Historical Facts about where you live/the town you were born?

candyflosspot

candyflosspot

bossy boots
Sep 7, 2010
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Sheffield
I am currently studying Arts & Social Sciences at Uni at the moment and part of the module is a history section. We have been given a task to find out about the Sheffield Area which has proved to be very interesting indeed.

For example Mary Queen of Scots was held in Sheffield Manor Lodge/castle from 1570 until around 1585 where she was then moved (cant remember where too 0 maybe Shrewsbury?) . She used to write to the Duke Of Norfolk which he kep secret from elizabeth 1st.

Would love to hear of others historical facts about where they live/grew up? :smile:
 
Close to us is 16th century Ewarton Hall, where Anne Boleyn spent many happy childhood days. Legend has it that her heart is buried there.
 
Oh and I've just remembered, the riverside hamlet five minutes walk down the hill from me was either the setting for or inspiration of a lot of the Arthur Ransome books, particularly Swallows and Amazons.
 
My Gt Grandfather had a cutlery manufacturers in Sheffield.

The tiny Village where we live is a St, Ninian site, he is recorded as having visited the long gone chapel here and conducted some service, the only bit of the Kirk left is the stone font which is in the museum.

And just below where I used to live is an old disued ancient chapel that John Wesley was supposed to have frequented.
 
Although I now live in rural East Anglia, I have lived most of my life so far in East London....

Historic Facts about Leytonstone
For the most part, it's ****hole
....Alfred Hitchcock was born there as was David Beckham

On a more serious note - OH and I are lucky enough to have historic pictures of the village that we live in now (they were left by the previous owner) and it's amazing to see how it's changed, the church (where we will be getting married) dates back to the 12th Century and has all sorts of historic engravings, memorials and messages....it's fascinating to read them! There is a tithe across the road from the church that states what was taken from a land owner in lieu of payments to the Church.
 
Perth was once the capital of Scotland (apparently)
We have the tallest beech hedge in wherever - might be Scotland, might be Uk or Europe - not sure, but its pretty big!
Beatrix Potter used to come up here on her holidays (she didn't just go to the lake district like the movie would have you know!)
Oh and not far from here, is 'Birnam wood' where Shakespeare's army did march to Dunsinane, disguising themselves as oak trees gleaned from the wood in MacBeth. Well, in real life the wood only contains one very elderly oak tree and its on crutches. People pee in the trunk of it (nice!)
 
Near to us is Clitheroe castle - which is a Norman one dating back to 1086 - built by Robert de Lacey who could at the time of building the castle ride from Clitheroe to York without leaving his own land. Pretty good eh?! The castle keep is the second smallest in England. And Clitheroe still has a town crier. A little further away from where we live is Whalley Abbey - destroyed by Henry VIII during the disolution. There is still lots of it to see though and you can enjoy a lovely peaceful day there by the river in spring.
 
The town where I was born & brought up used to be the main port for Glasgow but is now a bit of a dump. Mary Queen of Scots had strong connections with Irvine and there is a festival called Marymass held in the town every year at the end of summer to commemorate this.

The town I live in now was made famous a few years ago by a documentary call the scheme. Don't know if anyone remembers that? I'm glad to say the part of town I live in is nice & quiet,nothing like the scheme at all!!
 
I find this subject fascinating. We have a local history group and there is new and interesting stuff coming up all the time.

Most off the villages around here have someone who has written and published in depth histories of each one. In some cases past inhabitants still make a mark on certain places in the way they wrote their wills and various trusts that where set up which some are still benefiting from to this day. One in particular had land left in a trust fund to be managed for the benefit of the poor in the village. If you live there you can still claim off the trust (set up in the 1700's) for help with university fees etc.

The whole of Kent is steeped in history, being so close to London and Europe, some really amazing stuff.
 
I was born in Glamis, village surrounding the castle of the Queen Mothers' family, one of my Great Uncles was a tenant farmer.

Lived most of my teens in Ely in the Fens which is steeped in history starting the founding of a monastry in 673 a legacy of which is the cathedral.

I now live in Ashby de la Zouch, the castle features in Walter Scotts 'Ivanhoe' and the tournament field is opposite our land ( hence the name of my place!!)
 
I was born in Laughton in East Sussex and apparently :-

In 1356 at the Battle of Poitiers a local knight Sir John Pelham together with Sir Roger De La Warr captured Jean the King of France, because of this Sir John was given the Kings belt buckle as a badge of honour.

This badge can be seen in many churches in the area showing the influence and power of the Pelham family.

Other than that the only claim to fame was that it was hit by a stray doodlebug in 1943 and it killed four people, one of whom was a poor bugger on home on leave.
 
