THE ENGLISH HERITAGE PODCAST
Every object has a story to tell. But how can one mystery item lead us on a journey through history, people and places?
In the English Heritage podcast, comedian and writer Amy Matthews brings you entertaining tales from unexpected places. Each week, we begin with a mystery item and with the help of English Heritage experts and special guests, Amy explores what our past can tell us about our present and perhaps our future.
More than a missionary: The radical social work of Kamal Chunchie
This week, join host Amy Matthews and Howard Spencer, English Heritage senior historian for blue plaques, Judith Garfield MBE, executive director of Eastside Community Heritage, and Sumita Mukherjee, historian at the University of Bristol, as they celebrate the unveiling of London’s 1,035th English Heritage blue plaque, dedicated to the remarkable Kamal Chunchie.
After arriving from Sri Lanka, Chunchie joined the British Army and later undertook missionary and outreach work, with special responsibility for missionary work among Black and Asian sailors of the dockland area. He spent over 30 years supporting marginalised Black and Asian sailors and their families as they faced poverty and prejudice in the East End dockyards.
Installed at his former workplace, the Queen Victoria Seamen’s Rest in Poplar, the plaque formally honours Chunchie's legacy as a pioneering pastor and anti-racist community activist.
Listen to the English Heritage PodcastWhere the sacred meets the sea
What is it about our cliffs, beaches, islands and headlands that makes them so perfect for pilgrimage, prayer and retreat?
In the fourth of our special series on Britain’s coastline, join Amy and English Heritage curators Susan Harrison and Jeremy Ashbee for a spiritual seaside journey. From the Holy Island of Lindesfarne to St Catharine’s Chapel near Chesil Beach and plenty of places in between, they explore why the shoreline has been such an important part of Britain’s religious history.
Watch all the special coastline episodesAll Episodes
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Speaking with shadows
When you’re wandering about a historic place, what voices do you hear echoing off the walls? Are they the ones you learnt about at school – or do you wonder about the shadowy, quiet voices that may have gone unheard?
Travel from 17th-century Northamptonshire, where we hear about the heroic servant who may have become Britain’s first black pub landlord, to wartime Essex, where Polish special forces soldiers trained in secrecy for life or death missions to their homeland.
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