I'm a British early-retired librarian living in
Silverdale,
Lancashire, having moved here from
Leeds originally to
look after my late
Mother. I have a range of interests and a tendency to proof-read and correct typos! I used to spend a lot of Wiki-time
Stub-sorting, and sometimes start by correcting one link and end up improving a network of related pages. I've worked with
Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup,
WP:Suggestions for disambiguation repair,
WP:Typo Team and
WP:CiterSquad at various times. I contribute to the
Women in Red editathons, picking one or two topics which look interesting, or are UK based, or if all else fails have the initial "P": it's a challenge to produce new articles on topics in fields where I don't usually edit, and I keep a
list of my WiR contributions, taking great delight when one article fits two or, occasionally,
three of the month's editathons. After a superb walk up
Black Combe, April 2012, I decided to sort out the WP articles for the
Outlying fells, which turned into quite a project. When I attended a meeting in
Preston Patrick I found that it, and many other
South Lakeland parishes, had no article - so I made them.
I've created a motley collection of articles or stubs, to fill gaps: some sparked off by a red link, others when I look up a topic of interest and find it's not yet got an article. Something on Radio 4 will sometimes inspire me: "Have they got an article?" "If not, are they sourceably notable?" "Let's go." And suddenly it's lunchtime, and I sat down with my breakfast. (Retired life!) I'm very glad that I've kept the list, below, which reminds me why I created each article, and recommend the practice to other editors. Wikipedia has the fascination of an infinite
jigsaw puzzle - there's always another piece to fit in.
I'm increasingly worried about gradual deterioration in our articles, through links going dead, information becoming out of date, and accidental or worse damage by later editors. I've decided, 2023, to start looking through the articles, listed below, which I've started: but it's a slow process and can lead down a lot of rabbit-holes of related topics needing attention.
Yes, I know the page looks a bit of a mess at present - will learn about layout sometime and prettify it!
Articles, templates and stubs I've created
Not including umpteen disambiguation pages created while working on
Wikipedia:Suggestions for name disambiguation and otherwise, surname pages created as a list of name-holders, a few articles where I've created a "non-infringing stub" to rescue a
copyvio article's non-creative elements and its incoming redirects, lots of redirects, etc
Vladimir G. Lukonin, 19 Jan; Russian historian of ancient Iran, inspired by a mention in
Mary Anna Marten whose son and grand-daughter were in the news today
Edwin J. Booth, 10 Jan; Chair of
Booths supermarkets (founded by his gt-gt-grandfather)
St John's, Castlerigg and Wythburn, 8 May; parish in Allerdale, Cumbria, which includes the drowned village of Wythburn - got interested in it after a walk
Althea Efunshile, 2 Feb, Deputy head of Arts Council England, for WiR's
Black Women's History ikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Meetup/7|Black Women's History]]
Andrew Newman (footballer), 24 Nov; created a stub to resolve a disambiguation muddle (but it then turned out, 26 Nov, he was a fan who'd paid to be registered as a player as part of a fundraiser, so I nominated it for speedy deletion G-7)
Whasset - 2 November - and yet another community in Beetham parish
Sandside, Beetham - 2 November - another community in the parish of Beetham
Hale, Cumbria - 2 November - went there yesterday, looked it up today, no article ... there is now
Ilse Crawford - 31 October - stub-sorted a shortlived magazine she edited, thought her interesting and notable
Greenacre School for Girls - 28 October - a previous version had been deleted as copyvio; the name was familiar as a school some childhood friends attended
imitating the dog - 23 October - saw their Hemingway piece at The Dukes tonight
Hanoi International School, 20 June - someone mentioned on a talk page that a Copyvio version had been deleted, so I created a minimal but sourced stub
Aquilo (band), 18 June - two local boys hitting the big time
John Comrie, 7 May - first editor of Black's Medical Dictionary
Christopher Rowe, 1 May - redlink on Classical Assoc list of former presidents where I was adding LD
Gazelle Group, 26 April - redlink to it in an FE college article, decided it needed an article
St Justinian, 24 April - harbour in Pembrokeshire, filling a redlink
Manchester Gazette (website), 16 October 2013 - created stub while disentangling website from defunct newspaper of same name, and then nominated it myself at AfD: first redlink in this list of articles I've created
Zopyrion (skipper), 31 July 2013 - saw redlink to this genus in a hatnote, turned it blue
Tyson R. Roberts, 25 July 2013 - highly ranked on "
Most wanted articles" and an attempt to create an article solely in VE. Failed: had to resort to Edit Source for some of it.