I was bought up in Christchurch, just down the road from where I live now.
William the Conqueror built a castle here when he invaded England in 1066 and the ruins are still standing.
Close by is the Priory Church with parts of it dating back to Norman times. There is a beam in the roof of the church that was said to have been cut too short, but when the workers returned from their rest the following day the beam had by a miracle grown long enough to fit. The story goes that Jesus was one of the carpenters and he made the beam grow. After the beam was fitted, the holy carpenter was said to have disappeared.
 
Tina2011 said:
I find this subject fascinating. We have a local history group and there is new and interesting stuff coming up all the time.

Most off the villages around here have someone who has written and published in depth histories of each one. In some cases past inhabitants still make a mark on certain places in the way they wrote their wills and various trusts that where set up which some are still benefiting from to this day. One in particular had land left in a trust fund to be managed for the benefit of the poor in the village. If you live there you can still claim off the trust (set up in the 1700's) for help with university fees etc.

The whole of Kent is steeped in history, being so close to London and Europe, some really amazing stuff.
Click to expand...

As Tina knows I'm not far from her so we have similar local histories. It's a bit of a hobby of mine to explore the history of the villages in my area. I look up their web sites which usually have a lot of local historical information and I find the same centuries old names cropping up all over the place, for instance William the Conqueror "acquired" huge amounts of land and property all over the place after the Battle of Hastings.

The story that's been in the news recently about Richard the Third and his son Richard Plantaganet was especially interesting as I live about a mile from the church where Richard Plantagnet is buried. We often walked our dogs there and have seen the tomb. As Tina said there are a lot of publications and I have one for Eastwell where the now ruined church is and it shows the burial entry in the Parish register which says he was buried on 22nd December 1550. The experts are now questionning whether he is still there.

I was never interested in history at school but these days I'm really getting into local history - it seems to make more sense when you know the places and names you read about and realise how many important historical people and events happened in places you know.
 
Dizzy Woo said:
I was bought up in Christchurch, just down the road from where I live now.
William the Conqueror built a castle here when he invaded England in 1066 and the ruins are still standing.
Close by is the Priory Church with parts of it dating back to Norman times. There is a beam in the roof of the church that was said to have been cut too short, but when the workers returned from their rest the following day the beam had by a miracle grown long enough to fit. The story goes that Jesus was one of the carpenters and he made the beam grow. After the beam was fitted, the holy carpenter was said to have disappeared.
Click to expand...

William got around didn't he. I took so long typing my post at the same time as reading my little book on Eastwell I didn't know you'd mentioned him as well.
 
The history of Southport is all fairly recent, as the town only really established itself in the early 19th century (although there is good evidence of Viking settlement in the area, with many local placenames being of Viking origin).
Southport has the unfortunate distinction of being remembered for the worst lifeboat disaster in RNLI history. In December 1886 a ship called Mexico was in trouble off the coast, and 3 lifeboats were launched to assist: one from Southport, one from St Annes & the third from Lytham.
The boats from Southport & St Annes both foundered, with the loss of 14 lives from the Southport boat (from a crew of 16) and 13 lives lost from the St Annes boat (the whole crew).
The Lytham boat reached the Mexico & succeeded in rescuing the 12 crewmembers.

On a lighter note, Norman Wisdom made a film here in the late 60's called What's good for the goose (I don't recommend you to look it up, it's pretty dire IIRC)

And on a horsey note, the great Red Rum lived & trained here & was often seen making his way down to the beach with several of his stablemates.
 
Born in a small village on the Fife Perthshire border called Abernethy where father was blacksmith at the time. It has a round tower of which there are only three in the world one in Brechin and won in Eire. It was the Pictish capital of there southern empire and was a religious center settled by an abess from Ireland who was a disciple of St Bridgett when she tried to christianise the Picts the church is still called St Brides to this day. The permission was granted by the Pictish king called Nechtan around the 9th century. The Romans had 4 attempts at bringing the area and the rest of Pictavia under their empire over 350 years but failed and eventually retreated behind the wall which is largely responsible for what is now Scotland as it developed a different and purely Celtic culture from the rest of the island. Many battles were fought in the area from William Wallace defeating the Earl of Pembroke at the battle of Black Earn in the wars of independence up to the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 and 1745. The vikings during their raids called it the shore of the secret sea. Kenneth Mac Alpine was crowned first king of Scots about 6 miles from the area. Macbeth built a palace not far from the village and he was one of the best kings of Scotland but was given bad press by that English guy called William Shakespear who claimed to be some kind of poet. I could go on and on the whole area of Perthshire is crammed with the history of the Scottish nation from the bloody wars known as the killing times up to the present where it is one of the most fertile areas in the land. Many battles were fought round the area with the English during the many invasions of the country during med evil period. It is like most places its history is written in blood. I find all history of any country fascinating especially where names come from, in this area place names that start with Aber or Pit are throw backs to the old Pictish language which is Q Gaelic as opposed to the west of Scotland which was mainly P Gaelic such as names that start with inver. I can see everyone has nodded off now so i will stop.
 
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