Recent Posts
Pacification document 31a
Pacification document 31a is part of a series of transcriptions from documents written in the early 1600s… Sometimes when you painstakingly decipher a Jacobean document, you are rewarded with a ... Read More
Lamb the butcher
William Lamb the butcher is a fine example of nominative determinism. Or makes you think about the card game Happy Families (Mr Bun the baker, etc). Or both. His gravestone is one of those you can see... Read More
Magnetic appliances – quack cures, over-sharing and sexism in 1880s Cumbria
Magnetic appliances in 1880s Cumbria tell us a lot about the limits of real medicine, and about how women were viewed in society… A few years ago, my son gave me a book that mixes hilarity with ... Read More
The Story of the Border Grahams
The Story of the Border Grahams, chiefest actors in the spoil is my new book, hot off the press! The book is the result of three months of research and writing. And a couple of weeks of editing, and t... Read More
Tenants v lord. The peasants are revolting!
Tenants v lord. The peasants are revolting! Whenever a lord of the manor fell out with his tenants, there was usually one winner. But while I couldn’t resist the old joke line about peasants, those ... Read More
Railway tragedy
‘Railway tragedy’ was sadly a common heading in old newspapers. Anything to do with the railways was an incredibly dangerous occupation. Though unlike mining, the tragedies were mostly individuals... Read More
Spring cleaning tips 1880
Spring cleaning and genial breath… Well, quite. The above is from the Lakes Chronicle and Reporter, of March 4, 1887. And contains what was apparently a cliché in those days. It was a new one on me... Read More
Rain and storms – Cumbria 1852
‘With hey, ho, the wind and the rain; … For the rain it raineth every day.’ I think there may have been one (fully) dry day so far in 2026 (writing this on February 15), but I couldn’t tell yo... Read More