The Northern Counties from AD 1000
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Norman McCord, Richard Thompson. The Northern Counties From A.D. 1000. Harlow and New York: Longman, 1998. xix + 460 pp. £52 (cloth), ISBN 0-582-493331; £25, paper, ISBN 978-0-582-49334-6. Reviewed by Maureen Meikle Published on H-Albion (January, 2000) This book is part of a the multi-volumed "Re‐ periods as well as the modern history specialism gional History of England" series. Nick Higham's of the authors. For example, there are only six out The Northern Counties to 1000 AD was published of twenty-one chapters for the period 1000-1603 in 1986. Now the survey of the northeast and and half the book is devoted to the period after northwest of England is continued with Norman 1750. However, the confused early medieval peri‐ McCord and Richard Thompson's The Northern od is well mapped out here, if briefly. One ques‐ Counties From 1000 AD. Readers who are unac‐ tion that could have been addressed more thor‐ quainted with the history of the pre-1974 counties oughly was where did the North of England end of Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland and and Scotland begin during the last millennium? Westmorland will fnd this a useful source of fun‐ The medieval frontier "floated" amidst Borderers damental information. However, anyone wanting who had more in common with each other than more than basic detail will have to look to more their evolving nation states. It is regrettable that specialised publications. To be fair, it was a tall or‐ Cynthia Neville's Violence, Custom and Law [1] der to relate the history of the last millennium came out after this book went to press as this has within a single-volume history, but McCord and innovative views about the later medieval fron‐ Thompson give superficial coverage of events to tier. The authors, nonetheless, should have incor‐ which other historians would devote more space. porated the arguments concerning the north's The one event that many people would associate identity in John Appleby and Paul Dalton's 1997 with the twentieth-century North, namely the volume on northern England.[2] It is also wrong "Jarrow Crusade", receives no mention at all. In‐ to assume that because the old Anglo-Scottish deed, he refers instead to mining families cheat‐ aristocracy declined after 1296, that Anglo-Scot‐ ing the poor relief system in the 1920s (p. 370). tish co-operation ceased (pp. 67-68). Many people The structure of this book denotes the relative of lesser rank would continue to treat the frontier scarcity of published material available for earlier as being invisible as far as socialising and trading were concerned. Invading armies from either H-Net Reviews England or Scotland were an inconvenience to the Durham from 1535 that had a greater impact Borderers during the thirteenth to the sixteenth upon County Durham's criminal justice. It is good centuries, as they appear to have been Borderers to see a mention that the problems of the North‐ first and Scots or English second. There was not ern economy "were not solely due to border war‐ even a geographically fxed Anglo-Scottish border fare" (p. 117) as crop failure, famine, plague and until modern times, as there were still small pock‐ animal disease all played their part. It would have ets of debateable land in eighteenth-century been useful, though, to note the work of Richard Northumberland. Hoyle when discussing Cumbrian tenure, for Chapter four on "The Tudor North" sadly re‐ much of the citation here is dated. Overall the flects that the authors are post-1800 specialists, as economy of the north-west and north-east paral‐ it is all too brief and chronologically confused. For lels the example of contrasting church wealth. Lit‐ instance, events of the later sixteenth-century tle is said about society here and the paucity of in‐ come before a discussion of the Battle of Flodden formation continues into the next chapter on the (1513). "The magnificent fortifications of Berwick" seventeenth century, as the Bishop's Wars of (p. 92) were begun in the reign of Henry VIII, not 1639-40 get one paragraph and the Civil Wars re‐ Mary I. Bishop Pilkington of Durham did not suc‐ ceive only seven pages in total. cessfully impose his "authority upon the diocese" Poor relief and charity are discussed in sever‐ (of Durham) by 1568. The more rural areas of this al chapters of this book, which rather disjoints the large diocese were not even visited until topic but keeps things in strict chronological or‐ 1577^Öthe era of Bishop Barnes. The coverage of der. One wonders if a political point is being the Northern Rising is better and the authors cor‐ pressed in the constant references to inept poor rectly conclude that this "effectively completed law officials