NICHOLSON TIMELINE

This timeline shows key events and selected publications in the life of Norman Nicholson. These appear in the central column, alongside events and relationships which influenced him (left-hand column) and significant national and international events (right-hand column).  
YEAR
​FAMILY, FRIENDS, INFLUENCES
​NICHOLSON
​NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
1860
-
 -
Iron ore discovered at Hodbarrow
1867  
​Nicholson's paternal grandparents move to Millom from Flookburgh
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Millom Ironworks opens
​1885  
Birth of the Scottish poet Andrew Young
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1900  
​Birth of the poet Basil Bunting
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1901
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​Death of Queen Victoria
​​1905  
​Wedding of Joseph Nicholson and Edith Cornthwaite (parents)
-
-
1910
-
-
​Halley's Comet visible from Earth
1914
​ -
​Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson born (January 8th) at 14 St George's Terrace, Millom
Start of the Great War (World War One)
​1917  
​Death of the poet Edward Thomas
-
-
1918  
​Birth of the Cumbrian artist Percy Kelly
-
War ends
1919 
​Death of Edith (mother)
-
-
1919/20
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​Starts school at Holborn Hill School
-
​1922  
​Wedding of Joseph Nicholson (father) and Rosetta Sobey
​
​Publication of TS Eliot's The Waste Land
-
BBC begins regular broadcasts
​​1924



First public appearance, as chairman of the annual Methodist Children's Concert

​First published work, a letter to the West Cumberland Times describing a school trip to the British Empire Exhibition in London
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1925  
TS Eliot joins board of Faber & Faber
​
Starts at Millom secondary school
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1926
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-
​
​General Strike
​1928  
​Maria Nicholson (grandmother) dies
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1929
​-
-
​Wall Street Crash precipitates worldwide economic slump
1930
​Birth of the poet Ted Hughes
Diagnosed with tuberculosis. Enters Linford Sanatorium, Hampshire. Meets Sylvia Lubelski ​
-
1931 
Publication of The Waves by Virgina Wool
-
-
1932
-
Returns to live in Millom
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YEAR
​FAMILY, FRIENDS, INFLUENCES
NICHOLSON
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
1933
-
​First nationally published article: an essay on George Bernard Shaw in Radio Times
​Unemployment in UK reaches 2.5m, 25% of workforce​
1934
Anne Ridler is appointed
​TS Eliot's secretary at Faber & Faber​
-
-
1936
​Sylvia Lubelski marries Maurice Elvey​
​Meets Enrica Garnier, becomes involved with the Student Christian Movement
Jarrow March - protest against unemployment and poverty in the North East

Start of BBC TV service

Abdication crisis
1937
-
Meets Brother George Every, influential author and lecturer
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1938
-
​Poetry, published in Chicago, prints Nicholson's poem Song for 7pm
​
Gives series of lectures for Millom Workers Education Association
-
1939
​Helen Sutherland buys the house Cockley Moor, near Ullswater

Birth of Melvyn Bragg in Wigton

Evacuated children from industrial cities arrive in Millom
​Meets TS Eliot for the first time​

​Attends the Student Christian Summer Conference in Derbyshire
Start of World War Two
1940
-
Starts work as a freelance reviewer for Times Literary Supplement 

Meets Helen Sutherland, Kathleen Raine and other leading cultural figures who relocate to the Lake District after outbreak of war
Evacuation of British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk

​Battle of Britain
1940-43
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Gives WEA lectures in Whitehaven and St Bees
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1941
-
-
​Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
1942
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Publication of Penguin's  Anthology of Religious Verse, edited by Norman Nicholson

Poetry in Wartime, 
​ed MJ Tambimuttu (Faber), includes five poems by Nicholson. The poem Cleator Moor is published in Poems of This War (ed Patricia Ledward and Colin Strang, Cambridge University Press) ​
Battle of El Alamein
1943
-
​ Best Poems of 1942 (pub Jonathan Cape) includes poems by Nicholson

Nicholson joins Keith Douglas and JC Hall as the three poets featured in Selected Poems (pub Modern Readers' Library)
German forces surrender at Stalingrad

The 'Dam Buster' bombers attack industrial Germany
1944
-
Man and Literature by Norman  Nicholson (Student Christian Movement) is published

Five Rivers, Nicholson's first volume of poetry, is published by Faber & Faber

Publication of Nicholson's first novel, Fire of the Lord (pub EP Dutton)
​D-Day: Allied invasion of Normandy
1945
-
Receives the Heinemann Award from Royal Society of Literature for ​Five Rivers

His first play The Old Man of the Mountains (pub Faber & Faber) premieres in London
VE Day

​Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Surrender of Japan

​End of World War Two
YEAR
FAMILY, FRIENDS, INFLUENCES
NICHOLSON
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
1946
-
-
-
1947
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​Publication of Nicholson's second novel, The Green Shore (pub Nicholson & Watson)
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1948
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​Publication of Rock Face, Nicholson's second collection of poetry (pub Faber & Faber)
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1949
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​Publication of the topographical book Cumberland and Westmorland (pub Robert Hale)

Publication of William Wordsworth: A Selection and Introduction edited by Norman Nicholson (pub Phoenix House)

