What is Hidden Cumbrian Histories?
It’s a blog and newsletter about the fascinating and turbulent history of England’s most beautiful place. Twice a week, lively and crisply written pieces appear. They are about the astonishing past of this ravishing and mysterious land.
Cumbria is inhabited by the ghosts of Neolithic axe makers, deathly Druids, elusive Vikings, relentless Romans, violent Normans, ravaging Scots, Cavaliers, Roundheads and, above all, civilised, creative Celts. At least half the articles are free. I hope you enjoy them. There is no obligation to subscribe. But I hope you will sign up to get the full story.
Why did I create it?
Cumbria might seem the picture-perfect, serene and idyllic UNESCO World Heritage Site seen in the Sunday supplements. But in 40 years of living in and visiting the place I have become gripped by the deep, wonderful and often calamitous history that lies underneath.
Originally colonised by post Ice Age Atlantic Celts, opened up by stone-circle building Neolithic farmers, oppressed by imperialist Romans with their 42 forts, cage of roads and Hadrian’s ineffective wall, abused as a vast hunting park by the Normans, industrialised by Elizabeth I, devastated by plague and famine, impoverished by Border Reivers and immortalised by Romantic poets, Cumbria is strangely ignored by mainstream historians. Which is why so much is hidden. So, I decided to write the story myself and share the results.
So, who am I?
I am Paul Eastham, a journalist. I wrote for the Times and Daily Mail (yes, I know) for two decades. I have a life-long interest in Cumbria and the Lake District. Everything I write is based on solid sources which you will find listed in my books.
Why should you subscribe?
I would argue that you can’t get this anywhere else. Cumbria is no backwater. It’s an amazing, somewhat magical, place. Much of English history was fought out here. One historian said Cumbria is “more a country than a county”. That is because it was the last chunk dragged into England in 1092 AD. Before that, it was the kingdom of Cumbria. It had its own language, institutions, monarchy and culture for over 500 years. The distinctiveness of this Lost Kingdom is apparent today, even as Cumbria reverts to being called by the names of its historic components, Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness.
What will you get?
You will receive posts about a vast cast-list of characters. They include a fugitive Mary, Queen of Scots, a castle-demolishing Robert the Bruce, the “Wicked Earl” William Lowther who bought nine MPs and Henry Ismay, the narcissistic Cumbrian whose company built the Titanic.
Others are Emperor Hadrian and his frustrated wife Sabina, the sexy Iron Age Queen Cartimandua, dozens of bleeding Vikings, a mutinying Fletcher Christian and a sickly genius, John Keats.
You will meet the brilliant Cumbrian painter Shiela Fell, the bad father William Wordsworth, King Dunmail, who lost Cumbria in 945 AD, tragic Sara Coleridge, Cumbrian portraitist George Romney who was destroyed by his love for That Hamilton Woman, the pioneer (and possibly black comedian) of Arctic exploration Sir John Barrow and an outraged barmaid from the Royal Oak Hotel, Keswick.
What do you do now?
Sign up using the “Subscribe now” button below. Free subscribers get a bit less than half the articles. They will see the juicy paid articles, but they won’t be able to access them. But if you sign up as a paid subscriber you get 100% of them - plus some free gifts!
I charge paying subscribers £5 a month - that’s the minimum amount Substack will allow. You can also buy my books here.
And another thing… if you sign up as a paying subscriber before October 1, 2023, you also get a 20% discount - forever.
You can buy my books here
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
