History
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The Combs Colliery Disaster 4th July 1893
The historic village of Thornhill, near Dewsbury, is situated on a hill on the south side of the River Calder. It’s an important historic site and an area called “The Combs” was named by the ancient Celts, who inhabited the region. Thornhill was mentioned in the Domesday Book and, in the 19th century, it was where many of the author’s ancestors still lived and worked, as miners and quarrymen. Combs Colliery was one of several pits in the area owned by Edward Theodore Ingham, a member of the local gentry who lived at Blake Hall, Mirfield. Of his other pits, Hostingley had closed in 1880 and Ings, situated on adjacent…
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The Bradford Arsenic Poisonings
Death from poisoning was not uncommon in the days before the regulation of poisons. Arsenic trioxide (usually referred to as simply "arsenic") was a common feature of everyday life in Victorian Britain.
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Misdemeanour, Felony and Bankruptcy
A brief history of crime and punishment from the 17th to 19th centuries. The Wakefield House of Correction, Rothwell Debtors' Prison and York Castle Prison are highlighted. The article gives family case histories of those who skirted the edges of the law and were sometimes punished.
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Are You Mad?
A look at the treatment of madness form the middle ages to the present with particular emphasis on the West Riding Asylums and individual cases from the author's family history.
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John Hemingway (1795-1872) of Dewsbury and Menai
The story of John Hemingway of Dewsbury, WR Yorkshire, who was Master Mason on the stonework of the world famous Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait. John was a partner in Nowell, Hemingway and Pearson.
