News Archive
The Story Continues: Saxons join the Romans online
Two of our schools programmes in partnership with All Hallows by the Tower are now available online. The first, “Ultima Britannia”, set in the early days of Roman London when the new stone city was still unfinished in the aftermath of Boudicca’s rebellion, begins the story of the house whose floor still exists under the church. Visit www.ultimabritannia.co.uk for more details.
Now “Lundenwic” takes us to the time when the semi-abandoned Roman Londinium and the new Saxon town three miles away live as uneasy neighbours with different languages, cultures and ways of life. At All Hallows, the same house still stands, grand but almost derelict, its future left in doubt after the death of its elderly owner. Go to www.lundenwic.org to find out more.
We have now created interactive online versions of both – participants are involved in the stories as they unfold, and invited to decide for themselves what might have happened next.
Thanks to funding from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, the Worshipful Company of World Traders and the Derek Shuttleworth Educational Trust, we are able to offer these programmes free to London schools. Please email for further information or to reserve a place for your group.
Walthamstow Notes
Tudor sounds and stories
All through 2018 we have been uncovering sounds and stories of Tudor Walthamstow, working with local groups and organisations on the first phase of our Heritage Lottery funded project. In July we staged a major event, “Walthamstow Noyse”, which showcased our work in St Mary’s Church, Vestry House Museum and the Ancient House.
The day included two exhibitions and an installation curated by Gary Stewart presenting the discoveries of our project researchers about the Walthamstow-based Bassano family, two performances of Tudor music, one by local primary school children the other presenting young composers’ responses to it and several walks and talks.
The day’s activities were recorded for East London Radio, and more of the work will soon be available online.
Lundenwic: Saxon London's dark lands
In the spring we staged our latest programme at All Hallows by the Tower – a new version of "Lundenwic – Saxon London’s Dark Lands” involved a new storyline, poetry, music and a mystery. Nearly 500 children and teachers took part.
Hearth Fires and High Halls
The latest production at All Hallows takes the story of Saxon London further on in time. Nearly five hundred children took part, encountering questions and characters including a monk who wants to tear down the old Roman house, not only to expand the tiny church of All Hallows but to rebuild the wooden St Paul’s Cathedral in stone; an idealistic young woman is equally determined that not only the house, but Roman rule, should be restored. Children become caught up in the story which is told in music and poetry of the time as well as dialogue.
Watercress beds to one-way streets: 120 years of a north London neighbourhood
We were awarded a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund for an exciting new Walthamstow-based project over the last two years. It was a new venture for the company, and involved several strands. The focus of the work is the development over the past twelve decades of the Queen’s Road area, and local people were involved in recording oral histories and researching the stories of houses and of individuals. Children from Edinburgh Primary School also worked with us to devise a series of installations and a performance retelling some of those stories. The project included some much-needed new planting for Queen’s Road cemetery, which has been in existence since 1872 - some of the memorials there provided both a starting point and inspiration for both further research and imagined stories. For further information please email us.
An underground stream, “the best bread in England”, a gold and marble tomb and hundreds of untold stories
Our website for the project, www.queensroadstories.org is now live. There are maps of the area showing how it has changed from meadows, watercress beds and orchards to the vibrant city area of today. And there are pictures and stories of some of its people and places. We will be adding to the site in the coming months, and would be delighted to receive feedback and more information.
Over the past few weeks a number of local people have been in touch to share more photographs and stories.
Here is a photograph of the 1949 outing to Margate, provided by Garner’s, a Walthamstow garment manufacturer for all their staff as a summer treat. Courtesy of Eileen Rance, (née Dyson), who worked in the cutting room and is pictured seventh from the left in the back row
Queens Road Stories at the Vestry House Museum
Around fifty people listened to story telling, saw the project exhibition and pages from the website and had tea and cake at our event in March. Vestry House Museum kindly hosted this, and arranged a special opening of and exhibition in their search room, which was formerly the women’s dormitory of Walthamstow’s workhouse. So visitors were able to see some of the maps, letters and minute books which have helped provide the information we have used during the project.
