The British Society for the History of Mathematics
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Written by David Singmaster (zingmast@sbu.ac.uk ). Links to relevant external websites are being added occasionally to this gazetteer but the BSHM has no control over the availability or contents of these links. Please inform the BSHM Webster (A.Mann@gre.ac.uk) of any broken links.
[When the gazetteer was edited for serial publication in the BSHM Newsletter, references were omitted since the bibliography was too substantial to be included. Publication on the web permits references to be included for material now being added to the website, but they are still absent from material originally prepared for the Newsletter - TM, August 2002]
Lacock Abbey, 10 miles east of Bath, was the home of William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877). The inventor of the photographic negative in 1834, he was also a serious mathematician, having been 12th Wrangler in 1821. He received a Royal Medal of the Royal Society for his researches in integral calculus, and was the first to decipher cuneiform from Ninevah. Lacock Abbey is now a Fox Talbot Museum and some of his mathematical work is on exhibit.
William Whewell (1794-1866) was born in Lancaster.
Lancaster University has a Richardson Institute for Conflict and Peace Research, named after Lewis Fry Richardson (1881-1953), author of The mathematical psychology of war (1919), Statistics of deadly quarrels (1950), &c.
John Leslie (1766-1832) was born in Largo, and lived there for much of the later part of his life. Besides his mathematical writing, he invented a number of meteorological instruments.
A seaside town 30 miles west of Glasgow, is where William Thomson (1824-1907), Baron Kelvin of Largs, built a castle-like mansion, Netherhall, in 1875. It cost 12,000 pounds. His full title was Baron Kelvin of Largs. [Klotz, p.23 gives a photo of Netherhall taken from S.P. Thomson's Life of Lord Kelvin.]
This was the site of some of Marconis early wireless experiments in 1897: he transmitted to the island of Flat Holm (or Flatholm), 3 miles to the SE in the Bristol Channel.
James Stirling (1692-1770) was manager for the Scots Mining Co. at Leadhills, about 30 miles SSW of Edinburgh, from 1735 to 1770.
Charles Edward Spearman (1863-1945) grew up here, and attended Leamington School as a day boy.
Dame Mary Cartwright (1900-1998) attended Leamington High School.
Isaac Milner (1751-1820) was born in Leeds, Yorkshire.
William Herschel (1738-1822) was Director of Concerts in Leeds from Feb 1762 to Spring 1766, writing six symphonies for grand orchestra and at least one violin concerto.
W. H. Bragg (1862-1942) was Cavendish professor of physics at the University of Leeds, 1909-1915, when he developed his sons ideas into x-ray diffraction devices, c. 1912.
Leonard James Rogers (1862-1933), of the Rogers-Ramanujan identities, was professor of mathematics at the Yorkshire College, 1888-1919, which became the University of Leeds.
The University bought the prototype version of Bill Phillips' economic model analogue computer using water flow and it remains there as a prized relic.
Roger Cotes (1682-1716) was born near Leicester, and went to Leicester School.
William Ludlam (1717-1788) born in Leicester, attended the grammar school there.
There is a modern colour maze, designed by Adrian Fisher in 1990, in front of the Mathematics Building of the University of Leicester .
John Tyndall (1820-1893) was born here.
British Tabulating Machine (BTM) had a factory in Letchworth, which built several machines for Bletchley Park including copies of the Polish Bombes and of the Enigma machines.
Henry Ernest Dudeney (1857-1930) lived at 138 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex in 1915-1921 (which was being renovated when I visited in 1995 and appears to have been previously used for some commercial purpose). In 1921, he moved to nearby Castle Precincts House just behind the Castle and stayed there until his death. The latter house is now called Brack Mound House: I have photos. According to Alec Clifton-Taylor, this house has both ordinary hung tiling and 'mathematical tiles'. He played the organ in St. Michael's Church, in the High Street under the Castle. He is buried in Lewes.
Mathematical tiles occur on numerous buildings in Lewes: tiles which simulate bricks, though bedded in mortar A one day meeting on the topic was held at Ewell on 14 Nov 1981. Eighteen papers were presented and a 44 page set of Notes of Ewell Symposium was issued shortly thereafter and was updated twice, the last version being labelled Issue 3 of Feb 1983. Contact Maurice Exwood, 64 The Green, Ewell, Epsom, Surrey, KT17 3JJ for copies. Stephen Bax's website (www.invictaweb.co.uk/canterburybuildings/details/math.htm) has a description and photographs of mathematical tiles.
