Monthly Archives: December 2012

This August marked the 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials. In August 1612, eight women and two men from Pendle were found guilty of the charge of murdering ten people by witchcraft. They were hung after a trial at the Lancaster Assizes. Four hundred years later, the Pendle witches continue to attract considerable attention, interest and debate and a decent tourist trade in East Lancashire. […]

Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster

What do the membership rolls of Britain’s largest organisations say about Britain and the British? Wildlife lovers, passionate about history and the countryside, keen Scouts and Guides but less bothered about politics and trade union membership than ever before. This year for Christmas my sister bought my mum and dad a year’s membership to the National Trust. They were absolutely delighted – a whole world of […]

Mass membership organisations in the UK

Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 28 December 2012  Home Secretaries were historically required to be present at royal births. Fortunately for Theresa May and the Duchess of Cambridge, the tradition was abandoned in 1948. Queen Victoria enjoyed Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland so much that she suggested he dedicate his next book to her. Lewis Carroll was, of course, a pen name for a distinguished Cambridge mathematician […]

This year, Preston’s unique Guild Merchant celebrations have been highlighted in several posts. The medieval pageant is held once every 20 years and is the last remaining such commemoration of a royal trading charter in Britain. This year was one of the biggest Guild Celebrations yet, with a year long calendar of events, concerts, processions and parties. The legacy project was the construction of the Guild […]

Cycling the Preston Guild Wheel

Merry Christmas to everyone who has dropped by Vaguely Interesting in 2012! I thought it would be appropriate to do at least one Christmas themed post, and decided on a miscellany of facts and myth busting about this fascinating holiday. So, if you’ve just got a new tablet or laptop and want a festive read, you’ve come to the right place! No one is more associated […]

Christmas crackers

People are often accused of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’; but who is the unfortunate Peter who is being robbed to pay the rather more fortunate Paul in this common phrase? This week, two politicians have hit the headlines accusing the government of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. In America, the looming ‘fiscal cliff’ elicited the phrase from Virginia State Senator Adam Ebbin as he criticized […]

Robbing Peter to pay Paul

Where was Britain’s first formal seat of learning? The University of Oxford has the best claim to be the oldest university in the British Isles, beating the University of Cambridge by some two hundred years. But were both preceded by a monastic institution in Wales? Llantwit Major is a small town on the south Welsh coast, some 15 miles south-west of Cardiff. There are some remarkable […]

The Welsh college older than Oxford University