - lost confidence in MAFF… TB [Tony Blai r] also exclaiming no confidence in MAFF”. 11 Perhaps the most shocking example of

5 Woods, A Manufactured Plague , Intro XIII 6 Beirman, David, Restoring Tourism Destinations in Crisis: A Strategic Marketing Approach (Wallingford: CABI Publishing is a division of CAB International, 2003) p.174. 7 Ibid. and Abigail, Woods, ‘Kill or Cure?’, The Guardian , 28 February 2001 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/feb/28/guardiansocietysupplement4 [Accessed on 17 April 2023] (Para 5 of 20) 8 Woods, ‘Kill or Cure?’, (Para 6 of 20) 9 Mort, M., Convery, I., Baxter, J., & Bailey, C. ‘Psychosocial Effects of the 2001 UK Foot And Mouth Disease Epidemic in A Rural Population: Qualitative Diary Based Study’. BMJ: British Medical Journal , 331 .7527, (2005) 1234 – 1237, p.1234. 10 Peck, ‘Psychological impact of foot -and- mouth disease on farmers’, p.523. 11 Campbell, Alastair, and Richard. Stott, The Blair Years: Extracts from the Alastair Campbell Diaries (London: Hutchinson, 2007) p.508 and p.517.

MAFF’s incompetence was reported in Private Eye’s inquiry ‘Not the Foot and Mouth

Repot’. Wayne and Julie Nuttall, owners of Plunderland Farm, had their stock of five

hundred animals slaughtered by soldiers and MAFF employees, including a pet pig

owned by the family’s young sons. It was, however, discove red later that their farm was almost one hundred miles away from the three-kilometre culling zone. 12 Here,

we not only witness the economic and emotional cost of the pre-emptive culling but

many of these animals were never bred for slaughter and served as pets, forming

deep emotional bonds with their owners.

Communication between MAFF and farmers was also handled poorly,

causing uncertainty amongst many farmers, unsure if their livestock were due to be

culled or not. Marje Thomilson, an administrative assistant at Caldew School in

Dalston, recalls when the three-kilometre cull was introduced in her local area. She

describes the frightened and distraught parents who came through the school. After

the cull was announced, she broke down, knowing that many of her friends and neighbours were losing their livelihoods. 13 After hours of calling her friends and neighbours to offer her condolences and support, MAFF revised their position on the three-kilometre cull, cattle within the three kilometres would not be put to slaughter. 14

Nick Utting, Secretary for the NFU (National Farmers Union) in North Cumbria, also

recalls the panic caused by this U- turn. Speaking of MAFF and the government’s

decisions, Utting recalled, “Much anguish was caused by Governments inability to

operate a plan to cope with such disasters and their knee jerk decisions which affected all out lives so dramatically on a daily basis”. 15 These sudden and ill-

thought-out changes in policy must have affected the mental state of the farming

communities. A study published in the Journal of Mental Health focusing on Cumbria

showed that during the initial stages of the outbreak, 70% of wives who took part in the study expressed concerns for their husband’s mental health. 16 The mental cost of

MAFF and the government’s inability to provide transparent information regarding

12 Muckspreader, ‘Not the Foot and Mouth Report’, Private Eye , November 2001 https://www.private-eye.co.uk/special-reports/not-the-foot-and-mouth [Accessed on 17 April 2023] p.17.

13 Marje Thomilson diary entry in Graham, Caz, Foot, and Mouth: Heart and Soul - A Collection of Personal Accounts of the Foot and Mouth Outbreak in Cumbria 2001, (Carlisle: Small Sistera; 2001) p.65. 14 Ibid. 15 Nick Utting’s diary entry in, Graham, Foot, and Mouth, p.15/16. 16 Peck, ‘Psychological impact of foot -and- mouth disease on farmers’, p.524.

the culling of farmers’ livelihoods seem to have been overpriced. Clearer

communication from these bodies would have lessened the strain upon a struggling

community.

All communities felt the effects of MAFF’s attempts to halt FMD under their

measures. Many recall the desolation of the countryside caused by the pyres of

burning animals. A study by Lancaster University into the health and social

consequences of FMD interviewed an unnamed local teacher from Cumbria; worried

about the well-being of the children in her care, she and other teachers at the school

decided to restrict outdoor time for students. She describes how the smell of burning animals was causing the students to gag. 17 Gordon Savage recalls the effect the

smells of both the pyres and heaps of dead animals had upon his daughter and son-

in- law, who took over the tenancy of Savage’s farm after he retired. He also details

the worrying weight loss of his son-in-law Geoff. “Geoff seems to have lost about a

stone of weight since Saturday…Geoff and Jane could not sleep for the smell for

dead stock… Will they take the carcasses away?... Both Geoff and Jane face any food because of the smell”. 18 Savage’s concerns for his son -in-law Geoff show the

indirect physical cost of FMD causing weight loss and loss of appetite in humans.

