NEWS

The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress admire one of the Centre's publications, with (from left to right) Andrew Hopper, Richard Jones, Chris Dyer, Ronan O'Donnell and Neil Quinn.

Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress in 'Historic' visit

Centre for English Local History opens its doors for civic visitors

The Lord Mayor of Leicester and the Lady Mayoress, Roger and Hilary Blackmore (both graduates of the University), made an official visit to the University on Tuesday 19 January. After being received by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Robert Burgess and Assistant Registrar Mrs Jo Wood, the Lord Mayor asked to visit the College of Social Science and the Centre for English Local History, part of the School of Historical Studies in the College of Arts, Humanities and Law.

The Vice-Chancellor commented "I am delighted that Cllr and Mrs Blackmore have been able to return to their University to see the developments that have been made in the Social Sciences. I very much hope that they will be able to visit us again to see other areas of activity in which Leicester has made great achievements."

The local historians were pleased to welcome the civic visitors. Chris Dyer, of the Centre for English Local History, said: "We knew that Cllr Blackmore was a keen local historian, as he had welcomed delegates at a reception at the local history conference held in July with the theme 'After Hoskins'. He was shown round the building, notably the library based on Marc Fitch's donation, and presentations were made by two members of staff, Richard Jones and Andy Hopper, and by two MA students, Ronan O'Donnell and Neil Quinn. Their subjects reflected the range of periods and themes pursued in the Centre : villages called Thorp, and their meaning; the location of churches and the reconstruction of early medieval estates; turncoats in the English Civil War; and a nineteenth century school teacher's diary."

The visitors saw a display of publications and posters, and were given a glimpse of the many activities of the staff and students of the Centre. They were presented with a copy of the bibliography of publications of the last ten years, recently compiled by the Friends of Centre, and a copy of the latest Friends' Newsletter. The visitors took a lively interest in the work of the Centre, and revealed in the comments and questions their own considerable knowledge of the subject.

The civic leaders also met with the Pro-Vice-Chancellors and Heads of Colleges as well as other senior members of the University.