The Weekend Review

First up, a quick advert for the latest collection of Wyre Archaeology Excavation Reports, this time covering the winter of 2008 to the winter of 2009. Not quite as thick as the previous one this, due to the fact that last year was probably the wettest digging season ever on record, but still a good read I reckon, if you're interested in what we were up to in our wellies and stuff...


Available now on-line (get a Pay Pal account for crying out loud!) at:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/wyre-archaeology-excavation-reports-volume-two/8079935

...or, alternatively, you can order a copy at the next Wyre Archaeology meeting.

Speaking of books, here's a review from the 'Rural Life Magazine' (cheers Anthony) of our second Fylde and Wyre Antiquarian book. Again, it's only available on-line at the moment...although there might be some in the shops, I'm not totally certain...I've lost track of this lot now. And again, alternatively, you can order a copy if you'd prefer at the next Wyre Archaeology meeting. (As always, click on the image if you want to read it properly.)


Actually there might be some in the shops. I'd have to contact my distributor (otherwise known as Gary) to find out. Whatever, here's the address to buy one if you have your own Pay Pal account:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/another-slice-of-the-fylde-and-wyre-antiquarian/6573124

Finally, a clipping from last week's Evening Gazette. It's actually about the Fleetwood Civic Society and the wall around the Mount, but I get a mention in it (cheers Tom) and I know how desperate my fans are to get hold of anything even remotely connected with me (apparently it's a requisite when practising voodoo), so there we go:

Lancashire’s Romantic Radical

It’s time for a personal review of the latest book about Allen Clarke, which by a massive coincidence has the same title as this posting, by Paul Salveson. The book’s by Paul Salveson that is. The review is by me. The atrocious grammar is mine as well. The photograph is of me too. At least the first one is. But the book I’m holding isn’t by me. That’s by Paul Salveson. Right, I’m glad we’ve sorted that out.


Regular followers of this board (by which, of course, I’m referring to the three or four lonely individuals with no life to speak of who return here twice a week and suffer this interminable rubbish, as opposed to those passing travellers cycling randomly along the Information Highway who’ve dropped in by mistake but go to the toilet every day ‘regular like’) will already be aware that I’m a big fan of Allen Clarke, author of Windmill Land, Teddy Ashton’s Annual and various other Edwardian works of Lancashire literature (now, unfortunately, mostly out of print) and a thoroughbred, old fashioned socialist of the pre-Stalin variety -- or to put it another way, of the sort actively pursuing their radical notions when socialism was still an excellent ideology before the usual dictatorial complications that attach themselves to every worthy cause at some point or other and corrupt it out of all shape and recognition took a stranglehold on the original ‘fairer world’ concept – somebody help me stop this sentence before I die of asphyxiation…
Gordon Bennett! Where was I? Oh yes, Paul Salveson’s book about Allen Clarke that you can see me holding in the aforementioned photograph is a very interesting and well-researched book; as well it ought to be considering that, according to the author, he’s been writing it since 1982.
Or rather he had been, because he’s finished writing it now…obviously.
Want to see a photograph of the author? (It’d probably be for the best if you did, if only to push this article forward.)