The tourism sector in rural Britain had been growing exponentially over the

twentieth century to the point where it outweighed the agricultural communities economically, at least in these areas. 19 Much like Coronavirus, FMD caused the mass closure of businesses across Britain. Many farmers used the hospitality sector to create additional cash flow, such as beds, breakfasts, and farm stay holidays. 20

Due to the highly contagious nature of FMD, strict quarantine measures were

brought in to try and curb the spread of the disease; these were both implemented at

a local and national level. Footwear, clothes, luggage and even vehicles needed to be disinfected before access to infected areas, either in or out, was allowed. 21 This

led to most walking trails and footpaths across Britain being closed. It also

17 Mort, Maggie, Dr Ian Convery, Dr Cathy Bailey, Josephine Baxter ‘The Health and Social Consequences of the 2001 Foot & Mouth Disease Epidemic in North Cumbria’, The Institute for Health, (Lancaster Uni: 2004) p.47. 18 Gordon Savage dairy entry in, Graham, Foot, and Mouth, p.19. 19 Woods, A Manufactured Plague , p.141. 20 Beirman, Restoring Tourism Destinations , p.174. 21 Ibid.

encouraged many in the farming community to stay in their homes and farms in

voluntary quarantine to avoid spreading the virus to or from themselves. The media’s coverage, especially that of the pyres, also dissuaded visitors to the countryside. 22

Eric Worsely worked as an independent consultant to many Lake District

Hoteliers; Worsely also ran the website www.no-vacancies.com, which became a valued source of information for the hospitality community during FMD. 23 Worsely

highlights the disparity in loss between the food, agriculture, and tourism sectors.

One of Worsley’s clients, who ran a busy hotel in Lakeland Fells, confided in him that

he had lost £35,000 worth of bookings in just a few hours. This was greater than the value of all the sheep combined in the local area. 24 Worsely also makes mention of

the frustrations of the governments and MAFF's mishandled accounts of policies.

“What none of us involved in the tourism industry were aware of was that those in

authority would effectively shut down our industry and then announce it to the

world…what was not expected was for an official of the National Park Authority to go

on television and announce, ‘if you don’t have a reason to come to the lake district then don’t’.” 25

The region’s largest landowner, the national trust, followed shortly after this announcement. 26 The mass closure of the countryside in this manner could be seen

as overacting on the side of the government, and this was, in fact, the opinion of

Chris Smith, the then minister for British Tourism. After six weeks, the devastation of quarantine was becoming apparent in the rural economy, and on April 16 th, Smith admitted that, in his opinion, the government had “overreacted”. 27 Although harsh,

the farming community took up the quarantine measures implemented by MAFF to

help try and protect themselves and others against FMD. However, the main issue

again affecting the tourism and hospitality sectors was the mishandling of information

22 Beirman, Restoring Tourism Destinations , p.177. 23 Eric Worsley diary entry in Graham, Foot, and Mouth, p.25.

24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 Beirman, Restoring Tourism Destinations , p.177.

and announcements of such information, causing an “overaction” in the cost to the

rural sector.

In 2001 the internet as we know it today was still in its infancy. Social media

platforms such as Twitter and Facebook were less prevalent than they are today.

Moving in a way as to counter the poor information sharing that the government

offered, many took to creating their websites to keep others updated with the

ongoing disaster. We have already seen Eric Wolsey’s website, no -vacancies.com

and how it became a source of information for hoteliers around the Lake District.

Although the website domain has unfortunately expired, an excerpt of an email from

Worsley to the web page subscribers can be seen in figure. 1. This email details two

things. Firstly, it acts as a source of information for other hoteliers’ regarding the

government's promised financial support to the sector. But secondly and perhaps

more significantly, it serves as a platform for those affected by FMD to share their

feelings and opinions on either the official response to FMD or their hardships and

struggles. So emerged the use of the Internet as a form of community action to come

together in the fight against FMD and express feelings and opinions, such as those

surrounding the ongoing debate on vaccination and MAFF’s handling of the disaster.

