The Local History Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Kind of Today In History I Saw* - Well, maybe you saw it today, or maybe you read it, or maybe it’s something you knew already which had just been on your mind. Or something you simply want to share.

I just thought hearing about other people’s local history would be fun. And let’s not be too restrictive about what constitutes “local” (or indeed “history” – I think at least somewhat in the past would be a fair minimum requirement. A couple of decades plus?)

Tell us something interesting. Shall I start us off?

Today we went out with our friends J and L to Sheffield Park in Sussex (UK). There’s quite a history to the place – note to Australian Dopers: it’s the same Sheffield as the Shield; the estate still has its own cricket ground, graced by many a famous player in the past (pun intended).

Less well known is its wartime history. A couple of years back there was an archaeological dig in the East Park, with limited public access (we went). In the build-up to D-Day, thousands of Canadian troops were stationed there:

Over one hundred huts were laid out in a random formation beneath the tree canopies, hidden from view of any enemy planes. They were used as dormitories, wash rooms, storage huts, workshops and mess rooms to cater for all the needs of the troops. Historic photographs show us what these looked like and how they were used, plus there is one remaining hut within the gardener’s compound that is still going strong.

And indeed, if you walk down from the car parks to the excavation site, you’ll pass that hut on the way. There are odd little things that stick in your mind about the site. For me, one of those ceramic bobbin things that are used to carry/guide electrical wiring – screwed into a tree nearly 80 years ago and still there today.

There were many such camps across the South East of England, marshalling men and materials. Of course, these huts were thrown up quickly and rapidly perished (or were scavenged for scarce materials by local farmers post war.) It’s one of the contradictions of relatively modern history: because it’s so modern, there is less interest in investigating and preserving it - at exactly the time when the most material can be salvaged.

j

* - with a doff of the cap to both Today in nature I saw and Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across

PS: the pun is on the name of WG Grace, famous cricketer and frequenter of Sheffield Park; The Sheffield Shield is an Australian Cricket Trophy, paid for by the Earl of Sheffield.

2

Well, I learned this on Jeopardy! the other day:

Junius Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth, once threatened to kill Andrew Jackson.
(He was also an alcoholic, a bigamist, and generally unstable and aggressive).

Just a family of assholes, I guess.

3

Whoops, not local! Sorry.

4

After reading a book called Bear Flag Rising, I made a point of visiting the three sites relevant to the American conquest of Los Angeles. The Battle of Rio San Gabriel pitted a joint force of American sailors from San Diego under Stockton and Army troops who came overland from the East via Santa Fe under Kearny against a force of Californio mounted lancers and artillery under José María Flores. With the help of unshipped naval guns, the Americans drove off the Californios (they didn’t really consider themselves Mexicans) and crossed the river near the current intersection of the 605 and Washington Blvd. The Lancers were chased to the next river over (The Los Angeles River) where they were finally defeated at the Battle of La Mesa, 4 miles south of downtown LA in the current industrial enclave of Vernon. While Stockton and Kearny argued about who would accept the surrender of LA, John C. Fremont raced into LA from the North via the Cahuenga Pass and accepted the surrender from Andres Pico in a little adobe still standing across the street from the current Universal Studios/City Walk complex.

5

Not everyone. Edwin Booth saved Robert Todd Lincoln from falling in front of a train.

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I did not know that! Edwin, I take it back.

7

I grew up in Saskatchewan where there are several monuments to Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont who rebelled against the Canadian government (because of legitimate grievances in the treatment of Metis and Native Canadians).

So I had mixed feelings when I visited Port Hope, Ontario where there is a monument to Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Williams (“The Hero of Batoche”) who fought against them. I guess I know now how some Americans feel about monuments to Civil War soldiers (on either side).

8

In the late 19th and early 20th century, my home town produced 90% of the world’s needles.

9

This one is very topical since it is the 540th anniversary on 29th March.

There was a bit of a “to do” just up the road from me

We had the Civil war battle of Marston Moor, which is only five miles or so from Towton but I doubt the Royalists found it one little bit Civil, in fact it was downright nasty - someone could have got hurt

A bit further over by around 12 miles was the battle of York but we don’t talk about it since we lost

Add in another four or five miles and you get the Battle of Stamford bridge - we talk about that because we kicked Viking ass, there is still a raod called Viking Lane in the village

There’s a few more skirmishes, and precurser battles around and about - dunno why, must be summat in the water

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Our most famous bit of local history is probably Quantrill’s Raid when a band of pro-slavery guerillas from Missouri burned most of the town to the ground. There’s even been a couple of movies made about it.

