Rev Robert Joseph Barlow invents a carriage spring, 1836
I came across this fascinating report quite by accident. It turns out that the Rev Robert Joseph Barlow of Hutton Rudby (c1804-78) invented a safety spring to make travelling by carriage (and this...
View ArticleJohn Jackson & Captain Thomas King
If you've come to this blog from reading Chris Lloyd's article in the Darlington & Stockton Times, and you'd like to read in full my blogpost about John Jackson and his uncle Captain Thomas King...
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Frederick Cator's trunk goes missing, Stokesley 1841
The story that follows was reported in the Yorkshire Gazette and the York Herald on 10 April 1841 – two rather confusing and sometimes conflicting versions, which I have melded into one, with...
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Festivities in Stokesley become respectable
In the Cleveland market town of Stokesley at the beginning of the 19th century, festivities were lively and raucous. As the decades went by, organised and decorous Victorian celebrations took their...
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Bishop William Stubbs (1825-1901): a devout Yorkshireman
This is something I meant to write before, but it got lost in other work. I'm afraid the alignment of text in this is a little haphazard - Google Blogger was not co-operating! William Stubbs by...
View ArticleHard labour & transportation to Tasmania: Northallerton, April 1841
Each one of these cases brings us a little glimpse of the past. I think the information might also prove useful to family historians.These are the details of people brought before the North Riding...
View ArticleAbout the picture of Guisborough Priory in an earlier post
In a post from 2012 entitled Changing Guisborough market day: 1813, there is a picture of the priory and this is a message to Ben G, who asked in a comment if I had any information on that picture. I...
View ArticleGeorge Bewick in Hutton Rudby
If anybody has any information on the origins of the George Bewick who settled in Hutton Rudby in the mid-18th century, do let me know. I've been contacted by someone who'd very much like to have...
View ArticleCholera: glimpses of the pandemics of the 19th century
In the 19th century, the usual yearly epidemics of frequently fatal infectious diseases in Britain were eclipsed by successive waves of a frightening newcomer: Asiatic Cholera.It first arrived in 1831....
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Runswick: a tale of landslips – and the cholera of 1866
The cliffside village of Runswick Bay [Photograph by mattbuck, reproduced under Creative Commons licence] Runswick (the 'w' in the name is silent) lies on the coast a few miles north of Whitby. Much...
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The Vassal Singers in Nunthorpe before the First World War
This was written many years ago by Kay Hill (1905-2005). I think it must have appeared in some publication but I don't know which. She lived with her parents and two elder brothers at Red Croft (now...
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Walk the Cleveland Way – in 1866
An ideal trip back in time for anyone planning to walk the Cleveland Way when lockdown is over, or for people who know it well. Actually, this isn't actually the whole Cleveland Way but only a section...
View ArticleOn the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland: 1864
A more appreciative and detailed account of the walk taken by J.G. in 1866 (see last blogpost) is that described by William Stott Banks in On the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland, which appeared on 1 October...
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North Yorkshire dialect – & the White Horse of Kilburn
As I said in On the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland, my last blogpost, one of William Stott Banks' great interests was Yorkshire dialect. He began his walks in Cleveland rather disappointed:16 July 1864...
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William Weldon Carter & Eden Lodge, Hutton Rudby
In Spring 1880, this advertisement appeared repeatedly in the Yorkshire newspapers:The Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 15 April 1880 Desirable Country Residence To be sold, and may be entered upon...
View ArticleAlice Wandesford in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The next series of posts are set in the 17th century. It is my retelling of the life of Alice Wandesford during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms – the much more accurate name now given to the English...
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1. The Wandesfords of Kirklington
When Alice Wandesford was born, she was put in the care of a wet nurse – pregnancy and labour always left her mother far from well. It was 13 February 1626 and at the time the family was living at the...
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2. Mr Wandesford enters politics: 1620-1630
From schooldays at Well near Kirklington – or perhaps only from university days at Cambridge, nobody is sure – Mr Wandesford was the friend of Sir Thomas Wentworth of Wentworth-Woodhouse in the West...
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3. Dublin & War: 1629-1639
Until the Duke of Buckingham – who was all-powerful as King James' favourite and then as King Charles' adviser – was assassinated in 1628 by an army officer with a grievance, Mr Wandesford and Sir...
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4. War in the Three Kingdoms: 1640
With Wentworth now the King's closest adviser and soon in virtual command of his armies, Mr Wandesford became Lord Deputy of Ireland on 1 April 1640. He was left with an increasingly impossible task,...
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