Books About Penrith: True Blues: A history of Penrith Football Club 1894-1994, by John Hurst

Local history books from the 80s and 90s can often be rare as hens' teeth. They tend to have a low, one-time-only print run of a few hundred copies, sell locally over the next year or so, and end up on the shelves of people who are still alive today and therefore disinclined to let them go. As a result, if you want to get hold of, say, True Blues: A history of Penrith Football Club 1894-1994, you'll be lucky to find it. I can find one solitary copy for sale online. The Little Shop now has the second copy in the country currently for sale (and yes, it's cheaper). 

Like the best local history books, John Hurst's record of Penrith F. C.'s first century is a "category killer": it does the job so well, there's no need for anyone else to ever do it again.

B.A.P.: The Penrith Swimming Club Jubilee Souvenir 1881-1931

It's been a while since we've had a B.A.P. (Books About Penrith) entry on this blog, so here's a look at an extremely rare, possibly even unique (I can't find another copy anywhere) survivor from 1931: a locally printed, rather grand booklet celebrating the Golden Jubilee of The Penrith Swimming Club, an institution justifiably proud of its then-status as the biggest swimming club in the British Isles. While it may not be able to claim that any longer, it looks like the club is still going: its website is here.

There are some wonderful vintage swimming costumes on display, plus a couple of rather nicely done 'decorations' (above and bottom) by an unnamed artist.

UPDATE: This has now gone to its new owner, which I'm glad to say is... the Penrith Swimming Club.

Time-Space Visualiser: Penrith On June 23rd, 1887

I imagine someone somewhere has glibly called photographs 'windows into the past', but in the case of these recent arrivals, the description is totally justified. There are two of them, both the size of an LP record, and even though they're somewhat faded, get close enough and the detail really comes alive.

July 20th, 1887 was Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. She wrote in her diary:

"Had a large family dinner. All the Royalties assembled in the Bow Room, and we dined in the Supper-room, which looked splendid with the buffet covered with the gold plate. The table was a large horseshoe one, with many lights on it.

"The King of Denmark took me in, and Willy of Greece sat on my other side. The Princes were all in uniform, and the Princesses were all beautifully dressed. Afterwards we went into the Ballroom, where my band played."

Sounds like a great night. A couple of days later, it was Penrith's turn to celebrate. According to this report in the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald the events kicked off with a rousing speech from the local M.P. J.W. Lowther, who called for three cheers, “Cheers which will make this old market place of Penrith ring and ring again, cheers which shall be remembered by all of us here present to our dying day."

The report continues:

A church service at St. Andrew’s was followed by a great procession. Supt. Fowler, of the local constabulary, on horseback, headed six carriages, containing the MP and other leading lights, and hundreds on foot, including Oddfellows, Druids, Forresters and Sons of Temperance.

A short stop was made while the chairman of the local board of health, Mr. James, re-named Scot Lane as Brunswick Road, as the thoroughfare had just been widened and improved.

It was the turn of the children to parade in the afternoon, this time with Mr. Fairer, the chairman of the jubilee committee, leading on his horse. While youngsters were presented with special mugs, old folk were entertained to a “knife and fork” feast in the Exchange Hall (later to become J. H. Howe’s dress shop in Angel Lane and, ultimately, demolished to make way for the Angel Square development).

The highlight was a sports meeting on the Foundry Field, with the cavalry band playing while athletes ran, jumped and wrestled. Everybody must have been exhausted by the end of the day, for the program also included a fireworks display on the Beacon and a dinner for 100 leading personalities at the Crown Hotel.

The photos below, taken by local portrait and landscape photographer James Huff, show the gathering in the centre of town to watch the procession. In the second shot though, a lot of the crowd spotted Huff, and are looking straight at us, through the years...

Penrith in the Dandy, 1969 (B.A.P. 02)

Back in the late 1960s, The Dandy was already over 30 years old, but still had Korky the Cat on the front page (Desperate Dan didn't make it onto the cover until 1984, amazingly). Back then, a page each week was given over to a feature called 'My Home Town', where a reader nominated their home, and the Dandy team supplied some relevant illustrations and fascinating facts.

In December 1969, issue 1463, thanks to reader Jacqueline Cherry, age 12, of 22 Inglewood Road (who won a £1 postal order!) it was the turn of Penrith.

Here then, for the first time online, is Penrith in the Dandy...

B.A.P. 01: History of Penrith, By Ewanian, 1894

If you run a second hand bookshop in Penrith, you're bound to become interested in, and try to stock whenever possible, books about the town, because:

a) it's interesting to learn about the history of the town in which you're based

b) interesting old books about Penrith on sale in a second hand bookshop in Penrith tend to sell very quickly (see a)

Several books about the town have come into, and swiftly out of, the Little Shop since it's been open, but this new arrival is a scarce title that's not been in stock before. So, in the first of an occasional series which shall be called Books About Penrith (B.A.P. for short), here's a quick look at History of Penrith, From the Earliest Record To The Present Time, by 'Ewanian' (aka William Furness), printed and published by William Furness in Penrith in 1894. It's not the first book exclusively about Penrith by any means (confusingly, there was the almost identically titled The History of Penrith, From the Earliest Period To The Present Time by Walker in 1858, for example), but I *think* it might be the first to include photographs amongst the illustrations. So here's a selection of them, including a cracking photo of Middlegate, in which you can see Furness's own establishment.