A HISTORIAN is hoping Cockermouth people can help him solve a mystery which is nearly 100 years old.

Yorkshire historian and author David Lewis, who will be at the Kirkgate Centre on Thursday, is trying to piece together the life of former Cockermouth woman Mary Eleanor Blakey.

"In 2012 I was working on the book stall of a charity shop in Selby, sorting through the donations, I found a battered old notebook, full of recipes and advice on household management, all written in beautiful copperplate script.

"That would have been an interesting curio, had the author not signed and dated her first entry: Mary Eleanor Blakey, 23rd April 1903," said David.

That little snippet sparked David's imagination and the beginning of four years of research into the mysterious Miss Blakey. He has written a book, which was published earlier this year, about Mary's life and the recipes and advice she shared with people.

David discovered she was a farmer's daughter, born near Ripon in 1876. Mary later went to live in a mining area in Wakefield and, at the age of 27, was teaching miners' wives to cook.

The local connection comes via her marriage in 1909 to Willie Hall, a well-known farmer and sheep breeder who lived at Evening Hill House. The house used to be on the outskirts of town but is now surrounded by other homes on Evening Hill Drive, off Brigham Road.

With the help of the Cockermouth Heritage Group, David has been able to establish that Mary was commandant of the Hospital for the War Wounded which was set up at Cockermouth Castle.

“She was in charge of the day to day running of the place and, for her services, she was one of the first people to be awarded the MBE in 1919,” said David.

But after this time until her death in 1939 in Carlisle Infirmary, there is no information – apart from a brief mention in a chutney competition reported in the Times and Star.

“Mary and Willie must have been well-known in the town, yet from 1919 to Willie's death in 1937, there seems to be little public record of their life.

“Willie's funeral at Lorton Road Methodist Chapel was reported to have had over 60 cars in the cortege and had extensive press coverage. Willie is buried in the town cemetery along with his first wife, uncles and children, yet on the gravestone, there is no mention at all of Mary, his second wife of nearly 30 years.

"I don't wish to open old family feuds, but I would very much like to understand what happened in the final 20 years of Mary's life and why there seems to have been such a great schism at the end of it all."

David will be giving an illustrated talk at the Kirkgate at 1.45pm, on Thursday.

"I’ve prepared many of Mary's recipes and it's clear she was a very good cook. I'll be bringing samples of Mary's Yorkshire specialities like Moggy, Scrap Bread Pudding and Potato Cheesecake for people to enjoy."

Tickets (£4/ £2) are available online (www.thekirkgate.com/booking) and from the box office 01900 826448.