The first comprehensive book about Chillingham in Northumberland-its unique wild cattle, its historic castle and church, and the family associated with them since the twelfth century. Julius Caesar admired the cattle's ancestors for their brute strength, Sir Walter Scott immortalised them. They were painted by Sir Edwin Landseer and Archibald Thorburn, and depicted at their best by Thomas Bewick, the master engraver. Darwin studied them and wrote about them in the 'Descent of Man'. The historian Simon Schama described the Chillingham cattle as "the great, perhaps the greatest icon of British natural history". The Castle's history is chequered and the nobles who lived there even more so. Incest, adultery, witchcraft, torture, kingmakers and traitors, a cricketer and a cowboy are all part of its history, resulting in its modern reputation for cruel and benign ghosts still regularly seen in the castle. Founded around 1184, the country church, in its simplicity hides a fifteenth-century tomb described as "one of the finest such monuments in the country outside a cathedral". Edited by Dr Paul G. Bahn and Vera Mutimer, with a foreword by HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.

The classic guide to exploring English local history, brought up to date and expanded. This is a book for anyone wanting to explore local history in England. It summarises, in an accessible and authoritative way, current knowledge and approaches, bringing together and illustrating the key sources and evidence, the skills and tools, the contexts and interpretations for successive periods. Case studies show these ingredients in use, combined to create histories of people and place over time. A standard text since its first edition in 1992, this new edition features extensive fresh material, updated to reflect additional availability of evidence, changing interpretations, new tools and skills (not least the use of IT), and developments in the time periods and topics tackled by local historians. The interdisciplinary character of twenty-first-century local, family and community history is a prominent feature. Complemented by 163 illustrations, this book offers an unrivalled introduction to understanding and researching local history.

For the first six centuries from the institution's foundation, Latin was the language spoken and written at the University of Oxford. It's no surprise, then, to find that the inscriptions carved into the monuments, colleges and municipal buildings of the city are for the most part also in Latin. It is also a language which lends itself to compression, so an inscription in Latin uses fewer characters than English, for example, saving space and money. But what do they all mean? For this book Reginald Adams has assembled, translated and explained a wide selection of Oxford's Latin inscriptions (and a few Greek ones). These can be found in many accessible places in both city and university, dating from the medieval period to the present day. Their purposes range from tributes and memorials to decorations and witty commentaries on the edifice that they adorn. The figures commemorated include Queen Anne, Roger Bacon, Cardinal Wolsey, Cecil Rhodes, T. E. Lawrence and a kind landlady who provided 'enormous breakfasts', as well as other eminent scholars and generous benefactors. These evocative mementos of the past bring insight to the informed observer of their surroundings and also vividly illustrate the history of Oxford.

By 1966, Hot Springs, Arkansas wasn't your typical sleepy little Southern town. Once a favorite destination for mobsters like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, illegal activities continued to lure out-of-state gamblers, flim-flam men, and high rollers to its racetracks, clubs, and bordellos. Still, the town was shaken to its core after a girl was found dead on a nearby ranch. The ranch owner claimed it was an accident. Then the rancher was found to be the killer of another woman - his fourth wife. The story begins when 13-year-old Cathie Ward was found dead after horseback riding at Blacksnake Ranch on the outskirts of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Frank Davis, the owner of the ranch, tells authorities Cathie's death is an accident. He claims her foot caught in a stirrup and she was dragged to her death despite his pursuit of the runaway horse. People who know the 42-year-old skilled horseman don't believe his story, and soon rumors of her rape and murder begin swirling around town. The rumors reach a crescendo after Davis viciously guns down his fourth wife and mother-in-law in broad daylight outside of a laundromat. Davis is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Soon after, Hot Springs authorities re-open the investigation into Cathie Ward's death. Snake Eyes is the first book to examine this decades-old murder and cover-up, and the only in-depth account of the man who would become the town's most notorious villain. Featuring personal interviews, crime scene records, court documents, and Davis' own prison files, author and lifelong Hot Springs resident Bitty Martin reveals the true story for the first time.

The old kingdom of Gwynedd - the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia), Ynys (Anglesey) and the Llyn Peninsula - may be the most mythic landscape in Britain. The ancient Druids and from it sprang the tales of Blessed Bran who protected the land, wizards who made a Woman of Flowers, and Merlin the dragon whisperer whose prophecy echoes still. The poet Taliesin walked these hills, Welsh bards told stories of Arthur by these hearths and saints made pilgrimages along these paths. From these hidden nooks the Tylwyth Teg (Fair Folk) emerged to tease the people, and through these mountain passes rode Llywelyn the Great and Owain Glyndw r, living lives that would be spun into legend. Storyteller and singer Eric Maddern has gathered these old tales here and breathed fresh life into them.

