Forgotten History

[RaM]

There's also one from Arnside to I think Millom, interesting.

 

[escargot]

Corpse roads:
https://www.messynessychic.com/2023/02/24/forget-the-scenic-route-take-a-detour-down-a-corpse-road/

There's also one from Arnside to I think Millom, interesting.

A famous one is the Lyke Wake Walk across the North Yorkshire Moors. There are Lyke Wake Clubs with their own own morbid culture.
From Wikipedia - 'A traverse of the Lyke Wake Walk route is referred to as a crossing and the act of participating in the walk is known as dirging.'

My late father carved lovely wooden plaques, featuring funerary imagery, as trophies for a local Scout group who undertake the challenge.
It's all about the dark humour.

 

[Stormkhan]

There's a couple of corpse roads crossing Dartmoor.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

The harrowing Lyke Wake Dirge was set by Benjamin Britten in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings. Unforgettable!

It can be found on Youtube, in the best and earliest recording by Peter Pears, with hornist Dennis Brain. Sounds a bit scratchy but the intensity comes over!

 

[ramonmercado]

Local volunteers remember the "paupers".

"They were called lunatics and imbeciles, idiots. The terms dementia or schizophrenia weren't known. Psychiatry was an infant science"

In a Somerset town a small group of volunteers are slowly and sensitively revealing the stories of those who lived at the Somerset and Bath Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

"Patients who were put in there were dirt poor," said Clare Blackmore, one of the volunteers. "They had nothing. There were quite a few children in there. It often says in their notes, the mother cannot cope anymore," she added.

The asylum opened in South Horrington near Wells in 1848, initially caring for 300 patients. It admitted patients from Somerset and Bristol and was later known as the Mendip Hospital, before the building closed in 1991.

"It was run by Dr Robert Boyd when it opened," Ms Blackmore said. "He believed in the moral treatment of the insane. He believed in kindness, care, exercise, good nutrition and a bed to sleep in. He would feed the patients up, they would learn occupations, have music therapy, entertainment. He said if you could improve the physical, the mental condition would improve too," she added.

About 2,900 burials took place there but when the asylum closed, the cemetery was abandoned.

IMAGE SOURCE, SOUTH WEST HERITAGE TRUST Image caption, Gertrude James from Leigh on Mendip was admitted for "idiocy". It was said she could not articulate and ground her teeth constantly. She died aged 11

It became overgrown and was earmarked for housing but a campaign by the community in Wells led to the site being saved, with volunteers restoring the land as a nature reserve.

As the patients were paupers, there were no headstones. Instead, each grave was given an iron marker with a number to identify the person buried in the plot. Many of the original markers have been uprooted and now lie in clusters around the cemetery but the volunteers are planning to identify where each patient is buried and install a plaque to remember them individually. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-64759615

 

[ramonmercado]

The graves of more victims rediscovered.

The search for remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has discovered 21 additional graves in the city’s Oaklawn Cemetery.

Seventeen adult-size graves were located on Friday and Saturday, Oklahoma state archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said on Monday. Additionally, the city announced on Tuesday that four graves, two adult-size and two child-size, had been found.

The coffins, then the remains, will be examined to see if they match reports from 1921 that the victims were males buried in plain caskets.

“This is going to be part of our process of discriminating which ones we’re going to proceed with in terms of exhuming those individuals and which ones we’re actually going to leave in place,” Ms Stackelbeck said in a video statement.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40997579.html

Two survivors of the massacre are honoured by Ghana.

IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES. Image caption, Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis are said to be the oldest African-Americans to be granted citizenship of Ghana

Two survivors of the 1921 massacre of black people in the US city of Tulsa have been granted Ghanaian citizenship.

Viola Fletcher, 108 and her brother Hughes Van Ellis, 102, are two of three living survivors.

About 300 black residents of Greenwood - a prosperous town then known as "Black Wall Street" - were murdered and their homes and businesses destroyed by a mob of white people.

