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| Canadian geese were not too keen on Franklin and my favourite barge has gone from here. Though there was a rather pretty blue one in the act of sinking. |
I finished Gallows Pole last night, though finished is not the right word for I skimmed much of it and only ended up reading the last few pages. I knew the fate of King David Hartley the coiner and his hanging at Tyburn in 1770 wasn't pleasant. Neither was the telling of the tale, a brutish, violent time, though Benjamin Myers, the author, did win the Roger Deakin Award for his descriptive way with the landscape. When the weather gets better I shall go and find it. There are plenty of paths that go through the woods to the houses that dot the steep slopes.
His gravestone with also his wife Grace's name inscribed on it, and I think his son, are in Heptonstall cemetery. The clipping of coins which set the establishment or at least the government to hunt out and imprison those that forged the clipped coin was savage.
I expect some would like to see the rogues that mess around with money in today's modern society locked up in prison as they take the cash in handouts from the government - but hush we must not upset that barrel of apples!
It sets the mind a roving, for King David Hartley wanted to annexe this part of the country under the rule of himself. The great mills were being built, the weavers forced out of their homes with their weaving lofts left empty. Starvation was part of the pattern as well, Hartley spread the money around so that people could have food, clothes and some entertainment. A deep valley could easily be controlled at either end and the moors safeguarded. It reminds me that Britain was very territorial in its beginnings and through the supposed Dark Ages. The rogues such as Robin Hood, if he existed, set up their own laws against the so called laws of king and henchman. Sometimes I see Andy Burnham in a similar role, trying to break free from the London lot. ;)
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/people/the-gallows-pole-shane-meadows-making-first-bbc-period-drama-on-rise-and-fall-of-yorkshires-infamous-cragg-vale-coiners-3242338
I read the book with a similar feeling. Life was pretty terible in those days but at least he spread his money around.
ReplyDeleteI think the author laid it on too thickly Pat, some of it was gruesome, and I didn't even read it ;)
DeleteNear Farnham where I went to Art School, there is a place called 'Wrecclesham', et in the forest called Alice Holt. It means 'home of the outlaws' (the reckless) or so someone told me. I think there were many people living lawless lives in the Dark Ages, largely left alone unless they interfered with the lives of others - by robbing or clipping coins, etc.
ReplyDeleteA childhood favourite book was of course Lorna Doone, with a wicked robber and his gang living down an isolated valley. But coin clippers and tax dodgers of course were punished harshly Tom.
DeleteYou were better than me at finishing it. I gave up after not very far in. Maybe watching the series when its made will be easier
ReplyDeleteWell I hope they don't put in the scenes of torture or what happened to the informer who betrayed Hartley in prison. Hopefully it was just 'colour' the author provided Sue.
ReplyDeleteIt is some other kind of day as well as palindrome but can't remember what it is - try turning it upside down It is a dear friend's birthday and he explained it to me but I have forgotten.
ReplyDeleteYes you can turn the number upside down as 22022022, backward, forward and upside down. Something called an ambigram. description: " a rotational ambigram reads the same when viewed upside down, while a mirror or bilateral ambigram is one that reads the same backward and forward."
DeleteWe learn something every day Pat ;)