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Classical Encounters in England's North East book cover

1st Edition

Classical Encounters in England's North East

Edited By Edith Hall, Rory McInnes-Gibbons, Edmund Thomas Copyright 2026
418 Pages 127 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

418 Pages 127 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

418 Pages 127 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This is the first book to explore the history of ancient Greek and Roman influences and reception in England’s North East, topics which have often transcended social boundaries dictated by working identity, class, religion, gender, and ethnicity. Together, the chapters cover a broad range of themes and topics from architecture, theatre, working-class education, poetry, post-war novels and... Read more

Acknowledgements

List of Contributors

List of Figures

List of Tables

 

1.     Introduction: The Editors

 

PART I. INSTITUTIONS AND EDUCATION

2. The Northumberland and Durham Classical Association, From 1912 Onwards

Jennifer Ingleheart

 

3.     Spennymoor Classics: Tales From the Pit University

Henry Stead

 

4.     Hadrian in Hiding?: Investigating Access to Classics Education in the North East of England

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Laura Hope

 

PART II. CLASSICS FOR AND BY THE PEOPLE

 

5.     Stories of Marsden: Roman Remains, Revolution and the Rights of Man

Lilah Grace Canevaro and Mirko Canevaro

 

6.     A Historical Pageant, the People's Theatre and the North East: Amateur Theatre and the Classical World in 1930s Newcastle

Rory McInnes-Gibbons

 

7.     A Communist on the Wall: Frank Graham in the Days of the Romans

Matthew Kilburn

 

PART III. ARCHITECTURE AND ART

 

8.     Temples of Knowledge: The Classical Architecture of Public Libraries and Mechanics’ Institutes in North-East England 1668–2016

Richard Pears

 

9.     Keystones and Social Identity in the Classical Architecture of England's North East 

Edmund Thomas

 

10.  Presenting Claudia: A Roman Princess in St. Nicholas' Cathedral

Cora Beth Fraser

 

PART IV. MUSA AELIANA

 

11.  Teesside Novelists and the Ancient Underclass: Barry Unsworth and Pat Barker

Edith Hall

 

12.  Classics and Identity in Poetry of the North East

Edith Hall

 

13.  Connecting Things

Maureen Almond

 

PART V. WALL STORIES

 

14.  The Wall and Its Saviour; John Clayton and the Discovery of Hadrian’s Wall in the Nineteenth Century

Frances McIntosh

 

15.  Oxford Classics on the Roman Frontier: Eric Birley and the Legacy of Francis Haverfield

Martha Lovell Stewart

 

16.  The Commemoration of Hadrian’s Wall in Cultural Events

Richard Hingley

 

Consolidated Bibliography

Index

Biography

Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at the University of Durham. She has published 37 books on ancient Greece and Rome and their continuing presences in the modern world, acts as consultant to professional theatre companies and regularly broadcasts on the BBC. With Arlene Holmes-Henderson she leads a campaign to support teaching of classics and philosophy in state schools and prisons.

Rory McInnes-Gibbons works on the Leverhulme-funded Durham University research project Aristotle Beyond the Academy (2024–2026) and previously co-coordinated the community outreach project, Classics and Class in the North East. He works across classical reception with a focus on the Roman Near East having graduated from a PhD on Palmyra at Durham in 2023.

Edmund Thomas is Professor of Ancient Visual and Material Culture at Durham University. He has published widely on Roman architecture and its afterlife from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period. His chapter in this volume is part of a forthcoming longer study on the history of the keystone from Greek and Roman antiquity to the modern era.

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