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This article comments on an article written by Gary Saxonhouse and Gavin Wright in which the records of most of Lancashire, England's textile machinery makers from 1878 to 1920 were used to document investment in alternative spinning technologies in Lancashire prior to World War I. Saxonhouse and Wright argued that in prewar Lancashire, organizational structure did not constrain the diffusion of ring spinning. The availability of ring-frames that could spin yarn on paper tubes made it unnecessary to incur the heavy expenses of shipping ring yarn on wooden bobbins. With their focus confined to the constraint imposed by wooden bobbins, both the writers failed to explore a related, but more profound problem: the ring-frame was not cost-effective in spinning shuttle-ready weft for Lancashire's looms. Indeed, from the 1880s well into the interwar period, Lancashire's textile engineers devoted considerable inventive effort to the development of a ring-spinning machine that, like the mule, could spin shuttle-ready weft on the bare spindle, but without commercial success. In contrast to weft spinning, ring-frames were often used for warp spinning in specialized coarse and medium spinning mills in prewar Lancashire. Given the available evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that in cases where ring spinning would have been adopted anyway, a firm may well have opted to use paper tubes instead of wooden bobbins.

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Placing today's anti-fracking protests amongst previous social struggles in Lancashire, this paper explores how radical environmental movements resist a capitalist drive for cheap Nature that endangers human and extra-human reproduction. Hydraulic fracturing encroaches on parts of nature that in the common sense of people have not yet completely lost their ontology of a commons. Clean water, air, silence and accessibility are not yet ontologically detached from the conditions for healthy lives and a vibrant community. Like the peasants who revolted in early-modern England because enclosures deprived them of access to firewood and land for grazing cattle, today local communities revolt to the new enclosures that deprive them and future generations from a clean environment, necessary for a healthy life. One of the more subtle and underexposed strategies of radical environmental movements is to emphasize and (re-)create an ontological unity between nature and humanity-in-nature as a reaction to the duality of modernity. This paper's approach, which combines the political economic history of enclosures with anthropologically inspired research on changing conceptions of nature, shows how radical environmental movements object to material conditions that result from ontological dualisms. This helps to better understand the strategies and aspirations of radical "environmental" movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of skills and human capital during England's Industrial Revolution is the subject of an old but still ongoing debate. This paper contributes to the debate by assessing the artisanal skills of watchmakers and watch tool makers in southwest Lancashire in the eighteenth century and their links to apprenticeship. The flexibility of the training regime and its evolution are discussed, as is the decline of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents comments of authors on the criticism of their article on textile machinery by William Lazonick that was published in the February 1987 issue of the periodical "Economic History Review." The article used the records of most of Lancashire, England's textile machinery makers from 1878 to 1920--to document investment in alternative spinning technologies in Lancashire prior to World War I. Lazonick is correct in pointing out that the article on the persistence of the English mule did not include a comprehensive review and critique of his views on the decline of the Lancashire cotton industry. The central problem is that Lazonick does not use the term "constraint" in a consistent or rigorous way. Formally his analysis appears at first to be an attractive escape from the sterility of the debates over entrepreneurial failure: British managers made choices which were rational and appropriate given their constraints, but the industry collectively failed to transform its organization and technology so as to relax the constraints facing individual producers. The difficulties noted by Lazonick in his present comment relate exclusively to the case of existing spinning firms attempting to sell ring-spun weft yarn in the open market.