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Assasinholes?

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So many questions… we need to know more.

At the risk of sounding obsessed by WWII history (I’m not, but there are a lot of sites round here), here’s something from today’s bike ride: I cycled along the path of a stop line. These were networks of pillboxes which, as protection against invasion, were located strategically to stop (or more accurately, slow down) German forces as they headed towards (in this instance) London. This site, mapping Surrey’s pillboxes, effectively illustrates the stop line I cycled past, more or less from Edenbridge to Blindley Heath. If you scroll East and slightly South on the map, you’ll see how the line extends across Surrey, south of London. Here’s a google streetview of a pillbox on the route I took.

Pillbox

The cycle ride passes 6 or 7 of these. Unlike nissen huts, these are solid (for obvious reasons) - hence they are often still intact even now. There were, I think, 3 stop lines between the coast and London, manned by the home guard - those too old or unfit to be conscripted. I read of, or saw in a documentary, brief detail of recent military modelling performed to try to establish if the system would actually have worked. Answer: probably; it would have slowed invading forces enough to allow the navy to get to the English Channel and break up the German supply chain.

j

13

Back in my original hometown (well, in the county), was the site of a surprise British ambush against the Continental Army’s 3rd Continental Light Dragoons. As the 3CLD was bedded down overnight in some farmhouses and barns, the British Army (using twelve companies) circled, and captured/killed 69 prisoners, and killed 70 horses.

Tripler
That’ll take you down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, for sure.

14

The most well known event in my town’s local history is probably a Johnny Cash concert. But we were also the site of the first AC power generation station west of the Mississippi, which first started operating in 1895 and was fed by a dam built by free labor from Folsom Prison.

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And straight after kicking Viking ass, Harold took his army 185 miles South in four days and got an arrow in his eye trying to stop the Normans (Who were really Vikings pretending to be French) from invading.

16

I was hiking an abandoned segment of highway 60 and noticed that CocaCola bottle bottoms are a common artifact. The bottles succumb to the depravations of rock throwing children and gun toting plinkers but the thick bottoms survive. The interesting part is that the bottoms have their bottling location cast into the glass.

Being so durable these items will enter the geologic strata with the other pebbles and durable debris. In a few million years they’ll just be part of the rocks. Imagine the surprise of some other world techies when their Earth Rover discovers a rock with a shiny, blue green edge inscribed ALMAGORDO NM.

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The most famous thing happen in my home town in the UK (small village south of Oxford, called Compton, amusingly for fans of 90s hip hop) is the Battle of Ashdown which happened just outside (exact location is not known but it was somewhere on the Berkshire Downs around Compton)

Things got pretty quite for a millennia or so in Compton after that though shot to worldwide prominence in the 1990s the setting for the awful BBC show Trainer :slight_smile: (and moderate fame as the birthplace of the England footballer Theo Wallcott) :

Where I currently live in Hyattville Maryland has a shorter history, obviously, but is famous for the battle of Blandensburg (Bladensburg is the next town over but the actual site is between modern Blandensburg and Hyattsville):

Blandensburg is also famous for the dueling grounds where Admiral Decatur was killed:

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In the 1920s, Pawhuska, Oklahoma, was the richest and most murderous town in the world, an era barely mentioned in the tow’s Wiki history. The story is at Osage Indian murders - Wikipedia

19

I realised, today, that my home town’s most famous tradition, Uppies And Downies, won’t be taking place this year (COVID) and presumably didn’t take place last year.

This is the wiki for the game:

OK, my account is going to differ slightly. I agree that the origins are ancient and the modern incarnation is a revival, and I’m not going to argue with the dates. My understanding is that Uppies were colliers and Downies were fishermen (with mates, extended family etc included on each side); and that currently being either an Uppie* or a Downie is a matter of birth, presumably dating back to a family member who was a collier or a fisherman. So, for 150 years or so this mayhem has occurred three times a year, all in the space of a few days over the Easter period.

There is no time limit and essentially no rules. This local newspaper article from a few days ago (sharing text with the wiki article - hmmm) is on the mark at many points:

The event does not have formal organisers, it is a happening and thousands between players and supporters [sic] simply turn up on match days, which begin at 6.30pm.

The games simply end when the ball is hailed.

But this year, due to the coronavirus outbreak, no one will gather at the ‘scop-off’ point for the Medieval mass football game.

“Scop” is the Cumbrian word for “throw”. Anyway, you now need some video. Here is some.

j

* - maybe the singular is spelled with a Y - I don’t know. Oral tradition, yeah?