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Hidden People
Hidden PeopleWhy are Cumbrians called the Hidden People? Because mainstream history claims their ancient Celtic heritage was largely erased by Roman, Viking, Anglo-Saxon and Norman invasions. Cumbrians possess an ancient Celtic culture that developed continuously from the prehistoric era to the present day. Cumbria s stone monuments, distinctive dialect, unique cooperative farming practices and thriving communal traditions that have survived thousands of years show this. But Cumbria s culture has been disparaged and sidelined by centuries of Roman, Norman and English dominance, suppression and belittlement. Some academics today even claim the Cumbrian Celts never existed. Others deny Cumbria was ever a separate Celtic kingdom. Many mock the Cumbrian dialect as uncouth . They don t realise it preserves Cumbria s deep Celtic roots. This book invites you to ignore the Celtosceptics and discover Cumbria s astounding Celtic past. Insights include Carlisle s grisly severed head cult, the Cumbrian Witc...
Trophy
The TrophyFor 2,000 years, recklessly ambitious people have ravaged Cumbria seeking trophies And what was the result? Invasion, massacre, famine, colonisation, environmental catastrophe, even the world s first nuclear disaster In a riveting new book, Paul Eastham tells how the history of this beautiful and intimidating border province was written by people seeking revenge, status, fame and power. But Cumbria had a knack of confounding their expectations. Glory-hunting Roman Emperor Septimius Severus tried to distract his feuding sons Caracalla and Gita from their mutual hatred by invading Scotland from Carlisle - but one killed the other anyway. Premier Harold Macmillan caused the world s first atom bomb disaster by running Windscale too hard, then he covered his blunder up and handed the blame to innocent workers. Manchester millionaires aiming for a worldwide cotton monopoly turned Thirlmere into an ugly reservoir to feed their factories - and started the worldwide environmental protest mov...
Lost Kingdom
Lost KingdomA huge part of our history has gone missing Has there been a cover-up? Why are people struggling to discover the true story of the past? The reason is simple. Official histories ignore regional narratives. They reduce our national story to a patriotic uniformity. But the edited version means we don t know who we are. Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness are very different from the rest of Britain. For five hundred years after the Romans left, Cumbria resisted takeover by the English empire. It remained a separate kingdom with its own language, tax system, culture and institutions. That autonomy ended with the defeat of Dunmail, the last King of Cumbria in 945 AD. His Lost Kingdom was the final piece of territory forced into England in 1092. But that means Cumbria had more time to develop a unique identity than any other part of England. This book argues that difference influenced what happened afterwards, and that distinctiveness still can be detected today. Secrets of the Lost Kingd...
People
Sacred ValleyIt might seem to be a picture-perfect, serene and utterly remote fragment of rural England. Yet the towns and villages along the sixty-mile course of the beautiful Derwent River inspired a lot of remarkable people - and saw a lot of trouble. Some of the inhabitants of Keswick, Cockermouth, Workington and their neighbours Maryport and Whitehaven created world-famous art and literature. Others built fortunes, wielded enormous political power, created industries or steered world-changing events. But these achievements often came at a heavy price. The twenty-one real-life stories in this work of Cumbrian history include: A corrupt moneybags accidentally made a town beautiful as he sneakily bought up an election. A pioneering doctor gave everything she had to establish a hospital for the poor, only to find her own Government was killing the people she aimed to save. An innocent German miner was bludgeoned to death by a jealous Cumbrian mob after he and his Continental colleagues left the...
Secrets
Crooked RiverSecrets of the Crooked River is a witty and atmospheric biography of Cockermouth that draws readers into a hidden world. Stone Age residents try magic to stop floods. Mary, Queen of Scots spends her last day of freedom in the town writing desperately to Elizabeth I. The skeleton of a 2,000-year-old murder victim emerges from under Papcastle Roman Fort s bathhouse. Wicked Jimmy Lowther, the Tyrant of the North keeps his dead mistress at home in a glass coffin. An exasperated and betrayed Edward I dies on a desolate Cumbrian marsh. Lady Maria Callcott triggers an earthquake in male-dominated science. Anna Maria Radcliffe, Lady Derwentwater, tries to bribe a Prime Minister and seduce a king to save her Jacobite husband from the gallows, John Walker overcomes a jealous boss to conquer smallpox and Fearon Fallows saves the Royal Navy from sinking in the Southern Hemisphere. When you add Viking invaders, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert the Bruce, Tennyson and atom scientist John Dalton, Se...
Huge
Huge & MightyWhy does Cumbria produce such remarkable people? What inspired the visionary poet but selfish man, William Wordsworth, or cause the brilliant storytelling but tragic love affair of Beatrix Potter? How did Cumbria s challenging character trigger Fetcher Christian s Mutiny on the Bounty, motivate the rebels who almost toppled Henry VIII or drive Maryport s feuding Ismay family to build the Titanic - and sink it? Drawing on research, letters, diaries and archaeology this book explores a 13,000-year timespan. It examines how the hauntingly beautiful Lake District, its pioneering Altlantic-facing origins and its rich Celtic culture helped forge some extraordinarily original people. How did the first feminist, Lady Anne Clifford, defy a king to inherit four Cumbrian castles, or colourist Winifred Nicholson triumph over scorn from male critics? This book suggests Cumbria s distance from London, its deep artistic and religious traditions and its mountainous impregnability endowed Cumbrians...
