Preface

One of the primary objects of Castletown Heritage is 'to preserve, research and make public records and memories of Castletown and its hinterland'. An early contribution came from the Library of the Manx Museum, where one of our members was shown a typescript, catalogued under the name of 'Castletown Observations'. The notes were identified as a contributions by William Henry Cooper to the 'Manx Folk Life Survey' in 1950. It is one part of these notes 'Earliest occupants in houses I remember', which is the subject of this publication. I am grateful to the Manx National Heritage for permission to publish this material, and wish to express my thanks for their generous help. This has been something of a collective effort, and members of Castletown Heritage have enthusiastically helped in various capacities, too many to mention. Celia Salisbury-Jones and Jonathan Kewley, however, deserve special thanks for checking and proof reading the text.

In editing this text, the entries are transcribed in full. Since, however, it is likely that the transcript was based on notes taken at interview - rather than from his own written manuscript - typing errors, and clearly misunderstood names, have been corrected. Extra punctuation has been introduced to make the text easier to read. In annotating the text, I have sometimes quoted from other parts of the various Cooper manuscripts, and from the recorded memories of Castletown people I have had the pleasure to interview. Much information has also been gained from casual conversation on street corners with Castletown people with long memories. I am very grateful to all who helped.

I wish to thank Mirriam Critchlow for her professional help in advising on presentation and editing.

Eva Wilson, March 2005




Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML © F.Coakley , 2011