The south shore of Uig Bay, on the western side of the Isle of Lewis, was the 1831 discovery site of the Lewis Chessmen, the largest and finest group of early chessmen to have survived. The finder, Calum nan Sprot, was terrified by the expressions on the pieces and fled from the spot. The local minister, Alexander MacLeod, had to exorcise the site, then he sold most of them (67 chessmen and 14 plain draughtsmen) to the British Museum for 84 pounds. They are carved from walrus tusk ivory and date from c1150. Apparently 120 pieces from four different sets were found. 67 chessmen and 14 plain draughtsmen are in the British Museum, while 11 chessmen are in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The residents of Lewis are keen to get the pieces back and have been promulgating numerous stories of curses and bad ends on those who possess them. [John Hancox, "British Museum defies Lewis's chess curse", The Guardian (4 Jun 1995)]. The pieces were loaned to the Western Isles Museum in Stornoway in summer 1995, leading to an international chess festival, and the local council has threatened not to return them! [Alex Bellos, "Islanders check chess set's move", The Guardian (3 Oct 1995) 7]
John Colson (1680-1760) was born here and attended Lichfield Grammar School.
In the Hunt Museum, now in the Old Custom House in the centre of town, has a good example of the mysterious Roman bronze dodecahedron (cf Tongeren, Belgium), item HCM 157 in case 25 in the Classical Archaeology section. It is dated as 2C from the area which is now France. In case 36, in the Neolithic section is a carved stone ball, though it is not clear what shape it is meant to be - cf similar in the Museum of Scotland. The Old Exchange in Nicholas Street had a 'nail', which was a short pedestal with a brass top on which payments were made, as at Bristol and other English trading centres. The Limerick nail is now in the Limerick Museum. [MGG, DBS.]
Robert Grosseteste (1168?-1253), philosopher and scientist, first Chancellor of Oxford University, was Bishop of Lincoln 1235-1253 and is buried in the SE transept of the Cathedral with a commemorative stone on the adjacent wall . He must have lived in the Old Bishop's Palace, now a ruin, to the south of the Cathedral. George Boole studied a memoir of Grosseteste's in the British Museum and said that he had come close to the Principlal of Least Action [MacHale, p. 120].
The tallest part of Lincoln Castle is Observatory Tower, built in the 1820s by Governor Merryweather, reputedly a keen astronomer.
Sir Edward ffrench Bromhead (1789-1855), of Thurlby Hall, between Lincoln and Newark, was a member of the Analytical Society at Cambridge and later was George Green's patron and George Boole's friend. He is buried in Thurlby churchyard.
George Boole was born on 2 Nov 1815 at 34 Silver St., Lincoln (house demolished, but Langleys Solicitors is on the site) and baptised the next day at St. Swithin's. Soon afterward, the family moved to 49 Silver St., where they lived for 15 years. In 1992, I could not identify either site in Silver Street and I wrote a letter about this to the Lincolnshire Echo [see BSHM Newsletter 20 (1992), 12]. Philip R. Cragg, of Langleys Solicitors, responded and identified the firm's premises as the Boole birthsite. Boole was a student at Thomas Bainbridge's Commercial Academy in Fish Hill (now Michaelgate). After teaching in Doncaster and Liverpool, he taught at Mr. Robert Hall's Academy in Waddington, some four miles from Lincoln. His uncle William was already running a Classical, Commercial and Mathematical Academy in High Street, Lincoln, when George opened his own school in Free School Lane, Lincoln, in 1834. In 1838, Robert Hall died and Boole became Head of the Waddington Academy, moving his parents and siblings to Waddington. Not a trace now remains of the Academy, where Boole wrote his first papers. In 1840, he returned to Lincoln and started his own Boarding School for Young Gentlemen at 3 Pottergate, Minster Yard, by the Cathedral It was here that he wrote the first paper on invariant theory in 1841. There is a memorial plaque on the building, which was unveiled by Boole's grandson, Sir G. I. Taylor [MacHale, p. 264 is a photo of the event; I have photos of the plaque and the house]. Lincoln Cathedral has a memorial window to Boole with brass plate underneath.
Eamonn de Valera (1882-1975) was in Lincoln Gaol from sometime in 1918, but escaped in Feb 1919.
In the 7th Century, St. Carthach founded a university at Lismore, but it was destroyed by Viking raids in 978 [MGG]. [Hammond, p. 93] says it had some 4000 students.