The Ides of April, 13 April 2013 - the latest Lindsey Davis, just read it
SS Alba, 22 Mar 2013 - shipwreck off St Ives, while tidying up Alba dab page
Trowbarrow Quarry, 18 Feb 2013 - local SSSI, industrial archaeology and rock-climbing site
L'Éphémère, 9 Feb 2103 - stub-sorted one of its founders, thought it needed an article
Nautilus Book Awards, 3 Feb 2013, curious about a redlink on a stub I was sorting. This was deleted in 2021: see
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nautilus Book Awards. Yes, on balance, it probably is a "Vanity award" and not worthy of a place in the encyclopedia. My first serious article creation to be deleted, not a bad record over almost 15 years.
Prague Biennale, 20 Jan 2013 - resolving a redlink in an artist's page
Worcester Busters, 19 June 2012 - had to create this stub for a baseball team in order to offer a link from similarly-named dragon boat team to its article
John Conyers (MP), 29 October 2010, after seeing he wasn't even linked as a redlink in a succession box for another MP - worked on two related dab pages too
George Frederick Young, 24 October 2010, after being surprised to find an MP redlinked as father of a stub I was sorting
DEA (charity), 6 December 2009, having found it missing while there was discussion of
DEA dab page
Thomas Walter Harding, 1 Nov 2009, to resolve a couple of redlinks for the sponsor of City Square's Black Prince and builder of
Tower Works.
Thwaite Mills, 30 Oct 2009, to resolve a redlink in the Museums section of
Leeds
All Saints' Church, Harewood, 5 Oct 2009, after spending yesterday rehearsing and singing a 40-part choral work there (15th century and grade I listed)
CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction, 8 Feb 2009, after going to a talk by 2008 winning author and finding no article though there was one for the fiction version
Classical Association, 13 January 2009, to resolve redlink in
Lindsey Davis (and elsewhere) - a previous article had been deleted as copyvio in July 2007
Leeds Intelligencer, 8 January 2009, to resolve various redlinks and because it needs an article
Leeds Mercury, 8 January 2009, to resolve various redlinks and because it needs an article
Knowsthorpe, 28 August 2008, it being in list of places covered by Leeds page of Genuki
Ryton, Shropshire, 21 August 2008, having established which Ryton William Craven's son "Baron Craven of Ryton" was associated with, decided its redlinks needed to turn blue.
