Tag Archive: Victorian England

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Secrets, Lies, and Scandal: The Cleveland Street Case

One of Victorian England’s most shocking scandals was the Cleveland Street affair, impacting perceptions surrounding the LGBT community. This article by James Lamont, written for the LGBT+ History Writing Competition, details the story of the scandal to reveal what made it such an infamous case. By foregrounding the key political individuals involved within the case, this piece highlights just why attitudes towards homosexuality were severely impacted as a result of the affair’s notoriety.
AUTHOR JAMES LAMONT

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The Victorian “Poison Panic”: Was Poison Really the Problem?

The Victorian Era was no stranger to poison. Its presence was everywhere, from arsenic in cosmetics, to cyanide in the wallpaper, causing a ‘poison panic’ to emerge in popular media. The panic especially surrounded women across this period, with some put on trial for supposedly poisoning their husbands. This insightful article by Finlay Ratcliffe for the 2024/2025 Women’s History Writing Competition explores the case studies of twenty-two women to highlight whether this public fear stemmed from the threat of the poison itself, or rather the threat of female power.
AUTHOR FINLAY RATCLIFFE

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Human Stories at Goathland Station

In the year 1864, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph made an appeal, calling for ‘the abolition of what is known as the ‘Goathland incline’, since this steep gradient had clearly become a threat to people using it. The result was that the North Eastern Railway (NER) began work on deviating the line, which opened in 1865, and along with it, a new station to serve Goathland. The author, an archaeologist, brings to light interesting human stories of people who had their lives intertwined with this iconic station (known nowadays popularly as Hogsmeade station from the first HP film!).
AUTHOR: WILLIAM PLANT