There he is, in Blackpool Library at the book launch (which Michelle attended but she’s not on the photograph) with Shirley (on the right…or on the left from Paul Salveson’s perspective I suppose) who is Allen Clarke’s granddaughter – er, Shirley that is -- (as, once again, our regular readers – who are probably going to become an awful lot less regular by the time they’ve finished this increasingly long-winded review – will be aware).
The book charts Allen Clarke’s life and times, his birth in ‘Steam Engine Land’, his personal reflections on industrialisation, his attempts to create a better world for the working masses, and the usual failure that attends such reformations (people are people regardless of how high radicals hold them in esteem – you might as well try to convince lemmings that competitive show jumping would be a good career move than to explain to the downtrodden that waving flags at the queen and voting tory is probably not such a good idea).
Allen Clarke was a visionary. He believed in socialism. He believed in abolishing child labour. He believed in equal rights for women. He believed in recycling. He believed in stamping out racism. He believed in vegetarianism. He believed in healthy exercise. He believed in overhauling the factory system with its grime and its drudge and its terrible death rate and returning instead to a more agricultural-based way of life, getting back to the land and communing with nature and stuff.
Unfortunately he also believed in people.
Time and time again his well-intentioned schemes failed; the Daisy Colony, his attempts to become a politician -- how fantastic would that have been if he hadn’t only polled a couple of hundred votes? A politician who actually gave a damn and believed in honesty and fair play? -- the creation of the Lancashire Authors’ Association – all right that last one didn’t fail as such, but it’s possibly not quite the voice of ordinary work-a-day folk that he intended. At least, that’s the impression I got from the book. Don’t quote me on it because I could be massively wrong.
Despite his love of the Fylde and Wyre (or ‘Windmill Land’ as Clarke referred to the district) there’s barely a mention of it in Mr Salveson’s book.
This isn’t a criticism.
Far from it. Me and Michelle are still in the process of writing ‘Return to Windmill Land’ (we’re up to page ten so far…it’s slow progress, but we are still hobbling along). The fact that Paul Salveson comes from Bolton might explain the book’s leaning towards ‘Steam Engine Land’, but that makes it all the more fascinating, because there’s loads of stuff in this book we never knew before. (Being Fylde and Wyre born we never bothered researching ‘Steam Engine Land’, you see? It’s all a bit parochially recursive in the end.)
Time for another photograph. Carol was at the book launch. I thought I’d post this photograph of her for two reasons; firstly, to prove to any readers who might have been concerned, that, despite my best attempts with a certain article (now banished to the great Internet Dustbin) to get her the sack a few weeks ago, she’s still very much in work, and secondly, because I know it’ll annoy her if she happens to be passing and notices.


I have one iddy-biddy qualm about ‘Lancashire’s Romantic Radical’. It’s only small, but I think it’s important for my own self-esteem to find a negative point about it somewhere. My qualm is this (summed up in two words): Fifteen quid?
I realise that local history with its smaller-than-average print runs tends to be a bit expensive. But fifteen quid?
Don’t get me wrong. It’s an excellent, intelligent, well-written and fascinating book and, in every respect, worth every single penny. It’s just that I can’t help picturing Allen Clarke sitting there behind his desk, pruning his moustache disconcertingly with the stem of his pipe, muttering:

“Fiftin quids? Us can’t be ’avin’ wi’ innee o’ that! Thars folks owt thur ’at can’t affooard fiftin quids! Now ’ow can us get thart preece doan a bit?”

And the answer, of course, would be to lose the glossy pages and replace them with cheaper, less fancy stuff.
Like I say, it’s not really a criticism of the book itself; just the old Clarkeian socialist in me wanting to see this important biography distributed as widely as possible.
In summary then:

An excellent read and well worth buying (even if it is fifteen quid), although, off hand, I’m not sure where you can obtain a copy. Probably the usual outlets. We bought ours at the book launch so I couldn’t swear to that.
For fans of Allen Clarke, go and buy it. If you’re not a fan, buy it anyway and you’ll probably end up one

Blatant Couldn’t-give-a-Stuff Advert for our Latest Book!

Despite many attempts (and quite rightly so) to banish our works from the sights of decent society, the second Fylde and Wyre Antiquarian book has managed to crawl, coughing and spluttering, from the primordial soup of local history and, even as I type, is prostituting itself in front of the general public, at the bargain basement price of just £9.95!


Anybody with a credit/debit card or even a Pay Pal account, can order their copy direct from Harris & Hughes Independent Publishers at the following address (where you can also experience a quick preview of this latest addition to our ever expanding library, just to get your antiquarian taste buds tingling).

Click here to quench your thirst for matters Fylde & Wyre Antiquarian related.

Alternatively we’ll be taking orders at the next Wyre Archaeology meeting. (Cruelty to moths will not be tolerated unless the imminent release of ‘ten pound notes’ from your wallet requires it.)

