On Monday this week I removed my second-year class on crime and punishment from the confines of a Waterside campus classroom (lovely as they are) and transported it to a real life courthouse in the centre of Northampton. Northampton’s Sessions House was built after the fire that destroyed much of the town in 1675.... Continue Reading →
Inside Wandsworth Gaol: A historian’s perspective on prison visiting
As a academic historian who works on the history of crime (and most of that in London) when I was offered the chance to take a peek inside a working English prison I could hardly refuse. I run modules on crime and punishment at the University of Northampton and help students explore the changing nature... Continue Reading →
‘O monstrous traitor! I arrest thee!’: From Guy Fawkes to the Brexit ‘betrayers’ a short history of treason in England
The execution of the Gunpowder Plotters, by Claes (Nicolaes) Jansz Vissche (1606) Today is the 412th anniversary of the execution of Guy Fawkes and his fellow Gunpowder plotters. As every school boy knows Fawkes was arrested on the 5 November 1605 as he prepared to blow up the Westminster Hall and send King James I... Continue Reading →
HISTORY AT NORTHAMPTON 