Delving Into The Past…
An 81-year-old social media-savvy podcaster has listeners from all over the world who are fascinated by her myth-busting research
Local historian Jean Lord has lived in various parts of the country. Originally from Farnworth, she spent many years living and working in Scotland but it was memories from her childhood that eventually brought her to the Ribble Valley.
“At weekends we used to come for days out to Downham, so I always dreamed of living over here,” says Jean, who at 81, has just launched a series of podcasts on the history of Whalley.
Jean who has three children, 12 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren, recalls how family circumstances forced her to move to Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire: “My husband Bill died when he was just 36. I was left on my own with three children, my son was offered a job at a textile factory in Scotland and they offered me a job too so off we went.”
The family spent many years there but when one of Jean’s daughters had to relocate to Lancashire, they decided it was the time for Jean to fulfil her dream and find a home in the Ribble Valley.
They originally found a house on Brockhall Village, but it was during a trip to America that Jean learnt about her current home on the recently-built Monks Cross development in Whalley: “My daughter sent me a video of the house,” recalls Jean, who has been involved in Whalley in Bloom for almost two decades.
Living in Whalley meant Jean immersed herself within the community, she is Friend of Whalley Grammar School and with a small group of activists, was instrumental in getting it back up and running.
While she has always been involved in local history – something she says she inherited from her late father – it was her involvement in the Grammar School that reignited her love of the past: “We decided to open up each room and theme them. There was a cricket room, an abbey room and I created a room of old photos of King Street and all the buildings from different periods of history.”
Doing extensive research, Jean continues to update her ‘virtual tour’ of King Street each year: “The Whalley Arms used to be a farm,” says Jean, who also made a model of the street, based on an 1870 map.
Thanks to her daughter Kath, more recently Jean has transferred her skills to creating a historical podcast. Kath who is the voice behind voiceitpr.com does podcasts and public relations for businesses throughout the UK and it was her idea for Jean to launch her own podcast, which is produced by Kath.
“We were spending a weekend in the Lake District – Kath had work to do so I took some history research up with me too,” recalls Jean, who by this time had set up a Whalley History Group that hired a room at the Grammar School to research the town’s heritage.
“Kath looked at all the books I had and all the research I was doing and suggested I put the information on a podcast. While I do a lot of research on the internet, I also go into historic records to verify facts as a lot of ‘word of mouth’ rumours turn out not to be true.
“I like that part of my work – it’s myth busting and very interesting!” says Jean who, to date, has more than 1000 people listening to her Whalley podcasts, the first of which focuses on Church Lane.
“There is history in every house on there. There are lots of surprises too. In one house a stone head was found during renovations. It is thought it originated from Whalley Abbey – the deeds of the house state that if the house is sold the head stays with the property.”
Delving into records, Jean also discovered the myths surrounding a local ‘hermitage’ which was surrounded by scandal. A hermitage is where a person was made a ‘recluse’: “I spent a long time looking for information about this and found letters from the monks at Whalley Abbey written to King Henry VI in their bid to get the hermitage closed.
“The documents were written in old English and signed by various knights and dignitaries. The so-called ‘scandal’ involved a widow, who had three children. It turned out there wasn’t a scandal at all – she just didn’t have any standing within the community being a woman, on her own with children.”
Scripting the podcasts herself, Jean’s second is on King Street – but this has been split into two parts because of the huge amount of information she has gathered – whilst the third is on the Whalley Arches.
Being social media savvy, Jean is on Facebook and a series of other platforms, so her listeners are from all over the world: “I really love doing the podcasts. I have people listening in Australia, Canada and New Zealand – it’s really exciting!”
To listen to Jean’s podcasts go to Spotify and Whalley Local History
Jean will be conducting a ‘walk and talk’ local history tour of Whalley on Sunday 7th May starting from Whalley bus station at 2pm as part of Whalley in Bloom
