“TILL WE HAVE BUILT JERUSALEM”
A growing oral history archive of interviews
about the utopian socialists and reformers
who fought for justice in industrial Britain
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the screenwriter and literary historian, Professor George M Johnson about the pacifist priest and founder of the Peace Pledge Union, Dick Sheppard.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the TV writer, novelist, book dealer and publisher, Matt Wingett about the history of his home town, Portsmouth and its two eminent social reformers, John Pounds and Robert Dolling..
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Ben Pink Dandelion, about the religious sensibility of the British Quakers, their innovative but generous business mindset, and the Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree chocolate makers.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the distinguished sociologist of palliative care, Professor David Clark, about the founder of the modern hospice movement, Cicely Saunders.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Dr Ralph Norman about the Anglican preacher and social reformer, Henry Scott Holland.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Revd Earl Collins about the life and pioneering career of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychologist.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the actor Andrew Harrison about his career, Riding Lights, and his partnership with playwright Murray Watts in a series of one-man plays about Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday and Henri Nouwen.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Revd Canon Alison Falby about the life and times of the pioneering Anglican preacher, suffragist, pacifist and public intellectual Maude Royden.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Erica Davies, Director of the Ragged School Museum and the academic Bill Jacob about the Museum’s place in the London Ragged School Movement, before the advent of state education in 1870.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the choral composer Mark Browse about his book, O Little Town about hymn tunes and their place names.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Neil Johnson about his separate books on Keir Hardie and the Labour Church
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Revd Canon Michael Hampel about the detective writer and dramatist, Dorothy L Sayers and her theory of creativity.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Chris Hare about his 2022 book, Hilaire Belloc: The Politics of Living.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Jane Shaw about the pioneer of modern spirituality, Christian mystic, retreat leader and spiritual director, Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941).
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Christopher Kitching CBE about the radical influence of St Mary’s Primrose Hill on Anglican liturgy and social theology..
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with David Lane CBE about the Lane family’s Methodism and his career in social services.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Kathryn Atherton about her 2024 book, Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Mark Frost about his 2014 book, The Lost Companions and John Ruskin’s Guild of St George.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Revd Canon Dr Georgina Byrne about her book Modern Spiritualism and the Church of England and the changing attitudes within Anglicanism to the afterlife..
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with film maker Marc Isaacs and screenwriter Adam Ganz about ‘This Blessed Plot’, their 2024 film which is set in the rural town of Thaxted, Essex and provides a modern take on its history..
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the former Warden of Pleshey Retreat House, Essex, Canon John Howden about its proud history and association with the Christian mystic, Evelyn Underhill.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the poet, playwright and broadcaster Nigel Forde about his life, career and his part in the foundation of the Riding Lights theatre company.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Stewart J. Brown about his biography of the nonconformist and newspaper prophet, W. T. Stead.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the theologian, author and journalist Theo Hobson about the relationship between the Church of England and modern notions of liberty and liberalism.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Timothy Larsen about the feminist and fundamentalist preacher, Christabel Pankhurst.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Frances Knight about the founding visionary of the Garden City Movement, Ebenezer Howard.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with General Practitioner Dr Jonathan Heatley about the enormous contribution to the development of penicillin that was made by his father, Norman Heatley.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Pippa Catterall and Daniel Payne about the Christian Socialist politician, leader of the Labour Party and Pacifist, George Lansbury.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Jill and John Copper and Jon Dudley about the Copper Family which holds an honoured place in the annals of the English folk song tradition.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor David Bebbington about Liberalism and the Non-Conformist Conscience, perhaps best exemplified by the life, faith and political opinions of the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone .
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Venerable Roger Preece, the 68th Master of the Royal Foundation of St Katharine about his influential predecessor and Christian Socialist, Father St John Groser, the 58th Master of this retreat centre and oasis of calm in urban London.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the biographer, speaker and broadcaster Gillian Darley about her biography of Octavia Hill, the social and housing reformer who is best known today for co-founding The National Trust.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the poet and writer Isobel Montgomery Campbell about her grandfather, Martin Shaw, the composer who is best known today for introducing the hymn, Morning Has Broken to generations of British school children.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Nigel Scotland about the university settlement movement which sprang up principally in London, but also in major industrial cities, after awareness of the ‘submerged tenth’ living in extreme poverty pricked the conscience of the middle classes from the 1880s.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Reverend Dr David Hilborn about the defining characteristics of Evangelicalism, and changing face since the founding of the Evangelical Alliance in London 1846.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the distinguished social historian and writer Ken Worpole about radical Essex and its experiments in communal living, some of which are associated with what is known as the “Essexodus” from London’s East End to neighbouring Essex in the east.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor John Orens about the campaigner on behalf of chorus girls and the ballet, popular theatre and music hall, trade unionism, freedom of speech for atheists and secular education, the radical one-time priest and sacramental socialist, Stewart Headlam.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Sally, Jenny and Martin Heath, the granddaughters and grandson of the Christian Socialist Father Jack Putterill and his wife Barbara, about their idyllic childhood visits to Thaxted and the tradition of Morris, Mummers plays, music and theatre that they encountered there.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Arthur Burns about the seventy year tradition of Christian Socialism in the rural town of Thaxted, Essex, running from 1910 to 1984..
