Saved For A Rainy Day Despite William the Conqueror invading England in 1066 we do not generally speak French, apart from using thousands of French words we inherited like “impossible” and “serviette” that invaded our mother tongue. They are pronounced as we think fit since it is not the wont of Brits to learn other…
Billy Blacksmith of Barrowford
Billy Blacksmith of Barrowford Published in Countryman magazine August 2011 Whenever I think of William Henry Whitaker, aka Billy Blacksmith, one of my strongest memories of this burly jocular man is of him reading our newspaper, but we took his evening visits in our stride because, as a staunch Yorkshire man, he derived great pleasure…
Professor of Adventure
Professor of Adventure Millican Dalton 1867 – 1947 Maggie B Dickinson – Published in Cumbria magazine December 2017 Despite its diminutive height, the pretty wooded conicular eminence of Castle Crag stands its ground within the dramatic “Jaws of Borrowdale” that dominate the skyline and restrict passage through this narrow part of the valley. During November especially…
The Sage of Chelsea
The Sage of Chelsea A smoke and a talk with Thomas Carlyle by Maggie B Dickinson Published in The London Magazine 2014 The only known surviving diaries of a Victorian regional newspaper editor were penned by my great great uncle Anthony Hewitson who owned the Preston Chronicle in Lancashire. There are seventeen in number which span…
The Morris Eight
Maggie B Dickinson – Published in Best of British June 2014 In 1951 five of us squeezed into a tiny 1934 Morris Eight. Its registration was AKA 738 and the suspension was wicked. None of our neighbours owned a car and, considering few travelled more than the thirty-odd miles to Blackpool for their Wakes Week, they…
Paparazzo For a Day – My brush with fame
Down Your Way magazine – Published December 2013 In the summer of 1991 I took a flexi day off work, stuffed my passport and camera into the rucksack, and set off for Yorkshire. The intention was to climb Simon’s Seat high above the River Wharfe near Bolton Abbey but as I approached the Priory’s Church I…
Peace by Peace
Josefina Alys Hermes de Vasconcellos MBE 26 October 1904 – 20 July 2005 Maggie B Dickinson Cumbria Magazine October 2017 For a sculptor of worldwide acclaim, whose amazing legacy of artistic endeavour also graces Cumbria, Josefina Alys Hermes de Vasconcellos deserves to be better remembered. Tall and slightly-built, she was an attractive woman with green…
Farmer Potatoes Revealed
Beatrix Potter couldn’t possibly have imagined that the 150th anniversary of her birth would prompt the wealth of celebrations taking place this year, both at home and abroad. More to the point – would she have approved? Fame didn’t sit easily on her shoulders. Despite achieving fame as one of the most widely-read authors in…
Coniston’s VC Hero
Reprinted by kind permission of Cumbria magazine – Issue November 2011 Apart from outdoor pursuits and an excellent range of tourist facilities visitors are drawn to Coniston for several reasons, not least through Donald Campbell’s tragic death in 1967 whilst attempting to break his own world water speed record. And what of the influential John…
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