Category: Cumbria history
Miss Havisham’s wedding feast – a real-life tragedy
Tragedies at sea, in this case on the SS West Cumberland, took their toll on loved ones at home. Charles Dickens described the room, in Great Expectations, where poor Miss Havisham’s wedding feast s... Read More
Cumbrian names and their origins
In my previous post on Cumbrian names, I looked briefly at at the riding names (the border reivers), and at the big landowners and politicians who dominated Cumberland and Westmorland for centuries. P... Read More
Port Carlisle – a history built on hope
Port Carlisle – a history built on hope is my book, written because it’s something I wish I’d been able to find in bookshops in the past. There are some excellent books about aspects of life a... Read More
Average wages and a drunken elephant
What was the average wage in 1843, in the UK? The date is random, but the question is an important one for family history and social history research. Knowing what people earned in the past is the bes... Read More
Tracing your family history: Wills
Among William Shakespeare’s almost countless famous lines is one from his will: ‘Item, I give unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture.” If you’re tracing your family history or... Read More
Hundreds of holes, in Carlisle Cathedral
Carlisle Cathedral inside is, I once heard a visitor like: “like something out of Harry Potter.” And its walls inside and out tell the city’s history: inside, through memorial tablets; outside, ... Read More
Thomas Ollivant of Hesket-in-the-Forest
Thomas Ollivant, ‘clerk’ (vicar) of Hesket-in-the-Forest, Cumberland, died in 1686. His will included an inventory with a lot of names – local people who owed him various sums of money. These de... Read More
Kirkoswald parish registers
Kirkoswald parish registers have a lot to tell family and social historians, even if your family have zero connection with this Cumbrian parish. Trawling through parish registers is a lot harder than ... Read More