Remember -- according to the ‘Fleetwood Association for Readers of Trivia’ (or F.A.R.T. as it’s more commonly known) if you don’t immediately buy this eclectic volume of historical anecdotes (sans one recent article that we’re not going to mention, of course) then the chances are it’s because you smell of old cabbage and socks.

More Gratuitous Advertising...

Everybody who attended last Wednesday's Wyre Archaeology meeting will already know (probably...I wasn't paying that much attention myself) that the excavation reports for 2008 are now available in book format. (Don't forget to bring your dosh with you to the next meeting if you want to order a copy.) These books, incidentally, won't be available in the shops. They're 'Wyre Archaeology' and 'Internet' specific...because the shops wouldn't have 'em.

So, everyone should be ecstatic to learn that I've finished sorting out all the other excavation reports...the ones from Bourne Hill...three years worth of 'em. I've slapped 'em together in one big meaty volume, which is now also available to order at the next meeting.

Yes...I know I'm in the garden, in the rain, pretending to be David Attenborough. I had no choice. It's a dark afternoon and there wasn't enough battery power left in the flash to take the photograph indoors.
If you want, you can also purchase both books on-line (although, I ought to add, they'll be considerably cheaper if you just give me the money first) at: http://www.lulu.com/content/5750537 and http://www.lulu.com/content/5533708
And just in case you suspect I might be trying to rip you off by selling you the same book twice, the original one does have a slightly different cover. It's got red lettering for a start, whereas this one's got blue. It's similar to the first, because these are, of course, valuable collector's items and will eventually belong to an instantly recognisable and obviously priceless set. Here's the new cover anyhow. The old one's still knocking about somewhere in a previous article on this board if you want to hunt it down.


Perhaps I should point out that the insides of the books are different as well, but I'm assuming that you have an IQ marginally higher than that of the average bumble bee and have already realised that.
Right...normal service (such as it is) will be resumed tomorrow.

NEW FOR 2009!

(Editor: The second half of the 'Wyre Archaeology Review of the Year' posting should be lurking about just below this gratuitous advert somewhere...if anybody's interested.)

First off, I'd better apologise for the photograph below. It seemed like a good idea at the time -- new book, same old advertising method; a photograph of your's truly holding said book with a threatening message underneath. Unfortunately I left it a bit late in the day, and it went dark, and then the batteries on my camera didn't have enough juice left in 'em to power the flash, so I thought, "Table lamp with a 150 watt bulb in it pointing straight at my face."
The result was...well...try not to have nightmares.

(Update: Michelle has informed me that the idea behind including a photograph of the product in an advertisement is to encourage people to buy said product, not make them feel physically ill. As a result, the somewhat disturbing image of my face ill-lit by lamplight has been replaced with this rather more straightforward picture of the book cover itself.)


Anyhow, it is New Year and not Halloween regardless of what your senses are telling you (Update: Stop worrying...it's gone. That's Barbara on the cover that you can see now...a far more pleasant image to wake up to, I'm sure, than my gurning features), which means a brand new book...of sorts. The complete Wyre Archaeology excavation reports for 2008, mulched together and perfect bound in one glossy coloured volume. Not for the feint hearted, it must be said, being it all very serious and full of context sheets and diagrams and other tedious stuff that could probably be used as evidence in an incredibly boring court case, but if you're the sort of person who wants to build up a hard-copy reference library of Wyre Archaeology's excavations (and who isn't?) then this is the book for you!
I don't think we'll be selling this one in any shops. Actually, I know we won't. The local bookshops are struggling enough as it is without this sort of rubbish cluttering up their shelves. However, you can order a copy at the next Wyre Archaeology meeting if you like (bring your wallets and some moth repellent) or you can buy it direct on-line at: http://www.lulu.com/content/5533708.
I somehow suspect the compilers of the 2009 best sellers list won't be getting in touch any time soon.

