Warton’s 18th century parish historian John Lucas was – on the whole – more interested in history than in natural history.  It would certainly be a stretch to suggest that he was an early naturalist in the mould of Selborne’s Gilbert White. But in his History …

Yealand Storrs, writes the eighteenth century historian John Lucas, is famous for its “excellent plumbs”. It seems like a faint claim to fame. Storrs is the smallest of the three Yealands —  a Yealand reprise in the south-to-north sequence of settlements: Yealand Conyers, Yealand Redmayne …

Matthew Hutton who became Archbishop of York under Queen Elizabeth is probably the most significant national figure to emerge from the small North Lancashire village of Priest Hutton (pop. 185). But confusion still surrounds the details of his birth, as I discovered when I gave …

          “I being at this time much out of business, I was persuaded by some neighbours to stand a sixth part share in a new ship of about 80 tons now building near Warton.” (1) These words come from the memoirs of …

In my introduction to the new edition of John Lucas’s ‘History of Warton Parish’ I suggested  that some readers might be put off the book by the author’s obsession with the family trees of long-dead aristocrats. Such roll-calls – I wrote, rather flippantly  –  were …

These days, every time I see an old map of Warton and Carnforth my eye is drawn ineluctably towards the bridge over the River Keer and the nearby mill. This is the neighbourhood where John Lucas was born in 1684. “About a Hundred Yards West from …

Like thousands of others I hugely enjoyed the spectacle of Vikings crossing swords, spears and axes with Saxons in the energetic and well-performed battle reenactments at Heysham’s Viking Festival in July. I was also impressed by the cultural reconstructions in the so-called Viking Village — where …

  Tormentil growing at Myers Allotments, above Leighton Moss. Back in the eighteenth century Leighton Moss — the North Lancashire wetland now owned by the RSPB — was known as Warton Moss. From the description given by John Lucas,  the local historian of the day, …

  Ever since I was a child I’ve known what was on top of Warton Crag. Everyone round here knew. The four neat gothic letters on the Ordnance Survey map merely confirmed that knowledge: fort. More precisely, it was an Iron Age hill fort. Three concentric …

An audio blog with Yealand Conyers resident Robin Greaves, who first came to this part of the world in 1933. She talks about how the village has changed, her experience of the war and the village mole catcher!       The sound can take …