John Weever and Shakespeare
Many years ago I bought a book published in 1998 by E. A. J. Honigmann, Professor of English Literature at Newcastle University. His theory was that Shakespeare lived and worked in Lancashire before moving to London. The book title was Shakespeare – the ‘lost years’. I had been very surprised on flicking through it in…
What is ideology?
Ideology is an attempt to make the external universe conform to ideas about how it ought to be. It has a superficial similarity to science in that it involves the construction of cognitive models to achieve its ends. Science however is an attempt to understand the universe as it is in the knowledge that the…
It all comes round again. A holistic approach to water, carbon and other natural cycles.
Sir James Bevan, CEO of the UK Environment Agency is reported as saying that we need to be less squeamish about water recycled from sewage. He also wrote that people need to “change the way that they think about water” and “treat it as a precious resource, not a free good”. He’s right of course…
Agecroft Hall
This Tudor manor house once stood on the banks of the River Irwell in Pendlebury, Manchester. It now is a museum on the banks of the James River in Richmond Virginia, bought by an American businessman in 1925, dismantled and transported across the Atlantic. There is also an archive of family documents known as the…
Uncovering the past
A recent broadcast of the BBC series Escape to the Country featured a farmhouse which I immediately recognised as Hales Hall, rebuilt in the early 1800s. It prompted me to explore more of its history since then. Its current occupier responded to a facebook post, asking me for more information. Unfortunately the deeds had been…
The losing side of history
My middle name of Butler was shared with my father, after his mother Annie Butler. The story handed down her family was that they came from the Lancashire Butlers of Rawcliffe Hall, whose estates were confiscated and sold off in 1723, after they took part in the 1715 Jacobite rebellion. Their male line goes back…
Queen Anne’s Bounty
The Church of England is currently carrying out a navel-gazing operation to see whether any of its funds from Queen Anne’s Bounty were gained from slave trading carried out by the South Sea Company, in which Queen Anne had a major stake. The Bounty originated around 1704 amid concern about the growth of non-conformism and…
Free trade v command economy
This was the title of the first essay I was asked to produce for the Social Policy part of my professional social work qualification. I researched diligently and produced a balanced essay concluding that regulated mixed economies were best, avoiding both extremes. It was returned to me by the staunchly Marxist lecturer marked “F -…
Stoneleigh Abbey and the missing monument
The 5th Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh (1742-1786) died leaving a vast estate of land and wealth to his sister Mary for the duration of her life, and thereafter to his nearest male relative, whoever that might be. Not surprisingly, there were several claims to the title and estates by the time Mary died in 1806,…
What is regenerative agriculture?
I wrote this two years ago. It still stands up. Those new to the term might appreciate a short introduction and pointers to further information, because we will be hearing a lot more about it in the future, and it is of great relevance to the issues of global warming, climate change, food production, land…
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Chronicles 