(Excerpt) Lancashire’s coalfield was one of Britain’s most productive and innovative, its deep, gassy and heavily faulted seams drove continuous advances in mining technology from the medieval period through to the late twentieth century.
Category Archives: #Lancashire
A Condensed History of Clitheroe Castle
(Excerpt) Clitheroe Castle served as the caput (administrative centre) of the Honour of Clitheroe, a large estate stretching along the western side of the Pennines. The de Lacy family, whose principal seat was at Pontefract, used it as a base for local governance and it functioned as a court, small prison, and centre for the administration of the surrounding forests and manors. A small garrison was maintained through the 13th century.
Ring O’ Clogs
What ses Lancasheer to thee,
is it Blackpoo’ by the sea?
Is it wet ond muggy days,
ships on t’Mersey through the aze,
blackpuddings on a plate in’t shops,
is it shawls or whippet dogs,
or is it just the ring o’ clogs.
Ovinophobia, the Rise of the Anti-Sheep Movement
(Excerpt) In the early 2010s, a series of sharp critiques of British upland sheep farming emerged from environmental circles and gradually hardened into a sustained campaign. What began as polemical writing about ecological damage evolved into calls for the removal of sheep from the hills. This was framed as essential for nature recovery, flood prevention and rewilding, among other things.
Small-leaved Lime, Relict of the Ancient Wildwood
(Excerpt) The northern limit of native T. cordata in Britain lies in the English Lake District at approximately 54°30′N, with the majority of sites within about 25km of the Morecambe Bay coast. Populations are concentrated on the wooded hills from Warton to Ulverston and extend inland up the valleys of the Lune, Kent, and Duddon, with the most northerly localities in Borrowdale and beside Ullswater.
Espying Sneezewort on Hapton Moor
(Excerpt) Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica) is a perennial member of the Asteraceae (daisy) family and typically grows between 30 and 60cm tall, occasionally a little higher, with stiff, upright stems that may be slightly hairy in the upper parts. The leaves are narrow, lance-shaped and finely toothed along the margins, quite different from the feathery, much-divided foliage of its cousin Yarrow, which is also found on Hapton moor.
At Lord’s
The Famous Cricketing Poem ‘At Lord’s’ by Francis Joseph Thompson, Including a Brief Biography
Northern Shores: Living Relics of the Ice-Age; the Vendace, Schelly and Charr of the English Lakes
(Excerpt) England’s Lake District is home to several species that are considered living relics of the last Ice Age, these include three distinctive cold-water fish: the Vendace, the Schelly and the Arctic Charr. All belong to the salmonid family and depend on deep, cool, well-oxygenated lakes for their survival.