European volunteer workers have received comparatively little attention in the history of British post-war immigration, with greater coverage given to, for example, demobilised members of the Polish Resettlement Corps. This paper is based upon oral history interviews with a group of European immigrants, predominantly European volunteer workers, and local Lancastrians who started work in the Lancashire cotton industry between 1946 and 1951, and examines perceptions of how they integrated into British life in a variety of domains. The paper emphasises that 'blending-in' was context-dependent, with a sense of being welcomed and fitting-in applying to certain domains and in certain situations but not necessarily in others. It argues that migration fosters particular cultural attitudes and practices amongst both migrants and hosts as social identities are produced and reproduced, changed and challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores health care in one Lancashire working-class community during the golden age of biomedicine. Both the biomedical and alternative medical services available in the town are examined. The services provided by one community ‘wisewoman’; ranging from the respectable, such as midwifery, to the illegal, including abortion are a key focus. This case study is used as a way to engage with a larger theme in the history of medicine, namely, the tension between orthodox biomedical science and more traditional and alternative approaches to health care. The ways in which during the early twentieth century, traditional healing networks found ways to survive despite the increasing power and reach of biomedicine are demonstrated. This evidence points to the complexity of working-class attitudes to medical authority and practice during the period in question. In Rochdale, the working-class community remained slow to accept the orthodox challenge to traditional beliefs concerning health and healing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For maternity services in Blackburn, Lancashire, the Changing Childbirth (Department of Health, 1993) document was a long awaited publication. Prior to 1993 there had been radical change in local maternity service provision facilitated by inspirational leadership and enthusiastic midwives. Small, under-utilized and expensive GP led maternity homes were closed with an aim to provide one equitable service by blending the philosophies and expertise of low and high risk caregivers. From that time the service has continually striven to improve the continuity of care for women through the development of midwifery led care and team midwifery. In early 2004 a midwifery group practice was established in Blackburn. The development was made possible through an effective partnership between a hospital Trust, a Primary Care Trust, a Sure Start local programme and a Higher Education Institution. This paper tracks the setting up of this midwifery group practice. Future papers will address the ongoing management of the project, impacts and outcomes associated with it, and the arguments used to mainstream, sustain and develop it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007, the University of Central Lancashire developed a Foundation Degree in Community Leadership. This course was initially conceived to meet a demand within the female South Asian community of Burnley for a higher education programme that would build their capacity to be more effective community activists, and moreover, a requirement for a course that would be able to meet family, cultural and social needs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of widening participation to higher education for South Asian women from Burnley in terms of social capital, community cohesion and contribution to the local knowledge economy. The authors used an action research methodology as part of a reflective research process influenced by the work of Paulo Freire (Freire, 1996).This paper argues that widening participation to higher education for women from minority backgrounds is a valuable tool in addressing cultural and social segregation. Moreover, it demonstrates an added value that by broadening the knowledge economy of the Pakistani diaspora in Burnley there is a resulting resonance within the heritage domicile of Gujrat, Pakistan.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This symposium focussed on issues around peer review, dissemination, documentation and publishing of media research. A mix of papers, presentations and workshops provided stimuli for discussion and the opportunity to explore ways forward on peer review and use of media in publishing research. The debate centred on the problems of framing research questions for genuinely innovative work; of finding a way through the tensions between the requirements of our research, of funding bodies, and our own creative aspirations; on the ways in which dissemination needs to be considered as an integral part of the project, and how the different characteristics of forms of dissemination need to be carefully weighed up when making decisions around publishing. There is a tension between the open space that new media creates and the conventional gate-keeping process traditionally seen as one of the characteristics of the process to guarantee quality. There has been concern about the whole apparatus of peer review and evaluative criteria being brought to bear on media practice, and the ways in which the framing of the work for research application purposes may conflict with an exploratory approach. This symposium gave academics from a variety of higher education institutions the opportunity to further develop thinking on media practice research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the tourist's sense of place as experienced at Morecambe, Lancashire; it is concerned with emotional connections and reactions to place. This struggling traditional British seaside resort has seen the ebb and flow of visitors over the years and more recently regeneration. The qualitative research that underpins this paper consisted interviews with 55-74 year old repeat visitors from the North of England, reflecting the resort's visitor demographics. This paper therefore reflects a perspective rather than the views of a wider population. The interviews reveal the important role of the sea and seascape to these visitors, this coastal environment lies at the heart of their sense of place. It facilitated a distinctive experience which centred around the inter-related themes of nostalgia, wellness and spirituality. Exposure to the open space of the seafront allowed a connection to something more substantial and enduring than themselves; this was considered thought provoking, uplifting and even spiritual. The respondents valued their seaside visits and percieved them as enjoyable, beneficial and a part of their identity. The tradition of seaside visits was part of their childhood, family narrative and something to be shared with children and grandchildren now and into the future. Their attachment to Morecambe fed into a positive sense of place, referred to here as seasideness, which relied on the distinctive socio-cultural and physical elements of the resort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First