The citizenship ceremony took place at Ghana's embassy in Washington DC.

Ms Fletcher, known as Mother Fletcher, and Mr Van Ellis, also called Uncle Red, visited Ghana in August 2021 as part of a week-long tour of Africa to mark the centenary of the killings, known as the Tulsa race massacre.

The pair will become dual citizens, the Washington Post reports, citing comments made at the ceremony by Hajia Alima Mahama, Ghana's US ambassador.

The Justice for Greenwood Foundation, which works with survivors of the massacre and their descendants, said the pair have become the oldest African-Americans to be granted citizenship of Ghana.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64822932

 

[uair01]

And it’s not all that surprising that Koestler tried to deconstruct humor creation. During his 78 years, there was little he didn’t do. As an Austrian-born journalist and international man-about-town, he hobnobbed with Langston Hughes and W. H. Auden and rode a Zeppelin to the North Pole, all before being imprisoned by Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War. Later, while fleeing the Gestapo in France, he swallowed some suicide pills he’d received from famed philosopher Walter Benjamin. The pills killed Benjamin, but not Koestler, allowing him to continue on with his eventful life—taking LSD with Timothy Leary, getting drunk with Dylan Thomas, buddying up with George Orwell, giving political advice to Margaret Thatcher, teaching a young Salman Rushdie, and sleeping with Simone de Beauvoir.

From:

The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny​

Peter McGraw, Joel Warner​

 

[Mr Bleak]

The harrowing Lyke Wake Dirge was set by Benjamin Britten in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings. Unforgettable!

It can be found on Youtube, in the best and earliest recording by Peter Pears, with hornist Dennis Brain. Sounds a bit scratchy but the intensity comes over!

I have never heard Britten's adapted version. Thank you. I am interested in the origins of the Lyke Wake Dirge, think that it's most likely was sung by the Poor to encourage the Rich to give money to charity to lessen their time in Purgatory but always curious to read other interpretations.

 

[Tunn11]

I’ve put this in forgotten history as I originally started thinking about this in terms of historical figures but it could as well apply to anyone or any set of events.

Why do some figures attract far more public interest than others? I don’t mean those that study a particular area necessarily but amongst the general public.

To give some examples, ask a random sample to list:

Great commanders of the ancient world. I’ll bet you’ll get a fair number of Julius Caesars and Alexander the Greats but very few will mention Hannibal, Cyrus the Great or Belisarius.

English Monarchs, Henry VIII, Victoria and (both) Elizabeths but not many Henry VII, Edward I, etc.

Paranormal Phenomena, You’ll get ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, Mary Celeste, but not many timeslips, black shuck, Dyatlov Pass or almas.

Of course it is self-perpetuating to a degree as once the media have latched on to something there will be more coverage but why did the initial coverage or story about an event or person catch on in the first place?

Why does Caesar get the attention (IMO A mediocre military talent and self promoter) not Hannibal a true military genius does not?
Why have “flying saucers” remained in the news and morphed into “UAPs” and “Tic Tacs” whereas other high strangeness stories just fade?

One of the pivotal points of human history, the moon landings attracted huge interest worldwide which faded very quickly – and would even sooner if not for the drama of Apollo 13.

What is it about certain individuals, events or phenomena that cause them to stay in the minds of people worldwide or at least in certain cultures or countries when arguable more able or potentially important people or events fade very quickly?

Just something I’ve been idly wondering about.

 

[Stormkhan]

I know what you mean.
I think it's a version of 'newsworthy' - call it 'historyworthy'.
Roman emperors tend to be those that went to excess - Caligula and Nero, for example - rather than those who were good in their job such as Vespasian or Augustus.
When it comes to Forteana, I think it relates to ... publicity in a way; everyone has heard about UFO's but few have heard of Dyatlov or Tunguska.
Those that record or publicise stories only look at 'what sells' to the majority.

 

[uair01]

Compare to what Russia does today! Same thing.

