Hello peeps! Just blasting in to say that I will be hosting Carnivalesque‘s ancient and medieval history blog carnival at the end of next week. What this means is I shall be spending plenty of ...
I have another picture for you. This wooden effigy of a knight is in St. Luke’s Church, Ousby, in eastern Cumbria. He’s lifesize, or at least life-length; he is of a very petite build by ...
Here’s a picture I thought you might be interested in. It’s the Bewcastle Cauldron, and it’s in Tullie House Museum in Carlisle. I wish I’d had a ruler on me for scale when I ...
Is it true that every pleasure has its price? Certainly, it’s not unusual for people to assume that if you live in Cumbria, your life out-of-season must be made a misery by the weather. It̵...
I’ve been a bit remiss in keeping you updated recently, so I thought I’d dash in and offer this picture. This dessicated cat, now in Keswick museum, was found in the rafters of St. Cuthbe...
One of the joys of having your own blog is the statistics. I know that doesn’t sound riveting, but look at this collection of Google search terms that apparently led people to my blog: How long...
The UK news today is dominated by a meeting between the UK prime minister and the Scottish first minister about the possibility of Scotland declaring independence. There is much talk of the 1707 Act ...
Cocidius altar, Tullie House, Carlisle Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there were people here before the Romans. But they were here, leaving echoes of their lives and beliefs through place n...
If you cut your hand in 21st century Britain, you’d be fairly surprised if someone seized it and started chanting verse about Judea, Jesus, the Holy Ghost and Bethlehem. You’d think a) th...
I can’t honestly say my Cumbrian grandparents ever mentioned faeries. And yet, when I look into Cumbrian History & Folklore, I find them all the time. Normally they’re a clue to a his...
In May 2010, a metal detectorist from Peterlee in the northeast of England was in a field near Crosby Garrett in the Eden Valley in Cumbria. He found 68 pieces of folded metal, carefully placed on ...
About 1400 years ago, a Cumbrian mother sang a song to her new baby, a boy called Dinogad. Page from the Book of Aneirin Dinogad’s smock is pied, pied – Made it out of marten hide…1 So ou...
We have, it seems, long celebrated something special at this time of year. When the days are shortest and coldest, we need something to look forward to. For many people in the northern and western wo...
My gran (far right) and the bakery girls, Workington, 1935. I was very lucky when I was growing up to have a grandma who was not only Cumbrian but a fully-trained baker and confectioner. You know all...
Assuming we don’t get six foot of snow between here and BBC Radio Cumbria’s studios in Carlisle at the end of the week, I will be appearing on Belinda Artingstoll’s Sunday morning p...
It’s a good theory that faeries are most strongly associated with the ‘Celtic Fringe’ (Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Wales) because these areas were not overrun b...
It’s sometimes difficult for people to grasp that for most of history, it was really quite hard to get into Cumbria. We see that whalloping great stripe of motorway cutting up the Eden Valley, ...
I’m sorry to say that Esmeralda has been the subject of a couple of nasty bouts of plagiarism, so all the posts on Arthurian subjects and pre-Roman religion have been removed. Horse – sta...
Driving past Thirlmere these days, you wouldn’t suspect that it was anything other than an attractive valley in the central Lake District. But this area is associated with a long list of peculi...
I’ve had a little question running on Twitter and Facebook: If you’re over 40 and were brought up in Britain or Ireland, did you make Halloween lanterns when you were little? I had over 3...
Beacon Hill in Penrith is one of those places you might like to avoid at Halloween. For, says local tradition, your nose may catch the noisome odour of rotting flesh before coming upon the gruesome s...
Just a quickie to let you know that I will, apparently, be appearing on Belinda Artingstoll’s programme on Radio Cumbria on Sunday morning to talk about the stuff on here. I have no idea what t...
There are stories of black dogs all over Britain. There’s usually something spooky or downright sinister about them, inspiring stories in both folklore and fiction – Arthur Conan Doyle’s ...
A few months ago, I came across a fabulous description of a sword found near Embleton. WG Collingwood, writing in 1902, described, ‘…an iron blade in a bronze sheath, with red and green j...
Last week, I found myself behind the care home at Tynefield on the southern edge of Penrith and saw this block of stone. It was filled with rubbish and rainwater, but was clearly man-carved and looke...
St. Bride by John Duncan, 1913 In western Cumbria, there’s a curious group of churches and place names all linked to the name, Bridget. There are St. Bridget’s churches at Brigham, Moresb...
I shall be leaving dearest Cumbria for a week or two on my hols… feel free to discuss posts in my absence and I’ll dive in on my return!
Tim Clarkson knows his stuff. With a PhD in Medieval History and an MPhil in Archaeology under his belt, he’s written a couple of splendid books that master that trickiest of things: they are p...
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