T'Bacca Queen by Theodora Wilson Wilson Find!
I must confess I haven't read this book, but am writing this entry on behalf of Doreen, a fellow detective, who as a true local has a keen interest in the local history of what is now south Cumbria, but what used to be Westmorland and Lancashire north of the Sands.
This is a novel, but true, with fictional place names replacing the actual ones. Theodora Wilson Wilson, the author, was a teacher and social worker in Fellside, now part of Kendal. The book is set mostly in "Farbiggin" (Kendal) and "Scarthside" (Fellside).
There is a good deal of dialect in the book, which indicates the social differences between the young cousins at the centre of the story, Eleanor and Nell. John Carradus, their grandfather disinherited both his son, who had left England to become a muscian in Germany, and his daughter, leaving all his money instead to Eleanor . After some years the cousins meet and become good friends despite the differences in their circumstances. The book gives a detailed account of the struggle of existence which the poor people living in Scarthside in the nineteenth century had.
On September 1st, I went with a local history group to this part of Kendal. It was very interesting, particularly as I had just read T'Bacca Queen. Not many of the original cottages still stand, and it is hard to imagine that between 600 to 1000 people lived in such a small area. Actually seeing Fellside brought the book alive for me.
During the visit we passed the house where Harry Griffin lived. He used to write a column in the Guardian, so this made me read "A Lifetime of Mountains", the best of Harry Griffin's Country Diary writings, which gives some lovely accounts of Lakeland life.
Doreen's enthusiasm for T'Bacca Queen led me to delve further into books about Kendal's past and particularly Fellside. Alfred Wainwright well known for his pictorial guides, but less well known for his other works, produced one such book 'Kendal in the nineteenth century'.
23 September 2009 from Anne
Finds
- On Lindale Hill
- Grange-over-Sands: The Story of a Gentle Township
- The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland
- Red Ike
- Cumbrian Privies
- Ethel Fisher's West Cumbrian Dialect titles
- The Embalmer's Book of Recipes by Ann Lingard
- Nella Last's Peace
- Riding the Stang by Dawn Robertson
- Life on the Fell - a pictorial chronicle of a Lakeland community
- About Scout Scar
- William Wilberforce - A Summer Diary 1779
- Beatrix Potter - the unknown years
- Smoke over Shap by Margaret Potter
- Songs of a Cragsman by George Basterfield
- The Grasmere Dialect Plays
- The Grizedale Experience: Sculpture, Art & Theatre in a Lakeland Forest
- An Atlas of The English Lakes
- How Hall. Poetry and Memories. A Passion for Ennerdale by Tom Rawling
- Stumpy, Hero of the Lakes
- The High Places by A. Harry Griffin
- The Highest House in Wathendale
- Kendal by Roger Bingham
- Secrets and Legends of Old Westmorland
- Reminiscences of Wordsworth Among the Peasantry of Westmorland by Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley
- Little Gods by Jacob Polley
- A Lakeland Summer
- Hunter of Harter Fell by Joseph E Chipperfield
- And Nobody Woke Up Dead
- An accessible paradise
- The Fleming Family novels and Graham Sutton
- Excursion to Loweswater. A Lakeland Visit 1865
- Writing on the Wall
- Beyond Scafell by Alan Robinson
- Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole
- Kendal In The Nineteenth Century by A Wainwright
- In There Somewhere
- The Bondwomen by W G Collingwood
- "Ah'd Gaa Back Tomorra!"
- A Cumbrian Copper by Ray Huddart
- The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards
- Old Will Stories by Dudley Hoys
- The Shield Ring by Rosemary Sutcliff
- T'Bacca Queen by Theodora Wilson Wilson
- Furness and the Industrial Revolution
- The Shadow of Black Combe
- The Painted Letters of Percy Kelly
- Ivver Sen
- Lakeland in the 1830s
- Wasdale Climbing Book By Michael Cocker
- Riding High by Barbara Sneyd
- Deborah in Langdale
- Early Recollections of Grange
- Hazard's Way by Roger Hubank
- Yan, Tan, Tethera
- Talk of the Town
- Capturing the Mountains
- Hope On, Hope Ever
- Mildred Edwards: Our City Our People 1889 - 1978 Memories
- Lakeland Limericks
- Surrounding loveliness
- Haweswater by Sarah Hall
- Coast to Coast by Jan Minshull
- Sunshine To The Sunless
- Geese, cattle wallopers and secret Irish paths
- Anarchists, Angels and wet Bank Holiday Mondays
- A more unconventional kind of find...?
- Skiddaw Summit by Kathleen Jones
- Thorstein of the Mere: A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland
- Wednesday Early Closing
- Smoke Across The Fell
- The Sand Pilot of Morecambe Bay
- The Chronicles of Boggerthwaite
- Carrock Fell
- Feet in the Clouds
- Hercules and the Farmer's Wife
- Shepherd's Warning
- The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
- I've been so busy reading I haven't had time to blog!
Recent posts
- Reading Detectives film
- Thank you!
- Coffee and books at the Bluebell Bookshop
- Mary learns to blog!
- Lucky 13!
- Grange over Sands get reading
Help the team
Have you got something to contribute? You can contact us to report your clues and you can comment on our blog posts. It doesn't matter where in the world you are!
Leave a comment