Book: Lead Mining Land The Northern Pennines

J

JudyM

New member
This book has been well-received in geological circles, but I wanted to make sure that it passed a test in mining ones before posting about it here! It's just had a favourable write-up in the NMRS November Newsletter (library section) so ...
The content is varied - social and industrial history, environmental issues, geology, heritage tourism... what makes it different from other books about lead mining and about the north Pennines are two things. Firstly, the lay-out and presentation (my daughter's contribution, described as faultless in the NMRS review) and, secondly, the approach: the content is wrapped around the Pennine lead-mining poems of W.H.Auden. (Best known for 'Stop All The Clocks?) He stated that the north Pennine landscape refused to communicate. I think it speaks volumes, and I've tried to explain how.
As soon as non-fiction is published, bits go out of date but there are blogs on the publisher's website that offer both updates and little extras e.g. Sir Francis Level, the Burtreeford Disturbance. The book can be ordered through all the normal high street and online channels and I hope that it will interest some of the people here!
Publisher website www.stemplesikepress.co.uk old-gang-lead-mine.jpg
 
There is a mining history conference to be held not so far away in Swaledale next July (19th-21st), near Reeth. You'd sell some copies there I am sure.

Chris.
 
Thank you for those encouraging words @ChrisJC . I''m hoping to be staying close to the venue that week. I might have to forego trips out, but I hope to get to some talks and, yes, sell some books.
 
You could give a talk about the book... I could put you in touch with the talks coordinator to see if it would fit in with the conference theme?

Chris.
 
@ChrisJC That's really very kind of you. However, a little while ago and on a different thread, you gave me the email of one of the organisers. (I wanted to check that it was OK to bring some books along.) Not having heard back, and in view of your post yesterday, I re-contacted and, in reply, that organiser has offered to contact the talks coordinator for me. I have to admit that if I can give a talk, I'll be terrified and delighted in equal measure!
 
A shame that these two BBC Radio 4 programs are not available to listen to, unless there are some off-air recordings out there floating around...

Auden and the Pennines on BBC Radio 4 (1999)
"The Reservoir of Darkness," a half-hour BBC Radio 4 broadcast by Sean O'Brien on Auden's relationship with the North Pennines, was transmitted Sunday, 2 May 1999, at 4.30 p.m, in the Open Book programme. The broadcast, which also included contributions by Katherine Bucknell and Robert Forsythe, was partly recorded at Leadgate and the Rotherhope Mine near Alston, Rampgill Mine at Nenthead, and the old mine/railway yard at Rookhope, places referred to in Auden's poems "Not In Baedeker," "New Year Letter," and "In Praise of Limestone."


In Praise of Limestone (2014)
In W.H. Auden's famous poem, In Praise of Limestone, he wrote about a landscape that he was always homesick for - the remote Pennine Dales. It's a place he returned to in his imagination again and again.

Since reading it at school the poet Ian McMillan has always wanted to explore the limestone scenery that inspired the poem. Ian walks in Auden's footsteps, revisiting the places that so moved Auden when he was a boy and young man.

Ian leaves the train at Penrith, where he meets Tony Sharpe from Lancaster University who's looked at how the area impacted on Auden's development as a poet. Ian meets local writer and Auden enthusiast Robert Forsythe who's researched the links between the Pennine Dales and Auden's poetry. They visit Haggs Mine, near to Alston the highest town in Cumbria. Here they peer into the 375 ft deep mine shaft, the kind that fascinated the young Auden as he walked the land as a boy.

Robert takes Ian further East in search of the places described in a New Year Letter, which was written while Auden was living in America during WW2. Ian meets the mining historian Ian Tyler and local poet Josephine Dickinson, whose own work is rooted in the countryside.

As he travels the Pennine Dales Ian reflects on the unbreakable link between the landscape and the poet.

28 minutes
Last on
Mon 6 Oct 2014 16:00
BBC RADIO 4
www.bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - In Praise of Limestone

Ian McMillan searches for the limestone landscape that inspired the poet WH Auden.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back