{{
Genukiwry}}, 20 August 2008, template to add link to Genuki pages from articles on West Riding places, with optional parameters; also {{
Genukiery}}, {{
Genukinry}}, {{
Genukiary}} in next couple of days, for East Riding, North Riding, Ainsty of York
Cicerone (publisher), 8 August 2008, well-known UK publisher of walking guidebooks etc
James Garth Marshall, 17 July 2008, MP and son of Leeds industrialist, previously a redlink, and the chap who created the
Tarn Hows landscape I visited last week
Simon Fell (Yorkshire Dales), 25 May 2008, stub created as easiest way to disentangle the various links for the mountain which were pointing to the man
Simon Fell
Scarborough General Hospital, 3 April 2008 - stub created because it was previously a redirect to a Canadian hospital
Alastair Dunnett, 12 Mar 2008 - stub created to resolve redlink in
Dorothy Dunnett and after suggestion in DDRA newsletter that there should be a page for him
David Bowe (politician), 18 Jan 2008 - to resolve various redlinks after another editor had disambiguated him (former MEP, as opposed to actor of same name)
Marcus Morris, 10 Dec 2007 - saw him referred to as a notable person not yet in WP, researched a bit, created stub article to resolve several existing redlinks
Cistercian Way, 25 Nov 2007 - a disambiguation page to link to the English and Welsh paths
Francis John Hyde Wollaston, 25 Nov 2007 - leading on from exploring links around the Williams Wollaston led me to this man who seems distinctly notable, made a stub for him
Mainstream Publishing, 22 Nov 2007 - Scottish publisher of several G Brown books and others, seemed notable
Courage: Eight Portraits, 22 Nov 2007 - article on
Cicely Saunders said she was mentioned, I wondered who the other 7 were, researched, added as footnote to the book's entry in author G Brown's bibliog, then decided to make it an article
South West Coast Path Association, 21 Nov 2007 - notable organisation needing an article, after major improvement work done on the article on the path itself
Emmaville, New South Wales 7 Nov 2007 - it needs a page, even though the population is only 303 (correction: that was 2001 census, it's down to 247 in 2006!), and was already redlinked from the "Cities and towns in the New England region of New South Wales" navbox
Emmaville, 5 Nov 2007 - a dab page. Some of my Cornish in-laws lived a few years in the NSW settlement.
St Gregory's Minster, 15 Oct 2007 - read about it while researching
Kirkdale Cave following a link from
York Museum Gardens, found it to be grade I listed with a noteworthy sundial, and worth a page: created a stub.
York Art Gallery, 12 Oct 2007 - just a stub because it needs to be there and was a red link in the GA candidate York Museum Gardens.
A660 road, 11 Oct 2007 - it was previously a redirect. There are articles about many other roads, and this is my local main road.
Mary Robinson (Maid of Buttermere) 23 May 2007 - having witnessed confusion between her and the poet of same name, among students studying Romantic poetry. Not a long article, but a bid to disambiguate them - links provided from various relevant places. Hope it all hangs together properly and is in proper Wiki style: the article could and should probably be longer, will get round to that some time.
9 April 2008
10,000th edit - requesting a move from
PAUL to
Paul (bakery), having come across the latter duplicated article while
stubsorting stubs starting with "Pa", as my contribution to the unsorted-stubs backlog!
24 Jan 2008
6,500th edit - continuing the campaign against "is been", inspired by
WP:TYPO
16 Jan 2008
6,000th edit - one of a series of disambiguations of "Grand Hotel", part of a series of tidying which started with
The Grand Theatre, Lancaster and went on from there.
9 Jan 2008
5,500th edit - one of a series of edits looking for, and fixing, "is been"! (Also did "should of" and similar)
1 Jan 2008
5,000th edit - tweaking
Exmoor article in its Featured Article candidacy
10 Sept 2007
1,500th edit - putting sourced info about
Humber Bridge tolls protest to replace deleted info
19 Aug 2007
1,000th edit - tidying up a Leeds school page (replacing stub category by stub template).
25 June 2007
500th edit - part of a disambiguating effort about various "Troutbeck"s
28 May 2007
100th edit - made a redirect as part of a general tidying up around "Robin Hood", place in West Yorkshire
9 June 2006
My first edit - I can't really remember the circumstances: I guess I looked for the information in WP, didn't find it there, found it elsewhere, and added it; clarified existing links too.
