Christmas Day Football
Christmas football was originally rooted in a wider tradition of communal entertainments on the 25th. While for the Victorian middle class, Christmas was a festival of the home, for the workers, who lived in cramped, overcrowded housing, getting out was often more important. Football, pantomimes, informal gatherings, community rituals and traditions all provided people with…
One syllable: Splott
This essay was first published in the programme for the National Theatre’s 2023 production of Romeo and Julie by Gary Owen. The most memorable thing about the Cardiff district of Splott is its name. Even in Cardiff, it’s sometimes the subject of some mirth. Outside the city, it can draw derision and act as another…
A brief history of Welsh football through the 1970s Admiral Shirt
Image credit: The Welsh Football Collection, Wrexham County Borough Museum & Archives. This cotton Wales football shirt was worn by Nick Deacy of PSV Eindhoven in an under 21s international match against Scotland in 1977. The two nations had been competing against each other since 1876, making it the second oldest international fixture in world…
Christmas and Mass Observation: Studying Traditions, Emotions and People
By the time Mass Observation was established in the 1930s, Christmas had become an integral part of British culture. Although its form and meaning varied between individuals and classes, it was something that everyone interacted with in one way or another. It upset and angered some but more often Christmas was a moment of joy,…
Why history matters
A short video I made for a Welsh Government event about history in the Curriculum for Wales.
A brief history of work Christmas parties
This is an extract from Martin Johnes, Christmas and the British: A Modern History (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) One reason for the ebbing of work was excitement over Christmas parties. These were not new phenomenon – some late nineteenth-century factories had held them for example – but they undoubtedly increased in number in the middle of the twentieth century and by…
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Martin Johnes 