Peter Ackroyd The Tudors:

Condé and Guise now marched together against the ancient enemy, while Elizabeth railed against the prince as ‘a treacherous inconstant perjured villain’. She insisted that Calais was given over to her before she would think of leaving Le Havre. She ordered her ships to sea, and a force was raised from the prisons of London; the thieves and highwaymen were enrolled as soldiers as a means of escaping the gallows.

 

[Ascalon]

Was Leonardo da Vinci the son of a slave?

New research suggests his mother was a Circassian slave, passed through the markets of Constantinople.

 

[uair01]

In December she was beset by toothache that was so painful that it kept her without sleep for forty-eight hours. A meeting of the privy council was called to consider the matter, and a tooth-drawer named Fenatus outlined the safest method of removing the offending tooth.
The councillors waited on the queen, together with a surgeon who would perform the operation. Elizabeth herself was fearful and drew back from the ordeal. The bishop of London then stepped forward and volunteered to calm her nerves by losing one of his own few remaining teeth. The surgeon extracted it without the least sign of distress on the bishop’s part and, following his example, the queen submitted with good grace.

Peter Ackroyd The Tudors

 

[Mr Bleak]

About three years ago went to see local folk group Bird in the Belly give a concert. They unveiled a song '45 George Street' about the case of James Pratt and John Smith, the last two men in Britain to be executed for sodomy. They were in fact hanged outside Newgate Prison on 27th November 1835.
Charles Dickens, as a young journalist, got permission to visit Newgate a few days before the men's execution and met them ( amongst other prisoners). He wrote up his experiences in 'Sketches by Boz'.
I have started researching what I can about the case and wrote up some of my ideas into a blogpost

https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2023/02/there-was-no-hope-in-this-world.html

 

[Ronnie Jersey]

About three years ago went to see local folk group Bird in the Belly give a concert. They unveiled a song '45 George Street' about the case of James Pratt and John Smith, the last two men in Britain to be executed for sodomy. They were in fact hanged outside Newgate Prison on 27th November 1835.
Charles Dickens, as a young journalist, got permission to visit Newgate a few days before the men's execution and met them ( amongst other prisoners). He wrote up his experiences in 'Sketches by Boz'.
I have started researching what I can about the case and wrote up some of my ideas into a blogpost

https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2023/02/there-was-no-hope-in-this-world.html

Interesting site, "A Walk to the Night Side of Nature" was particularly good!

 

[Frideswide]

Roman emperors tend to be those that went to excess - Caligula and Nero, for example - rather than those who were good in their job such as Vespasian or Augustus.

My grandfather's favourite emperor was Vespasian. Which as he was a classicist rather proves your point I think.

 

[Frideswide]

The harrowing Lyke Wake Dirge was set by Benjamin Britten in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings. Unforgettable!

It can be found on Youtube, in the best and earliest recording by Peter Pears, with hornist Dennis Brain. Sounds a bit scratchy but the intensity comes over!

Fabulous!

 

[Stormkhan]

My grandfather's favourite emperor was Vespasian. Which as he was a classicist rather proves your point I think.

In the year 68 AD - known as the Year of Three Emperors - when Nero topped himself, there was Galba, Otho and Vitellius in quick sucession, each standing on the previous twerps shoulders.
When the dust settled, Vespasian had paid off the Praetorians and was sat warming the throne before anyone realised he was in the running! Son of a senior finance officer, he understood how money worked in the Empire, how far you could push people and the best way to use public funds. Look at the Roman colesseum - pulled down Nero's extravagant palace, built a public entertainment venue and then knew that any bad word from the nobility would be ... ah ... not appreciated.

 

[Kondoru]

Augustus is mine.

 

[Stormkhan]

Ah, the Divine Augustus!

 

[Tunn11]

Augustus is mine.

“Quintili Vare, legiones redde“ – “Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions“

 

[Mr Bleak]

Interesting site, "A Walk to the Night Side of Nature" was particularly good!

