Northumberland
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Northumberland’
Cuthbert trusted that keeping his promised fast would not do him any harm.
A shieling is a temporary stone hut, built for the summer months when sheep or cattle are taken to higher ground. Bede tells us that a near-contemporary, the seventh-century saint Cuthbert, once had a remarkable experience in one of these huts, as he was journeying across the empty moorland of Northumbria.
Joseph Skipsey’s short poem evokes the last goodbye a Northumberland miner made each morning.
Northumberland miner Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903) won praise for his poetry from such famous names as Oscar Wilde and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. He could evoke in a few lines the harsh life of a northern collier, and the dangers and tragedies he faced every day.
Joseph Skipsey taught himself to read and write by candlelight, hundreds of feet below ground in a Northumberland pit.
Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903) taught himself to read and write down a Northumberland pit when he was just seven. He subsequently became a nationally-recognised poet, praised by Wilde and Tennyson, but it was an art born of hardship and personal tragedy.
There was one form of power that self-taught engineering genius George Stephenson never harnessed.
Robert Peel, the Prime Minister, had to invite Stephenson to his private residence three times before the Tyneside engineer accepted, pleading that he was not suited to fancy company. His visit, when it finally took place, only confirmed something he had long suspected.
A young George Stephenson takes responsibility for the team spirit at Black Callerton mine.
In 1801, the job of brakesman at Black Callerton pit was given to a young George Stephenson. It was a very responsible job, as it involved lowering and raising miners in the deep and dangerous mineshaft, but Stephenson felt he had a wider duty to the whole mine.
The mild-mannered, artistic monk was nevertheless a founding father of the English nation.
St Bede of Jarrow (673-735) could claim to be one of founding Fathers of the English nation: his ground-breaking ‘History’ helped create a sense of national identity and Christian culture. Artistic yet scientific, jealous of Northumbrian sovereignty yet appreciative of European culture, he exemplifies all that is best in the English people.