‘Mental Health on Record’ is a stop-motion animation film made by young filmmakers during the summer of 2019. The group worked with professional filmmaker Nigel Kellaway to create the film. The National Archives partnered with Richmond Borough Mind and Jon Bartlett, a mental health first aid instructor, on the project.
Mental Health on Record explores the stories of nine individuals who experienced mental health issues during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It looks at the provision available at this time to care for people with mental health challenges, and considers the attitudes and the common misconceptions that existed. At KS3 and KS4, students learn about attitudes to mental health and how misconceptions can be addressed and challenged. This film can be used to spark discussion and consider case studies from the past.
Many thanks to the Friends of The National Archives for their support on this project. 
You can now view the video in full here, and explore our lesson activities to use the film as part of your history or PSHE studies.
What do the documents reveal about the understanding of mental health in the past?
A series of short films made by BBC Teach looking at the importance of sources, at The National Archives and other historical sites, and their use in investigating key historical events. From Magna Carta to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Suitable for: History at KS3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 3rd and 4th level People, past events and societies in Scotland.
Walter Tull (1888-1918) was of dual heritage, his mother was white British and his father was African-Caribbean. Tull was commissioned* as an officer in 1917 at a time when the army required officers to be of ‘pure European descent.’ This was an important challenge to a racist policy. For his army service he was recommended a Military Cross. This is his application for a temporary commission form, 1917, (Catalogue ref: WO 339/90293)
*A commissioned officer commands a military unit.
Football team picture Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 1909, (Catalogue ref: COPY 1/538 f18)
Walter Tull was born on 28 April 1888 in Folkstone, Kent. His father was from Barbados and his mother from Kent. His parents died when he was aged 9 years old. Walter and his brother were brought up in an orphanage in Bethnal Green, East London. From 1908 he started to play football and was signed by Clapton FC, then the following year by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. He was the second person of African-Caribbean mixed heritage to play in the top division of the Football League. He later moved to Northampton Town F.C. in 1911 where he played half-back.
At the start of the First World War Tull joined the 17th (1st Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment as a Lance-Corporal. In 1915 he served in France and was later placed in hospital for shell shock. In 1916, he returned to action in September and fought in the Battle of the Somme, afterwards attending officer training in Britain then going back to serve in the 23rd Battalion of the Middlesex regiment as a second lieutenant.
Despite army rules which forbade a ‘person of colour’ being commissioned as an officer (a leader of men), Walter was promoted to lieutenant after officer training school at Gailes, Scotland. In 1917. Tull is widely considered the first African-Caribbean mixed heritage man to be commissioned as an infantry officer in the British Army.
Walter Tull died aged 29 in 1918 while leading an attack on the Western front during the Second Battle of the Somme in March. The Commanding Officer of the 23rd Battalion recommended him for a Military Cross for bravery.
The two original sources in this lesson can used to find out more about the life of Walter Tull.
How can we use sources to find out about him?
What to expect in the onsite workshop:
In the onsite workshop students explore methods used in the suffrage movement through handling original documents like coded diaries and court testimony. They will examine the state response to the movement through a range of documents housed in Home Office, Metropolitan Police and prison files. This session develops skills in evidential understanding as students will consider why the government archival collection contains more documents related to militancy and what might be missing.
The two-hour workshop is led by an experienced history educator in an inspiring learning space at The National Archives in Kew.
Connections to the curriculum:
KS3
- Challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day: Women’s Suffrage
KS5
- AQA: GCE History, Unit 2M: Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906-1957
- OCR: GCE History A, Unit Y111, British Period Study and enquiry: Liberals, Conservatives and the Rise of Labour, 1846-1918
All activities must be booked in advance.
Tel: +44 (0)20 3908 9162
Who was accused?
Dr Hannah Worthen, University of Hull
In early modern society there was a genuine fear of witchcraft and those suspected of consorting with the Devil could be put on trial and executed, occasionally in large numbers. From a modern perspective, the so-called ‘witch crazes’ can be difficult to understand. What sorts of people were accused of witchcraft? Why? How genuine were people’s suspicions? And what evidence was required for somebody to be executed? This resource helps to highlight some of the reasons why people were accused of witchcraft, who they were, and what happened to them as a result.
The fear of witches, witchcraft, and bewitchment originated in the medieval period when the Roman Catholic Church taught the dangers of witchcraft and printed texts, such as Malleus Maleficarum, illustrated the horrors of witchcraft. Witchcraft remained within the popular imagination into the early modern period, and after the Reformation it was still perceived to be a threat to the church and a well-ordered society. In times of uncertainty and upheaval witchcraft accusations would increase, and so there were often more witchcraft accusations during times of war and famine. General fears of witchcraft within society could also feed into specific accusations that originated within local community so that somebody disliked by their neighbours might be more vulnerable to being accused. In this resource there are lots of examples of ordinary people being accused of witchcraft by their neighbours. For example, Joan Guppie, whose neighbours believed her to be a witch and who took it upon themselves to try to punish her. There were also waves of accusations as groups of people were rounded up and put on trial together such as the Lancaster witches: a group of women who were tried together 20 years after the famous Pendle witch trials.
Witchcraft was particularly associated with women in the early modern period, and this continued into the modern era. In this resource there are several examples of modern images of witches who were women, often riding on broomsticks with a pointy hat: the image that we most associate with witchcraft today. However, an image of a witch taken from the seventeenth century shows some aspects of this witchcraft stereotype have been around for a long time. Women were more likely to be accused because of the church’s teaching that women were the weaker sex, seen as more vulnerable to the seductive powers of the Devil. Therefore, accusations of witchcraft became another way for women to be oppressed in early modern society. However, men were also suspected and accused of witchcraft, such as the male witches of Edmonton.
Lots of the sources in this resource are legal documents that relate to witchcraft trials. When a person was accused of witchcraft an Indictment would be drawn up, then witnesses would be called, an examination of the accused would be carried out and sometimes a confession drawn out, possibly with torture. Those found guilty would be executed. Not all accusations of witchcraft were believed, however. Even in this period, people were suspicious of attempts to pretend to be bewitched, or pretending to be a witch, and were aware that not all cases of witchcraft were genuine. For example, in this resource is the case of Katherine Malpas, who’s relatives pretended she was a witch for their own financial benefit.
Witchcraft caused great fear within society, but it also often became a function of normal life. Somebody new to a community might be accused of witchcraft because his or her neighbours were suspicious of them. Sometimes a person might pretend to be bewitched because it was a way of making money. People were more suspicious of witchcraft when the harvest failed, as they looked to find a cause. Witchcraft trials became ways for grievances and disputes to be aired, and for people to stand in testimony for or against their neighbours. In many ways, therefore, understanding the history of witchcraft tells us less about the supernatural than it does about the realities of everyday life for ordinary people in early modern England.
Map of the Southbank. Catalogue ref: MPEE1/25
Order to restrict performances. Catalogue ref: PC2/18
License to perform during Lent. Catalogue ref: PC2/12