systematic instrumental analysis of a rhotic Anglo-English accent. • /r/ is weakening in non-prevocalic position as a change over time: younger speakers display much weaker /r/s. • Non-prevocalic /r/ is still present for most speakers but weaker than the rhotics reported for Standard Scottish English and General American English. This paper presents the first systematic acoustic analysis of a rhotic accent in present-day England. The dataset comprises spontaneous and elicited speech of 28 speakers from Blackburn in Lancashire, Northern England, where residual rhoticity remains, having never been lost in the earlier sound change which rendered most of England non-rhotic. Although sociolinguistic studies of rhoticity in England exist, we have almost no description of its phonetic properties. Moreover, most sociolinguistic studies focus on the South West of England and relatively little is known about rhoticity in the North. Our study is timely because Northern rhoticity is predicted to disappear in the next few generations, a process which is now complete in many areas of the South West. Our results demonstrate that rhoticity is still present in Blackburn, although non-prevocalic /r/ is weaker when compared to other rhotic varieties of English such as those in Scotland and North America. We find that non-prevocalic /r/ is phonetically weakening in apparent time, with the F3-F2 difference being larger for younger speakers as well as females. We present additional social and linguistic factors affecting its potential demise, and discuss how our results contribute to our understanding of historical /r/-loss in Anglo-English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an empirical extension of and theoretical commentary on Foucault's work on governmentality, this paper takes the liberal governance of women, specifically mothers, as its focus. In Britain at the turn of the twentieth century, high infant mortality rates sparked widespread concern. Working-class mothers were blamed for infant deaths and became the target of social intervention. Analysing the knowledge which shaped the understanding of infant death, the paper highlights the geography of the problem and traces the creation of a particular subjectivity: the bad mother. Using the case study of the BoRon School for Mothers in Lancashire, the paper excavates the political rationalities informing infant welfare work. Finding a biopolitical concern for the quality and quantity of the British race at the heart of the work of the Bolton School, the article demonstrates the ways in which the working-class maternal body was appropriated as a tool of population revitalisation. The study also interrogates the practices of control used in infant welfare work and suggests the entanglement of different types of power as characteristic of infant welfare as a regime of biopolitical governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter Walken (1684-1769) was a small farmer resident near Chipping in Lancashire. Somewhat unusually, he was also minister of a small Nonconformist congregation, and even more unusually, he was a compulsive diarist. Most of his diaries have been lost, but one of two surviving volumes, for fourteen months in 1733-34, was published in 2000. The extant volume offers a detailed account of Walkden's farming activities, his income and expenditure, role as an employer and describes his struggle to secure credit. It also sheds light on the economic activity of his wife and the female sphere within his household. All of these aspects of his life are explored in this paper which offers a fine-grained account of farming life in Lancashire in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates worldwide and in recent years the Government has made breastfeeding promotion one of its priorities. The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative is likely to increase breastfeeding initiation but not duration. Other strategies which involve provision of support for breastfeeding mothers in the early weeks after birth are therefore required to encourage UK mothers to breastfeed for the recommended duration. This paper examines the effects of maternal socio-demographic factors, maternal obstetric factors, and in-hospital infant feeding practices on breastfeeding cessation in a peer support setting. Methods: Data on mothers from Blackburn with Darwen (BwD) and Hyndburn in Eastern Lancashire who gave birth at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and initiated breastfeeding while in hospital were linked to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). The data were analysed to describe infant feeding methods up to 6 months and the association between breastfeeding cessation, and maternal factors and in-hospital infant feeding practices. Results: The mean breastfeeding duration was 21.6 weeks (95% CI 20.86 to 22.37 weeks) and the median duration was 27 weeks (95% CI 25.6 to 28.30 weeks). White mothers were 69% more likely to stop breastfeeding compared with non-White mothers (HR: 0.59; 95% CI, 0.52 to 0.67 [White mothers were the reference group]). Breastfeeding cessation was also independently associated with parity and infant feeding practices in hospital. There were no significant associations between breastfeeding cessation and marital status, mode of delivery, timing of breastfeeding initiation and socio-economic deprivation. Conclusion: In this study ethnicity, parity and in-hospital infant feeding practices remained independent predictors of breastfeeding cessation in this peer support setting. However other recognised predictors such as marital status, mode of delivery, timing of breastfeeding initiation and socio-economic deprivation were not found to be associated with breastfeeding cessation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify two contrasting, yet successful, ways of conducting CPD training specific to the regeneration sector; looking at the different delivery methods of the two courses and the benefits associated with each. Design/methodology/approach - The paper provides an overview and analysis of contrasting courses available through Coventry University and the University of Salford through literature and participants' experience. Findings - For professionals in the regeneration sector traditional CPD courses from HE institutions are not the most effective. Regeneration covers a variety of different activities and is practically based; as a result flexible work based courses are more effective. Two contrasting examples of effective delivery methods are individual study based around existing projects and workplace based training to support tailored company development. Originality/value - This paper will be of interest to regeneration professionals, managers and HR officers looking for effective ways to develop the workforce while maintaining business relevance. It looks at two new courses which take different approaches to work-based CPD and discusses the differences and benefits of the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to chart the development of new method of applying HACCP for the hospitality industry developed by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) in conjunction with the University of Salford. It is the fourth