Many different sites were set up in the wake of FMD. Sites such as footandmouthdoc.com 28 were social and cultural documentary projects featuring artists and farmers' poetry and photography. 29 Cullmaff.com 30 became a tool for those in affected communities to express their demands and viewpoints against the culling policy. 31 The website also drew attention away from FMD being purely an economic disaster. It drew attention to the damage culling was having upon Britain's tourism sector and its public image abroad. 32 The use of the internet in this way

shows the power of it as a tool to help fuel community action and help to bring

communities together in times of crisis and helps shed light on how the internet, in its

28 Expired web domain. 29 Hillyard, Sam, ‘CULL MAFF! THE MOBILISATION OF THE FARMING COMMUNITY DURING THE 2001 FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE (FMD) EPIDEMIC’ in, Returning (to) Communities Theory, Culture and Political Practice of the Communal ed. By, Herbrechter, Stefan, and Michael Higgins, (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006) p.333. 30 Expired web domain.

31 Ibid. 32 Ibid.

early stages, could be used. It was not, however, the only way in which community

action against FMD was formed.

Great Orton Airfield became the primary site for the disposal of the animals

culled during FMD in Cumbria. Purchased by MAFF during the Army’s take -over of

the removal of the animal carcasses which had been building up across the county,

Great Orton Airfield became the site for not only disposal but also the centre for operations for both the military and, subsequently, the media. 33 It was at Great Orton

where many harrowing images of the burning pyres of animal corpses were shot and

displayed in the press. Stuck with the reputation as a burial site and the negativity

connected between the dark days of FMD in the local area, house prices in the local area began to tank and work as a view into the mood of the site following FMD. 34 It

was in 2002; however, local groups began working with DEFRA (Department for

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), MAFF’s successor, to determine how the site

could be repurposed once DEFRA’s lease holding expired. As a result of community

meetings and local liaison groups, the joint decision to turn Great Orton Airfield into WatchTree Nature Reserve was made. On the 7 th of May 2003, a Memorial was

placed at Watchtree to commemorate the second anniversary of FMD in Cumbria.

This site works to encapsulate the FMD outbreak in the area. Initially the source of

so many of the images of farmers' lively hoods burning on pyres which subsequently

turned people away from the site, Watchtree was now drawing people back to the

county of Cumbria. It was also through official bodies like DEFRA working clearly

with the community that this could be achieved.

The cost of FMD was felt nationwide but fell particularly hard upon Cumbria.

FMD costs the communities it touched so much due to the harsh measures needed

to prevent its spread. Culling of infected animals and culling as a pre-emptive tool to

stop the spread of FMD cost the farming communities not only their livelihoods but,

in some cases, their companions, animals bred as pets which were never meant for

slaughter. The physical cost was also exacted on the communities suffering from

culling, with the smell of the corpses forcing schoolchildren inside and farmers off

33 Brigadier Alex Birtwistle’s diary entry in, Graham, Foot, and Mouth, p.84/85. 34 DEFRA, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, The Birth of Watchtree Nature Reserve (DEFRA: 2002) p.3. Figure . no-vacanies.com Email.

their food. A community already suffering from so much was also held at the mercy

of poorly exercised and executed measures from bodies such as MAFF, of which

even Prime Minister Tony Blair held reservations against their competency. These all

added to the cost of human suffering. With simple measures of conveying

information, which communities themselves had been able to do through the new

rising social medium of the internet, much could have been alleviated. The scope of

the FMD disaster must also not only be seen as an agricultural disaster either. In

some areas, tourism was even harder hit than the agricultural industry. However,

more detached from the direct results of FMD, such as culling this sector, was also

at the mercy of poorly organised government bodies. The opening of Watchtree

Nature Reserve has shown that official bodies can work with the community to find

solutions. Perhaps this will be the most important lesson learned from the 2001 FMD

outbreak.

