This project addresses the phenomenon of members of the British public writing to politicians. The investigation will begin with Gladstone (the first Prime Minister for whom a collection of such letters survives) and will conclude with very recent developments. In recent years, in contrast to traditional policy history, historians have increasingly investigated political, parliamentary and electoral culture. However, correspondence as a means of 'doing politics' has been overlooked. Although there have been a few specific case studies of individual politicians' postbags, these have concentrated on analysing the opinions expressed. Our research, by contrast, will explore the broader significance of what are termed 'letters to power' over a period of more than a century. Through examining this correspondence-which incorporated telegrams, greetings cards, and faxes as well as letters-the project will explore how members of the public understood and reacted to the changing nature of the British state, political communications, and leadership. We will analyse twenty-four correspondence collections belonging to British political leaders that have been identified in a prior scoping project to contain letters from the general public. We will involve current/recent MPs and their staff, and other relevant stakeholders, in order to obtain a contemporary perspective on how correspondence is received and regarded by elected representatives, particularly in the context of the rise of social media. In recent years, due in part to the use of email, there have been dramatic increases in the volume of correspondence that politicians have received. This upward trend is no novelty. In the context of successive franchise extensions (so that all adults over 21 had the vote by 1928), and the expansion of the State, MPs began to receive increasing numbers of letters seeking help with issues such as war pensions and benefit claims. However, there was a lack of adequate parliamentary office space and administrative support, and some members declined to take on the role of 'glorified social worker'. As time went on, shifting understandings of what it meant to be 'a good constituency MP' made such refusenik attitudes more and more unsustainable. Of course, there are legitimate questions to be asked about how representative 'letters to power' are as expressions of public opinion. MPs tended to reject orchestrated letter-writing campaigns as inauthentic, although paradoxically issues on which there was strong public feeling were more likely to stimulate organised collective efforts. Moving the focus from the representativeness of particular views to the broader question of what voters were trying to achieve by writing to politicians will not only give insights into the techniques of political action but also the wider meaning of this particular type of political participation. In addition to exploring the historical significance of 'letters to power', the project has three further purposes. The first is to increase scholars' awareness of the numerous collections of such letters, which are distributed in multiple archives across the UK, and to highlight the uses to which they may be put. The second is to explore the legal and ethical implications of undertaking and publishing scholarship based on them. Given that members of the public wrote to politicians in the reasonable expectation that their views would be treated confidentially, and very possibly not understanding that their letters might be archived, what are the limits on their acceptable use? The third is to create Impact by sharing the research findings with MPs and the staff of the House of Commons Library (the Project Partner organization) to promote best practice in the management and archiving of correspondence and a more effective responses to correspondence through a better understanding of why, when, and how members of the public write to politicians.

In February 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave the parliamentary vote to (some) British women for the first time. A further change in the law ensured that as well as voting, women were able to stand as candidates at the next general election in December 1918. As we move towards the centenary of these two events, public interest in their origins is growing. Our project will capitalise on this interest through disseminating those findings from two previous AHRB projects (Angela Smith's 'Suffrage Discourse during World War One' 2003) and (Cowman's 'Paid Organisers in the Women's Social and Political Union', 2004) that relate to the work of suffrage organisations during the First World War leading up to the Representation of the People Act 1918 and the first election involving women candidates. Working in partnership with VOTE100, the official parliamentary project to mark these anniversaries, we will organise a series of carefully planned events. Through three workshops/panel discussions with invited speakers and public audiences we will consider the impact of the war on suffrage campaigns, the historical and contemporary gendering of politics and the broader social implications of this. A significant display at Westminster marking the centenaries followed by a contribution towards a major exhibition will enhance the impact and reach of our previous research. The outcomes of the project will be further disseminated through joint pamphlet and booklet publications authored by the project team and stakeholders.

