Here are some of my recent purchases. Needless to say I adore books.
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World Book Day
Tag: History
The world’s first public railway ran on 27th September 1825. The route from the coalfields around Bishop Auckland ran through Shildon and Darlington to reach Stockton on the river Tees.
Today you can still travel the route.
And at Shildon (north west of Darlington) the Locomotion Museum may not carry the international reputation of the Railway Museum in York but it’s still worth a visit. Its facilities are all modern.
You can arrive via the original railway line or if coming by car there is a large free car park.
Frankly this is a case of less is more – museums wise!
If you just want to get your head round “railways” then Locomotion does it better and quicker.
This is one of the great things about small museums – they often “punch above their weight”: The Wallace collection in the London springs to mind.
Locomotion concentrates on both the beginning of the railways and the modern experiments with speed such as examples of APT and HST.
It is the presentation of these modern trains alongside the diminutive Locomotion and other early steam engines that looks so good.
There is a good selection of other engines and coaches showing developments over time as well as technologies.
Memorabilia and the inevitable shop and cafe round off an excellent site.
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Anyone for tapestry?
September is a busy month for battle anniversaries in Yorkshire not least in 1066.
On the 20th the Vikings of King Harald defeated the Saxons of Earls Edwin and Morcar at Germany Beck in what is now Fulford. There are not many references to this battle – given that two climatic battles followed, its understandable.
Crucially the defeated Saxons made good their escape as a rising tide flooded the beck. This meant they could fight another day.
There is a tapestry of the Fulford battle displayed at various locations over the years since it was made in 2012 after ten years effort!
On the 25th September the Saxons under King Harold of England defeated Harald and the Viking host at Stamford Bridge.
It was the end of the Scandinavian Viking threat after hundreds of years of invasion.
A tapestry of the Stamford Bridge battle can be seen in the old railway station at Stamford Bridge.
It was another Viking Scion – the Norsemen who took land in the Carolingian Empire and called it Normandy – who a few generations later then defeated the English in turn at Hastings.
It can be argued that without Fulford and Stamford Bridge there would have been no Hastings and maybe a different war between Harold and William might have played out.
So maybe instead of waiting for yet another Norman invasion (the bayeaux tapestry is en route to the UK) you could visit these other tapestries when they are on show instead or as well as.
People remember William for what followed yet Harold had marched 500 miles with his household troops and won a great victory putting together two separate regional armies before arriving at Hastings: William fought an outstanding adversary.
Back in 2020 I put together some shield wall armies and had some fun trying out various rules.
https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2020/09/06/prelude-to-wargames-rules-tested/
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RAF Duxford Cambridgeshire
Usually it’s a biplane – but today it’s a ME109 and spitfire…..
380th anniversary of this crucial battle between king and parliament and in this battle the Scot’s Covenanters made the difference.
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Intermission 23j
The sky is always full of interesting shapes and moods.
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The Pursuit of Italy
David Gilmour packs into one volume an excellent exploration of Italy. Metternich once said that Italy was just a geographical expression. A Prince of the Empire, his point was that Italy could never be a single Nation.
Gilmour explores this and many other ideas about who, what, why, when and where Italy is and was.
Gilmour choses to avoid the chronological approach which I think was necessary given the compact nature of the book. It means he could be selective on topics and still feed in essential historical elements to suit.
If you buy one more recently written general book on Italy – I think this one gives you some really excellent perspective.
Highly recommended.
The Wargaming Erratic 