Bibliography of Primary Sources

Bale, Joanna, ’Foot -and- Mouth, I’d reach for the shotgun if I thought about it’, The Times, 23 February 2001 https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIS T&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=8a9ae83c-0455-49d2-8005- 90cdb89f2e39&hitCount=377&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=5&do cId=GALE%7CIF0501017821&docType=Article&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&co ntentSegment=ZTMA- MOD2&prodId=TTDA&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CIF0501017821&searchId =R1&userGroupName=uows&inPS=true [Accessed on 14 April 2023]

Graham, Caz, Foot, and Mouth: Heart and Soul - A Collection of Personal Accounts of the Foot and Mouth Outbreak in Cumbria 2001, (Carlisle: Small Sistera; 2001)

Mckie, Robin, ‘Foot and mouth 20 years on: what an animal virus epidemic taught UK science’, The Guardian, 21 February 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/21/foot-and-mouth-20-years-on-what- an-animal-virus-epidemic-taught-uk-science [Accessed on 12 April 2023] Muckspreader, ‘Not the Foot and Mouth Report’, Private Eye , November 2001, https://www.private-eye.co.uk/special-reports/not-the-foot-and-mouth [Accessed on 17 April 2023] Presented to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Anderson, Ian, ‘Foot and Mouth Disease 2007: A Review and Lesson Learned, (London: The Stationary Office, 2007) Presented to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, Anderson, Iain, ‘Foot and Mouth Disease 2001: Lessons to be Learned Inquiry Report’ (London: The Stationary Office, 2002) Thomson, Alice, ‘Misty, the family pet who slept by the fire, 'murdered by Maff', The Telegraph, 9 April 2001, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1315630/Misty- the-family-pet-who-slept-by-the-fire-murdered-by-Maff.html [Accessed on 17 April 2023] Woods, Abigail, ‘Kill or Cure?’, The Guardian , 28 February 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/feb/28/guardiansocietysupplement4 [Accessed on 17 April 2023] (Para 5 of 20) Vidal, John, ‘Foot and mouth leaves deep scars on rural Britain’, The Guardian, 30 August 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/30/footandmouth.johnvidal [Accessed on 17 April 2023] (Para 4 of 11)

Bibliography of Secondary Literature

Beirman, David, Restoring Tourism Destinations in Crisis: A Strategic Marketing Approach (Wallingford: CABI Publishing is a division of CAB International, 2003)

Campbell, Alastair, and Richard. Stott, The Blair Years: Extracts from the Alastair Campbell Diaries (London: Hutchinson, 2007)

DEFRA, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, The Birth of Watchtree Nature Reserve (DEFRA: 2002)

Hillyard, Sam, ‘CULL MAFF! THE MOBILISATION OF THE FARMING COMMUNITY DURING THE 2001 FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE (FMD) EPIDEMIC’ in, Returning (to) Communities Theory, Culture and Political Practice of the Communal ed. By, Herbrechter, Stefan, and Michael Higgins, (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006) pp. 331- 347. Mort, M., Convery, I., Baxter, J., & Bailey, C. ‘Psychosocial Effects of the 2001 UK Foot And Mouth Disease Epidemic in A Rural Population: Qualitative Diary Based Study’. BMJ: British Medical Journal , 331 .7527, (2005) 1234 – 1237. Mort, Maggie, Dr Ian Convery, Dr Cathy Bailey, Josephine Baxter ‘The Health and Social Consequences of the 2001 Foot & Mouth Disease Epidemic in North Cumbria’, The Institute for Health, (Lancaster Uni: 2004)

Peck, D. ‘Foot and mouth outbreak: Lessons for mental health services’ , Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , 11.4, (2005) 270-276.

Peck, David, Stewart Grant, William McArthur & David Godden, ‘Psychological impact of foot-and- mouth disease on farmers’, Journal of Mental Health , 11.5, (2002) 523-531.

Woods, Abigail, A Manufactured Plague: The History of Foot and Mouth Disease in Britain (London: Earthscan, 2004)

List of Figures

Figure One, extract of email from no-vacancies.com, sourced from, Graham, Caz, Foot, and Mouth: Heart and Soul - A Collection of Personal Accounts of the Foot and Mouth Outbreak in Cumbria 2001, (Carlisle: Small Sistera ; 2001)

Ryan Dorney

I chose to submit my essay ‘Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and the ‘English’ People:

The Venerable Bede and the formation of an ‘English’ identity’ because it was the

most gratifying to write and is the one I am most proud of. I enjoyed exploring the

em ergence of the ‘English’ and it s relationship, or supposed relationship, to

Christianity and the Anglo-Saxon conversion. Of course, Bede was an Englishman

and a monk and it was part of his agenda to show that the converted Anglo-Saxons were the righteous forbears to the more united ‘English’ of Bede’s day (8 th century).