Thank you. I hope to explore and write about Catherine's Crowe's work in the future. She seems to have become quite forgotten since the early 20th century .....and Mrs Crowe appears to have introduced 'poltergeist' to the English language.
https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-walk-to-night-side-of-nature.html

 

[Stormkhan]

“Quintili Vare, legiones redde“ – “Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions“

The Varus disaster is an entire genre of investigation, suppostion and speculation.
A light-hearted Roman detective series of my aquaintance had one novel entering the politics of lower Germania, accidentally going into the deep forest, and discovering a scattered remnant of the Varus horror.
Frankly, it was only part of the actual novel plot but it was both sensitive to emotions and realistic in the way a small group - in hostile territory - came across the evidence of a slaughter, and there was no way they could even bury the bodies or bid farewell to their spirits. They were fellow soldiers, at the same risk, but they had a duty to survive and get the heck out of Germania.
("The Iron Hand of Mars" by Lindsey Davis)

 

[Tunn11]

Lyndsey Davis used to live in our borough and gave several talks in the library. Nice lady and the Falco books very readable.
It now seems that Varus was actually marching through what he thought was a Roman colony, albeit recently settled and troubled (like Britain during the Boudica revolt) rather than "enemy territory" when Arminius (a.k.a. Herman the German) ambushed him.
At least that was the last theory I read.

 

[Stormkhan]

Lyndsey Davis used to live in our borough and gave several talks in the library. Nice lady and the Falco books very readable.
It now seems that Varus was actually marching through what he thought was a Roman colony, albeit recently settled and troubled (like Britain during the Boudica revolt) rather than "enemy territory" when Arminius (a.k.a. Herman the German) ambushed him.
At least that was the last theory I read.

I was at a BBC book event, back in the early years.

 

[staticgirl]

The Falco books were excellent and I learned a lot thanks to her meticulous research.

 

[Stormkhan]

I can also recommend the writer David Wishart.
Where Falco was a low-class informer, the hero Corvinus is a purple-striper (cousin to Messalina) who started out as a playboy wastrel and becomes an investigator. The series stretches from the reign of Tiberius (who Corvinus calls The Wart, though not to his face) past Caligula ("I only survived by luck - it didn't help that he liked me. He enjoyed executing his friends.") and into the reign of Claudius. Swinging between political investigations - which he hates - to murder of 'ordinary' folks, the series is a good combination of humour and serious threat. Very well researched.

 

[ramonmercado]

Bear baiting isn't supposed to take place but this is in Leeds after all.

A derelict 1840s West Yorkshire bear pit could open again - complete with a bear statue - by the end of 2023.

The bear pit on Cardigan Road in Headingley, Leeds, was once part of Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens. The attraction was open for less than a decade due to financial problems, with the pit, which once housed a brown bear, becoming neglected and overgrown.
Leeds Civic Trust now hopes to restore and open the structure again as a public space for the city.

The charity, which was given ownership of the listed bear pit in a will in the 1960s, said it was looking at spending about £100,000 on the restoration work.

Martin Hamilton, Leeds Civic Trust director, said: "It was the centrepiece of the wider gardens and zoo which occupied land around Cardigan Road, it was a relatively short-lived attraction and obviously animal welfare standards in those days weren't what they are now.

"The vast majority of people wouldn't have been abroad, there were zoos but nothing in Leeds, so it would have been a curiosity and a real draw at the time."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-65066000

 

[Yithian]

The Falco books were excellent and I learned a lot thanks to her meticulous research.

It was so obvious: Suetonius meets Rayond Chandler via Robert Graves, but it took Lyndsey Davis to think of it.

I confess I love Anton Lesser's voice so much that I almost prefer the BBC audio adaptations (his Dickens readings are also superb).

 

[Frideswide]

I confess I love Anton Lesser's voice so much that I almost prefer the BBC audio adaptations (his Dickens readings are also superb).

I saw him do Romeo many years back. Electrifying.