Migration and identity in the East of England

Tools

Setting the Context
What is typically British? What is typically East Anglian? What links these images?
Timeline
See how events and people in the East of England connect with national and international events from earliest time to the present.
Glossary
Alien? Asylum Seeker? Denizen? Foreigner? Refugee? Stranger? What does it mean?

Introduction

On 11 July 1596, in an open letter to the Lord Mayor of London and to mayors and sheriffs of other towns, referring to increasing numbers of people from other countries living in England, Queen Elizabeth I ordered " .... those kinde of people should be sent forth from the land ... "

Acts of the Privy Council, XXVI (1596-1597), pp.16, 20-21

Our Kind of People is a website which focuses on issues about and evidence of migration and settlement in the East of England. The site has been developed as the result of a regional archives-based learning project for KS2 and KS3 History, Geography, ICT, SEAL and Citizenship. It contains original source documents, some sound archives and images from the 12th century until the present, from collections in the county archives and record offices. Also included are online teaching tools.

It has been designed to provide background information, lesson ideas and tools for teachers, but could also be used by pupils for research.

Stories from Archives

Who were the Wittewronges? Why does Mildenhall remember Rawdon Middleton? What happened to make the Paxman family leave Framlingham? Why were Asian people from Uganda landing at Stansted in 1972? How did a school in Essex come to be named after an immigrant from the Punjab? What was it like to move from the West Indies to Ipswich in the 1950s? Collections of documents in public and community archives, oral histories and photographs tell many stories about people who came to Britain.

Our Stories

Inspired by stories from the past, students create their own stories about migration and identity.