Robert Boyle (1627-1692) was born at Lismore Castle, previously a home of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had been granted the territory of the Desmonds and then sold it to Richard Boyle, the first 'Great Earl' of Cork. Robert was the seventh son of the Great Earl. His brother Roger, later first Earl of Orrery, was also born here. All of his brothers were eventually made peers (but Burke's Peerage only lists five brothers: two earls, two viscounts and Robert), so he is related to the Earl of Burlington and to the Cavendishes. Lismore Castle is currently inhabited by the senior Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire. Robert Boyle several times declined a peerage and never married.
This is where Abraham Sharp (1651-1742) was born. After being Flamsteed's assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, he returned to Horton Hall, Little Horton in 1694, where he remained for the rest of his life. It was here that he computed Pi to 75 places and independently checked it to 72 places. He is buried in Bradford Parish Church, where there is a memorial tablet in the chancel.
Jeremiah Horrocks (1618-1641) may have been born in Toxteth; he certainly died here, and is buried in the graveyard of the Chapel. There is a monument inside the Chapel, and the nearby Church of St. Michael's has a commemorative tablet.
The Liverpool Exchange has statues of Columbus, Drake, Galileo, Mercator and Raleigh on the south facade of the Quadrangle.
George Boole (1815-1864) taught at Mr. Marrat's school, 4 Whitemill St, in 1833.
William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) was born in Liverpool .
The mathematical physicist and relativity theorist Ebenezer Cunningham (1881-1977) was a junior lecturer in mathematics at Liverpool from 1904 to 1907. While there he helped to start a University Settlement for social work in a slum area.
W.H. Young (1863-1942) held various part-time teaching positions at Liverpool University from 1906 to 1916 (including one with the grandiose title Professor of the philosophy and history of mathematics in 1913). His papers and those of his wife Grace Chisholm Young (1868-1944) and daughter Cecily Tanner (1900-1992) (v. BSHM Newsletter 23 (1993), 10-15) are held in the Liverpool University Archives.
The pioneer science-fiction writer Olaf Stapledon was a lecturer at the University, c. 1930.
Henry Lipson and C. A. Beevers, research students at Liverpool University in 1934, made the first applicaton of Fourier analysis to x-ray diffraction patterns. This used special strips of paper which Beevers printed and sold until 1970. Examples are in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
James Chadwick (1891-1974) was Professor at Liverpool 1935-1948 (??). Nobel Prize in Physics, 1935, for discovering the neutron.
In the Quarry Hospital is displayed a fireplace whose carved decoration was designed by John Thomas (1805-1840), schoolmaster, author of textbooks and almanacs in Welsh and Chief Computor at Greenwich Observatory at the time of his death. The design shows diagrams of eclipses of both sun and moon, the solar system, the orbit of Halley's comet, etc. [Photos and description provided by Peter Ransom. See Ll. G. Chambers (1995) in BSHM Abstracts]
Lewis Carroll is believed to have visited Dean Liddell, father of Alice, at his summer house, Pen Morfa, Llandudno. The house (or site) is now part of the Gogarth Abbey Hotel. Supposedly, he wrote part of Alice in Wonderland here in 1864, reading his daily writing to the assembled family and guests. Carroll is commemorated by a White Rabbit with Alice near the Model Yacht Pond and the font in the Church of Our Saviour. However, Roger Lancelyn Green says he certainly never visited the Liddells here and the image of Carroll reading his daily output is quite inconsistent with his general behaviour.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was born at Ravenscroft, now Cleddon Hall, a bit west of Llangogo, in the Wye Valley, and lived here until 1876. The house is privately owned and is not visible from the road, in the woods off the barely-marked road from Llandogo to Trellech.
James Watt lived for a time at Doldowlod House, on the A470, 1 mile south of Llanwrthwl.
John West (1756-1817) was born at Logie [Craik, p.31].
Berkeley was Dean of the (Protestant) Cathedral of Londonderry, in 1724-1734 [Eagle & Carnell, p.230], but never took up residence in Londonderry [Houghton].
In the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Long Crendon, about halfway between Aylesbury and Oxford, is a mid-14C tile showing the Three Rabbits pattern (see under Long Melford below). About a third of it is missing. It is just at the altar step, which has preserved it somewhat from wear. The church guide says the tile was made in nearby Penn and is unique. (This church is generally locked; try telephoning the Vicar on 01844-208363 or the Churchwarden on 01844-208665 if you want to get in.) My thanks to Sue Andrew for finding this - she says it is reproduced in Carol B. Grafton, Old English Tile Designs, Dover . She has persuaded a potter to make facsimiles of the tile. The potter is Diana Hall, Wimborne St. Giles, Dorset; tel: 01725-517475. My thanks to Avril Neal, the Churchwarden, for letting me in.
