How Dr Alan Crosby's love of Lancashire history was brought to book

History was not Alan Crosby’s first calling, but it became his passion.

He was a boy from the south, but Lancashire became his adopted home.

Now, as he spurns retirement to carry on with the unusual job he loves - freelance historian, he has been honoured with a book of essays about the county’s history.

‘Lancashire Studies: Historical Essays in honour of Alan Crosby’ was a top secret project by the Local History Federation of Lancashire.

A “gift” to mark his 65th birthday, the back cover notes: “This book of essays has been compiled in recognition of the enormous contribution Alan Crosby has made to furthering the understanding and enjoyment of local history in Lancashire.”

Its topics range from working at home in the 19th century in Winckley Square, Preston, to Quakerism in Victorian Lancashire, the Seward stained glass studio in Lancaster, cheesmaking in Goosnargh in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Worden estate at Leyland to the depiction of Lancashire on the historic Gough map of c.1400.

The subjects were chosen in recognition of Alan’s many and wide-ranging interests.

For Alan, the official historian of Preston Guild and a Guild Burgess, it was indeed a complete surprise.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions the volume was presented to him in a ceremony on the car park outside the County Archives in Preston.There could be no grand speeches, no gathering of county historians and no special photocalls. But for Alan it was very special indeed, especially as wife Jacquie Crosby, Archive Services Manager at Lancashire Archives, had been one of the five editors.

She said: “He was totally lost for words and he was almost tearful at one point. We were going to have a big event and it ended up about five people. I think it’s a lovely tribute to Alan and his contribution to local history ... written by people Alan knows very well.”

Alan confirmed: “It was a total surprise, just completely unpredicted, a tremendous shock ... a wonderful shock I hasten to add. It’s just great, a sheer pleasure. I’ve read them (the essays) all three times now.”

As a pupil at Woking Grammar School in Surrey Alan had shown a talent for geography and he went on to read geography at Oxford University. He said: “I realised half way though I didn’t want to continue in geography as such, what I found much more interesting was the historical geography and the landscape associated with it.That’s why I turned into a local and regional historian.”

He recognises in his own way he was a pioneer, opting for a career of many parts. He said: “Nowadays it’s much more common to have a portfolio of activities. I knew full well I didn’t want to have a nine to five job. I had never done it. I didn’t want the conventional route, but there were opportunities to have a full time job.”

That job has seen him researching, teaching in Oxford, Liverpool and Lancashire and writing on all manner of historical subjects.

He has also become a popular speaker at local history societies on topics ranging from sex and sin in the 17th century (sexual misconduct recorded in Lancashire in the Stuart period), to the history of the River Ribble and the effect of The Great War on the farming communities of Chipping and Bleasdale.

His work on the diaries of Benjamin Shaw he puts down to the “serendipity of discovery”.

Alan edited the ‘Family Records of Benjamin Shaw, Mechanic of Dent, Dolphinholme and Preston, 1772-1841’ which was published in hardback in 1991.

He said: “That’s the most important one I’ve done because he was a self-educated working man, born in 1772 and he died in 1841 and he lived all his adult life in Preston. This is like an autobiography, it goes right on until 1836 until he was too frail to write any more. It was just riveting. It talks about the industrial revolution from somebody who was part of it. This is a remarkable piece of work, to be able to transcribe and edit it was just engrossing. The originals are in the record office archives and I came across them literally completely by chance - that sort of serendipity is really important.”

He had been researching a different topic but recalls: “I was completely transfixed from the first page.”

He also enjoyed the insights the diary revealed about Benjamin’s domestic life: “He wrote his story and that of his wife - they never ceased to row from the moment they married.”

Alan recounts how Benjamin noted: “There never were two people more at variance than us.”

Alan also researched the history of the dark ages in Cumbria for broadcaster and writer Melvyn Bragg when Bragg was writing his novel ‘Credo’ set in that period. Alan recalled: “I had a friend who knew Melvyn Bragg and (Melvyn) told him he needed research doing to get the background to the book. He suggested me, so I got a phone call out of the blue from Melvyn Bragg. He and I met a couple of times and he came to my house. I did a lot of the background research for key aspects of the book...I never know what’s going to be coming next.”