Whitehaven, Cumbria
Created | Updated Jan 31, 2010
Whitehaven is a small town in the north west of England. For such a small town we have a few interesting tit bits, i will try to put these down as i remember them.
~New York is based on Whitehaven~
Whitehaven was the first town built to a grid pattern, this system was then copied in the building of new york.
~George Washington~
George Wasingtons grandmother was born and buried in Whitehaven, The body is buried somewhere in the church of St Nicholas in the town centre. Unfortunately nobody knows exactly where so there is simply a plaque. This means however that Old Georgie was a Marra! (see Marra)
~First undersea mine~
Whitehaven is/was famous for the mining industry, We sported the first pit that extended under the sea. Unfortunately we were also sport to some of the worst pit disasters known, Haig pit and William pit both collapsed at points and killed many.
~Platinum~
Can't remember this guys name, but the person who classified platinum was a marra! (see marra)
~War effort~
During both world wars Whitehaven was attacked once, the only victim being a small dog. As a seaside town on the irish sea we were not prone to attack. Whitehaven is also the closest English town to Ireland.
~John Paul jones~
The founder of the American Navy, again was a marra! (see marra).
Born and raised in the town he moved to america and became a citizen. There are two versions to this story, the american and the local, i'll tell the local, during the american war of independence there was only ever one attack on mainland Britain, and that was in whitehaven, The crew of john paul jones ship got to Whitehaven, got drunk then remembered they were supposedx to be attacking, set fire to a few boats and bogged off. This is the local version of the tale, i'm sure its not historically correct.
The John Paul Jones is also my regular pub, good beer, good crack. (see crack)
So as you see small town big history. As a small town in the middle of no where (or should that be the edge?) the accent is also fairly unique,
~Marra~
Meaning mate/friend/colleague
"hello marra"
~alreet~
Used as a greeting.
"Alreet dave!"
~crack~
Same use as the irish craic, gossip news
"What's the crack then?"
