A Look at Northern England in the early 1970s
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ต.ค. 2024
- This short film was made in the early 1970s by a good friend of ours, Mary Davies - now sadly no longer with us - who travelled around the North of England from her home in Heysham, Lancashire recording details of listed buildings and places of interest for the Ministry of the Environment. In it, she looks at the Lake District, Cumbria in general and parts of Northumbria.
Mary was a Quaker - or Friends, as they refer to themselves - and wrote one-or-two books in her lifetime, which include:
A Spiritual Autobiography Spanning Two Thousand Years
The Restless Tide
Quiet Waters
Shifting Sands
Hi thank you Mary Davis for your life's work and thank you Peter for sharing this , im from the lune valley area and have fond memories of Heysham Head in the 1970`s, im in the process of putting together something about my child hood memories and how things have changed since the 70`s at Heysham Head/ st Patricks would it be ok if i use the section about Mary and her fathers influence on her early years and building the model of the church and her walk around the two churches please, if i can manage to complete the task it will not be monetised or done for gain i just want to share those memories before they are lost. Did Mary Attend George Fox School in Lancaster by any chance ? I did.
A lovely peaceful film and very interesting, thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing this most interesting video.
Thanks for sharing - really interesting! Wish she was still around, she seems a fascinating character and a pioneering woman.
Thank-you Bethany. I'm so pleased you liked the short video. Mary was a very good friend of ours when our home was in Lancashire. Up until the 1980s she had lived in her bungalow at Heysham all her life then, at some point in the early 80s, she decided to go on holiday to Arran (Scotland) and liked the place so much she bought a property there and moved house in a very short space of time. 'It was like coming home' I remember her saying to me at the time. Mary was a Quaker and a member of the Esperanto Society, (a language in which she was quite proficient). She has written one-or-two novels too, which a judicious search on Amazon should find and whilst living on The Isle of Arran, she set up The Mary Davies Trust for the prevention and relief of sickness - and again a quick Google should produce more information. Sadly, Mary died sometime in the 1990s. My very best wishes - Peter
Just watched this really interesting film, and what a remarkable lady Mary Davies was. I'm so glad you have shared it here Peter. Apart from her fascinating talk from the 16th and 17th century farm buildings in the Lake District to the historical information about the buildings in Berwick in Tweed, it was also lovely to see her near her home, out and about around Heysham Church and St Patricks Chapel, as I actually lived in Heysham for 10 years up until 2003, and loved a stroll over Heysham Head. However, my time there was of course after Mary Davies lived there. Lovely also to see the sudden contrasting burst of Morecambe lights during the course of the film! Fascinating too, during this film, to have gained some insight into Mary's life story including how her father motivated her interest in architecture from a very young age, through teaching her meccano construction as a child. Yes, an amazing lady. Thank you so much.
Cas Ashworth
Dear Cas - Thank-you so much for your kind comments on my video. I can remember some of the Morecambe illuminations set-pieces (ie the butterfly) from around 1950 - a little before your time, I fancy! There were more ambitious sets in Happy Mount Park then, too. Heysham Head was a very different place in those days and had a small zoo, entertainment in the Rose Gardens, a model railway which you could ride on - oh, and pierrots. You could get a temporary exit pass to go from the Head onto the beach via a small gate which enabled you get back in without paying an entrance fee again. If you decided to go there, you were stamped on the wrist with an ink stamp - a great thrill when you were a kid in those days!
Mary was a kind, fascinating and independent character and my wife and I enjoyed her company tremendously. Sadly, we moved to the South coast just before she moved to the Isle of Arran and ultimately we lost touch. We were saddened to learn of her death some time later but the memories we have will always be with us though.
Peter Preston Hello Peter, Yes I'm sure you must have good memories about Mary, the video shows what a special lady she was. The history about Heysham Head you've touched on here is very interesting and I believe I've been told or read some of that before about the Rose Gardens, the ink stamp on the wrist, etc. During the time I lived at Heysham I did get to know a lady called Eileen Dent, a local historian, who you may have known, and I think it may have been she who told me much of that. In fact I still have a short book she published "Heysham - a History" by Eileen J.Dent. Sadly Eileen died though during the time I lived there. Have you seen the You Tube Channel "Sky Cam Video". He has uploaded some lovely "birds eye view" type drone videos of around Lancaster and Morecambe, and there is an especially lovely one of St Peters Church and Heysham Head.
This is my dream job. There are several old houses in Massachusetts and Connecticut that look like the first example