This blog has now overflowed onto a third page , Access the next page by clicking ' older posts' at the bottom of this and other pages and ' home ' to return to the first page . Double click pictures to enlarge , Picture is of a Peel 'nickey' leaving Peel harbour for a night's fishing. This picture was taken about 1910. I printed it out from an old half plate glass negative some years ago. A friend of mine had a 100 or so of these negatives [ her grandfather had taken them ] and I printed them all out, one for her and one for me . Actually , some of the prints are of excellent quality....the slow film of the day showing less grain than modern fast film........but that don't matter now ...everything is digital.
When the Vikings invaded the Island circa 1000 BC, they kinda liked the place and decided to stay. They integrated with the local populace, who were a pretty miserable lot in those days, scratching a living from the land and sea, and the Vikings set about organizing the place on Scandinavian lines and creating a Parliament , that still exists today....the longest , continuous parliament in the world. The Celtic/Scandinavian mix produced a race that I am very proud to belong to ....the Manx.
Well, the Vikings faded into history and the next few hundred years saw the Scottish and English kings squabbling over ownership of the Island ....the successful claimants at any one time calling themselves the Kings of Mann. Around about 1400, English rule ceased on Mann when, the then King of England, Henry IV, gave the Island to one Sir John Stanley, the Duke of Derby, for the rental of two falcons to be given to any future monarch on their Coronation Day. I reckon Sir John got a bargain. The Stanleys ' owned ' the Island for the next 300 years but rarely visited the place, preferring their big estates in England to our soggy , little Island. The Dukes of Atholl took over about 1700 , again absentee landlords , and the Island slumbered on, albeit, with quite a lot of smuggling on the side, doing the pesky English out of a lot of their Custom duty, until it became a Crown dependency in early Victorian times. A Governor was appointed as the monarch's representative ....but the Island retained it's right to govern and raise it's own revenue. Incidentally, the rental of two falcons remained up to the Queen Victoria's coronation....more of an old custom than actual rent , by then . The names, Stanley, Derby and Atholl are quite common place names on the Island today.
By the way, , the word Viking comes from the old Norse word ' vikigj ' meaning pirate, which is exactly what they were , pirates, who loved raiding and looting.
This is a very, very potted version of how the Manx evolved, pretty boring , on the whole , but there again , someone may read this and find it of interest .
Great to hear from you again....and thanks for your comments....greatly appreciated. Now I know that I have got a least one visitor to my little site [ apart from myself, that is , ha. ha! ] I will try and make the content a bit more interesting in the future. I have a fund of stories and a mountain of photos of the Island. .....and I can always fall back on my friendly local photographer for a picture or two from his site.......saves me going out and getting wet and tramping around the countryside . And talking of wet, that is all it has been here of late...wet, wet, wet, and when it hasn't been wet it has been pouring with rain.!!...[ t'eh ceau .....in Manx Gaelic ] I am sure this little lump of rock is sinking into the sea!!
I have some on line friends who I contact regularly ..... one from Ca. one from Louisiana, one from Wi. and one from Mi. .....the latter two both having Manx grandparents who left the Island for the States ....[ Quayle and Kelly ] .......sounds familiar !!.
Anyway, keep tuned in to this site and feel free to give the blog address to any other family members who you think may be interested . You never know, someone else may add a comment or two......wow!....fame at last ! ...By the way, pictures should enlarge with a double click. .
Bit of a contrast to the previous pictures. This one is of a more peaceful scene of Peel sea front,. taken the other day by my friendly local photographer. The groyne was built to stop the sand on the beach being washed away by the action of the tides. The original structure was of wood and concreted over maybe 100 years ago. I have a small piece of wood from the old groyne when it was exposed some years ago for repair work to the concrete. Why? I don't know. I tend to collect useless things !!!! Similarly, the Peel breakwater was a wooden structure in the 1800's and the present day breakwater was built around this, probably around the 1880's.
Sorry, this picture seems to have disappeared into the wild blue yonder .[ See 'Oops ' the final post on this blog ]
