Recent Posts
The American Invasion of Britain (and Dad’s Army!)
Invasion (or the threat of it) is no laughing matter at the time, but when the threat is long passed, it can have its humorous side. Generations of people in Britain have laughed out loud at the antic... Read More
Online family trees can be works of fiction
Online family trees can provide you instantly with information others may have taken years to research. They can also provide you with a load of rubbish! History at the click of a mouse These days, if... Read More
Gretna marriages – and a man with eight wives
Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. Only sometimes, there is more than one horse! Henry VIII is most famous for having six wives – but while adultery didn’... Read More
All mod cons, on a 1777 stagecoach
If you wanted to visit distant relatives for Easter in the 1700s, you might well go by stagecoach. Some of the experiences of doing so have a resonance today! Carlisle to London, in just three days In... Read More
A timid vicar, manslaughter and a reiver connection
A tragic case of mistaken identity in Walton in April 1851 ends (in the Carlisle Journal’s account) with a reminder of our reiver forebears. For the victim was William Elliot Armstrong of Sorbietree... Read More
Need-fire – a Celtic tradition that lasted till the 1840s
The need-fire – a Celtic response to cattle disease – might not mean much to people today. But, it’s only 160 years or so since desperate farmers finally abandoned it. And it seems to have been ... Read More
Snow in March – beware of low-flying sheep!
With the UK gripped by snow this first day of March 2018, here’s a look back to some rough weather in 1881. Low-flying sheep isn’t a popular search on Google! But, it does make a fun headline.... Read More
Window tax – a tax upon light and air
The Window Tax was introduced in 1696 and repealed in 1851 and was used as a means of assessing which households were liable to pay church and poor rates. It was soon mocked as a tax upon light and ai... Read More