A Dasher! on the road to ruin in the West, 1799, Thomas Rowlandson, courtesy Artvee 1833 Oct 6th…… My neibour Megson who has been long my neibour; formerly as Butler in the house of my …

1811 29th………. Have frequently felt myself alarm’d this week from what my sober judgment wou’d term a frevilous cause: – My Wife told me early in the week that she had caught…

Photo credit: Reece Dinsdale in the cinema/studio space at Square Chapel (photo by Ant Robling)Reece Dinsdale leads Square Chapel rescue mission: “It’s time to bring it home”Award-Winning Actor, Write...

Wakefield cattle market, drawing by Henry Clarke, courtesy Wakefield Local Studies Library 1808 September 18th  Ev’ry returning week varies my date, and I am so much the nearer the time,…

Andrew Meikle’s threshing machine 1786 courtesy Pinterest August 1809 27th Am at present very busy in ploting and planing about my new Thrashing Machiene,  it perhaps takes up more …

Journalist Anthony Hewitson (1836-1912) worked in one of the largest sectors of the periodical press, provincial newspapers. His diaries, written between 1865 and 1912, reveal the people, processes an...

Fire in a Hay Stack, Jules Breton 1856, courtesy Wikiart.org 1833 18th Yesterday was my half yearly rent-day, I went to the hall, and paid my Worthy Landlord his rent, afterwards felt myself dispos…

Fire in a Hay Stack, Jules Breton 1856, courtesy Wikiart.org 1833 18th Yesterday was my half yearly rent-day, I went to the hall, and paid my Worthy Landlord his rent, afterwards felt myself dispos…

Reapers Resting in a Wheat Field 1885, John Singer Sargent August 1836 14th Have passed over another week, often fraught with anxiety, – often wide awake, when I shou’d have been s…

Leeds Intelligencer, 5th August 1837, courtesy of British Newspaper Archive/British Library 1837 Augt 6th The West-rideing Election has cloased: – (Lord Morpeth, Sir Geo. Strickland…

1807 Aug 2nd ….Have felt my mind considerably engaged, and somtimes agitated by reading a paragraph in our paper of one Robinson in this county, murdering his servant maid who was with child …

Recruiting Soldiers at Brentford, Thomas Rowlandson 1794 (Artvee) JULY 1807 26th Have had much hurry in my office, and somtimes confusion in my mind thro’ the course of the past week, while adoptin…

Wakefield Historical Publications, established in 1977, has published almost 50 titles on all aspects of Wakefield and regional history.

Mezzotint of William Lascelles by William Overend Geller, Wikimedia Commons. (Tory winner of the Wakefield constituency against Daniel Gaskell, Tomlinson’s Whig landlord) JULY 1837 16th Some …

JULY 1807 Selling a horse, Thomas Rowlandson, 1791 (Artvee) 12th ……  A week ago, purchased a new Mare, I was remarkeably fearful of meeting with one which wou’d be refractory,…

Armed Forces Day is held every June and pays tribute to active service personnel and veterans.

Coronation of Queen Victoria 28 June 1838 by Sir George Haytercommons/wikimedia/ Royal Collection.org.uk 1838 Thury June 27th This is the Coronation-day of Princes Victoria &c the leg…

1807 June 21st My passage is tolerable easy, and uninterupted at the present; nothing material thwarts my designs, or crosses my intentions, save a few trivial matters that are inseperable fro…

The Country Cobbler, Thomas Rowlandson ca 1780 – 1825 June 1837 11th Have gone tolerably well on thro’ another sircling week, – to wit. – My mare is much better, &#8211…

St John’s Church Wakefield 1807 Suny June 7th – I am frequently gloomy, and sad; because filial affection, and regard still lives in my bosom; I do not mourn because his end was either …

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) – An Old Horse – NG1484 – National Gallery, Wikimedia Commons MAY 1838 27th The saboth is again returned, and the season continues cold; many poor …

Fight on 10 May 1808 between John Gully and Bob Gregson. Creative commons: By Unknown author – Public Domain, May 1808 22nd Have felt my thoughts much engaged, in dwelling upon the two n…