Costumes for children, resources for teachers: help needed
20,0000 children – enough to fill the Albert Hall four times. That’s how many have taken part in our interactive theatre project at All Hallows by the Tower so far. And that’s without counting the teachers. We know our work there makes a difference – and now we want to make our programmes even better. We need to upgrade our handling collection of items such as musical instruments for workshops, to provide more resources for teachers, to create costumes for children, and to upgrade those for adults. In order to do all this we need to raise some £3,000.
So we are asking for help from our friends. And in return we will offer some wonderful Tudor related perks – an elegant green pen with Anne Boleyn’s signature to anyone who gives £10; a superb hand-made silk sweet bag for donors of £50; and an exquisite linen shirt or smock to say thank you for a donation of £200.
To donate, please follow the link to our Givey account
And please email us on info@clioscompany.co.uk to claim your perk.
Clio goes to the Lord Mayor’s Show
Tudor coronations were spectacular public events lasting several days, costing the equivalent of several million pounds and featuring street theatre and music as well as a spectacular procession. We were chosen as one of three organisations to receive funding to take part in the 2013 Lord Mayor’s Show, and used the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn as the inspiration for our float. This featured Anne Boleyn’s badge of a crowned white falcon, musicians, masked figures and dancers as well as over 50 Tower Hamlets school children.
Even though the day of the Show proved to be among the wettest and coldest on record, everyone concerned remained enthusiastic and stoical, and took part in the first performance for five centuries of “The White Falcon”. This song was among those specially written for Anne Boleyn’s coronation, and the words lay forgotten for many years, and with the help of Tamsin Lewis we were able to reunite lyrics with music.
The words and music are now available in book form, with an introduction written by Lissa Chapman and Jay Venn, from Rondo Publishing
You can listen to us being interviewed about the project on Radio 4's The World Tonight. Click here for the link to the BBC - the interview begins at 34:40.
Early Georgian politics go live
Clio’s Company’s long-standing partnership with Sir John Cass’s Foundation Primary School has branched out into cyberspace as we work with the school (and Lighthouse London, our website design partners for the project) on a web application designed to bring the past, present and future of the school together. While the site is planned especially for, and in consultation with, the children of the school, it also casts new light on Georgian City politics and provides a vivid and sometimes poignant narrative of the lives of inner London children in past centuries.
Railways, canals, boats and a tidal mill
The House Mill at Bromley by Bow is an eighteenth century tidal mill, a complete and unique survival of London’s industrial heritage. We have known, loved and based projects there over many years. A pilot project in 2013 looked at the East London story in 1848, when the railways were revolutionising all aspects of life and there was conflict between the cultures of water and of rail.
We would like to work here in the future with more local children
Food and music for a Tudor summer evening
Walthamstow’s mediaeval house, once the local manor and now known as the Ancient House, was the location for a 1540-style celebration on Sunday 2nd June. A banquet was originally a separate course of treat food for favoured guests, such as the ones attending this event, who also heard music of the time and had a rare chance to explore the Ancient House and discover something of its five centuries of history.
Common Ground: Hackney Georgians
In May 2013 we expanded our Common Ground: Hackney Tudors project to include a new century – the 18th.
This involved working with a group of local primary school children to bring to life the Hackney of the 1790s. These were years of rapid change, as the new technology of the canal age brought new prosperity, the French revolution brought refugees to an area already famous for its community of free thinkers and radicals, and a hugely increased population brought the need for new building.
Children’s work from previous stages of this project can be seen at:
Rehearsed Readings
Clio’s Company stage an occasional series of rehearsed reading of plays that were smash hits in their day, but which have been long forgotten. We aim to discover whether their obscurity is deserved, or whether these are shows that would appeal to a modern audience. The readings take place at various locations around London, including Sutton House, Dr Johnson’s House and All Hallows by the Tower – please email for details of the next one.
For further information on any of these projects and events, please contact us by email.