article in the second Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes issue of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management presenting a new method of HACCP for the hospitality industry and proof of its utility. Design/methodology/approach - The project utilised an action research methodology that involved an iterative process of development, piloting, evaluation and review conducted over a three-year period. In total over 300 practitioners, researchers and stakeholders were involved in the process. Findings - This was the first attempt, anywhere in the world to empirically develop a food safety management system for food businesses within the hospitality industry and prove that it worked, It remains the only adaptation of "classical" method that has been demonstrated to have utility and also contribute to improvements in food safety management. In particular, the output demonstrates that there are valid alternatives to the "classical" Codex method and that businesses can comply with HACCP principles without ever having to "hear" or "use" the HACCP jargon. Originality/value - The new method has been extended and published as Menu-Safe, a system that can be used for hospitality businesses of all types and sizes. Its shortened version, Safer Food Better Business (SFBB), has been developed. These products will be of value to practitioners, enforcement officers and educators as they attempt to improve the management of food safety across the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary •Clients and staff at a service called Calderstones talked to the authors about self injury. •Clients said that staff do not understand why they self-injure. Some clients feel punished when staff stop them self-injuring. All clients like talking to staff and said that telling their problems to staff helps them. Clients said that they should be allowed self-injure without staff being blamed. •Staff said they feel upset and worried when a client self-injures. They told the authors they would like more training about self-injury. Some staff would like clients to be allowed to self-injure, but don't want to be blamed for a client's injuries. This paper is the synthesis of two pre-existing studies. It details the experiences of nine people with mild/moderate learning disabilities who self injure, and those who work with them. At the time of this study the participants were living and working in a medium secure unit at Calderstones NHS Trust in Lancashire. A phenomenological approach was used, and during in-depth interviews, the participants gave rich descriptions of their experiences of self injury. The descriptions that emerged from the interviews detailed four main themes: understanding, communication, control and blame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Nurturing Ecologies research project the aim is to consider the emotional value of the Lake District landscape to mobile, translocal communities living in Lancashire and Cumbria. The research attempts to capture in the visual form of a set of paintings, the sensory responses to the English Lake District that these translocal communities have. The Lake District is a site where historically a singular narrative of English sensibility has been forged. This paper disrupts singular notions of 'love', 'hate' and 'fear', through the process of exploring issues of motion and emotion, power difference and identifications with cultures of landscape. Here, the translocal English participate in a visual methodology which makes tangible emotions figured through post-colonial mobility, secured in a landscape of national sensibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the article "Making good land from bad: the drainage of west Lancashire, c. 1650-1850," by A. Gritt, which appeared in the periodical "Rural History."

The ability to use methodologies is an essential ingredient in the teaching of Information System techniques and approaches. One method to achieve this is to use a practical approach where students undertake ‘live’ projects with local client organisations. They can then reflect on the approach adopted with the aim of producing a ‘reflective methodological practitioner’. This paper focuses on the use of experiential learning in a modular course at the University of Central Lancashire to produce these ‘methodological practitioners’ and is based on the experiences of the authors in running this module. A model is presented which outlines three viewpoints of the project. This is in line with a ‘soft systems’ perspective in analysing the three views of the project or problem situation. It reports the results of investigations into one of those viewpoints [that of the students]. This is approached by a survey undertaken amongst students to obtain their views on the determinants of project success and failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To report findings on ventilatory function and estimations of concentrations of personal breathing zone dust in Lancashire textile weavers. Weaving room dust is considered to be less harmful than that encountered in the cardroom or spinning room and weavers are generally thought to have less respiratory disability than carders or spinners. However, this occupational group has not been extensively studied.Methods: Each person was given a respiratory symptom questionnaire (modified Medical Research Council, UK, questionnaire on respiratory diseases). Ventilatory function tests, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were performed on each person. A representative sample of workers from each occupational group underwent dust sampling in their personal breathing zone. Dust concentrations and ventilatory tests were analysed statistically with the Student's t test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and forward step regression for relations with symptoms and environmental factors. Significance was p > or = 0.05.Results: The FEV1 and FVC were reduced in workers with respiratory symptoms (non-specific chest tightness, shortness of breath, persistent cough, and wheezing) as well as in preparation room workers, current and former smokers, Asians, those working with predominantly cotton fibre (> 50% cotton) and starch size. Mean total dust concentration (pd1) in the personal breathing zone was 1.98 mg/m3. The corresponding value for total dust with large fibres lifted off the filter paper (pd2) was 1.55 mg/m3. There was a strong correlation (r = 0.94, p < 0.0001) between pd1 and pd2. Non-specific chest tightness was predicted by low dust concentrations and persistent cough by high dust concentrations. On regression analysis, impairment of ventilatory function (FEV1, FVC) was predicted by smoking, male sex, age, not working in the weaving shed, not being white, and personal dust concentrations.Conclusions: The FEV1 and FVC were impaired in smokers and those exposed to high dust concentrations in the personal breathing zone. Symptoms were inconsistently related to dust concentrations in the personal breathing zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to demonstrate that Keynes's practical writings on the crisis in the Lancashire cotton spinning industry in the 1920s were consistent with the 1930s theoretical conceptualisation