Christopher Prissick was a successful ship’s captain and amassed a fortune on the high seas of the Caribbean. Sarah Andrews was a widow who had to work on an exposed, coastal cliff to support her family. Ralph Carr was a Newcastle merchant and banker. William Hunton was a works manager. Catherine, Dowager Duchess of Buckingham, was the illegitimate daughter of King James II, who lobbied King George II for her grandson’s inheritance. George Winter was an old man, a pauper on Parish Relief.

Six unrelated individuals, from all strata of society, whose lives were connected by their involvement in “England’s first great chemical industry”, an industry established at two dozen places across north-east Yorkshire.

These, and many others, were The Alum Folk. This is their story.

Publication: October 2023

Available from: Guisborough Bookshop; Book Corner, Saltburn; Holly Blue, Saltburn; Whitby Bookshop