Considering this agenda, it was interesting to analyse Bede’s portrayal of the Britons

and the Germanic peoples regarding the consequences of their piety or impiety and

how that linked to the coming of an idea of united ‘Englishness’. The Historia

Ecclesiastica is a work so fundamental to the development of the history of England

and it was fascinating to explore such an important text in this way. The medieval

literature seminar group for the ‘Practice of History Module’ gave me a fascinating

insight into the mechanics of how m edieval ‘histories’ ( Historias, Gestae, etc.) were

written to legitimise and flatter their subjects whilst promoting their own authority. It

was also interesting to see how the tropes and styles, as well as quotations, of

classical works influenced Medieval writers in their works.

Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and the ‘English’ People: The Venerable Bede and the formation of an ‘English’ identity

Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum has been the cornerstone of

the historiography of English history for hundreds of years, earning Bede the accolade of ‘Father of English History’. 1 Bede and his work have played a significant role in defining English national identity and destiny, raising the question of how Bede cultivates a sense of ‘English’ identity in the Historia . 2 For Bede, ‘English’ is a general term for ‘inhabitants of England’, regardless of ethnic origins, emphasising the importance of the land of England in the identity of its people. 3 He pinpoints two foundational moments in ‘English’ history – the “English arrival” and the conversion. 4 Bede was passionate about ‘English’ Church unity and this work is specifically called ‘ecclesiastical’, making its perspective clear. 5 It is also driven by a want to place England into world history through its religious position. 6 The Historia intends to present the emergence of a unified ‘English’ people, not necessarily under a single ruler, who were brought into existence by the special favour of God. 7

Bede, born in the area where the Wearmouth-Jarrow monastery would shortly

be built, was educated and spent most of his life in that monastery, quickly rising in the monastic ranks. 8 He was also appointed magister , for which he studied intensely. 9 Although devoted to monastic life, Bede had great knowledge of both sacred and secular spheres. 10 He made extensive use of the bountiful monastery library and gives a detailed list of sources at the end of the Historia . 11 The broader

agenda of the Historia is showing the importance of England in the wider Christian

1 George Hardin Brown, A Companion to Bede , (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2009), p. 13 2 Patrick Wormold, ‘The Venerable Bede and the “Church of the English”’ in The Times of Bede: Studies in Early English Christian Society and its Historian , ed. Patrick Wormold and Stephen Baxter, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), p. 218; Brown, p. 13 3 Bede the Venerable, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People , tr. Bertram Colgrave, ed. Judith McClure and Roger Collins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 61-2 4 Nicholas J. Higham, ‘Bede’s vision of an English Britain’ in The Anglo-Saxons: The World Through Their Eyes , Ed. Gale R. Owen-Crocker & Brian W. Schneider (BAR British Series 595), (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014), p. 17

5 Brown, p. 102 6 Brown, p. 103

7 George Molyneaux, ‘The Old English Bede: English Ideology or Christian Instruction?’ in The English Historical Review , Vol. 124, No. 511, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 1289; Wormold, p. 211 8 Bede, p. 293; Brown, pp. 9-11

9 Brown, p. 11 10 Brown, p. 1 11 Bede, pp. 294-5; Brown, p. 8

world and the ‘English’ as successors to Rome in Britain. Although much of book two

is devoted to Bede’s own Northumbria, he also has information on the other kingdoms, highlighting his intention to write a history of the whole ‘English’ people 12 .

He stresses the importance of Britain as the edge of the known world and the

Roman Empire, emphasising that “Britain lies almost under the North Pole”, describing Ireland as the “extreme boundary of the world”. 13 They are “the two remotest islands in the ocean”. 14 He highlights the abundance of Britain, particularly that England bears “A great deal of excellent jet,… when kindled drives away serpents” 15 , showing imagery of the banishment of evil from Eden and classical reading, as Pliny the Elder noted that “The kindling of jet drives off snakes”. 16 Bede’s tale of Hengist and Horsa, two brothers and first leaders of the Germanics, also echoes Livy’s Romulus and Remus founding Rome. 17 In both tales, one brother dies and both pairs claim divine ancestry. 18 This may serve to compare the English to the

Romans, but it may also reflect a historiographical pattern, as the Anglo-Saxon

Chronicle holds a similar story regarding Cerdic and Cynric and the arrival of the West-Saxons in Britain. 19 However, Bede does not follow continuing classical traditions of setting out your authority, as Thucydides related his construction “from evidence which… I find I can trust” 20 and admits that his speeches are not accurate, but composed to befit the situation. 21 This is mimicked in Thomas of Monmouth’s hagiography of William of Norwich, in which he declares “Far be it for me to lie in sacred matters”. 22 Bede does not do this, but states his sources in detail at the end