First performance of Nicholson's second verse play Prophesy to the Wind (pub Faber & Faber)
-
1950
-
Publication of the critical study HG Wells (pub Arthur Barker in The English Novelists series)
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1951
-
Publication of the biography William Cowper by Norman Nicholson (pub John Lehmann)
Nationalisation of UK iron and steel industry. Millom later returned to private ownership as Millom Hematite Ore and Iron Co Ltd, then bought by Cranleigh group in 1959
1952
-
1952  Millom Delivered, ​a radio talk, broadcast on the BBC Third Programme
Death of King George VI. Accession of Queen Elizabeth II
1953
​Yvonne Gardner moves to Millom
Nicholson's third play A Match for the Devil (pub Faber & Faber) premieres in Edinburgh
The Coronation
1954
​Death of Joseph Nicholson (father) aged 76

1954 Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood broadcast on BBC radio
​Publication of The Pot Geranium
(pub Faber & Faber)
-
1955
-
​Publication of The Lakers (pub Robert Hale)​
ITV launches UK's first commercial TV service
1956
-
Wedding of Norman Nicholson and Yvonne Gardner at St George's, Millom
Opening of Calder Hall atomic facility, later known as Windscale and now Sellafield
1957
-
​Norman meets the artist Percy Kelly

Poem Windscale published in the New Statesmen (November 30th)
​Windscale nuclear accident (October 10th)
1959
Death of Jim Nicholson, Norman's last surviving uncle

Publication of Life Studies by Robert Lowell
​Publication of Provincial Pleasures ​(pub Bookcase, Carlisle)
-
1960
-
Publication of the verse play Birth by Drowning (pub Faber & Faber)
-
YEAR
FAMILY, FRIENDS, INFLUENCES
NICHOLSON
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
1961
​Death of Geoffrey Faber, founding editor of Faber & Faber
-
-
1962
-
-
Chris Bonington completes the first ascent of the north face of the Eiger
1963
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Publication of Portrait of the Lakes (pub Robert Hale)
Assassination of John F Kennedy, President of the USA
1964
-
-
Election of Labour government under Harold Wilson
1965
Death of TS Eliot

​Death of Helen Sutherland

Yvonne Nicholson diagnosed with cancer
​Norman and Yvonne visit Norway
-
1966
​Publication of Briggflatts ​by Basil Bunting
-
-
1967
-
Receives the Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors
​Renationalisation of steel industry excludes Millom

​
1968
-
-
Closure of Hodbarrow mines

​Closure of Millom Ironworks (September 13th)
1969
​Death of Rose, Nicholson's stepmother, aged 82
-
-
1972
The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, edited by Philip Larkin, omits any of Nicholson's poems
Publication of A Local Habitation (Faber & Faber)
-
1973
-
Thesis by Philip Gardner on Nicholson's poetry is published in the USA (Twayne Publishers)

BBC TV broadcasts The Whispering Poet about Nicholson (Look Stranger ​series)
Opening of Millom Folk Museum (by Norman Nicholson)

UK joins the Common Market (now the EC)
1974
-
​Norman and Yvonne visit Norway for the second time
-
1975
-
Publication of Wednesday Early Closing (pub Faber & Faber)

Publication of Stitch and Stone in collaboration with the tapestry artist Kenneth Dow Barker (pub Ceolfrith Press)

​Awarded Honorary MA by the Open University
-
1977
-
Awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Publication of The Lake District - An Anthology, compiled and edited by Norman Nicholson (pub Robert Hale)
-
1978
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Publication of The Shadow of Black Combe (pub Mid Northumberland Arts Group, Ashington)
-
1979
-
Norman and Yvonne visit Norway for the third time
Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister
1980
-
​1980  Awarded Honorary Doctorate by the University of Liverpool
-
1981
-
Publication of Sea to the West (pub Faber & Faber)

Awarded OBE
-
1982
Death of Yvonne Nicholson,
​aged 61
Publication of Selected Poems (pub Faber & Faber)
-
1984
-
​Contributes to the children's anthology The Candy Floss Tree (Pub Oxford University Press)

His 70th birthday is marked by a 'Festschrift' - many leading writers contribute to Between Comets: Norman Nicholson at 70 (ed William Scammell, pub Taxvs)

Featured on ITV's The Southbank Show, presented by Melvyn Bragg

Made Freeman of the Borough of Copeland
-
1984-85
-
-
National strike by the National Union of Mineworkers
1986
-
-
​Halley's Comet visible from Earth for the first time since 1910
1987
-
Norman Nicholson dies in hospital in Whitehaven (May 30th)

​Funeral at St George's, Millom (June 5th)
-
1991
-
Publication of Norman Nicholson's Lakeland (a prose anthology) by Norman Nicholson and Irvine Hunt (pub Robert Hale)
-
1994
-
​Publication of Collected Poems (ed Neil Curry, pub Faber & Faber)
-
2006
​​Formation of the Norman Nicholson Society, based in Millom
-
-
2014
​​Centenary of Nicholson's birth marked by events across England
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-
 SOURCES
​
Wednesday Early Closing by Norman Nicholson (Faber & Faber, 1975)
Norman Nicholson: the Whispering Poet by Kathleen Jones (The Book Mill, 2013)
Two Poets and a Composer - Response to War by Dr Malcolm Morrison, paper presented to the Norman Nicholson Society October 18 2014
Norman Nicholson: A Literary Life by David Boyd (Seascale Press, 2015)
www.faber.co.uk
​www.secondworldwar.co.uk 
​www.bbc.co.uk
www.archiveshub.ac.uk http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb133-ncn.txt
www.aditnow.co.uk/Mines/Hodbarrow-Iron-Mine_3100/
www.royal.gov.uk
www.imdb.com
www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc

PICTURES
1. Haverigg shore  2. Cockley Moor  3. Millom Cricket Club & St George's Church  4. Silecroft sunset.
All photos by CHARLIE LAMBERT