Fourth Blog - September 2013
Looks like summer is just about over.
I thought earlier this year that while setting up the various Big History Leeds lectures I would make use of the social networks and piece together via the Internet The History of Big History (or something along those lines).
So, I thought I would start logically with Robert Chambers' 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation' originally published in 1844. Now Big History doesn't quite work like that. As I soon realised that I had to go back further as Big History emerged from Cosmic Evolution. The scientific approach to the Cosmos goes back to ancient Greece. Oh, but you have to go back further still, as that only emerged after humanity developed frontal lobes and began worshiping the Sun, Moon and stars back in the Palaeolithic. You could even argue that humanity itself began six million years or so ago with Orrorin Tugenesis.
So, I will return back to it soon...
Meanwhile, I have started to sort out setting up the Big History Leeds website and planning how I want it to look. Watch this space...
I have also set up a Blog account on Blogger (Google).
http://bighistoryleeds.blogspot.co.uk
http://bighistoryleeds.blogspot.co.uk
As well as the above, I have also set up a teacher account with the Big History Project with a view to future Big History Leeds lecturers having access to the Big History Project. If you are a teacher and are interested in Big History get in touch with the Big History Project people and set up an account! There is a lot of interesting stuff on there. https://course.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive
I am interested in the fifteen year development plan for the Leeds Metropolitan District being run by the Leeds City Council at the moment. They use the following documented bodies amongst others in their own cultural findings for the history of Leeds :-
1) Leeds City Council, Village and Neighbourhood Design Statements - http://www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Design-Neighbourhood-and-Village-Design-Statements.aspx
2) Leeds City Council,1994, Leeds Landscape Assessment -
3) West Yorkshire Archaeology Service, Historic Environment Record - http://www.archaeology.wyjs.org.uk/wyjs-archaeology-her-r.asp
One thing I have noticed, and I think in the long term it should be seen as vital, is our role within the history of the metropolitan district of Leeds as a whole. In the long run it is the piecing together of all the histories of Leeds which will give Leeds its own true cultural identity. You could take it back as far as you dare possible as there is 4.5 billion years of Earth history to go at!
You can bring cultural history up through the varying cultural changes made over the years whether it be Celtic, Roman, Viking (The Three Ridings that made up Yorkshire stems from the Vikings), Breton (Elmet preceeded Leeds in the 5th century when Leeds was Loidis forest), Anglo-Saxon and Norman.
Then we became part of England, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, the EU and the UN which ties everything up to where we are multi-culturally today.
In the end each area will have its own vision and ideas, but by knitting them all together we will find Leeds' true identity. Remember as settlements became part of Leeds Town / City / Metropolitan District - They became part of Leeds.
Anyway, that is enough from me.
Take care
Chris Oddy
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