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Martin Wright, about the great crusading journalist Robert Blatchford, the Clarion magazine and movement, and Blatchford’s Merrie England which sold over 2 million copies.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Sussex priest, Revd Nick Flint, about his Parish Ministry in Rusper, West Sussex, his tribute to Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Pilgrim, and his troubled predecessor, Edward Synnott Fitzgerald’s controversial Five Years’ Hell in a Country Parish.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Lawrence Goldman about his biography of the academic, historian, socialist and private Christian R. H. Tawney.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Elizabeth Schafer about her biography of Lilian Baylis of The Old Vic theatre, and about Lilian’s aunt, the social reformer Emma Cons.
Guest interviewer Sarah Tombling in conversation with Rachel Ellis about Hugo Ellis’s play about Percy Dearmer, A Pilgrim’s Song and Simon Machin about his play about Conrad Noel, Red Heaven, and his radio adaptation of A Pilgrim’s Song.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Jonathan Rose about his books, The Edwardian Temperament and his classic The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, and current research interests.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Revd Canon Dr Stephen Spencer about his long fascination with the great Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, and Temple’s place within Anglican Social Theology.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Julian Litten about his career as an ecclesastical historian and his book about the Thaxted exotic, the self-styled Amand Edouard Ambroise Marie Lowis Etienne Phillipe d’Sant Andre Tournay, Marquis d’Oisy.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Richard Hunter about the Hunter family, childhood memories of Thaxted and his grandfather Alec Hunter, Morris man, friend of Conrad Noel and Director of the St. Edmundsbury Weaving Works
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the folk singer and curator of the Singing Landscape project, Yvette Staelens about her childhood in multi-cultural Gloucester, her career and her mother’s childhood memories of Thaxted.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Jacqueline Patten about the Bob and Jacqueline Patten English Folk Music Collection, and West Gallery Music.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Matt Simons about his 2019 thesis on the subject of Morris Men and English identity, which features a pioneering academic consideration of Alec Hunter, the inaugural Squire of the Morris Ring, 1934-36.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the engraver and expert on plain chant, John Rowlands-Pritchard, about his career, Morris dancing and Opus Anglicanum’s CD The Seeds of Love.
Dr Simon Machin in in conversation with Juliet Woollcombe and Timandra Nichols, the grand daughters of liturgist and Christian Socialist Percy Dearmer about the Dearmer family, including war poet, Geoffrey and Percy’s second wife, Nan.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Father Paschal Worton, team vicar of St Mary’s, Eversholt Street, NW1 about London’s slum priests, including the housng reformer Father Basil Jellicoe and the Christian Socialist, Father Charles Marson.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the organist Simon Johnson about his musical career and his recording of the organ transcription of Holst’s The Planets at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Alan Gibbs about his book Holst Among Friends and the Thaxted Whitsun Festivals
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with local historian Maggie Stevens about Edward VII’s mistress and socialist convert, ‘Daisy’ Countess of Warwick and the Red Vicars of Essex.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Peter and Sybil King about church life in Thaxted under the Red Vicars Conrad Noel and Jack Putterill.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Lucy Neal about her great great aunt, the social reformer and instigator of the Edwardian folk revival, Mary Neal.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with David Sutcliffe about The Keys of Heaven, his biography of Charles Marson, the priest who helped start the Edwardian Folk Revival. through his friendship with Cecil Sharp.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with long-time Thaxted resident, Bruce Munro about Conrad Noel, the Red Vicar of Thaxted and Father Jack Putterill, Conrad’s son in law, and life in post-war Thaxted.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Katie Palmer Heathman about her 2016 doctoral thesis which places the Christian Socialist priests, Conrad Noel and Charles Marson as progressives within the late 19c/early 20c folk revival.
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with David Sutcliffe about his new biography of Cecil Sharp, the English musician, lecturer, and collector of folk song and dance, who was the driving force behind the Folk Revival of the Edwardian Period.