Did women have a presence in the House of Commons before they were granted the right to vote and stand as MPs in the early twentieth century? 'Listening to the Commons' brings political history into dialogue with creative digital acoustic technology, virtual reality and buildings archaeology to explain how women participated in Commons debates long before they were formally enfranchised in 1918. Through 'Vote 100', Parliament is spearheading this 100th anniversary with a major series of events and exhibitions. Listening to the Commons will contribute to Vote 100 by adapting a 3D visual model of the historic Commons chamber constructed by the AHRC 'St Stephen's Chapel' project, to recover the soundscape of debate as experienced by women listening through a ventilator in the old House of Commons ceiling around 1800. Between 1548 and 1834 the House of Commons met in the converted royal chapel of St Stephen in the Palace of Westminster. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Commons witnessed intense debates which came to define modern Britain: the abolition of the slave trade, the ethics of capital punishment, the Reform Bill extending the franchise to working-class men. Women had often watched Commons debates from the public galleries, but in 1778 they were ejected following complaints from some MPs. Women responded by occupying the space above the Commons ceiling, accessed by a ladder, where the architecture of the medieval St Stephen's chapel was still visible. Surviving drawings show women watching and listening through the ventilator. Our follow-on activity focuses on this little-known but highly significant space. Acoustic and virtual reality technologies create an exciting new opportunity to develop the 3D model of the historic Commons chamber, created as part of the St Stephen's Chapel project, to model the soundscape of the Commons. Listening to the Commons will scale up this existing 3D model for the incorporation of historic sound. Building on a successful University of York Research Priming Fund pilot project to test out this idea, we will model the ventilator space and produce auralisations (the audio equivalent of visualisation) to enable us to recover the experience of women listening to Commons debates. We will explore the important narrative of women's engagement with Parliament at this time through this hidden space. Translating our results for a virtual reality experience will deliver a novel, historically and politically important, high profile example of how arts and humanities research can communicate with new cultural and heritage partner audiences via technology founded in the creative economy. The 3D visual and acoustic model, auralisations, and VR representation will be incorporated in the 'Vote 100' exhibition in Westminster Hall (July-Oct 2018). Exhibition visitors will experience debate from the perspective of women commenting on the all-male world of the House of Commons, dispelling the myth that women were absent from parliamentary politics before the twentieth century. The digital audio and VR content produced will be made accessible and shareable to provide further outreach for this exhibition and dissemination of this work. Listening to the Commons brings together three centres of expertise at York - the Dept of History, Dept. of Electronics Audio Lab, and the Digital Creativity Labs - into collaboration with the 'Vote 100' team, and this follow-on initiative develops the already strong relationship between the University of York and Parliament established by the St Stephen's project. Combining innovative digital technologies to highlight the deep history of women's participation in politics, our follow-on collaboration with Parliament's 'Vote 100' project will make a compelling demonstration of the impact of AHRC-funded research in the creative economy to engage new audiences and enable modern people to hear new histories told in new ways.

The Palace of Westminster is facing a major restoration programme. In October 2012 a joint study group of House of Commons Commission and House of Lords Committee reported that the historic fabric was in a serious state of decay, and that the current ventilation system were outdated and in need of a complete replacement. This provides the unique opportunity to systematically re-examine the original Victorian stack ventilation system, which had been in use for 90 years before it was replaced with mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning in the 1950s. Previous research by the PI has shown that the historic system was highly sophisticated. Its design had been refined over several decades and followed principles similar to those used in modern naturally ventilated buildings to reduce energy use. It was designed to exploit, as far as possible, the natural stack effect produced by hot air ascending air shafts within the large towers and numerous gothic turrets of the Palace. Yet, how effective was this historic stack system and how far could it be revitalized to provide a sustainable solution to ventilation in the 21st century? To address this question it will be essential to develop a critical understanding of the historic system. Although various studies have highlighted the importance of the Palace within the wider history of environmental design, to date there is no comprehensive study of the original stack system. This project aims to fill this significant gap in the literature by providing the first in-depth investigation into the design, history and performance of the ventilation, based on a combination of archival research, surveys inside the Palace, and the analysis of historic data collected and scientific studies conducted between 1852 and the 1941. Moreover, it will investigate how it could be restored in conjunction with the restoration, exploiting its potential in providing a sustainable strategy. Surveys and archival research will be used to reconstruct the original technical arrangements adopted in mid-19th century, to retrace how scientists, working alongside architects and engineers, had developed them, and to explore how the system was modified over its lifetime. Records of historic experiments, eye-witness accounts and measured data the project will be used to explore how scientists had empirically evaluated the performance of the ventilation, e.g in terms of thermal comfort and air quality. Covering a period of 90 years, these records will also be used to undertake an in-depth analysis of how the ventilation had performed historically under a variety of conditions. The gain such insights, however, the project will not only cross different areas within the field of history(e.g. history of science, environmental and architectural history), but also draw on current scientific methods to review the historic evidence from a technical perspective. Over the past 3 years the PI has conducted a pilot study, funded by the Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, and built a partnership with the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme (R&R), a body appointed by the UK government to coordinate the restoration. Recognising the importance of the proposed research to the programme, the Houses of Parliament agreed to be project partner. The research will form a separate work stream within the programme, which will be led by the PI and feed directly into the restoration. In addition to taking part in project meetings at Westminster and the PI will lead a series of workshops and project conferences, bringing together the R&R team and Parliamentary Estate Directorate to develop proposals for re-vitalizing the stack ventilation based on the new insights yielded by the historical research. In addition to demonstrating how historical research can be used to gain insights into past environmental principles, the project aims to show how it can be applied in the context of conservation.