The Allen Clarke Diaries

No…not that Allen Clarke! Not the tory one with the bad social attitude, too much money, too little decorum and a rather chronic case of foot in mouth disease. The other one; the socialist one; the one who wrote entertaining poetry and books and stuff about the Fylde and Wyre; that’s who we’re writing about here.

“Will you ramble with me in Windmill Land? In Lancashire. Yes – drop that stare of incredulity…”

Allen Clarke ‘Windmill Land’ published 1916

It’s been almost a century, give or take the odd year – all right, take the odd seven and a quarter years then, it’s still a long time -- since J. M. Dent and Sons of London first published Allen Clarke’s ‘Windmill Land’, a milestone of northern literature (well, it is as far as we’re concerned), famous as much for its author’s wit as for its portrait of a Lancashire landscape much maligned by those ‘not in the know’.
Almost one hundred years later and ‘Windmill Land’ is still as young and fresh-faced as ever; as entertaining a work as it was on the day that Mr. Clarke first penned those words at the top of this posting…that is, almost at the top of this posting. They would have been at the top of this posting if I hadn’t stopped to explain exactly which Allen Clarke we were writing about for the benefit of any confused readers who happened to alight on this website under a misapprehension.
I’m a big fan of Allen Clarke. Michelle’s a big fan of Allen Clarke’s too. Which is why we decided to write this article…such as it. So here’s a potted history of the great man himself, but first let’s have a photograph, which we’ve borrowed off Shirley Matthews, Allen Clarke’s granddaughter…without her permission. I’m sure she won’t mind though. We’ve talked with Shirley and, believe it or not, she’s a big fan of Allen Clarke’s too.


Right then, Charles Allen Clarke (also known as ‘Teddy Ashton’) was born on the twenty-seventh of February 1863 at forty-seven Parott Street, Bolton. As a child, like many Lancashire kids, he worked in the local cotton mill, but eventually won a scholarship as a student/teacher to a Bolton school and escaped from what would otherwise have been a life of drudgery.
In 1909 he founded the Lancashire Author's Association (along with a number of other people we ought to add) and died on December the twelfth 1935 at the age of seventy-three.
That really was a potted history, wasn’t it? Perhaps one or two areas need a bit of elaboration.
Amongst his works, then, are the oddly entitled, ‘Lass at the Man and Scythe’, ‘The Object Of Life’, ‘Tum Fowt Sketches’, ‘Medical Humbug,’ and ‘Eawr Sarah's Chap’.
However, it was ‘Windmill Land’ (along with its equally readable although not particularly inventively-named follow up ‘More Windmill Land’) that was, in our opinion at any rate, his finest hour. Well we would say that, wouldn’t we, considering that this is the Fylde and Wyre Antiquarian website? Nonetheless, we wouldn’t make such a claim lightly.
You see, Mr. Clarke loved the Fylde and Wyre, comparing them to ‘Fairyland’ (a name that, nowadays, would be more associated with certain nightclubs round Talbot Square); their rural idyll so removed from the grimy landscape of his youth, so populated with rustic characters and unpretentious history that, as an adult, he settled contentedly within our borders and became, by unanimous decision, an honorary Blackpudding.
There’s a lot more information about Allen Clarke (especially his early life and works) over at Shirley’s site: http://www.windmillland.com. It’s well worth a look. In the meantime, here’s a photograph of me, looking incredibly serious and full of gravitas and what have you, holding a first edition, signed copy of More Windmill Land, just to prove that me and Michelle really are fans. (I was going to photograph myself holding our copy of the original Windmill Land as well, but, as luck would have it, Michelle’s taken it with her to read at work, which just goes to show…)


Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “How can anyone be so damned good looking and so brilliantly intelligent at the same time? Life really isn’t fair on the rest of us!”
Live with it.
We mentioned earlier that Allen Clarke also went under the name of Teddy Ashton. It was in this guise that he wrote ‘Teddy Ashton’s Northern Weekly’ and ‘Teddy Ashton’s Annual’, both of which (being, as they were, a compilation of dialect poetry and prose) he sold to the linen and textile workers visiting the town. The offices for the Northern Weekly stood on the corner of Shaw Road and Blackpool promenade, a location now occupied in traditional Blackpool fashion by a chippie.
Here’s a photograph that Shirley hasn’t got on her website. That’s because (I suspect) it’s copyrighted to the Evening Gazette. (Potential infringement suit to follow, but what the Hell? You can’t get blood from a stone.)