of user costs in the General Theory. It is suggested that the key (common) link between these analyses is Keynes's concern with how uncertainty is distributed, in specific historical circumstances, between institutions at the levels of the firm, industry, the industry-financial institution interface, and the local and global economies. It is this concern which still has important, if not more, research and policy relevance today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article recognizes the significance of commercial entertainment producers in early modern England operating outside of London. In doing so, it offers fresh methodological approaches for understanding pre-modern social status. I explore the geographical and social places of independent bearwards – individuals who kept bears for the commercial sport of baiting. Regional figures involved in entertainment production have been little explored and left behind frustratingly few biographical details. Yet three generations of one family – the Whitestones of Ormskirk in Lancashire (1610s through the 1630s) – do leave substantial surviving documentary evidence about their activities, assets, and networks. I use the Whitestones's probate inventories and wills and their and their neighbours' court depositions and petitions to offer for the first time a holistic appraisal of the material, economic, and cultural circumstances of the bearward. By stepping inside the households and communities of several generations of independent entertainment producers, we can appreciate their complex and variable social status and the role of commercial recreation in social mobility. I finish by considering the human–animal relationships that underpinned the bearward's place in early modern England, offering fresh evidence of bears' living arrangements and a theoretical framework for discussing their exploitation in the blood sport industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rare Chalcolithic rolled-gold bead-like ornament dated to c. 2400-2200 cal. BC was found in association with sherds of early Beaker ware in an Early Bronze Age Collared Urn burial dated to c. 1545-1450 cal. BC. The grave was located at Pendleton, Lancashire. This paper reports on the AMS radiocarbon dates for the burial context along with X-ray composition analysis of the gold ornament, which shows the object had a high platinum content consistent with alluvial, placer, deposits possibly originating in Brittany, France rather than the British Isles. This unparalleled rolled-gold ornament is compared to the corpus of British and French rolled-gold ornaments and contemporary goldwork and a provenance, manufacture and biography of the find is explored. Both curation and fragmentation are considered in the context of a dated Beaker ware assemblage from the local domestic site of Lower Brockholes, Preston, as well as existing corpora of Beaker and Collared Urn ware from the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major trauma triage within regional trauma networks (RTN) select patients with suspected TBI for bypass to specialist neuroscience centres (SNC), expediting neurosurgical care but may delay resuscitation. This comparative effectiveness study assessed the impact of this strategy on the risk adjusted hospital survival rates of patients confirmed to have intracranial injury on brain computed tomography (CT) scan. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using Trauma Audit and Research Network trauma registry data. Adult patients with a TBI on CT scan were included if they presented between June 2015 to February 2016 to SNCs or non-specialist acute hospitals (NSAH) in the North of England (South Cumbria, Lancashire and the North East Region). Patients were identified as having bypassed a nearer NSAH emergency department (ED) to a SNC using google maps. Their standardised excess survival rate was compared to TBI patients who received primary treatment at a NSAH. A multivariate logistic regression model predicting 30-day survival after TBI (Ps14n)1 was used to adjust for variation in casemix between cohorts. 355 patients met the study inclusion criteria, with 89/355 (25%) of TBI patients bypassing a nearer NSAH to a SNC, and 266/355 (75%) receiving primary treatment at an NSAH. The median severity of intracranial injury was equivalent (median Head Abbreviated Injury Scale 4 (IQR 4–5) in each group. There was no statistically significant difference in the standardised excess survival rate between the two cohorts; +6.15% for bypass (95% CI −1.24% to +13.55%) versus −1.12% for non-bypass (95% CI −4.51% to +2.25%). No statistically significant survival benefit was identified for TBI patients who bypassed the nearest ED to attend a SNC compared to those receiving treatment at the nearest NSAH, however a clinically significant 7% excess survival rate merits a larger study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1914 opportunities for working-class women's sports participation were limited and peripheral, but the 1980s, policy reforms resulted in the then Sports Council identifying women as a 'target group'. Subsequently the notion that barriers to women's participation are issues to be identified and resolved has become commonplace in contemporary sports participation and development. In this paper I wish to track the changes in sports participation in the lives of a group of Lancashire women over the last 98 years, from 1914 to the present day. I do this from a personal perspective by exploring the life history of my grandmother and mother and interweaving this with an autoethnographic narrative of my own experiences. I document the changes from an individual who had no opportunity to engage in sport and physical activity, through to myself who has achieved a career based upon it. These three sporting histories illustrate the shift in women's participation from overt marginalisation from the sports arena to greater acceptance. This change in opportunities to enter the male-dominated world of sport is due to various socio-historical factors. In terms of changes in the broader historical context, women have the vote, legislated rights and the hegemonic dominance of men's sport has been challenged and resisted. In the more specific context of my family history, upward social mobility has opened up both educational and sporting opportunities for me which were not available to my working-class parents or grandparents. These opportunities have enabled me to enjoy a lifestyle which would have been inconceivable for my grandmother. By exploring our sporting histories and, through them, the changes in working-class women's lives in the United Kingdom more generally, my aim is to recognise that the previous generations' struggle for the opportunity to take part in sport has afforded benefits for my generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that Russell Lewis Oakes from Lancashire, England, has been arrested by police following a complaint by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) that he had fraudulently registered as a veterinary surgeon using false papers. The complaint claimed that Oakes used a forged qualification from Murdoch University in Western Australia to register with the RCVS in November 2006.

