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Showing posts from October, 2020

Spooky Stories of Rossendale, Lancashire

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As Halloween approaches, I thought it would be appropriate to dig some spooky stories out of the archives where I'm currently volunteering. All stories are said to have happened in my local valley of Rossendale, a little borough tucked away in Lancashire.  Rossendale Wizard  One year, local farmers had suffered loss of cattle and sheep had become unproductive.  Creamed soured in its churn, horses mysterious escaped their locked stables and cows seemed bewitched. The farmers tried hanging lucky horseshoes and hanging sickles across beams to counteract the bad luck yet nothing seemed to work.   Suspicion fell on a local astrologer and fortune teller who resided in Newchurch, Rossendale. It was decided that enough was enough and the farmers wanted to put an end to their ill-fortune so performed the ceremonials for ‘killing a witch’.   One November evening as the thick fog covered the valley and the winds whistled across the moors, the farmers met at one of their houses whose cows had

Black History Month & The Importance of Teaching Black British History

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It's October so that means it's Black History Month , an annual event to promote and celebrate Black history. The origins of Black History Month lay in the development of 'Negro History Week' in 1926 in the United States, created by Carter G Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1926. By the 1970s this later evolved into what we now know as Black History Month and was celebrated in the US every February. By the 1980s, as a result of campaigning by activists who wanted to challenge racism and the teaching of a Eurocentric version of history in schools, Black History Month was exported to the UK, starting mainly in London.  Black History Month's founder Woodson said,  “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” - Via Time When I first saw this quote it really hit a chord with me and echoed some of the th

My UK Museum & Historical Places Bucket List

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 After spending 18 months travelling in New Zealand, I am back on British soil and raring to explore my home country. One thing I have realised whilst I've been away is that I have barely explored my hometown of Lancashire never mind the rest of the UK and that includes museums and heritage places. I started compiling a list of such places that I want to visit once I'm back even though it's unlikely I will get to visit them any time soon due to Covid. What places are on your UK museum and historic places bucket list? North West Pendle Heritage Centre , Lancashire  Helmshore Textile Museum , Lancashire Imperial War Museum North , Manchester The Beatles Story, Liverpool International Slavery Museum, Liverpool British Music Experience , Liverpool The Pankhurst Centre, Manchester Quarry Bank, Cheshire Helmshore Textile Museum North East Eden Camp , Yorkshire National Science & Media Museum , Bradford South East Bletchley Park , Milton Keynes Portsmouth Historic Dockyard , P