In the Diocesan Museum is the Ballinderry game board with a 7 x 7 array of
peg holes. The source gives no details of the age or appearance. [MGG.] Cf National
Museum, Dublin, for a similar (identical?) board.
John Dee held the living (rectorship) of Long Leadenham from 1553 until 1583 when it was forfeited due to his not attending to legalities on his departure from England for six years [Jones, pp. 11 & 21]. It's not clear if he ever visited. This is not in my atlas, but perhaps it is near Leadenham in Lincolnshire??
Longleat House, Wiltshire - see under Warminster in due course.
At The Great Church of the Holy Trinity, there is an example of three rabbits, each with two ears, but having only three ears all together in the 15C(?) stained glass, over the north door at the bottom of a window with a Pieta. It is apparently a circular fragment of a larger piece of glass; the present piece is perhaps 5" or 6" in diameter - being about 12' off the ground makes it hard to estimate. Christopher Sansbury, the Rector, wrote on 3 Jun 1996 that the motif is common on the east side of Dartmoor and that it may have been brought to Suffolk by the Martyn family c1500. He later said it is old glass, older than the church, which was completed in 1484, but no more specific date is known for it, though some items in the church are dated back to c1350 and there was a church on the site from at least 1050. There is a colour postcard available (Jarrold & Sons, Norwich, no. CKLMC 6), and there is a colour picture in the Church guide book [Jarrold Colour Publications, Norwich, 1984, no. 284AS] and one can buy a glass paperweight with the picture in it. The pattern is interpreted as an emblem of the Trinity. In a further letter, he referred me to Chagford, North Bovey and Widecombe. In the same Church is a 15C stained glass window at the west end of the north side showing Elizabeth Talbot, Duchess of Norfolk, which is said to be the model for Tenniel's illustration of the ugly Duchess in Alice and seems unmistakably so to me [colour photo in the Church guide book; thanks to A. M. Arthurs and Richard Crossley for previously telling me of this].
At the east end of the church is a separate Lady Chapel, used as a school from 1670 to the early 19C. Under the north window of the east end is a twelve times table painted on the wall, about 3 ft square, dating from perhaps c1800 [described but not illustrated in the Church guide book].
At Kentwell Hall in Long Melford, Randall Coate and Adrian Fisher designed and constructed a three coloured brick pavement maze in 1985. It is based on a Tudor Rose with the unusual feature that it has 15 sepals used as locations for a 'board game' using live players in Tudor costume. It has five unicursal labyrinths which can be viewed as a three dimensional maze. Further there is a chess/draughts board in the middle of the maze. It is thought to be the world's largest brick pavement maze. [Pennick, pp.167-168. Fisher, pp.123, 152 & 155, with colour photo on p.123.]
There is a Meridian Cafe with a wall plaque and strip in the pavement (= sidewalk) showing the Prime Meridian. [A. H. Piggott; Letter; The Times (1 Nov 1982), reproduced in Gregory, p.212]
There is a Sun Dial Inn in Low Bentham, about 6 miles SSE of Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria. It has two sundials visible. [BSHM Newsletter 33 (Spring 1997) 31]
In St. James Church, Ludgershall, 7 miles NW of Andover, is a window with the arms of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1414-1443 and founder of All Souls College, Oxford.
Ferrars Junior School has made a Mathematical Garden, the first such in southern England, including a colour maze [Caerdroia 1992, pp. 6-7].
Alice Liddell (Mrs. Reginald Hargreaves) (1852 1934) lived at Cuffnells (now demolished). Her ashes are in the Hargreaves vault in the churchyard of St. Michael and All Angels, outside the south transept. A recent plaque on the ground reads: The Grave of Mrs Reginald Hargreaves The "Alice" in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland". In the Baptistery is a monument to two of her sons who were killed in World War I. There is another Hargreaves tomb in the Sanctuary. [Jackman; Greenwood, pp.104-105; Greenwood (2), p.319.] Cuffnells had mathematical tiles! - see under Lewes, above.
Written by David Singmaster. Last updated on 28th February 2003 by TM (A.Mann@gre.ac.uk). Copyright © BSHM and David Singmaster 1998 - 2003. All rights reserved.
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