Map O' T'World

[bohemian]

[retroHelen]

Cheek -  us Cumbrians ar t'brothers/neighbours tae yon Yorkshire folk wid simlar dialect. Onny difference is we wuz ruled by Viking Kingdom of Strathclyde until 1100's and grandson of William the Conqueror saw t'end of it and we wuz part of England. T'Badlands were mair on't Scottish border.

 

Badlands were more northern border areas of England/Scotland where neither England nor Scotland could claim they really ruled it because large clans with powerful chiefs owned and ruled there with their own armies. They ruled like big mobsters and exacted extortion of nearby farms and often tried to raid into England and Yorkshire and were called Reavers. Because they raided and stole livestock and chattels and killed the menfolk off the farms and left widows and this is where the word BeREAVED originated.

 

The main Reaver chief's castle at Netherby wuz bought by a well-known large Witness family off t' Reaver clan-chiefs the Grahams (English Barons/Lords by this time) and 6 families of JW's and the Circuit Overseer and District Overseer had homes there for years, until last year and they sold up t'lot.

 

If you look carefully at this photo you can see some dips in the surrounding fields. Netherby Castle was built over a large Roman Fort and Cavalry training station. Hadrian's Wall runs from the East To West coast near hear, but was supported by other forts and cavalry stations not directly on the wall, like Netherby and all down the coast passed our town ( I live by Roman fort Gabrosentum) and down to Lancaster with more forts along a wooden palisade wall that hasn't survived, just some the ruins of the Roman forts along the way.

 

Far left in the trees on the photo was late brother Great Granddad Jock Robb's home converted from the old dairy and livestock pens that was built over the foundations of Roman Stables and horse exercise yards. Left side of the Castle 3 families in the converted stable and coach-house block. Family lived in left part of of the turreted section and hired their home out for JW wedding receptions and photographs. Right part of turreted area was District overseer's home and the small house on the end at the right was the Circuit Overseer's home for years. They kept livestock in the fields and all had  garden & growing food/allotments in the old walled garden you can see in the photo. 

 

When My husband gave talks at Annan congregation, we would often be invited to different areas of this big house for meals with different families there. The House is in the middle between Longtown/Langholm towns - 2 towns that were split in half when one half went to Scotland and the other stayed in England when the Graham clan-chief was defeated and his town split up between the Scots and English rulers centuries ago - both halves really have the same name in different English/Scottish dialects.

Edited June 22, 2015 by retroHelen

[retroHelen]

 

Here is the poem LOCHINVAR by the famous 19th Century romantic poet Sir Walter Scott about the daughter of the Graham clan's chief and how he had refused her hand in marriage to the son of another chief called Lochinvar. One night while the Grahams were having a banquet at Netherby Castle/Hall he rode to the Hall and dashed in on them and grabbed the daughter and eloped away with her.

 

We happened to see a large Victorian Print of this event at an antique auction with the poem written beneath, so we bought it for the family. They hung it at the Hall entrance as spoken of in the poem.

[timsimmk]

People mock us suvveners for dropping our t's, my response is at least we don't drop the h and the e!

 

Everywhere else: "it is not in the tin"

Yorkshire: "tin tin tin"