{"product_id":"slender-threads-r-o-shaw-9781836152620","title":"Slender Threads: A Saddleworth Shaw","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom an ancient charter in the reign of King John, a slender thread leads through many generations, until it reaches modern men who worked for the Manchester Ship Canal Company and the Lancashire Cotton Corporation. As the book traces this unlikely journey, it captures history through the lives of an ordinary family. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor almost eight centuries, they lived in a corner of the north-west of England, on the borders of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire, in Saddleworth, Ashton and Stalybridge. Shaw had not always been their surname (they changed it in the 14th century) and, as communities recovered from the Black Death, so Shaws ramified here. A great many families would share the surname and, wittingly or not, a common medieval ancestor. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSlender Threads follows one branch of these Shaws. On the wrong side of primogeniture, their fortunes declined in medieval times from a manorial lord to a tenant farmer, and they would aspire less to shape history than to survive it. But history would mould their lives, through civil wars and world wars, political protest and pandemics, revolution in industry and in religion; and through wool, cotton, coal and the opportunities afforded by education.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe meet their relatives and neighbours with names redolent of the north-west, such as Hulme, Hewitt and Hawkyard, Eastwood, Smethurst and Winterbottom, as well as other Shaws. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSlender Threads brings to life individuals and communities from across this span of time. We catch glimpses of their lives in manorial records, court disputes, fragmented church registers and the last wills and testaments that set their modest affairs in order. We sense the ambition and international awareness that sprang from the industrial revolution, and the extraordinary transformation of small settlements into bustling centres of economic activity. We witness how, in a world before antibiotics, the brightest promise and the best laid plans were so often snuffed out, as 'death crept from house to house'.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e R. O. Shaw\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1836152620\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781836152620\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Grosvenor House Publishing Limited\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/20\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 294\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.81d","brand":"R. O. Shaw","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47580146958591,"sku":"9781836152620","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_62fd1349-ee4e-4d6b-a098-7afdd3c44aa1.jpg?v=1763879113","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/slender-threads-r-o-shaw-9781836152620","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}