To paraphrase L.P. Hartley, "The past is a different country." Stan L Abbott sets out to explore the visible clues to our mysterious past from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages: stone circles. Cumbria boasts more of these monuments than any other English county. Here, our tallest mountains are ringed by almost fifty circles and henges, most of them sited in the foothills or on outlying plateaux. Were these the earliest such monuments in Britain, placing Cumbria at the heart of Neolithic society? And what traces of that society remain today in the roads we travel, the food we eat, the words we speak, our work and play? By observing and comparing many sites in Cumbria and beyond, and researching many sources, a greater understanding emerges. Were some circles built for ritualistic purposes, or perhaps astronomical? Were they burial sites? Or were they just places for people to meet? Illustrated with linocut illustrations by artist Denise Burden, Ring of Stone Circles follows the search for the hidden stories these monuments guard - and might reveal if we get to know them.

Dolly Perkins and Jack Larkin have grown up in the notorious gin palaces of Birmingham.It's a world of happiness and friendship, but also violence and poverty. Now that Dolly runs the Daydream Gin Palace on Gin Barrel Lane she can finally control her own destiny, but sometimes fate still plays its hand. Keen to expand her empire, Dolly and Jack take on a new pub, but they are in for a shock when a foul smell in one of the bedrooms turns out to come from a body hidden in the wall. As the police hunt for their suspect, rumours abound, spread by the local urchins - happy to be used as runners for a little bit of food and a coin or two. But rumours can be dangerous, and as one of the worst winters on record covers everything in snow, Dolly and Jack have to fight for the lives they have made for themselves, and for the urchins that they have come to think of as family. Will the arrival of a new baby on Gin Barrel Lane bring the promise of new hope, or will the long-awaited thaw uncover new secrets and new tragedies... The Queen of Black Country sagas is back on Gin Barrel Lane with a rip-roaring, heart-warming, page-turning story of family, friendship and beating the odds. Perfect for fans of Val Wood and Lyn Andrews. Praise for Lindsey Hutchinson: 'A great story with a great mix of characters, well written and keeps you hooked with each page turn!' Sarah Davies, NetGalley 'A wonderful read ... The author writes so well, it's a really hard novel to put down!' Grace Smith, NetGalley. 'Make sure to read this book where you won't be disturbed because once it gets going, you won't want to put it down' Andrea Ruiz, NetGalley 'A very poignant, feel-good-factor novel' Shelia Easson, NetGalley 'Excellent story!' Stephanie Collins, NetGalley 'The story will linger in your mind long after you finish it' The Avid Reader

'Folklore and Fables' is a collection of articles on his beloved Blades, by Sheffield United supporters' liaison officer, club historian and 'encyclopedia of Blades knowledge', John Garrett. A lifelong Blade, whose grandfather first watched the Blades in 1892, John has worked at Bramall Lane for over two decades and began writing his popular, and award-winning, 'Folklore and Fables' feature for United's matchday programme almost 10 years ago. This book is a compilation of his best work, giving his inimitable take on life at Bramall Lane - featuring his family history, music, holidays abroad, club legends and, rather occasionally, football...

Leicester is an old town with a long history reaching back across two thousand years of human activity and experience. Historically, it is a very well-documented town. Leicester has a rich antiquarian record with plenty of other writings and documents that add to our knowledge of how our predecessors lived and, just as importantly, what they experienced during their lives. This book details the various hauntings and lore of Leicester; from the malevolent Black Annis to the debated involvement of medium Robert James Lees in the case of Jack the Ripper. It concludes with a guided tour of all the mentioned locations.

There once may have been 250,000 miles of stone walls in America's Northeast, stretching farther than the distance to the moon. They took three billion man-hours to build. And even though most are crumbling today, they contain a magnificent scientific and cultural story--about the geothermal forces that formed their stones, the tectonic movements that brought them to the surface, the glacial tide that broke them apart, the earth that held them for so long, and about the humans who built them.
Stone walls tell nothing less than the story of how New England was formed, and in Robert Thorson's hands they live and breathe. "The stone wall is the key that links the natural history and human history of New England," Thorson writes. Millions of years ago, New England's stones belonged to ancient mountains thrust up by prehistoric collisions between continents. During the Ice Age, pieces were cleaved off by glaciers and deposited--often hundreds of miles away--when the glaciers melted. Buried again over centuries by forest and soil buildup, the stones gradually worked their way back to the surface, only to become impediments to the farmers cultivating the land in the eighteenth century, who piled them into "linear landfills," a place to hold the stones. Usually the biggest investment on a farm, often exceeding that of the land and buildings combined, stone walls became a defining element of the Northeast's landscape, and a symbol of the shift to an agricultural economy.
Stone walls layer time like Russian dolls, their smallest elements reflecting the longest spans, and Thorson urges us to study them, for each stone has its own story. Linking geological history to the early American experience, "Stone by Stone" presents a fascinating picture of the land the Pilgrims settled, allowing us to see and understand it with new eyes.