and how private philanthropy was al‐ the erosion of the power of those northern dynas‐ ways important in conjunction with conventional ties which had risen in the aftermath of Edward poor relief. We are reminded that shipbuilding I's intervention in Scotland." (p. 98) Nothing re‐ and engineering wealth built the Royal Victoria mained the same for very long in northern Eng‐ Infirmary in late-nineteenth century Newcastle land. (p. 323). The north east's reputation for progres‐ The church prior to 1603 is dealt with in sive agriculture by the mid-eighteenth century chapter fve. Here the authors contrast the wealth helped feed the expanding population and econo‐ and influence of Durham with the poorer diocese my of the nineteenth. The growth of industry such of Carlisle. However, the church in the North as coal mining in the North is well documented would continue to suffer from pluralism, absen‐ from chapter eleven onwards, though again some teeism and poor endowment until modern times. of this could have been amalgamated to avoid re‐ Chapter six on Northern Society and Economy is a peating similar topics in later chapters. The north rapid survey with more misleading statements. west's industries are not forgotten as Cumberland For example the new Lord Lieutenants in the six‐ and Westmorland were not just a lakeland area. teenth-century North (p. 115) were restricted to Shipbuilding was significant as were their textile County Durham as Northumberland, Norham and looms that switched from wool to cotton produc‐ Islandshire and Cumberland were part of the Bor‐ tion. Not everything was booming all the time, der administration that had its own officers. Only however, as the American Civil War dealt a severe after the Union of the Crowns in 1603, did the ad‐ blow to the textile industry in the north west (p. ministration of these areas change. It was the 277) and imports of cheap Belgian glass hit Sun‐ diminution of the powers of the Palatinate of derland's glass manufacture in 1875. Neither in‐ 2 H-Net Reviews dustry really recovered the pre-eminence they bria that was published at the same time as this had before this. book. [3] Women and children are mentioned, but In 1851 Northumbrian agriculture "employed they receive only four pages of specific text. This twice as many as mining, but by 1900 mining out‐ rather derisory treatment of half of the popula‐ stripped farming". (p. 258) Between 1850 and 1920 tion contrasts with one of the striking statistics the northern population also doubled, putting a concerning twentieth-century Tyneside where strain on already overcrowded urban housing (p. women made up about 20 percent of the work‐ 350). Coal was arguably a more dangerous indus‐ force in the 1920s and about 45 percent in the try with recurrent disasters that claimed over one 1980s. Both world wars witnessed high levels of hundred lives. The iron and steel industries again female employment, yet these global conflicts re‐ differed from the north west to the north east. ceive little general coverage here. The lack of a Cumbria had the best iron ore, but it was difficult mention of the Jarrow crusade has already been to extract and only Barrow-in-Furness really took noted, but the severe impact of the depression off as an industrial town. Nothing in the north years on northern industry is discussed. Inciden‐ west could compare with the rise of Newcastle- tally in 1934 Jarrow had 56.8 percent unemploy‐ upon-Tyne where greater industrial diversity in ment against a national average of 16.1 percent, the 1800s helped Tyneside survive economic whereas Maryport on the West coast had 57.5 per‐ downturns that Cumbria's industries could not. cent (p. 374). Nevertheless statistical analysis such The development of tourism in the Lakes was of as this would have been better placed within a ta‐ more significance in the twentieth century when ble, rather than in the text. previously despised "lower-class excursionists" A fnal observation on this book is the lack of coming by rail were fnally encouraged to visit. recent material. Indeed the last chapter "After the The railways undoubtedly benefited the economy Second World War" has little within it to update of the entire North, but they particularly helped the reader about the great economic shifts in the the development of previously neglected towns North of England that occurred during and as a like Carlisle. (p. 287) Those interested in the par‐ result of the Thatcher years. New industries are ticular relationship between the north east and there, but not the massacre of the mining and the rise of the railways will fnd them in the short shipbuilding industries that made thousands re‐ chapter ten on communications and also in chap‐ dundant and transformed the landscape of the ter sixteen.