There are approximately 10-12 million Roma, Gypsies and Travellers in Europe; comprising the largest ethnic minority group in the continent. The Council of Europe estimates that 300,000 Gypsies and Travellers reside in Britain; approximately 26% live on unauthorised sites, effectively homeless (a vivid recent example of the impact of unauthorised sites was at Dale Farm). Gypsies and Travellers have poor education and health outcomes (Cemlyn et. al, 2009 and Van Cleemput, 2004) and there are challenges in relation to employment (Greenfields and Ryder, 2010). They are one of the most marginalised groups in media and political debate (Richardson, 2006) and this can have an impact on planning for sites (Richardson, 2007). This social exclusion of Gypsies and Travellers has been compounded by poor access to services, a lack of political power and exclusion from decision making processes. There are also challenges ahead with the Localism Bill and changes to the National Planning Policy Framework in England that could further impact on the ability to make a place for Gypsies and Travellers (Richardson and Ryder, 2012 forthcoming). These challenges need proper debate on a multidisciplinary level with academics, practitioners, policy makers and Gypsies and Travellers themselves. This proposal makes a place for this debate through a series of three two-day seminars. The team of investigators are building upon existing working relationships through previous research projects on accommodation needs (Cemlyn, Greenfields and Richardson), proposals to examine mediation in access to healthcare (Richardson and Van Cleemput), examination of cross-cutting issues through contribution to forthcoming publication edited by Richardson and Ryder (forthcoming 2012). An initial seminar and meeting with a range of academics was held on 25th October at Buckinghamshire New University to discuss the seminar series proposal and to establish roots for this emerging research group. Whilst there are good links between a small number of academics studying Gypsy and Traveller issues, the proposal seeks ESRC funding to allow a larger, multi-disciplinary group to grow and to establish a platform for future research to help inform policy and practice. Each of the seminars will be a space for academics (including those at an early stage in their career), practitioners, policy makers, community members, Roma, Gypsy and Traveller representative organisations and politicians to come together to discuss cross-cutting, multi-disciplinary themes and ideas. The three seminars will look at: (1)Conflict in space and place (accommodation and planning issues) (2)Conflict in welfare and public service delivery (health, education, employment, social policy and policing issues) (3)Conflict in representation (political and media discourse; analysis of conflict resolution approaches) Within the three broad topic areas there will be a range of issues viewed through a central problem: How can we help provide tools to local communities and authorities to resolve conflict to enable provision of accommodation, health services, education and fairness in public debate? Conceptual questions in conflict, social inclusion and community cohesion theories will also be raised to explore issues. Whilst the seminar series is focused on Gypsies and Travellers, there will be ideas of relevance to other marginalised groups in society, and indeed other 'wicked' problems for local authorities in contentious planning and service delivery more generally. In addition to the 'End of Award' and 'Impact' reports, outputs from each of the three seminars will provide material for draft academic journal articles, as well as 'easy to read' reports for Roma, Gypsy and Traveller community members, policy makers, practitioners and other interested organisations; the pathways to impact statement also describes immediate online methods of disseminating ideas during the course of the seminar series.