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Monday 4 March 2024

Saving Lives At Sea for 200 Years!

 

Sir William Hillary
Britain is an island nation. Since ancient times, our commerce and defence depended on the sea. But our treacherous waters exacted a terrific toll of ships and passengers every year. Victims often lost their lives within sight of shore because no vessel was strong enough to reach them safely. 

The late eighteenth century witnessed the earliest recorded attempts at organized rescue efforts.  At Formby, Lancashire, a boat was kept on shore specifically to aid shipwrecked persons as early as 1776. The notoriously dangerous Mersey estuary had shifting sandbanks, and the Liverpool Dock Trustees founded several coastal lifeboat stations. The crews manning the boats were rewarded for every life they saved. 

Sir William Hillary founded the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck in 1824. Hillary, who lived on the Isle of Man, had personally witnessed several shipwrecks in Douglas Bay, and helped save some victims.

I was very interested to discover that Jane Austen's sailor brothers, Frank and Charles, were keen supporters of the Institution. You can find out more in my latest article for the March issue of Jane Austen's Regency World magazine, which features the amazing story of the birth of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Images: Sir William Hillary, shown wearing the robes and cross of a Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, commonly known as a Knight of Malta. Artist unknown, English School, mid 19th Century. Courtesy of the RNLI Archive.

Author’s Collection: Captain Marryat’s design for a new lifeboat, Gentleman’s Magazine, May 1820.



Thursday 18 January 2024

A Bright Future

Old-style crown glass shop windows.

My latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World's January issue, in my series on Austen and the Industrial Revolution, is on glass manufacture. 

When Jane Austen visited her brother Henry in London, she would have seen the new fashion for large, imposing plate-glass shop-windows. 

Plate-glass casting at Ravenhead.

Until the late eighteenth century, plate-glass, used for the largest windows or mirrors, was incredibly expensive. Only the wealthiest could afford it. 

But the advent of plate-glass casting at Ravenhead (the British Plate Glass Co.) in 1773, followed by glass-houses on Tyneside, where there was already a flourishing industry, revolutionised the look of British retail establishments. 

Glass-making in Britain faced a bright future!



Images

A New Bond street shop in the 1790s. Before plate glass became affordable, shop windows were made from small panes of crown glass. James Gillray 1796, courtesy Library of Congress, catalogue number: LC-USZC4-8787.

Casting plate glass at the Ravenhead works in Lancashire in the 1840s. Engraving by Mr Sly. Pictorial History of the County of Lancashire, 1844. Author’s collection.



Tuesday 9 January 2024

Ready To Pre-Order!





I'm very pleased to say that 'Young Workers of the Industrial Age' is now available to pre-order from Amazon UK! It's currently scheduled for publication in hardback in September this year. 

Friday 22 December 2023

Happy Christmas!

I doubt we'll have a white Christmas as it's so mild here at present, so here's a snowy picture of our garden from early December. 

Wishing you all a happy Christmas, and a prosperous 2024!

Friday 10 November 2023

Exciting News!


 I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that I've just signed a new contract with Pen & Sword to republish my book The Children History Forgot! The book has been out of print for some time now, and will appear under the title Young Workers of the Industrial Age: Child Labour in the 18th and 19th Centuries. 

I'll post updates on my blog nearer publication date - currently provisionally the summer of 2024. 

Meanwhile, my other Pen & Sword titles are on special offer at the moment - do take a look if you need some ideas for Christmas presents!

All images from my collection.





Monday 26 June 2023

My Top Five Picks

 


Gallop over to the Shepherd website, where you'll find the Top Five books I recommend for understanding the history of Jane Austen's England!

Image from the author's collection - Fashions of 1797. 

Tuesday 13 June 2023

Porcelain and Pots


My series on Jane Austen and the Industrial Revolution is still ongoing, although I haven't had time to update this blog! 

My feature in the March/April issue looked at 'canal mania', and 'Our Wedgwood Ware' is in the current issue of Jane Austen's Regency World

'The Prettiest English China' is coming up in the July/August issue, and looks at the manufacture of English porcelain in places like Worcester, Bristol and London. 


Image: Etruria. Engraving by Henry Warren, G. Greatbach, Staffordshire and Warwickshire Past and Present, Vol. III, William Mackenzie, London, c.1870.