Our blogging and social media prompts have been designed with our members in mind, but anyone can take part – even if they don’t have a formal one-place study (see One-place study blogging prompts 2021 – everyone’s invited!). The prompts are a series of monthly themes or topics for one-place study activities. Those activities can be any or all of the following:

  • Posts to BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, or X (formerly Twitter)
  • Blog posts (for Society members these can be for your own website/blog, or for the Society’s, or for both)
  • For Society members, articles for our journal Destinations

You are free to use any or all of these prompts – you might look at the topics and see that you can do something for January, March, April and June but not for February or May, for example. We hope that this approach will be flexible enough to give everyone an opportunity to take part, whatever the nature of your Place, your favourite areas of research, or the amount of time you have available.

Articles on the topics written by members for Destinations can be sent to the editor at any time for publication, but where possible please post related blog and social media posts during the relevant months. 

Hopefully you will find at least one topic which will spark your interest and prompt you to participate. If not, we have more to come – Hopefully you will find lots of topics which will spark your interest and prompt you to participate – and we have more to come! You can of course put forward suggestions for any that you would like to see included.

Entertainment | #OnePlaceEntertainment | Dec 2024

What did the people of your place do to entertain themselves and others, on high days and holidays (including Christmas of course) or in their daily lives? You can interpret entertainment in its widest sense, to look at formal events and informal opportunities for people to ‘eat, drink and be merry’; dances; evenings of music, song, recitations or amateur dramatics; outings and day trips; and games. Which members of the community were able to participate in these activities, and which individuals (or what organisations) were they arranged by or connected with?

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceEntertainment

Charities | #OnePlaceCharities | Nov 2024

From those who gave to those who received, charities were important to many in our Places. You might find details of charitable bequests made by or for your OPS residents in wills and/or church benefaction tables; government publications / Charity Commission records might be another source. Who were the benefactors, and who got to decide on the beneficiaries of their charity? What did the charities provide for – bread on Christmas Day, or a place in an almshouse for example? Collections for the relief those affected by distress or disaster were another form of charity, for which records might be found in newspapers or church accounts.
Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceCharities

Folklore (to include ghosts!) | #OnePlaceFolklore | Oct 2024

 

Exploring a place’s folklore, its traditional beliefs, customs and stories, passed down by word of mouth, music, dance or crafts, can provide fascinating insights into the culture shared by the local community. We’ve chosen the month of Halloween for this prompt, but you needn’t confine yourself to traditions around that event or to ghostly goings on in your place! Local legends; stories connected to particular people, animals or places; annual processions, rituals or performances connected with particular days or times of the year – see what you can find out about them in newspapers, books and oral histories, or through tales still told or customs still practised today.

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceFolklore

Water | #OnePlaceWater | Sep 2024

These days, for most people, water is readily available just by turning on a tap and is perhaps taken for granted. When did that become the norm, through the provision of mains water, in your place – and how, and from where, did your place’s residents obtain water for themselves, their animals and their plants or crops before that time? Did any disputes arise over access to water? Was your place affected by too little water (droughts) or too much (floods)? Did water courses or bodies of water in your place, natural or artificial, provide sources of food, means of transport, opportunities for recreation – or pose a danger to life through the risk of drowning or disease?

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceWater

Ephemera | #OnePlaceEphemera | Aug 2024

Ephemera, according to Wikipedia, are items which were not originally designed to be retained or preserved, but have been collected or retained. Do you have any such items relating to your place, in the form of flyers, tickets, receipts, envelopes, cheques, auction catalogues and so on, perhaps acquired through online sale or auction sites such as eBay? If so, to which of your place’s residents and/or businesses do they relate and what have you learned from them? Newspapers and postcards (both subjects of previous prompts) are also regarded as ephemera, so you now have another opportunity to blog or post about them if you wish.