That’s Allen Clarke himself there, look, having a chinwag with a couple of kids whilst sat on his bike.
Clarke was a big fan of cycling, the journeys undertaken in his Windmill Land books all being, of course, conducted on the saddle. One of these days (if we ever get the chance between digging up and recording most of North Lancashire) me and Michelle intend to write our own follow up to More Windmill Land. We’re going to call it ‘Return to Windmill Land’ (well, why not?) and compare the rural landscape of Allen Clarke’s day with the Fylde and Wyre of modern times.
We won’t, however, be using our bikes to get around. Trams, buses and automobiles seem a more sensible (if not considerably lazier) bet.
Anyhow, with that in mind, here’s one final coupling of photographs, borrowed once again from Shirley’s website (go and visit it…you can even purchase an e-book version of Windmill Land there). The first of the photographs (I’ve just noticed) is actually the same as the one at the start of this posting (look, it’s been a long week, all right…mistakes just happen sometimes), whereas the second shows Allen Clarke, his bicycle and his cycling companion Owd Tom Hughes (and with a name like that he must have been a grand bloke):

Wainwright’s Wyre

Everybody’s heard of Alfred Wainwright, right? Old ‘A W’ as he was known to his friends? The famous author of the Lakeland Guidebooks who, across the course of his lifetime, must have climbed every mountain in Cumbria and then some? Born 1907? Died 1991? The BBC has recently rerun ‘Wainwright’s Walks’ based on his books, with the incredibly fit Julia Bradbury presenting? (What? What have I said now? She has to be fit if she’s going to climb mountains, doesn’t she? What d’ you think I meant?)

Well, if you haven’t heard of him it’s your own hard luck. However, for people like me, as a child growing up with the Cumbrian Mountains on the doorstep (admittedly that’d make my doorstep about thirty miles in width…but you get the point) Wainwright was a bit of hero. His pen and ink illustrations were inspirational, and his tongue in cheek humour lifted his books above those penned by more serious and, generally, less knowledgeable writers. What a lot of people don’t know is that Wainwright was also a bit of a fan of the Wyre. (This isn’t highly publicised. Incredibly little to do with the Wyre ever is.) In fact, he liked the place so much that he created a book of drawings dedicated to it. It was called ‘A Wyre Sketchbook’. (Perhaps not the catchiest title ever, but it suited the purpose). Want to see one of his drawings? We thought you might, so how about this instantly recognisable scrawl of the River Wyre Hotel, Skippool:

When we borrowed a copy of this little-known, seldom-read book several months ago, we forgot to scan in the caption that accompanied Wainwright’s illustration. Now we’ve got nothing else to say about it, other than: “Good, isn’t it?” (It’s perhaps as well we forgot to scan the words in, really. We're treading on thin ice with regards to plagiarism and copyright infringement here as it is. No point in making matters worse.)
It might be a good idea, therefore, if we posted the next illustration instead.

There we go. That’s the tower of St. Michael’s church (at St. Michael’s, obviously) in the background, with St, Michael’s bridge spanning the Wyre in the foreground (on the off chance that you hadn’t realised that already). Again, we didn’t scan in the caption to accompany this picture, so how about a bit more information about A. W. himself?
Alfred Wainwright was awarded the MBE for his guidebooks (although we’ve no idea in what particular year). He also collaborated with Derry Brabbs and Ed Geldard on another eight best-selling titles, was the chairman of ‘Animal Rescue, Cumbria’, created ‘A Coast to Coast Walk’ from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay, and after his death (obviously) had his ashes scattered on Haystacks. (That was his favourite mountain, incidentally…he didn’t actually have his ashes thrown randomly into bailed-up horse fodder.)
But enough of his background, let’s have another of his Wyre illustrations. (After all, that’s what you reading this for, isn’t it?):

