Fact Or Fiction

Fact Or Fiction

I discovered Elizabeth while researching my family tree. She lived back in the early eighteenth century. Unlike my other ancestors, she never married, but she did have a child in her early twenties. Which meant she had had a relationship with someone in the Summer of 1712. As usual, the name of the father was not recorded.

I wondered who the lord of the manor was at that time, which led me to the Osbornes, the Dukes of Leeds. Intriguingly, they had a son about Elizabeth's age – Peregrine. He was also strikingly unusual. Unlike his ancestors or descendants, the eventual Third Duke would never accumulate honours and would not have a political or military career. History would forget him.

There is no evidence that Elizabeth and Peregrine ever met. But if they had, perhaps that would explain why they are so different to their contemporaries. Perhaps they were the reason for the mysteries in each other's stories. The story emerged from that speculation.

Apart from that, admittedly large bit of elaboration, most other things are factual.

All the characters, apart from some minor ones, existed and were there at the time. Not only the well-documented Osborne family and my own ancestors, but even occasional characters such as the vicars of Wales and Harthill. People that are just referenced – such as the Billams and Mallanders were all real people.

The locations are faithfully reproduced from the facts I had to hand. Kiveton Hall itself existed for such a relatively small amount of time that there are few descriptions of it or its interiors, but where they existed I have used them.

Similarly, there are some things we know about the world and locations they inhabited. Where possible I have incorporated the known facts into the story.

The major events in the book did happen. William Osborne's death from smallpox; the sour relationship between the 1st Duke and his son; events around the 1st Duke's funeral and Peregrine's numerous weddings are all on record.

Kiveton Hall is one of the major locations in my book The Blacksmith's Daughter. Here is one of the few depictions of what it looked like, looking east towards Anston with the Harthill-Todwick road in front. All gone now, apart from the boundary wall, lake and surrounding roads. Although it is still possible to walk across the remains of the Park which, at the time of its sale, was the largest single field in England.

Kiveton Hall is one of the lost and forgotten great houses of England. Even people who were born and raised in the area, like myself, are unaware of it. There are few records of what it looked like or what treasures it contained, but where descriptions exist I have been largely faithful to them. Sadly, knowledge of its grandeur has diminished and its contribution to the history of the area has been largely superseded. The area is now mainly remembered for it's more recent mining and industrial heritage.

Here is another of the few depictions of what Kiveton Hall looked like. This time looking north towards Todwick. The South Pavilion is in the foreground. In the book, Peregrine's private rooms are in the south-west wing on the left, his father's in the south east. The South Lawn and the kitchen gardens are along the road leading south towards Wales and Harthill.

The traditions three hundred years ago were very different to those today. Christmas and New Year took place on different dates. Christmas was a much longer holiday with the main celebration on Twelfth Night not First Night as we have today. Christmas itself was banned in the 17th Century and, at the time of the book, had been slowly re-introduced within living memory. England still used the Roman calendar not the modern Gregorian calendar. But it was also a time of political upheaval. England had been at war with France for years and, as the end of the Stuart era approached, the opposing Hanoverian and Jacobite factions manoeuvred for advantage.

The year or so covered by the book is set against this backdrop. The book combines what we know about the two main characters and suggests that the events in their lives were connected. It may be just coincidence.

The proposition of the story is that it is not.