Disaffection and Everyday Life in Interregnum England

Abstract

This article analyses factional and institutional tensions on late-nineteenth-century Tyneside, using disputes over maritime public health and the prevention of seaborne epidemics as its central case study. The Tyne had a complex institutional landscape in this era, much of it created in the middle decades of the century to meet the challenges of increasing trade, mobility and industrial growth. Institutions such as the Tyne Improvement Commission and the Tyne Port Sanitary Authority struggled to balance their specialist missions against the demands of the town councils and sectional economic interests that were represented on their boards. They also faced difficulties in managing the new professional officers who worked for them, most notably, for the purposes of this article, the physicians responsible for port health. Although highly successful in protecting its communities from epidemics, the Tyne PSA casts revealing light on the tensions of late Victorian public service, and the pronounced localism that permeated Tyneside throughout and beyond this era.     

Northern Songs,Sporting Heroes and Regional Consciousness,c.1800—c.1880: ‘Wor Stars that Shine’

Abstract

The achievements, triumphs and disasters of leading northern semi-professional sportsmen were already being celebrated in broadsides at the start of the nineteenth century, and with the rise of when music hall entertainment became popular songs featuring such sportsmen became an important part of popular culture in Northumberland, Durham and Cumberland, the three Border counties. This article first shows what we know of the surviving songs and their performers, and then explores the ways in which such songs presented a picture of the nature and characteristics of northern sporting celebrity, in the context of a complex variety of local and regional sporting identities, especially in relation to other towns in the North and, more particularly, London. Sporting songs focused on individual success. They rejected the amateur ideals of athleticism, especially in terms of betting, and celebrated physicality, manliness and having a good time. Rowing was the most common focus of songs on Tyneside, wrestling in Cumberland, while horse racing, pedestrianism and boxing were also regularly covered.     

The ‘Contest for Dominion’: Political Conflict and the Decline of the Lowther ‘Interest’ in Whitehaven, 1820–1900

Abstract

Wartime memories remain a strong undercurrent in British society but many of these myth/memories have been skewed by a strong southern-based perspective. One of the key requirements for the wartime population of Britain was that they carried on despite hardships and that morale was maintained. It has since entered the national consciousness that the people of Britain remained stoical throughout the war and that the community was strengthened by its shared wartime experiences. Recent historiography, however, has cast doubt on this belief, citing examples of putatively poor behaviour during the war. This article seeks to explore this myth/memory and, in a small way, to redress the North–South balance by using the experiences of wartime Tyneside as a case study.