The multicultural Midlands is a unique, interdisciplinary study of the literature, music and food that shape the region's irrepressible, though often overlooked, cultural identity. It is the first of its kind to give serious critical attention to a part of the world which is frequently ignored by readers, critics and the culture industries. This book makes a claim for the importance of the Midlands and evidences this with nuanced close reading of a multitude of diverse texts spanning so-called 'high' to 'low' culture; from the Black Country's 'Desi Pubs', to Leicester's 'McIndians' Peri Peri ('you've tried the cowboys, now try the Indians!'); Handsworth's reggae roots to Adrian Mole's diaries. -- .

Take a stroll down memory lane with this collection of photographs of Britain in the 1960s, a revolutionary decade when the consumer society arrived on every family's doorstep and swinging London briefly came to be the centre of the world.

Parkas are part of a living tradition in southwest Alaska. Some are ornamented with tassels, beads, and elaborate stitching; others are simpler fur or birdskin garments. Although fewer fancy parkas are sewn today, many people still wear those made for them by their mothers and other relatives. "Parka-making" conversations touch on every aspect of Yup'ik life—child rearing, marriage partnerships, ceremonies and masked dances, traditional oral instructions, and much more. In The Flying Parka, more than fifty Yup'ik men and women share sewing techniques and "parka stories," speaking about the significance of different styles, the details of family designs, and the variety of materials used in creating these functional and culturally important garments. Based on nearly two decades of conversations with Yup'ik sewing groups and visits to the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Natural History, this volume documents the social importance of parkas, the intricacies of their construction, and their exceptional beauty. It features over 170 historical and contemporary images, full bilingual versions of six parka stories, and a glossary in Yup'ik and English.

Witness the beauty and allure of Chincoteague, Virginia's largest inhabited island in 167 beautiful, modern color photos and 58 vintage postcards. Featured are the Island Roxy Theater, Miss Molly's Inn, the Beebe Ranch, the Misty of Chincoteague statue, and the Assateague lighthouse. Also portrayed are the world-famous and much-loved ponies, native to the islands, that are captured during the annual pony swim from Assateague to Chincoteague and auctioned. The well researched and informative text provides an engaging history of Chincoteague and its ponies, told with the easy flair and style of a seasoned storyteller. This book is a must for everyone who loves horses and life beside the sea.

'Utterly irresistible and joyful - the perfect summer read!' bestselling author, Faith Hogan 'A gorgeous story of friendship, community and starting over' Jessica RedlandDreams can come true, you just have to believe... After 10 years in London, working in a stressful City firm, Liv O'Neill returns home to Sandycove, a picturesque seaside village, just outside Dublin to care for her mother after a fall. Whilst Liv reconnects with friends and family, she is amazed by Sandycove's thriving community spirit with its artisan shops, delis and cafes - it's not quite the place she left behind. As village life begins to creep under her skin, Liv is forced to confront the things that drove her away. Can Liv balance her past, present and future and find her own happy place? And will a handsome young doctor help her make a decision about the life she really wants? Suddenly her old life in London begins to seem extremely unappealing and Liv is forced to use her family's past in order to forge a brand new future.

H. Leslie Moody and Frances Johnson Moody never owned the company outright, but their dreams shaped North Carolina's Hyalyn Porcelain, Inc. and drove it forward to the satisfaction of an emerging, increasingly modern post-World War II America. Hyalyn's reputation for high quality led to its association with top designers like Michael and Rosemary Lax, Eva Zeisel, Georges Briard, Charles Leslie Fordyce, Herbert Cohen, Erwin Kalla, and Esta Brodey. Before moving to North Carolina in 1945, ceramic engineer and designer Less Moody prepared to organize and operate Hyalyn Porcelain, Inc. From Zanesville's Mosaic Tile Company, Ohio State University's ceramics department, Love Field Pottery, Abingdon Pottery, San Jose Potteries, and Rookwood Pottery, he gained expertise in clay formulation, glaze chemistry, product design, plant operation, project planning, advertising, and employee management. With the aid of investors, his dream came true when, in 1946, Hyalyn's first lamp bases and flower containers emerged from the shop's tunnel kiln. Thoroughly documented and illustrated with 425 images, hyalyn: America's Finest Porcelain is a complete history of Hyalyn Porcelain, Inc., and its successors, Hyalyn Cosco, Hyalyn, Ltd., and Vanguard Studios.