12:00pm Wednesday 1st May 2002
WHO needs glossy period dramas such as Pride And Prejudice when you can have the real thing? Visitors to York's Castle Museum will be invited to step back in time at the weekend to see for themselves the sometimes cruel truth beneath the surface of Victorian romance.
Wealthy Obadiah Graves and his daughter Felicia are preparing for her big day, while overworked seamstress Mary Marston is worrying about whether she will finish work on Felicia's dress in time for her own wedding to the local blacksmith.
A classic case of upstairs, downstairs. But all is not quite as it seems - and despite the opulence of her wedding preparations, Felicia has some hard choices to make.
"Felicia must decide whether to marry for love or money - quite a serious dilemma when marriage was the only acceptable career open to women like her," says actress Lucy Adlington, who plays Felicia in the mini-drama Wedding Belles being performed at the Castle Museum throughout Saturday.
Wedding Belles is just one of a host of events taking place locally to mark the nation's first Local History Week, organised by the Historical Association, which runs from Saturday May 4 to Sunday May 12.
As you'd expect, the Castle Museum is in the thick of things. If Victorian weddings aren't to your fancy, on Sunday you'll be invited to step into the dark world of felons, debtors and notorious highwaymen to discover all about the criminal history of the Castle Museum.
There may be a few things that surprise you.
"Some people may be aware of the cells and that John Palmer - alias Dick Turpin - was a prisoner here," explains the museum's assistant curator of social history Michelle Petyt, whose illustrated talk and tour at 2pm aims to bring the former county and debtor's prison's dark past to life. "But how many know that Half Moon Court and Kirkgate were once exercise yards, or that a bell hanging in Kirkgate was used to announce executions?"
There is a lighter side to the prison's past as well. During its period as a Debtor's Prison, conditions weren't actually as grim as you might have supposed - at least, not if you were a 'first class' debtor. These inmates, explains Michelle, had families who were able to pay to 'maintain' them. They probably had their own rooms, with a bed and chair and meals brought in - and were even allowed family visits. "There are descriptions of wives and children running around the place," she says. "Some of them even had their own servants! Some of the poorer debtors acted as servants for the better off."
National Local History Week, however, is about far more than just the Castle Museum. A host of activities has been laid on throughout the York area.
These include a walk along the River Ouse to the site of the Battle of Fulford on Sunday afternoon (meet at the Museum Gardens gates at 2.15pm); a guided tour of Georgian York on Monday (meet at King's Manor, Exhibition Square, at 2.15pm); and, on Tuesday evening, a historical walk around Georgian Poppleton (limited free tickets available in advance from Poppleton library on 01904 794877.)
Other events taking place next week include a historical walk along Front Street in Acomb on Wednesday; a tour of York cemetery on Friday evening led by local historian Hugh Murray (meet at cemetery gates at 7pm, admission at gates, price £2); and an opportunity to delve behind the scenes into the wealth of fascinating archives at the Borthwick Institute on Saturday May 11 (admission free, four tours during the morning, at 10am, 10.30am, 11am and 11.30am).
Events reach a climax that afternoon on Nether Poppleton's Millennium Green with a spectacular recreation of civil war battles by the Sealed Knot, including Prince Rupert's relief of York and a recreation of an encampment.
One of the great aspects of the week is the way local communities have rallied around to organise events. Poppleton History Society has organised a string of activities, including the civil war re-enactment, while Haxby is hosting a talk by Richard Hall, York Archaeological Trust's deputy director, on Vikings in the York area and the development of Haxby village (Haxby Memorial Hall, Wednesday, May 8, 7.30pm.)
"Local history is one of the most popular activities in Britain today and there are hundreds of local societies with thousands of members, as well as many successful television and radio programmes helping people inquire into their past," says Prof Edward Royle of York University's history department. "Local History Week publicises and celebrates this work."
One of the joys of the week, adds the Castle Museum's Charlotte Dootson, is the way it allows ordinary people to get involved.
"It is a great way of bringing history to, life," she says. It is that.
Further details of Local History Week events can be found in leaflets available in local libraries or at www.history.org.uk - the website of the Historical Association.
Updated: 10:18 Wednesday, May 01, 2002
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