Partying like it’s 1679 in Stony Stratford, Or, Mable Graves’s Very Bad Day:
Political Protest Songs in 17th Century England
Dr Angela McShane,
Hon Reader in History, University of Warwick
Date: 15th of April 2026
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
Partying like it’s 1679 in Stony Stratford, Or Mable Graves’s Very Bad Day. In 1679, the landlady of The Cock in Stony Stratford was visited by agents of the powerful local magnate, Sir Richard Temple of Stowe. They were investigating a seditious pop song that had created a local and national sensation – and libelled their master. Did she know anything about it? Trouble was … Mabel did know … a lot. Come and hear the story of that sensational song, the era’s huge pop song trade in general, and find out what happened next for Mabel and her family.
About the speaker:
Angela McShane is a senior research fellow and Head of Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the V&A/Sheffield University Research and External Engagement Fellow, and an Associate Fellow of Early Modern History at Warwick University.
OTHER EVENTS
A Historical Tour of Beaconsfield – LIVE
Date: 17th of June 2026
Time: TBC
Venue: TBC
Speaker: David Green
David Green has been leading walks for the Bucks Historical Association since he was the Historic
Landscape/Townscape Characterisation Officer for Bucks County Council. This year he will be taking
us through the historic town of Beaconsfield.
The Search for American Vikings: Untangling Myth from Reality (Preceded by AGM)
Date:15th of Ocotober 2025
Time: 20:00 (19:35 for AGM)
Venue: Zoom
Speaker: Martyn Whittock, Independent Researcher and Author
For a thousand years, Norse sagas (written in 13th-century Iceland) claimed that Vikings migrated from Greenland to reach a land to the West called ‘Vinland.’ It was, and is, a claim that stimulates the imagination and controversy, for it insists that Vikings influenced lands very far from Scandinavia. In this talk – based on my book American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America – I explore the evidence for this in the literary sources and archaeology (most notably on Newfoundland); claims regarding runestones ‘discovered’ in the USA; and the way this idea of ‘Vinland Vikings’ has fed into the cultural DNA of North America and especially the USA. In recent times that has led to their co-option by the US far-right as seen in the ‘Unite the Right’ rally at Charlottesville (2017) and on January 6th at the US Capitol. This talk will explore both the evidence for Norse settlement in North America and why it became (and remains) so important in the ‘deep story’ of contested US identities.
Robespierre and Danton
Robespierre and Danton Prof William Doyle, Emeritus Professor of Ancient History University of BristolChristopher, write to your heart's content here.Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every...