Spurred on by THE DEVILS WHORE I made the long awaited trip to ST.Mary’s Church Putney to see their PUTNEY DEBATES exhibition well funded by the Heritage Lottery. What a disapointment….what did they spend all the money on? About 8 display boards of the kind hawked aroud by Health Promotion departments stuck away in an alcove The contents of the boards wsas fine but it was definitely an ’Is that all there is?’ moment. Maybe the vicar being out of sympathy with the radicals – he’s self described as a royalist – has something to do with it!
What a joy then to see the TAKING LIBERTIES exhibition at THE BRITISH LIBRARY. There you can see displayed not only the original AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE presented by the New Model Army but also the original book of notes of the debate opened to the page of Rainsborough’s great speech. I nearly choked. The fucking original AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE – almost in my fucking hands comrades!! Theres also a very fine depiction of CAPTAIN SWING as an incendiarist and pictures of Chartist and Suffragette demonstrations. Well worth a look.
Taking Liberties is excellent. Went a few days ago inspired by Peter Linebaughs talk last week about Magna Carta. Was dead impressed by the wealth of material on display- particularly the charter of the Forest.
Yes it is a great display.
Stating upfront that I work for the British Library, thanks for your kind remarks Ian. Please have a look at our website and try out the interactive journey http://www.bl.uk/takingliberties. Also more star items to see.