Lancastrian Research

28/08/2026

I've previously written and spoken quite a bit about Mary Hindle and Anne Entwistle, mill rioters (with varying degrees of culpability) convicted 200 years ago this month at Lancaster Castle for their roles encouraging loom breaking at Helmshore Mill. As part of the 200 year commemorative events, Lancaster Castle are holding an exhibition this autumn. ⬇️

https://lancastrianresearch.co.uk/convictdatabase/convicts-surname-h/mary-hindle/

Mary Hindle and the 1826 Lancashire Riots: Lancaster Symposium

During the Lancaster Music Festival, Lancaster Castle is also hosting an exhibition on Mary Hindle and the Lancashire Riots, It's a fascinating opportunity to step away from the music for a moment and discover a piece of Lancashire's rich history.

Marking the 200th anniversary of the 1826 Lancashire Weavers' Uprising, the exhibition explores the story of the thousands of weavers and workers who protested against poverty, unemployment, and economic hardship as new machinery threatened traditional livelihoods. Among the most compelling personal stories is that of Mary Hindle.

During riots, Mary went in search of her daughter, who was among the crowds watching events unfold. Although there is little evidence that Mary participated in the machine-breaking itself, an informer reportedly cut a piece from her skirt as proof that she had been present at the riot.

Convicted alongside other protesters, she was sentenced to death before a campaign for clemency secured a reprieve, with her sentence commuted to transportation for life to Australia.

11/08/2026

🎉👀🔍Collections Volunteer Opportunities Lancaster City Museums!

18/07/2026

Pleased to have helped in researching and bringing the long-forgotten old servant's yard and washhouse at the Judges' Lodgings back to life 🥰

🎉 We've some exciting news to share at the Judges' Lodgings…

🫧Over the last few months we've been restoring our original servant's yard and washhouse thanks to support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to Players.

Hidden away and overlooked for many years, it's now ready to tell the stories of the housekeepers and maids that kept the building looking its best. Step into our restored washhouse to experience the sights, sounds and smells of wash day without hot, running water or electricity.

🔥Find out how the house heated its many fireplaces in the coal shed

🚽 Spot the outdoor servants privy. It looks occupied but maybe you should give a knock- we dare you!

🫱 Try pe***ng out the washing on our line- can you get the jobs done in the right order?

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 On selected Fridays over the summer holidays meet our housemaid as she prepares to tackle the Judges' Lodgings laundry. Roll your sleeves up and get stuck in and see if you can find all those odd socks! 🧦

Friday 24 July
Friday 14 August
Friday 28 August

11am-4pm. Included within admission. Remember, kids go free! Click the link for further information about what's on at the Judges' Lodgings this summer.
http://tiny.cc/EventsAtJudgesLodgings

08/07/2026

EDIT- NOW SOLD OUT!

🚶🏼‍♀️Next Tuesday I'll be leading a brand new tour around the city centre- 'Getting your Head Down'- Common Lodging Houses of Lancaster with Lancaster City Museums.

Starting at 11am, we'll take a c.90 minute dive into the violent, seedy and at times, tragic world of the common lodging house. We'll explore stories of immigration with the Irish Feehan and Gallagher families, the Italian Nardone and Ginocchio families and Stewart Traveller family who all ran lodging houses. You'll also find out why only the brave would go seeking shelter in notorious China Lane and Henry Street as well as the heart rending life story of lodger and pros-----e Annie Gibson.

🎟️Head to- https://www.lancaster.gov.uk/sites/museums/whats-on/talks to book your tickets- there's only a handful of spaces remaining! Can't make next Tuesday? I'll be repeating this walk on the 20th October.

01/07/2026

🥲 Well that's it, the end of the road!

After almost four years of building and researching the Lancaster women's convict database, all the stories of the 472 women held at Lancaster Castle under sentence of transportation to Australia are now completed and available for viewing.

👋 It's genuinely a sad but rather proud moment as I say goodbye to them.

Please, share far and wide and I'll leave you with the absolutely wild story of convict Nancy (Ann) Yates of Eccles, who after gaining her freedom was jilted by her husband, left Australia with her baby and was the sole adult survivor of a massacre that killed almost everyone onboard her ship.

https://lancastrianresearch.co.uk/convictdatabase/convicts-surname-w/nancy-yates/



📷Louis John Steele- 1889- Blowing Up of the Boyd 1809. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa.

09/05/2026

🇦🇺🌏Thanks for the write up again Findlay Lancashire Telegraph!
Looking forward to meeting you and all our other guests on the next Story Tour- Going to Botany Bay- Lancaster's Transported Women this coming Tuesday 12th at Lancaster City Museums (also repeated June 2nd).

