St Kilda is one of the most isolated places in the British Isles, an archipelago in the Outer Hebrides whose final human inhabitants left in 1930. It is now home to 600,000 nesting birds each year. This is from the i paper of 29 December: A 250-year-old census has revealed that islanders on St Kilda… … Continue reading
I’ve always been aware that the Middle Ages in Europe and the Tudor age were colder than the present – with famous ice fairs on the Thames in Tudor times. But it was also a time of gruesome punishments, tortures and plagues and churches seemed to be full of images of skeletons, dances of death … Continue reading
Walls are generally straight, they follow boundaries, and are made with a minimum of materials to save money and time. But sometimes they are bendy. I recall a few in isolated places that had trees planted in the bends. The walls were in an area where fields had lots of stones, so were a nuisance … Continue reading
The music business has long been seen as a means for poor people to make a living, but in the late 1960s/early 70s there were some truly stellar rises by the few fortunate enough to become famous. The following snippets come from Dominic Sandbrook’s book The Great British Dream Factory: Bill Wyman had grown up in … Continue reading
This is from the Newcastle Chronicle of July 1766. It is noteworthy as soon after this, the south and west of England erupted in food riots. This region remained calm as they ate mostly potatoes instead of suffering speculation in wheat which caused bread to skyrocket in price. York, July 22 Last Friday the assizes … Continue reading
There were many problems caused by the urbanisation of Britain; houses had to be build fast, and were often overcrowded and substandard. Before railways allowed mass movement of food, fairs and markets were crucial in ensuring food supplies, especially to the ‘great wen’ of London. Markets and fairs were conducted by licence, often of long … Continue reading
Atlas Obscura comes up with some pretty amazing stuff, but history is not their strong point here, complaining about why Europeans did not take to tomatoes and how they fed corn to their cattle. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-was-wrong-with-16th-century-europeans-that-they-didnt-like-tomatoes?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160715&bt_email=texthistory@outlook.com&bt_ts=1468592859278 Well, the most obvious thing that occurs to me here is that when the New World was discovered, Europe was … Continue reading
I love this. For centuries red kites were hunted to near extinction by farmers.Now they’re nicking knickers from bathers in Scotland: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/scottish-birds-continue-stealing-large-amounts-of-underwear?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160628&bt_email=texthistory@outlook.com&bt_ts=1467122853162
This is from the i paper a few days ago, and should surprise nobody who has ever taken antibiotics: Feeding antibiotics to farm animals is having an unintended consequence – fuelling global warming by almost doubling the amount of methane cattle produce. antibiotics are being so widely used in agriculture that cow dung is now … Continue reading
This is some more from the present copy of current Archaeology. Alderney edge has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years, and each age seems to have left its marks, which are now being investigated: Wherever you walk on alderney Edge, you are rare y far from large stones set at the side of … Continue reading
