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  1. May is Local and Community History Month

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    Did you know that May is Local and Community History Month?

    The aim is to raise awareness of local history – often forgotten besides the histories of people such as Henry VIII or events such as the Second World War.   But it’s also a chance to promote history to local communities and get people involved.

    Getting involved in a local history group is also a great way to meet other people who are also interested in history, so like-minded people, and you can learn a lot from each other.

    The Local and Community History Month is organised by the Historical Association.  It’s a chance to get out and about in your area, and really delve into how  your local area has changed, what’s happened and why, the local characters involved,  how it connected with the outside world and so forth.   The Association have 10 Top Tips for Researching the History of Where You Live so this would be a great place to start and there will be events going on all over the country.

    One great source of local history is of course newspapers. Thanks to a great project between the British Library and the British Newspaper Archive, there are now over 84 million pages of newspapers you can access online through a subscription.  They’re adding more and more pages each week and there are still new titles being added, too.  So you can find out all about local history in your area even if  you are still restricted, or do your research online and then  head off to spot history, stand where it happened, and imagine what life would have been like

    The British Newspaper Archive gives us a chance to see what readers wanted to read about and hear about, what was popular to sell and buy at the time – the advertisements are a great source of information – and what sort of social events were held.  You can give a gift subscription for one month or choose to run it for longer.

    Local and Community History Month is also an opportunity to raise awareness of the Historical Association itself.

    The Historical Association has a number of memberships, including a Gift Membership –  and the Historian Membership which is for anyone who just loves history.  There are also different memberships for those involved in the subject at primary or secondary level and you can see what the different membership levels include here.  The website on its own is a massive mine of information for people involved at a professional level e.g. history teachers or wannabe history teachers but there’s also lots of articles and topics of interest for people who just love the subject.

    Historian Membership of the Historical Association includes The Historian, the quarterly magazine of the Historical Association
    Historian Membership of the Historical Association includes The Historian, the quarterly magazine of the Historical Association
    image ©Historical Association

    Historian Members receive The Historian quarterly magazine (not every membership includes this) and you can download a free copy by registering online to see what it’s like.  It’s a great gift for anyone who teaches or studies history – or who just loves it.  I did History for my degree and still love immersing myself in the past to escape from the craziness of this modern world we live in and daily routine!

    Memberships help support the Association’s mission to develop the teaching, learning and enjoyment of history at all levels, for generations to come.

    Members also have free access to over 350 high-quality podcast talks by history experts; these cover historical periods, regions and themes, so there’s plenty to discover!

    The Historical Association was originally established in part to bring people together who were interested history, and there are over 45 local branches around the UK meeting regularly.  Branches organise a programme of speakers every year so that members and the public can hear from historians and researchers.  You can find your closest branch here.  They may also be history visits and CPD events, it depends on the branch.

    Find out about the Historical Association's Historian Membership here 

    There's also the British Association for Local History, which is the national association devoted to local history.  It publishes books and pamphlets on local history, and it also publishes both The Local Historian, a quarterly journal, and Local History News, a topical magazine.  It has lots of resources online, plus events and there are even classroom exercises to bring local history into the classroom!  There are several different types of membership.  Visit the British Association for Local History here

     

  2. Give a gift membership to Plantlife

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    Plantlife is one of my favourite charities.   If you're looking for a gift membership for someone who loves flowers and wildflowers in particular, and wants to help with conservation, please take a look at its website. 

    Wild flowers , plants and fungi are essential for all our wildlife.  There's nothing like seeing a beautiful roadside verge full of wild-flowers, or a wild-flower meadow.   

    Plantlife work to raise awareness of the importance of wildflowers, plants and fungi and to protect them so that future generations can enjoy them and that wildlife can continue to benefit from them.   

    Get involved in Plantlife and conservation!

    We can all get involved in their work, by going on a Great British Wildflower Hunt, taking part in No Mow May (leave some of your lawn uncut and then you can work out how many bees and butterflies the area would support - Every Flower Counts!  They have a cowslip survey and of course, they have a Road Verge Campaign.   The good news is that many councils are taking steps to make road verge management more sustainable and wildlife-friendly. 

    Give a gift membership!

    Membership benefits include Plant Life magazine three times a year, a free identification guide, information on how to grow wild flowers in your garden and priority access to selected events.

    Give a gift membership to Plantlife
    Give a gift membership to Plantlife
    Image ©Plantlife

    Other ways to support Plantlife and its vital conservation work include:

    • Adopt an acre
    • Adopt a veteran tree
    • Adopt a reserve
    • Adopt a flower
    • Make a donation
    • Support an appeal

    You can do all of these things through Plantlife's online shop. 

