大象传媒

Helen Castor and the team explore recent historical research and follow up listener's questions and comments.

It's thought that twenty thousand people died as the Allied push to Berlin stalled in the south of the country.

In Wales a listener has a family story about his grandfather and a sit-in staged by miners in 1935. These 'stay-down' strikes were a tactic used by men of the Mineworker's Federation who were fighting inroads made on their membership by another union that had the support of the pit owners.

This Saturday sees the start of the Giro d'Italia, the cycling race that serves as a tough appetiser to the Tour de France in July. Helen Castor meets up with Professor John Foot from University College London who has just written a book on the history of cycling a sport which he argues did as much to create modern Italy as any politician did.

Finally, in East Anglia's Breckland, Professor Tom Williamson from the University of East Anglia takes Making History's Richard Daniel on a road-trip to discover the origins of a landscape feature that defines the area - pine rows. Tom Williamson argues that these lines of Scots Pine were planted as hedging in the early decades of the nineteenth century and have subsequently grown out into old, individual trees.

Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier Production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.