In the U.K. there is a housing crisis: this paper presents a new research study taking place at the University of Salford dedicated to the systemic seamless delivery of sustainable housing: 'G-Tech'. There has been much research in this area but with very little uptake of outcomes from industry, which is what this study aims to counter. The study considers all the relevant drivers such as government policy, an ageing population, demand, regional growth, sustainability and global warming with the intention to provide a systemic multi-level, multi actor innovation framework providing a full 'service' from the concept of need through to demolition and reuse. One of the studies main objectives is to alter stakeholder mindsets, remove the barriers and encourage greater adoption of the sustainable dwelling. The study will align sustainable homes to meet all the requirements set out by the triple bottom line of sustainability encompassing social, economical and environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a discussion regarding the Lancashire seaside literature. It features the importance of dialect writing in the development of a unique identity of a local press publication. It introduces press personalities including Ben Brierley, John Heywood, and Charles Allen Clarke who made a great contribution in establishing the periodical press in Lancashire, England.

English Catholicism has generally been ignored by mainstream historiography. In the last decade work on the early seventeenth century has shown that English Catholics actively engaged in ensuring their own survival and played a prominent part in national politics. Catholicism in the latter half of the century has received no such attention. Using a case study of the Lancashire Catholic, William Blundell, from the Civil War period to his death in 1698, it will be argued that by manipulating existing power structures and creating networks of both Protestants and Catholics who protected him, he was able to avoid the extremes of the penal laws and assert an influence on local and national affairs. Despite his professions of loyalty, many of his activities in support of English Catholicism and religious houses abroad posed a direct threat to the Protestant regimes under which he lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the paper by Pamela Russell commenting on 15 toponyms in West Derby Hundred, Lancashire, England. The places referred by Russell include Maghull, Alt, Broni Damfield, Incer Field, Dwerefield, Haydock, Ince, Walton, Dowlache, Louchangile, Cundlache Bridge, Carketon, Brettargh Holt, and Bretland. These places are arranged into five groups including Maghull, Ince Blundell, Walton on the Hill, Cundlache Bridge, and Walton. It is stated that Russell's examinations of the documents have brought in names of fields, streams, and ditches which are rare philological interest, and important testimony for British survival in West Derby Hundred.

In 1999 South Lancashire Health Authority published their Oral Health Improvement Plan in which they specifically identified drug users as a target group. In this paper the authors outline the development of a project, which aimed to improve access to dental services for this group. Essential to the relative success of the project was the inclusion of drug users and service providers at the outset. In addition perceived barriers, which exist between drug users and the profession have started to be broken down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Consultant in Dental Public Health and the Local Dental Committee in East Lancashire have developed a local system, similar to that being set up for general medical practitioners, to help general dental practitioners whose performance is causing concern. GDPs approved it at an open meeting of practitioners. A Dental Performance and Assessment Group has been set up and one problem has already been resolved to everyone's satisfaction. The model is recommended to dentists in other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the factors affecting the likelihood of Lancashire-based companies involved in defence production pursuing strategic responses to defence sector restructuring. Data covering 100 Lancashire-based companies form the Lancashire Defence Survey database, which is analysed. Results of the data analysis are of interest to organizations involved in local economic development policy making. They suggest that the effects of restructuring are most profound in large core defence companies most directly involved in defence production. Other effects are passed on to companies that carry out subcontracting, but there is less evidence of strategies being implemented in response to structural change among these companies. Company size, product type and degree of defence-dependency are uncovered as significant factors influencing whether a strategic response is instigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1968 a postgraduate degree course leading to a Master of Science in Environmental Resources was initiated by the Department of Biology at the University of Salford, U.K. At first there were between ten and twelve students per year on the Course; there are now more than forty. The Course has a multi-national, multi-disciplinary intake and although based on the Department of Biology of a University it draws staff and lectures from other departments and organisations. This report describes and discusses the way in which the Course is run and how the various problems encountered during its development have been overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The town of Colne in Pennine east Lancashire, northern England—once a centre of the textiles trade—is now best known locally as the home of Boundary Mill 'shopping experience'. But there is more to the town than meets the eye, including three significant geologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the industrial paper presented at the International Workshop on Advanced Robotics and intelligent Machines held at the University of Salford in Lancarshire, England. Robotics developments; Intelligent robotic system; Multiply censored robots.