12 Bede, pp. 65-107; Wormold, p. 215 13 Molyneaux, 1301; Bede, pp. 10, 103 14 Bede, p. 155 15 Bede, pp. 9-10

16 Diane Speed, ‘Bede’s Creation of a Nation in his Ecclesiastical History’ in Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies , 10.2, (1992), 149; Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.142, Loeb Classical Library, PLINY THE ELDER, Natural History | Loeb Classical Library (loebclassics.com), [Accessed 26/03/2023] 17 Livy, History of Rome 1.6.4, LIVY, History of Rome 1 | Loeb Classical Library (loebclassics.com), Loeb Classical Library, [Accessed 25/3/23] 18 Bede, p. 27; Livy, 1.pr.7, 1.7.2 19 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, Avalon Project - The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : Sixth Century (yale.edu), [Accessed 25/3/2023] 20 Speed, 140-1; Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.1, Loeb Classical Library, THUCYDIDES, History of the Peloponnesian War | Loeb Classical Library (loebclassics.com), [Accessed 25/3/23] 21 Thucydides, 1.22 22 Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich , tr. And ed. A. Jessop and M.R. James (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896), p. 5

of book five. 23 Crucially, Bede sought to show the ‘English’ that they had a new history. 24 He wanted to instruct them in their collective past and show the world the

significance of the ‘English’ as descended from the “innumerable progeny of God”,

hereby putting the ‘English’ in their place in history and proving his conviction of the foreordin ation of the ‘English’ nation’s success. 25

Examining the concept of ‘Englishness’ and religion in Bede’s Historia

requires consideration of the representations of place and people. Regarding the

former, imageries of Britain as the Garden of Eden and Ireland as a Promised land without snakes that “abounds in Milk and Honey” are used. 26 Bede’s description of Albion and the surrounding sea and the islands’ bounties seems to echo the third day of creation where God gathers the waters, creating land and plant life. 27

Similarly, the creation of water life and “fowl that may fly above the earth” is echoed

when Bede speaks of “Land - and waterfowl of various kinds” and “rivers, which abound with fish”. 28 There is also imagery of the Britons’ fall from grace, being cast out and driven to the brink of extinction by God’s new chosen people – the ‘English’. 29 Bede also likens the land of Britain to the Bible when he writes “there are

five languages in Britain, just as the divine law is written in five books…. These are

the English, British, Irish, Pictish as well as the Latin languages; through the study of the scriptures, Latin is in general use among them all.” 30 For Bede, Latin, the language of the Church, was crucial to unifying the ‘English’. 31 Regarding people, Bede’s work is dominated by the idea that the Anglo - Saxons were ethnic and political groups united by Christian “purpose and practice”. 32 He presents a spiritual history of a people that were one in faith, yet many in race. 33 23 Bede, pp. 294-5 24 N. J. Stephens, ‘Bede’s Ecclesiastical History’ in History , Vol. 62, No. 204, (New Jersey: Wiley, 1977), 4-5 25 Stephens, 5- 6; David N. Dumville, ‘Origins of the Kingdom of the English’ in Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England , Ed. Rory Naismith & David A. Woodman, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), p. 72 26 Bede, p. 11; Speed, 150-1 27 Bede, p. 9; Genesis 1:9-13 (KJV), Genesis 1 KJV - In the beginning God created the heaven - Bible

Gateway, [Accessed 25/3/23] 28 Bede, p. 9; Genesis 1:20-23 29 Dumville, p. 74

30 Bede, p. 10 31 Speed, 143 32 Speed, 139 33 Wormold, p. 215

For Bede, the ‘English’ were a chosen tribe by God and his aim was to expound the development of God’s plan for the ‘English’ through their unified Church. 34 In Bede, the Britons fall into sin when the Romans leave and God abandons them. 35 Fallen into sin, the unwarlike Britons were terrorised repeatedly by the Irish and Picts, then beset by famine. 36 This period of war, famine and death was followed by times of

unchristian indulgence and “every kind of foul crime; in particular, cruelty and hatred