A walking tour in Lancaster will shine a light on the extraordinary stories of hundreds of women sentenced to transportation from the city.

26/04/2026

🔨200 years ago today marks when the Lancashire Weavers uprising came to a head at Chatterton, in Rossendale. Six people were killed when the local regiment were summoned with many more arrested, tried and transported for life, at Lancaster Castle like Ann Entwistle...

Ann, a widowed weaver, with three older children had a death sentence reprieved at the Lancaster summer Assizes for her role in the 1826 Lancashire Loom Riots. Ann was considered one of the worst offenders and encouraged the loom breaking when she was heard shouting-

“Roll up you soft devils and come forward” at Helmshore Mill Lancashire Museums.

She was arrested but freed by the rioters before going on with the others to Chatterton where she was again retaken. She was tried along with Mary Hindle (previously featured on my page) who had been a bystander at Helmshore and whom Ann probably knew. She was described as 4ft 9, with a ruddy and pock-pitted face, dark brown-grey hair, hazel eyes, a scar over her right eyebrow and the first finger joint on her right hand had been crushed. She was a widowed Catholic with three younger children and several adult children, could read and had been born at Darwen. She had twice before been in Preston’s House of Correction. Ann and Mary Hindle were held at Lancaster Castle for eight months before being transported onboard the Harmony, arriving in Sydney over a year after their trials.

Ann was briefly employed in Sydney as a washerwoman but was soon sent to the female factory due to her unsuitability as a household domestic. By 1836 Ann had gained a ticket of leave and eventually received a conditional pardon in 1843. She married constable John Butcher at Parramatta in 1830 who she had been assigned to, though his death saw her remarry Richard Birking in 1838 at which time she was described as a ‘steady industrious woman’ (who was a washerwoman by trade). By 1855 she was widowed for the third time and Ann herself passed away ‘a pauper’ at Hyde Park in 1868 aged 95 (more likely 85). She was buried at Balmain cemetery (now renamed the Pioneers Memorial Park)

🔗Ann and Mary's entries on the Lancastrian female convict database can be found here-
https://lancastrianresearch.co.uk/convictdatabase/ships-harmony-1827/

25/04/2026

😯The workhouse is once again proving a very popular topic with you all!

After a sell out guided tour last week, there's now just nine spaces left for the lecture version of 'Behind High Walls- A History of Lancaster Workhouse' at Lancaster City Museums this coming Monday 27th April, 11-12.30. Tickets cost £10, including refreshments and are available to buy here-

https://www.civicaepay.co.uk/LancasterCityEstore/estore/default/Catalog/Index?catalogueItemReference=E0003408&showSingleProduct=True&recurringOnly=False

📷 Original Artwork- Lancaster & Morecambe Bay (as seen from the Workhouse)- Leonard Barton 1953. Lancaster City Museums

12/04/2026

🙏🏼 The Lancashire Telegraph have very kindly done a write up of this Tuesday's Lancaster Workhouse Walking Tour. If you're interested we're now very close to being fully booked; there's just a few tickets remaining!

🎟️To book a place and see the meet up info, head to

www.lancaster.gov.uk/storytours

Lancaster City Museums

Lancaster's workhouse secrets are being brought back to life this April with a walking tour of some historic sites.

16/03/2026

☔24/3- UPDATE- DUE TO TODAYS AWFUL WEATHER THE WALK IS POSTPONED UNTIL TUESDAY 14TH APRIL. LANCASTER CITY MUSEUM WILL CONTACT EVERYONE WHO HAS BOOKED A TICKET.

🚶🏼‍♀️‍➡️A week tomorrow sees the start of another busy year of walking tours (and a talk) in collaboration with Lancaster City Museums.

After a few years away, I'll be returning to the workhouse with a new walk 'Behind High Walls'. We'll explore how this feared institution began, who ran it and what life was like for the men, women and children inside it. There'll of course be plenty of stories of the individuals inside it too.

The walk lasts around two hours- starting from town, we'll gradually walk across and up to Lancaster Moor and the site of the old workhouse.

🗓️Tuesday 24th March
11AM- 1PM. Meeting outside Springfield Barracks (South Rd)
Tickets- £10.
Booking here- www.lancaster.gov.uk/storytours

👉🏼 Look out for the lecture version of this walk too coming Monday 27th April at the City Museum.

📷 Male vagrant cells at Lancaster Workhouse prior to demolition Easter 1960. Lancaster City Museums.