  3. Memberships help the WWT fulfil its mission to help wetlands and wildlife

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    The 2nd February is World Wetlands Day, and in the UK, the main charity helping to protect our wetlands is the WWT. 

    If you’re looking for a membership for a nature lover, what about giving them a gift membership to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (the WWT)?

    It’s a win-win, as you’re giving a meaningful gift which will make a difference, you know your money won’t be wasted and your loved one can enjoy the gift for as many months as the membership lasts.

    You can help nature with your gift! 

    The WWT says that nearly all life depends on wetlands for water, food or somewhere to live.  They include estuaries, deltas, mudflats, floodplains, peatlands, marsh and the bog and pond at the end of your garden.  But a third of them have been destroyed.

    How the WWT want the world’s wetlands to look by 2040:

    1. The UK’s wetlands and their wildlife are thriving and increasing with blue and wildlife-rich corridors across towns and countryside, with threatened wetland species’ populations flourishing
    2. Everyone on the UK can access wetlands that provide amazing experiences and inspire them to support conservation
    3. Wetlands in the UK are recognised as part of our natural infrastructure, providing space for wildlife and people and vital services to us all such as reducing flooding, drought and cleaning our water.
    4. Decision makers globally understand the threats to wetland nature and are taking ambitious action to remove those threats. Strong international agreements support better wetland management across the world.
    5. Wetlands are managed in a way that benefits wetland nature and enhances people’s lives across the world.  People understand how wetlands that are thriving and doing well improve and sustain local livelihoods.
    6. Risks are decreasing for all wetland nature.  No species have gone extinct.

    The WWT wants wetland nature to recover, so that all the species we share our planet with have a future.   It believes that showing people first-hand how amazing wetlands are will set alight their passion to help the charity conserve them. So it welcomes a million visitors every year to its wetland reserves around the UK.  Find your nearest centre here.

     

    Give a gift membership to the WWT and help them help wildfowl and wetlands survive and thrive!
    ©WWT

    You can find out about its conservation projects here – they strengthen the link between wetlands, wildlife and people in the UK and beyond. 

    3 Ways Memberships help the WWT:

    The WWT says that membership helps them meet these goals and here’s how:

    1. They provide funding for the WWT’s conservation work
    2. They add weight and noise to our campaigning work a
    3. They help spread the word about how wonderful wetlands are for wildlife and people.

    WWT Member benefits:

    • Support conservation
    • A welcome pack
    • Unlimited free entry (centres are currently closed due to the coronavirus except for Steart Marshes but you would still be supporting nature conservation with this gift)
    • Regular copies of the Waterlife magazine

    Please give a gift membership to a nature lover and support the WWT in its work to protect wetlands for all our sakes.  I’ve joined – will you?

    Give a gift membership today or just join yourself and give the gift of your support to WWT

     

     

  4. Give a Gift Membership to the Wildwood Trust, Kent

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    If you’ve need to buy a gift for someone who loves animals, and wildlife in particular, and British wildlife most of all, then you could buy them a gift membership to the Wildwood Trust.

    The centre in Kent will be featured in Paul O'Grady's programme, The Great Escape, tonight 9 December 2020 at 8:30, when Paul explores different parts of Kent. 

    The Wildwood Trust was opened as a centre of excellence in conservation in 1999 and it became a registered charity in 2005.  

    Today, it has about 40 acres of ancient woodland, with bears (yes, honestly), wolves, bison deer, foxes, red squirrels, wild board, lynx, wild horse, badgers and beavers, to name a few!

    In 2015 the charity opened a park at Escot in Devon.

    For it is committed to saving Britain’s threatened wildlife, and as such you could give a gift membership to support the Trust in its work.

    There are different types of annual membership:  individual, joint and family, and they start at £48.00

    The pine marten is just one species the Wildwood Trust is working to help

     

    Membership benefits….

    Join as a Wildwood member for unlimited visits to both of the parks in Kent and Devon, and to support the Trust’s work.

    The charity is dedicated to preserving British wildlife so every penny you give goes towards:

    As a conservation charity dedicated to preserving British wildlife, every penny you give goes towards the upkeep of the park, looking after the animals and the conservation projects to save some of Britain’s most threatened species.


    You could also Adopt an Animal, such as this dormouse, to help the Trust in its work


    Visit the Wildwood Trust's website here

    Above images © Wildwood Trust