Blog

In June 2022, Shout Out Loud attended the unveiling of the Ayahs’ Home blue plaque in Hackney, East London. We’ve written about the ayahs previously and for South East Asian History Month, we wanted to shine a light back on the ayahs and their resilience, and provide a behind-the-scenes of the unveiling of a blue plaque.

The term ‘ayah’, is said to derive from the Hindi, Urdu and similar Portuguese word for nursemaid, and in this context is applied to women who served the British in India and other colonies as children’s nannies, nursemaids and ladies’ maids.

As part of this year's Local and Community History Month, we've been focusing on what our local areas choose to celebrate or remember. Two years ago, this very topic was put in the national spotlight in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, as many towns and cities have statues/memorials dedicated to former slave traders.

One of our digital content placements, Chloe, investigates how her local city, Lancaster, has dealt with its previous involvement in the slave trade and how much progress has been made over the last two years.

As part of our climate change themed #TakeoverDay, we interviewed Ruth Knight, English Heritage's Head of Climate and Sustainability, to hear what she gets up to day-to-day, and what English Heritage is doing to tackle climate change.