Objective The basic erosive wear examination (BEWE) is a relatively new index proposed for the screening and recording of tooth wear in adults. The aim of this study was to test the validity and reliability of the BEWE.Design Cross sectional study of a sample of 164 adult patients.Setting General dental practice in East Lancashire, UK in 2010.Subjects Patients attending for routine examination or treatment.Main outcome measures By screening patients with the BEWE and comparing the results to the established tooth wear index (TWI) the sensitivity and specificity of the BEWE was established.Results The BEWE predicted moderate to severe wear (BEWE grade 3) with a sensitivity of 48.6% and a specificity of 96.1%, and predicted severe wear with a sensitivity of 90.9% and a specificity of 91.5% (also BEWE score 3). Inter- and intra-examiner reliability for the BEWE were both moderate (κw = 0.43 and 0.57 respectively).Conclusion(s) BEWE scores show a similar distribution to TWI scores and the examination is an effective screening test for severe tooth wear. The moderate levels of examiner reliability suggests the BEWE scores should be interpreted with some caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at a symposium on the peer review of media practice co-sponsored by the Journal of Media Practice held at the University of Salford in Lancashire, England in June 2006 is presented. Agendum dealt with the role of research community to shape any guidelines that emerge as standard practice among the broader research community.

This article traces the politics surrounding the ejection of Isaac Allen as rector of Prestwich in Lancashire during the mid sixteen-forties. The political crises of the late sixteen-thirties and the early sixteen-forties, combined with local difficulties, led to strained relations between Allen, a 'moderate' puritan, and some lay puritans within the parish. During the first English civil war, these opponents attempted to secure the rector's removal on the basis of accusations of royalist allegiance. The article examines Allen's reactions to these allegations, as he portrayed himself as a clergyman who craved peace and order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the position of the working environment within public health priorities and as a contributor to the health of a community. Using two Lancashire textile towns (Burnley and Blackburn) as case studies and drawing on a variety of sources, it highlights how, while legislation set the industry parameters for legal enforcement of working conditions, local public health priorities were pivotal in setting codes of practice. The complexities entwined with identifying the working environment as a cause of ill health and with improving it were entangled within the local community health context. In addition, the multiple understandings of Medical Officers of Health surrounding the remit of their responsibilities impacted the local health context. These did not always parallel national regulations. Indeed, it was these local, community specific forces that set the public health agenda, determined its path and the place of the working environment within this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the experiences of 19th-century Irish immigrants to England while being held in the asylum of Lancashire, England, particularly in the years during and after the Irish Famine. Focus is given to the poor health of these Irish patients, as well as the ways in which the patients' characterization as violent by asylum superintendents was likely influenced by the anti-Irish sentiment that grew in England during this period of increased immigration. The authors argue that immigration was conflated with mental illness during this period, which led to Irish incarceration.

