East Yorkshire is ripe with tales of fairy gold and illusive characters. The county’s folklore is engrained in every port, cliff and bridge, passed on through whispered accounts of witches long dead, legends of strange creatures or the bawdy tales of adventuring heroes.Filey Brigg was once a dragon, the people of Skinningrove held a merman captive, and Eskdale’s Beggar’s Bridge holds a love story in its history. By night a mysterious traveller stalked Bowes Moor, with a shrivelled Hand of Glory in his grasp ...These engaging stories, brought to life with charming illustrations, will be enjoyed by readers time and again.

Andrew Jackson's new history tells the story of the Great War as it was experienced by the men of the 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment (Accrington Pals), the 158th (Accrington and Burnley) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (Howitzers) and their families. Using information gathered from years of painstaking research in national and local archives and in private collections, he reconstructs, in vivid detail, the role played by these men on the Western Front. His book, which draws extensively on diaries, memoirs and letters, follows both infantry and artillerymen into the British armys bloodiest battles of the war, giving a graphic close-up view of their experiences. It is a moving record of the wartime service of a select group of local men during a time of unprecedented conflict.

'Curious Tales of Old East Yorkshire' is a guide to the history, folklore, traditions & social institutions of the old East Riding, arranged in 14 diverse chapters. Anecdotes are included on events, personalities, buildings, customs & domestic matters.

On 13 December 1776, the Rev. William Turner preached the first avowedly anti-slavery sermon in the North of England. Copies of his sermon were distributed far and wide – in so doing, he had fired the first shot in the battle to end slavery had begun. Four years later, Rev. Turner, members of his congregation and the Rev. Christopher Wyvill founded ‘The Yorkshire Association’ to agitate for political and social reform. The Association sought universal suffrage, annual parliaments and the abolition of slavery. In the West Riding, despite furious opposition, by 1783 nearly 10,000 signatures were collected in support of the aims of the Association. Slavery, or rather its abolition, was now on the political agenda. The Battle Against Slavery charts the story of a group of West Riding radicals in their bid to abolish slavery both in the United Kingdom and abroad. Such became the influence of this group, whose Unitarian beliefs were illegal in Britain, that the general election of 1806 in Yorkshire was fought on an abolitionist platform. At a time when the rest of the world engaged in slavery, this small body was fighting almost single-handedly to end such practices. Gradually, their beliefs began to spread across the country and across the Channel to France, the principles of which found resonance during the French Revolution and even across the Atlantic to America. At a time, today, when the history of slavery is the subject of considerable debate worldwide, this revealing insight into the abolitionist movement, which demonstrates how ordinary men and women battled against governments and the establishment, needs to be told. The Battle Against Slavery adds an important dimension to the continuing debate over Britain’s, and other nations’, involvement in the slave trade and demonstrates how the determination of just a few right-minded people can change world opinion forever.

This book is the first scholarly study to explore economic relations between brewers and publicans in the brewing industry over a century. Based on overlooked historical evidence, this volume examines over 400 interviews with candidates for public houses, unpublished evidence of royal commissions heard in secrecy, representations of publicans in fiction and film and systematic reading of 15 licensed victuallers’ newspapers. The Mystique of Running the Public House in England situates licensed victualling among upper-working- and lower-middle-class occupations in England and abroad. This book explores why aspiring but untrained individuals sought public house tenancies, notwithstanding high levels of turnovers and numerous bankruptcies among licensed victuallers. Encapsulated in any newcomer’s appraisal was the captivating vision of El Dorado, a nirvana which promised unimaginable wealth, high social status, respectability and social mobility as rewards for those limited in income but not in ambition. Despite the allure of El Dorado, the likelihood of publicans realizing their aspirations was quite as remote as that of fish and chip proprietors, Blackpool landladies and French café proprietors. This volume will be of great value to students and scholars alike interested in British History, Economic History and Social and Cultural History.