of the truth and love of lying”, when even the clergy “cast off Christ’s easy yoke and thrust their necks under the burdens of drunkenness,… and other similar crimes”. 37 Then, “a virulent plague suddenly fell upon these corrupt people”. 38 The Britons experienced all four horsemen of the apocalypse, yet those alive were not enticed back from their “spiritual” death. 39 When the Britons ceased their worthiness, it fell to King Vortigern to call upon the Saxons for aid, “so that evil might fall upon those miscreants”, so the ‘English’ came as God’s vengeance on the Britons . 40 Following this, the Historia presents a series of events leading, through Augustine’s mission, to divinely sanctioned ‘English’ dominance in Britain. 41 Bede believed that the ‘English’ had a covenant with God and their spiritual and political fate, success and dominion depended upon their continued worthiness of divine favour and obedience to God. 42 The main focus, especially in books one to three, is on the Christianisation of the ‘English’. 43 The first sense of unity comes through the conversion of Æthelberht of Kent. One of the earliest mentions of “the whole English race” comes from his mouth. 44 From then, “every day more and more began to… join the unity of Christ’s holy Church”, portraying Christianity as the force that unified the people of Britain. 45

Bede shows the creation of a single Church, describing the establishment of sees in

the different ‘English’ Kingdoms, bringing unity through obedience to Bishop

34 Brown, pp. 103, 106 35 Wormold, p. 216 36 Bede, pp. 22-5

37 Bede, p. 26 38 Bede, p. 26 39 Bede, p. 26 40 Bede, p. 26; Molyneaux, 1298-1300 41 Higham, ‘Bede’s vision of an English Britain’, p. 18

42 Nicholas J. Higham, ‘Bede’s Reputation as a Historian in Medieval England’ in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 64, No. 3, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, July 2013), 482; Wormold, p. 216; Molyneaux, 1297; Higham, ‘Bede’s vision of an English Britain’, p. 18 43 Brown, p. 108

44 Bede, p. 40 45 Bede, p. 41

Theodore. 46 The religious significance of the ‘English’ is further highlighted when

Pictish King Nechtan “sought help from the ‘English’ who, he knew, had long since

based their religious practices on the example of the holy Roman and apostolic Church”, showing that Bede’s ‘English’ became a source of religious authority. 47

Intertwined with ideas of divine favour and unity through faith is a focus on the virtue of Christian leadership by certain Kings. 48 The f irst mention of “the whole English race” comes from Æthelberht , yet this is not the full extent of correlation between kings, religious unity and power. 49 On his death, Æthelberht “after ruling his

temporal kingdom gloriously for fifty-six years, entered upon the eternal joys of the

heavenly kingdom”, highlighting the link between worldly kingship and heavenly faith. 50 It was important for Bede to portray great rulers, such as Eorcenberht of Kent,

the first “English King” to order idols to be abandoned throughout his kingdom, as

leading figureheads of conversion, which accrued them more power over greater numbers of the ‘English’, affecting a greater unity. 51 In this, there are two prominent

figures – Edwin and Oswald, Kings of Northumbria. In Edwin’s case, his road to

conversion began with his wish to marry Æthelburh, Æthelberht’s daughter, and meeting her brother Eadbald’s demands to allow her to practice Ch ristian worship. 52

At one Easter feast, Eomer, an assassin of King Cwichelm of Wessex, attacked the

king. The blow was taken by “Lilla, the most devoted thegn” who put himself in the

way of the attack, yet the king was still mildly injured. A fight broke out as the assailan t was “attacked from every quarter” and another nobleman died. 53 That

night, Æthelburh bore Edwin a daughter, Eanflæd. Bishop Paulinus attributed her

safe delivery to his prayers to God. “The king was delighted by his words, and

promised that if God would grant him life, and victory over the king who had sent the assas sin who wounded him, he would renounce his idols and serve Christ”. 54 Edwin

was victorious over the West Saxons but was still unsure of Christianity, so learnt

46 Foot, Sarah, ‘The Making of Angelcynn : English Identity before the Norman Conquest’ in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Ser. 6, Vol. 6, (: Royal Historical Society, 1997), 39 47 Bede, p. 276 48 Higham, ‘Bede’s vision of an English Britain’, p. 18; Higham, ‘Bede’s Reputation as a Historian in Medieval England’, 483

49 Bede, p. 40 50 Bede, p. 77 51 Bede, p. 122 52 Bede, pp. 84-5 53 Bede, pp. 85-6 54 Bede, p. 86

from Paulinus and eventually converted, gaining “greater power over all inhabitants

of Britain, English and Briton alike, except for Kent only” including Isles of Man and Anglesea. 55 Bede describes that “there was so great a peace in Britain wherever the dominion of King Edwin reached, that, as the proverb still runs, a woman with a newborn child could walk throughout the island from sea to sea and take no harm.” 56