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceEphemera

Elections | #OnePlaceElections | July 2024

With the UK going to the polls to vote in a General Election in July and, in the run-up to the US election in November, the Republican Convention taking place (and the Democratic Convention following in August), this month is a good time to look at the history of elections in our places. You could look at who had the right to vote, and how that changed over time; electioneering in your place by prospective MPs/representatives and how this was received; how and where votes were cast (are there surviving poll books for your place?); which constituency your place was in and who represented it; and more besides. You might even look at elections for offices besides those for national government.

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceElections

Weddings | #OnePlaceWeddings | June 2024

Weddings in our places, or of our place’s people, present lots of possibilities for OPS research. Where did they take place – at the parish church, a ‘non-conformist’ church or chapel, or the Register Office? Who married after banns, and who obtained licences? Were there any patterns as to when weddings took place? Interesting or unusual weddings in your place are worth looking at – did any involve the bride and/or groom marrying for a second or third time, were the happy couple cousins or otherwise related, was the groom marrying his dead wife’s sister, were there any unexpected attendants? Press reports listing guests and their gifts, describing what the bride and bridesmaids wore, and (in more recent times) featuring photos, really help us to get a feel for the ‘big day.’ You might also consider weddings that didn’t happen for various reasons, including engagements broken off, breaches of promise to marry, or clergy who refused marriages.

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceWeddings

Post | #OnePlacePost | May 2024

Research and share findings on Post Offices and the people who ran them, letter carriers, postmen and women, and other Post Office employees. Potential sources include censuses, newspapers, BMDs, parish records, maps, directories, the Addressing Health website, and indexed collections of Post Office appointment and pension records on commercial sites such as Ancestry. You could also look at what other businesses were combined with running a Post Office; the senders and recipients of post (including postcards) in your place; and the locations of post boxes.

Social media hashtag: #OnePlacePost

Spring | #OnePlaceSpring | April 2024

Spring into action with the last of our ‘seasons’ prompts! What happened in our places at this time of year? What were farmers and gardeners focussed on, what wildlife was about, what events took place, what traditions were kept? Lambs and lambing, blossom and birdsong, Maypoles and May Queens come to mind. The rebirth of the countryside in Spring must have been a welcome sight for many in our places – did your OPS residents listen for the first Cuckoo, watch for the return of the Swallows, and enjoy the early Spring wildflowers as they went about their daily lives, or was Spring cleaning on their minds?

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceSpring

Books | #OnePlaceBooks | March 2024

March is the month in which World Book Day falls, making it an ideal tome – sorry, time! – to study books in your OPS. What books, if any, were written by people in your OPS – or read by them (searching for the name of your place or some individual residents, along with the keyword ‘subscriber’, at Google Books might lead to some interesting discoveries). From where did the people of your place obtain books to read: was there a library, a reading room, or a bookshop within your OPS or nearby. Did anyone have their own library or collection of books, perhaps revealed in a will or auction catalogue? You could also consider books in a wider sense (including those used to keep records for example), or share details of books about your place which you have found useful or interesting.

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceBooks

Policing | #OnePlacePolicing | February 2024

Tell us about the long arm of the law (and those on the other end of it!) in your OPS. Who policed your place, what stories can be told about them, and of the members of the local community with whom they interacted? What types of offences did your local copper have to deal with, and whose collars did they feel? Were there any community responses to crime in and around your place, for example a local ‘society for the prosecution of felons’? During your investigations you might also look into the ways in which crime and policing in your place changed over time. We hope you will come up with some arresting stories!
 
Social media hashtag: #OnePlacePolicing

Winter | #OnePlaceWinter | January 2024

What were Winters like in your place, and how did they affect your OPS residents? If you have found any accounts of snow, or even blizzards (or Winter floods) affecting your place, what were the impacts and how did people respond? How did your OPS residents keep warm during the cold Winter months? Were there any seasonal customs or traditions connected with Winter? This and our other ‘seasons’ prompts can also be looked at from a present day perspective, especially if you live in or near your place and can take and share some seasonal snapshots. The more you look, the more you will (hopefully) find – the number of things you could blog or post about might snowball!

Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceWinter

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