Joan Thirsk facts for kids

Irene Joan Thirsk (born Watkins; 19 June 1922 – 3 October 2013) was a famous British historian. She studied how people lived and worked in the past, especially focusing on farming history. She was known for showing how farming methods were different in various parts of England. Joan also loved learning about the history of food and local English history, especially in Hadlow, Kent.

Life of Joan Thirsk

Joan Watkins was born in St Pancras, London, on 19 June 1922. Her father managed a club, and her mother was a dressmaker. She went to Primrose Hill Primary and Camden School. In 1941, she started university at Westfield College to study German and French.

Working at Bletchley Park

In 1942, Joan joined the ATS, which was part of the British Army. She was sent to Bletchley Park. This was a secret place where clever people worked to break enemy codes during World War II. Joan was an intelligence analyst. She helped figure out secret German messages. These messages helped the Allied forces know where the German army was and how strong it was. Her future husband, Jimmy, also worked there.

After the War

Joan and Jimmy got married in September 1945. They moved to London, and Joan went back to university. She changed her studies from languages to history. Later, when Jimmy retired in 1974, they moved to Oxford, and then to Hadlow in Kent.

Joan's Career as a Historian

Joan started her teaching career at the London School of Economics. She then became a senior researcher at the University of Leicester from 1951 to 1965. After that, she taught economic history at Oxford University until 1983.

She was also the editor for several books in a big series called The Agrarian History of England and Wales. She worked on this series from 1964 and became its general editor in 1974. Joan was also on the board of a history magazine called Past & Present for many years.

Because of her important work, Joan received several special honors. She became a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1974. In 1982, she was chosen to be part of the American Philosophical Society. In 1993, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Joan's Contributions to History

Early in her career, Joan studied farming in a place called Kesteven in Lincolnshire. She noticed that farming was different in each area. This depended on the type of land, like clay or limestone. This made her think about history through geography. She believed that the land itself shaped how people farmed, rather than just big economic ideas. This way of thinking helped other historians look at regions more closely.

In 1952, she helped start the Agricultural History Society. She welcomed ideas from people who studied folklore, geography, and even farmers themselves. In 1964, she became the editor of the Agricultural History Review, a magazine about farming history.

Understanding Old Farming Methods

For her work on The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Joan used old lists of people's belongings after they died. These lists, called probate inventories, helped her map out how farming worked in different parts of England. She also found that making cloth and knitting by hand were common in areas where people raised animals, like North Wiltshire or West Yorkshire. This was part of a time called proto-industrialisation.

Everyday Objects and Horses

In her lectures in 1975, Joan studied the history of everyday items. These included things like starch, needles, cooking pots, and stockings. Other historians had often overlooked these items. She wanted to understand how these products were made and sold. This showed how new ideas in business affected jobs and how families earned money. In 1978, she also gave an important lecture about the role of horses in England before factories became common.

Joan's Interest in Food History

Even though she was best known for farming history, Joan also loved food history, especially later in her life. In 1995, she gave a talk about how people used to preserve food. She also helped with an exhibition about food in Shakespeare's England in 1999. She wrote an essay for the exhibition's book.

Her book Alternative Agriculture looked at how less common plants like flax, hemp, and rapeseed were grown in early modern England. Her last major book was Food in Early Modern England Phases, Fads, Fashions 1500–1760. In this book, she explored the history of English food over time. She showed that food in that era was not boring. People ate many different herbs, plants, and animals that we don't eat today. She even tried making and tasting barley bread, which was a common food back then. She found it was hard to make and eat!

Works

• Alternative Agriculture: A History (1997) Oxford University Press
• The Agrarian History of England and Wales, volume V: 1640–1750 (1985, as editor)
• The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Volume IV: 1500–1640 (1967, as editor)

See also

• Past & Present
• Richard Henry Tawney