DECEMBER 2018
REGIONAL HERITAGE CENTRE
(LATE -
Lancaster University
BOOKS ON LOCAL HISTORY
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. EXTENSIVE RANGE OF BOOKS ON FYLDE LOCAL HISTORY.
THE PALACE MARKET GARDEN STREET ST ANNE’S ON THE SEA LANCASHIRE
There is a good range of second-
PHONE 01253 205140 / 07429 575 397
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW IS PUBLISHED BY KIND PERMISSION OF ANTHONY COPPIN
of GARSTANG HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Thomas's preserved sketches are of 18th century items such as clock casings, clothes
chests, chests of drawers, doors, spice boxes, church pews, tables, cradles, bannisters,
chairs and squabs (settees).
He travelled around the Fylde area doing both domestic
and ecclesiastical work. The main author, Bill McCartney, points out in his introduction
that currently it has not been possible to find any furniture made by Thomas still
in family hands.
Designs for a pulpit and a church gallery are included in these fascinating pages.
Which church they were crafted for is unknown. (There are similar style fixtures
at the old St John the Baptist church, Pilling).
One of Thomas’s domestic customers
was one Eling (Eileen?) Grimbildstone who wanted a made-
Throughout the book measurements, details of costs, expenses, payments, itemised
listings of timber, jottings regarding accounts, financial borrowings and mathematical
calculations show Thomas’s eye for detail.
Other unexpected jottings listed (and commented on) include a supposed cure for worms
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The background notes which form the introduction to the book explain how Thomas’s
notebook came to be found, preserved and transcribed, as well as details of the Noblet
family and their relations, the Jolly family, over several centuries.
The book is clearly of both specialist and wider interest.
Co-
More generally the book will be of interest to local and family historians. Numerous
family surnames from the period covered by the book are extant in rural Fylde and
Wyre today.
The authors are to be commended for shedding light on this generally overlooked area
of domestic, ecclesiastical and workaday history.
* The book is available from William McCartney, priced £12.99 (plus packing and postage).
He can be contacted at: willmccar@gmail.com
Title: The notebook of Thomas Noblet; joiner from the Fylde in Lancashire
Authors: William McCartney and Adam Bowett ISBN: 978-
The cost of family tree tracing for genealogical sleuth Bill McCartney included getting a bloodied leg when a dog attacked him at the gate of a farmhouse in Wrea Green.
The hound’s owner turned out to be distantly related to Bill and not only related,
but the custodian of an unsorted treasure trove of family, local and craftwork history
– the brightest gem of which was an old notebook dated 1725.
This reproduction of joiner Thomas Noblet’s workbook (along with opposite page facing
transcriptions and notes) forms the basis of this fascinating and highly unusual
paperback.
These days if you want some furniture or a piece of woodwork it’s a simple
as a visit to a trading estate. Not so in the 1700s, when master craftsman Thomas
Noblet was at work, painstakingly carrying out his craft in the rural Fylde.
NEW PUBLICATIONS 2018
WORLD WAR HISTORY
(Click on the title above for the full document)
Men from Kirkham, Wesham
and the rural Fylde who served during the
Great War 1914 -
Compiled by D. Parkinson
When the newspapers reported the assassination of some unknown Austrian Archduke and his wife in far off Bosnia, wherever that was, it did not cause much concern amongst the population of the rural Fylde. H
However, over the next few weeks the situation was to become more and more tense, as old treaties and alliances brought the countries of Europe towards conflict, and by early August the main players had mobilized their forces and were ready to go to war. France, Russia and Britain were the main contributors for the Allies, with Germany and Austria forming the Central Powers, with Turkey joining them shortly after hostilities had begun.
By mid August the ‘Contemptible little British Army’, as the Kaiser had once called it, was beginning to land at the French ports before moving North into Belgium to engage a German Army which was by then advancing through the country.
On August 22nd near the Belgian town of Mons the small British Army met the German juggernaut head on and the fight began.
The History of Queen Mary School Lytham
Liz Bickerstaffe, a volunteer in the school archives at AKS Lytham (formerly King Edward VII and Queen Mary School) is writing a book on the history of Queen Mary School and is very interested to hear from anyone with memories of their school days.
As well as chapters on the school's foundation and development the book will include profiles of the headmistresses, key staff members (including support staff, where information is available) and many memories of pupils and staff relating to the school day, discipline, the uniform, the dining experience, games, clubs and
societies, trips, community support, wartime, careers advice, the Old Girls' Association
and prize-
If you have memories or photographs to share, please could you contact Liz on 01253 713850 or email her at lizzibick@yahoo.co.uk.
The school archive also welcomes donations of memorabilia which are catalogued and made available through the school's online catalogue.