“Where’s that?” you’re asking. (I have to be honest, it had me confused to start off with, as well.) That’s Bleasdale, that is, with a couple of ramblers taking their dog/pig/strange-creature-made-out-of-a-sawhorse-from-the-Wizard-of-Oz books, for a walk. (Wainwright might have been brilliant at drawing landscapes, but his figure illustrations left a lot to be desired, it must be said.)
There’s just space enough left for one last drawing, this time of Preesall. Not the view you’d expect, really. A. W. appears to have bypassed the more obvious Round House shot that makes Preesall immediately distinguishable from other Wyre villages, and opted for a rather more ordinary view at the end of Back Lane instead.

Not sure if that’s a fox crossing the road there. It might be the pig-dog from the previous picture. It’s certainly got character whatever it is.
Obviously there are lots more illustrations in the book, ranging from sketches of Fleetwood to drawings of Larbreck etc. However, we’ve trodden on the toes of the Wainwright Estate for long enough now (by way of a sampler, you understand…not as a total rip off) so we’d better end by recommending to our readers that they track down and purchase the complete book, and by apologising to A.W.’s current copyright holders if we’ve over stepped their generosity.

Another Mid-week Posting…

Let’s not beat about the bush…Harris & Hughes (Independent Publishers) have just released their latest book in collaboration with Phil Barker of http://www.rossallbeach.co.uk/ and it’s now available to buy on the Internet. ‘The History of the Fylde Coast in Old Picture Postcards’ combines almost four hundred of Phil’s fascinating old photographs of the area with our own special blend of research and literature.
For example, did you know that when Methodism first appeared in Thornton the worshippers would meet, much to the locals’ disapproval, at Nanny Greenwood’s thatched cottage near the mill where, on one occasion, the local kids stuffed a live goose down the chimney? Or that Marlene Dietrich lost one of her earrings on the Big Dipper in 1934, only to have it resurface from the Tom Sawyer Lake decades later accompanied by several toupees, one bra and somebody’s glass eye? Or that, upon completion of the bridge in St. Anne’s Promenade Gardens, Thomas Hornby (the bridge’s builder) buried a time capsule somewhere close by consisting of an empty beer bottle from his lunch filled with a copy of the St. Anne’s on Sea Express?
Well ‘The History of the Fylde Coast in Old Picture Postcards’ is crammed with such facts. But don’t let that put you off. At two hundred pages in length it’s an absolute bargain for only £9.95. Of course, you could wait until these books hit the shops in a couple of months time, but seeing as we’ve virtually sold out of the first print run already with advanced orders, you’d be better off ordering your copy now direct from the suppliers.

Visit http://www.lulu.com/content/880067 to beat the rush!

And whilst we’re on the subject of books, some of our regular readers might have noticed a new link in the side column recently for John Steventon’s ‘Two Henges, a Hill and One Long Barrow’. Admittedly we haven’t read John’s latest book yet but, as somebody who’s contributed to this board in the past (and we only let the crème de la crème do that), we can guarantee a damned fine read!
Here’s the blurb: “Two Henges, a Hill, and One Long Barrow is a look at Stone Henge, West Kennet Long Barrow and the Avebury complex. Four dozen high resolution, color photographs (most of them full page) give the reader a visual tour of these wondrous places, with the author’s learned commentary adding facts, asking questions, and giving a unique insight into their design, purpose, and meaning today.”
You can order your copy now from http://www.lulu.com/content/914422 or regret it in the morning.

So, two unbelievably excellent books (eat your heart out Rothwell), ideal for birthday presents, personal treats or just for keeping by the side of the lavatory for those post-vindaloo vigils.
And don’t forget the third section of our ‘Iron Age Settlement at Warbreck’ article this Friday.