Quarrying of limestone and converting it to quicklime was a major industry around the Irish Sea coasts for many centuries, and it is an aspect of these islands’ industrial legacy that has received little attention. David Johnson has spent years researching it in the field and in archive centres and has been amazed by its scale and geographical extent. Up to the nineteenth century, quicklime was shipped from Gower and south Pembrokeshire across the Bristol Channel to Devon, and limestone wa...

Ever since people began cultivating cereal crops 10,000 years ago grain had to be ground down, or milled, into flour to make bread. Up to the Roman period in Britain this could only be done using simple hand querns but, over time, technology improved by introducing circular, horizontal millstones powered by water or wind. Other trades needed the means to crush raw materials to produce their final product: vertical grindstones were used to crush bark for use in tanning, pulp softwood timber...

Cumbria is a very varied county with coastal plains, river valleys, the Pennine edge and the Lakeland fells. It has a strong sense of cohesion and common ground. Farming in the county has improved over the centuries, and yet this is a subject curiously under-discussed in the existing literature. In this book, Dr David Johnson uses documentary and contemporary sources to argue that there has been visible improvement in Cumbria's farming. Starting with a discussion of the region's geology, t...

For centuries lime was an essential ingredient in many aspects of life and work - such as farming, building and manufacturing - and the kilns in which lime was produced were a familiar sight across the country, not just in areas where limestone naturally occurred. The importance given to the industry is illustrated by the number of painters, notably Turner and Girtin, who chose to paint lime kilns either as the main focus or as an incidental element, and by the number of literary figures w...

The exploiting of stone in Cumbria dates back to the Neolithic period when volcanic rock from the high Lakeland fells was worked to make hand axes. In Roman times sandstone was extensively quarried for building Hadrian’s Wall and forts like Carlisle. The industry expanded in the Middle Ages as stone was needed for high-status buildings like castles, tower houses and monasteries as well as for bridges and, later on, for dry-stone walls and road building. Cumbria has a wide variety of rock t...

Across much of the country buildings have been made of brick, rather than stone, from the Roman period onwards. High-status buildings of the Tudor and Stuart eras were often built of clay brick, but it was only in the nineteenth century that the use of brick in rapid industrial and urban development saw a massive increase in brick production. Mechanisation of the various processes, along with the development of new kiln technologies, enabled this increase in output. Age-old clamp kilns wer...

From Roman times, rocks have been worked for a wide range of purposes, initially as building stone. As time passed, more and more stone was needed for high-status buildings like castles, halls and monasteries, as well as for bridges, dry stone walls and road-building. The Yorkshire Pennines have a varied geology with many rock types that proved suitable for building and other uses, and the landscape is dotted with old quarry workings, large and small, some of which can be linked to the med...

Limestone has been one of the most indispensable building materials in Britain since the Roman period, when it was widely used for mortar. It was in the medieval era that lime began to be used in farming, alongside marl, as a means of increasing the output of both arable crops and livestock. The impact of limestone extraction in the Yorkshire Dales, once one of the most productive quarrying areas in Britain, has been huge. The area has thrown up many innovative entrepreneurs, and limestone...

From Doctor Who‘s modest if promising beginnings, it has gone on to become a global media empire, providing its viewers with a powerful lens by which the past fifty years can be evaluated.Having been on the air for more than fifty years, Doctor Who, a programme dealing with time travel, has itself become a sort of time machine, allowing viewers to observe and evaluate changes in their world.In this fascinating book, history professor David Johnson looks at how the programme...

This volume offers an examination of Brecht's largely forgotten theatrical fragments of a life of David, written just after the Great War but prior to Brecht winning the Kleist Prize in 1922 and the acclaim that would launch hisextraordinary career. David J. Shepherd and Nicholas E. Johnson take as their starting point Brecht's own diaries from the time, which offer a vivid picture of the young Brecht shuttling between Munich and the family home in Augsburg, surrounded by friends, t...

Provides a comprehensive overview of the key concepts in biodiversity management within agricultural landscapesConsiders the role of farmers and rural communities in implementing ecological restoration practicesReviews the importance of habitat and animal rewilding in promoting biodiversity and other key ecosystem services

The Executive's Guide to Memory Mastery in BusinessFrom bestselling author "The Tapestry of Memory: Unraveling the Treads of the Mind."Have you ever felt like your mind is a whirlwind of tasks, meetings, and decisions? You're not alone. That's why we've created a practical guide to help you transform mental chaos into mastery—all within a single hour.Memory, decision-making, and leadership are interconnected. This guide offers:Quick me...