Objective The basic erosive wear examination (BEWE) is a relatively new index proposed for the screening and recording of tooth wear in adults. The aim of this study was to test the validity and reliability of the BEWE.Design Cross sectional study of a sample of 164 adult patients.Setting General dental practice in East Lancashire, UK in 2010.Subjects Patients attending for routine examination or treatment.Main outcome measures By screening patients with the BEWE and comparing the results to the established tooth wear index (TWI) the sensitivity and specificity of the BEWE was established.Results The BEWE predicted moderate to severe wear (BEWE grade 3) with a sensitivity of 48.6% and a specificity of 96.1%, and predicted severe wear with a sensitivity of 90.9% and a specificity of 91.5% (also BEWE score 3). Inter- and intra-examiner reliability for the BEWE were both moderate (κw = 0.43 and 0.57 respectively).Conclusion(s) BEWE scores show a similar distribution to TWI scores and the examination is an effective screening test for severe tooth wear. The moderate levels of examiner reliability suggests the BEWE scores should be interpreted with some caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financed by the economic powerhouse of the cotton industry, the Lancashire League's member clubs had pre-League contact with the very first English and Australian Test match cricketers. Formed in 1890, the League went on to attract a multitude of Commonwealth stars, many of them ‘Ashes professionals’ whose League experience benefited themselves, their clubs and their communities. For some professionals, the League provided their bread and butter, for others an end-of-career payday, recuperation from injury or part of their cricket education. Some came at the height of their powers. Others appeared as substitute professionals. No other organization has provided its amateurs with the thrill, privilege and memories of sharing the stage with such a rich gallery of international sporting talent. The legendary tales of genius, competitiveness, charisma and showmanship have helped bond 14 clubs from north-east Lancashire together, their membership remaining unchanged since 1897. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before Gordon Manley began work on his famous Central England Temperature (CET) record, he constructed an instrumental temperature record for the Lancashire Plain (LP), covering 1753-1945. We describe the construction of the LP series, and discuss strategies for its extension to the present day. We analyse the relationship between the LP and the Central England Temperature (CET) record in order to assess the value of continuing the LP. Three strategies for extending the LP have been considered: replicating the original methodology Manley used to construct the LP (option 1), using linear regression on archived station data to bring the extended record 'in line' with the original LP (option 2), and using the CET to predict the LP (option 3). In extending the LP, the station at Morecambe (Met Office station number 16851) was found to be particularly important. Our analysis highlights the importance of maintaining long-running records at those stations, such as Morecambe, that are representative of a wider region. All three options were successfully extended to the present, providing similar results. The three extended series resulted in annual mean differences of 0.23, 0.26, and 0.29 °C below the CET, respectively. Both options 1 and 2 appear to provide a legitimate extension of the LP that is independent of the CET. Owing to uncertainties in the replication of Manley's methodology, option 2 was used in our final reconstruction of the LP to 2007. The final extension was found to be significantly correlated to ( r2 = 0.912), and statistically indistinguishable from, the CET (Student's t-test, p = 1). Anomalies between the two series (CET-LP) resulted in a frequency distribution with mean of 0.26 °C, and relative standard deviation of 60%, showing that, although closely correlated, there is significant inter-annual variability in the bias between the datasets. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative efficiency of producer co-operatives is investigated through an examination of the financial performance of a group of cotton spinning firms that emerged from the spread of co-operative ideals after the mid-nineteenth century. Reflecting such influences these firms adopted two particularly important aspects of democratic governance: use of low denomination partly paid shares to encourage wide share ownership among local working class operatives, and the use of a one shareholder one vote rule at company meetings. Prior literature, much of which predicts the failure of producer co-operatives due to incentive problems, has not specifically examined these aspects of democratic control. Moreover because the case study utilises samples of stock market quoted companies, there is an opportunity to quantify the financial performance effects of these governance mechanisms. The case study therefore offers a unique insight and important contribution to the wider literature. The results show that both aspects of democratic governance contributed to the economic success of the companies that adopted them, enabling them to satisfy the high demand for cash dividends that characterised investor requirements. However, the cyclical nature of the cotton industry and the stock market booms and slumps that resulted led to redistributions of wealth through time that in the long run undermined the co-operative project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines a rich localized sporting culture based upon pedestrianism, the public house and gambling in nineteenth-century Bolton and its near neighbour, the shock city of the age, Manchester. As surrounding fields and moors of the city and town were gradually industrialized and urbanized, alternative spaces, premises and places were needed to accommodate sport. They were increasingly provided by entrepreneurial local publicans in a shrewd commercial move that understood the profit-making potential of sport. By arranging events either near or on their premises they were guaranteed healthy takings, as spectators and competitors consumed alcohol and gambled their wages over the bar. Publicans also profited by charging admission fees to their newly enclosed grounds. Cultural historians, though, have overlooked many of these grounds that were underpinned by the commercial interests of the petty bourgeoisie, the drinks trade and gambling. By 1860 pedestrianism seemed to have become the most extensive male working-class sporting interest in the area, only to fade throughout the 1860s. Despite this, many sporting and commercial cultural practices that were established across the mid-century subsequently remained part of the local cultural base upon which the game of professional association football in Lancashire was built. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In common with many towns, Preston possessed a moor, the open remnant of which is the modern Moor Park. Preston Moor was enclosed in 1833–35, but until now the mechanisms by which this was achieved and the local reaction to the enclosure have remained obscure. It has been widely held that Moor Park dates from this moment, making it the oldest municipal park in England. In fact the area of Moor Park, whilst protected from development, was first envisaged as a cattle pasture for the freemen, and was then let for a period as grazing without any public right of access. The Park, as it would normally be understood, dates from 1867. It is shown how the enclosure of the Moor should rightly be seen as an exercise in urban planning, taking advantage of the development of private estates on the north side of Preston: but it is also shown how the aspirations of 1833 to create a middle-class suburb were never achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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