For the Spring Term of 2022, we have been exploring the hidden histories of overlooked communities, with sessions designed by the Re-imaging Lincoln team at the University of Lincoln. We ran these sessions over zoom, which meant we also had siblings and parents joining in the fun!
Group leader Lydia’s favourite session was looking at the stories of African Romans, and how they impacted Lincoln: “I had never heard of Lucius Septimus Severus before, the first African Emperor of Rome. He was in power from AD193 to 211, and travelled to Hadrian’s wall in that time, passing through Lincoln. It was he that ordered Lincoln’s defences be strengthened, which led to the building of Newport Arch! This standing remain in Lincoln is the only Roman arch in the UK which you can still drive under.”
Our member’s favourite session was looking at the immigrant communities of the Angles, the Saxons, and the Vikings. They particularly enjoyed trying their hand at key skills of the time, such as weaving.
Parents also really enjoyed our last session, looking at the connection between the Middle East and Lincoln in the Medieval period: “Today’s session was well timed and seemed very poignant, the talk of prejudice and needless wars etc and of events in history being hard to discuss because we were the perpetrators, and of prejudices running through centuries… of course it is topical and I feel it’s really good for the kids to be able to look at current situations against a historical context… “
Thank you to the University of Lincoln for designing such interesting sessions for us!