It is now several months since the publication of “They Went From Cumbria” and I thought it was time that I gave something of an update on the writing programme. There has been an unavoidable delay in completing the next book, but I’m hoping it may now be ready sometime during May. The work in hand is as follows.

  • “West Cumbria Brethren” – The stories of early assemblies of Christian Brethren in West Cumbria in the 19th and early 20th centuries, written in popular, non-academic style – Keswick, Whitehaven, Workington, Cockermouth and Frizington.
  • “Brethren in Cumberland and Westmorland before 1900: Papers toward a history” – a series of detailed papers with extensive references and footnotes, including the churches in “West Cumbria Brethren” plus Penrith, Bowness-on-Windermere and Kirkby Stephen with brief reference to Kendal and Carlisle. This is mostly written in advanced draft form but requires some updating to incorporate data acquired since those drafts were produced. I hope to have it ready before the end of June.
  • “They Went From Lancashire” – This is planned as the equivalent of the Cumbria volume and covering Lancashire within its historic boundaries but excluding most of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside areas. I now have a list of missionaries and detailed information on some, but am only beginning to collect information on others. Publication will not be until the second half of the year and it could be 2024.
  • A biography of Albert and Grace Want, missionaries to the Belgian Congo (going in 1928 and 1934 respectively) . The early chapters are written plus further notes, and I have extensive papers provided by the Want family as well as access to correspondence files in the Echoes of Service archive in Manchester University Library covering later years. I’m hopeful of completing it by the Autumn of this year.
  • A short book of mini-biographies of the early (i.e. late-19th century) missionaries to Katanga (Belgian Congo). Whereas Arnot, Crawford, Swan and Clarke have had biographies there were others whose names are little remembered. My aim is to bring them back to memory. I’m making no promises on this one as to timing. I started it several years ago but there is a lot of research still to be done. Maybe within 2023, God willing, but being kept flexible.

Some have asked me about missionaries of Cumbrian origin who I did not include in the first book, and whether I will be writing about them in the future. I hope to add more names to the list and eventually to produce a second edition of “They Went From Cumbria” but can make no promises.