The River Cocker running into the Derwent at Cockermouth seems quiet enough on the day of this photo last month, but the talk in the town this week is of the flood defences being proposed following the 2009 floods. Heavy rain in the Lake District mountains makes a rapid and massive difference to these two rivers.
That, however, is not the main subject of my post today. Rather it is something I've noticed about Cockermouth in the late 18th century. Some time ago I blogged on Around-England that there were three famous born in the town within about a decade - William Wordsworth, John Dalton and Fletcher Christian. Now, however, I've discovered something that seems strange to me.
When you ask people interested in the history of Cockermouth about famous people born there they quickly come up with those three names, then if they're particularly knowledgeable they add another two: Fearon Fallows, the Astronomer and William Woodville, the pioneer of smallpox vaccination.
So what is strange about this? Well check their dates of birth: 1752, 1764, 1766, 1770 and 1789. Four of the five were born within an eighteen year period, and the fifth less than twenty years later. What did they put in the water at Cockermouth in those days to generate the town's outstanding men so close together?