And thus, “The Northumbrian Race… together with their king Edwin, also accepted

the word of faith… So, like no other English king before him, he held under his sway

the whole realm of Britain, not only English Kingdoms but those ruled over by Britons as w ell.” 57 Here, the conversion of Edwin directly gains him peaceful dominion over

the peoples of Britain. King Oswald is presented as “anxious that the whole race

under his rule should be filled with the grace of the Christian faith of which he had had so wonderful an experience in overcoming the barbarians”. 58 Through this he

“gained from the one God… greater earthly realms than any of his ancestors had

possessed. In fact, he held under his sway all the peoples and kingdoms of Britain,… he wielded supreme power over the whole land”. 59 Once again, Bede shows faith as

fortifying unity among the peoples of Britain through pious kingship. In contrast,

Cenwealh of Wessex refused the “mysteries of the heavenly kingdom and not long

afterwards lost his earthly kingdom”. When, in exile, Cenwealh “accepted the true

faith” and was restored to his kingdom. Bede’s use of God’s particular favour

towards certain kings, such as King Edwin’s mastery over the Britons and the

‘English’ and the unity of the ‘English’, Britons, Picts and Irish in faith under “Oswald,

the most Christian king of Northumbria” illustrates how the roles of Christian kings in

protecting and defending their people and Church directly affected the spiritual unity of the ‘English’ people, and others, in Britain. 60

Another way to examine ‘Englishness’ in Bede is through the uses and

mentions of language. Early ideas of the ‘English’ come through the pontifical

epistles of Gregory, Boniface, and Honorius. In letters to Augustine, Gregory always refers to the “English Church”, the “Church of the English” and the “English race”. 61

55 Bede, pp. 78, 86, 95-6 56 Bede, p. 100 57 Bede, p. 84 58 Bede, p. 113 59 Bede, p. 118 60 Bede, p. 124; Higham, ‘Bede’s vision of an English Britain’, p. 18; Brown, p. 106 61 Bede, pp. 42-59

Due to Gregory’s a ssumption that the new inhabitants of England were all Angles, the term Rex Anglorum was first used, identifying the ‘English’ as a single gens . 62

When he wished to bestow honours on King Ætheberht and rejoice that the King

“had attained knowledge of heavenly glory”, Gregory addressed him as ‘King of the English’. 63 Honorius gives King Edwin the same title. 64 In the opening of book two

Bede declares that “the English Nation was converted by his [Gregory’s] efforts from

the power of Satan to the faith of Christ… he made our nation into a Church of Christ” 65 suggesting that, at this early point, through the “beliefs of the Church of the English” and unity of doctrine and practice, the ‘English’ were now a united people in faith. 66 Bede does write about the kings of the various Kingdoms, acknowledging that

England began with seven individual and clashing kingdoms, but he also refers to the

‘English race’ and the ’English Nation’ as a collective and describes many people as “Englishmen”. 67 Similarly, Bede refers to “the most noble English kings, Oswiu of Northumbria and Egbert of Kent”, among others, as “English Kings”. 68 For Bede,

regardless of political divisions, the English were a racial group pertaining to the land

of England. From this land- orientated view of identity comes other ‘English’ things.

Bede mentions “custom amongst the English People”, “English territory”, “English Rule” and the “lands of the English”. 69 There are also clear distinctions drawn

between the “English and British races”, even in book five. It is said that “King of the

English, Æthelfrith… made a great slaughter of that nation [the Britons] of heretics”

and the Pictish kingdom is described as “subject to the English”, defining the ‘English’ by p lace and people. 70 Bede also refers to “the English tongue” and makes

references to place names, like “a city which the English call Tiowulgingacæstir ”, in

the ‘English’ language, to highlight an underlying unity of the ‘English’ People through their common vernacular. 71 All this is encapsulated in the very last line of the

Historia - “Here, with God’s help, ends the fifth book of the History of the English

62 Dumville, p. 81; Molyneaux, 1297; Wormold, p. 213 63 Bede, pp. 58-9

64 Bede, p. 101 65 Bede, p. 65 66 Bede, p. 201 67 Bede, pp. 77-80, 116, 162; Dumville, p. 87 68 Bede, pp. 164, 272 69 Bede, pp. 115, 222, 224 70 Bede, pp. 73, 271 71 Bede, pp. 100, 114, 204

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