Did You Know contributions
...that Gavin Patterson, the new CEO of BT, is known for his open shirt collar? 12 January 2014 (stub I re-created - though without this fact - after a previous one had been wrongly speedy-deleted; massively expanded, and nominated, by
Andrew Davidson
... that critics described the 2002
comedythrillerTriggermen as "neither noticeably comic nor remotely thrilling"? 26 April 2012 (article I helped rescue from AfD by finding refs, and
MichaelQSchmidt then expanded)
... that the Lancaster City Museum houses a Roman tombstone with a dramatic depiction of a Roman soldier with a decapitated opponent at his feet? 26 December 2011 (article I created and
Prioryman expanded and nominated)
... that Henry Dorling, step-father of cookery writer
Mrs Beeton, was the first Clerk of the Course of
Epsom Racecourse? 3 September 2009 (article I created and nominated)
... that statues of The Boy with the Leaking Boot are found in
Cleethorpes (England),
Winnipeg and
Toronto (Canada) and several cities in the United States, but his origins are obscure? 17 July 2009 (article I created and nominated)
... that Muphry's law states that "if you write anything criticizing
editing or
proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written"? 23 July 2008 (article I expanded and nominated)
I'm a British early-retired librarian living in
Silverdale,
Lancashire, having moved here from
Leeds originally to
look after my late
Mother. I have a range of interests and a tendency to proof-read and correct typos! I used to spend a lot of Wiki-time
Stub-sorting, and sometimes start by correcting one link and end up improving a network of related pages. I've worked with
Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup,
WP:Suggestions for disambiguation repair,
WP:Typo Team and
WP:CiterSquad at various times. I contribute to the
Women in Red editathons, picking one or two topics which look interesting, or are UK based, or if all else fails have the initial "P": it's a challenge to produce new articles on topics in fields where I don't usually edit, and I keep a
list of my WiR contributions, taking great delight when one article fits two or, occasionally,
three of the month's editathons. After a superb walk up
Black Combe, April 2012, I decided to sort out the WP articles for the
Outlying fells, which turned into quite a project. When I attended a meeting in
Preston Patrick I found that it, and many other
South Lakeland parishes, had no article - so I made them.
I've created a motley collection of articles or stubs, to fill gaps: some sparked off by a red link, others when I look up a topic of interest and find it's not yet got an article. Something on Radio 4 will sometimes inspire me: "Have they got an article?" "If not, are they sourceably notable?" "Let's go." And suddenly it's lunchtime, and I sat down with my breakfast. (Retired life!) I'm very glad that I've kept the list, below, which reminds me why I created each article, and recommend the practice to other editors. Wikipedia has the fascination of an infinite
jigsaw puzzle - there's always another piece to fit in.
I'm increasingly worried about gradual deterioration in our articles, through links going dead, information becoming out of date, and accidental or worse damage by later editors. I've decided, 2023, to start looking through the articles, listed below, which I've started: but it's a slow process and can lead down a lot of rabbit-holes of related topics needing attention.
Yes, I know the page looks a bit of a mess at present - will learn about layout sometime and prettify it!
Articles, templates and stubs I've created
Not including umpteen disambiguation pages created while working on
Wikipedia:Suggestions for name disambiguation and otherwise, surname pages created as a list of name-holders, a few articles where I've created a "non-infringing stub" to rescue a
copyvio article's non-creative elements and its incoming redirects, lots of redirects, etc
Vladimir G. Lukonin, 19 Jan; Russian historian of ancient Iran, inspired by a mention in
Mary Anna Marten whose son and grand-daughter were in the news today
Edwin J. Booth, 10 Jan; Chair of
Booths supermarkets (founded by his gt-gt-grandfather)
St John's, Castlerigg and Wythburn, 8 May; parish in Allerdale, Cumbria, which includes the drowned village of Wythburn - got interested in it after a walk
Althea Efunshile, 2 Feb, Deputy head of Arts Council England, for WiR's
Black Women's History ikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Meetup/7|Black Women's History]]
Andrew Newman (footballer), 24 Nov; created a stub to resolve a disambiguation muddle (but it then turned out, 26 Nov, he was a fan who'd paid to be registered as a player as part of a fundraiser, so I nominated it for speedy deletion G-7)
Whasset - 2 November - and yet another community in Beetham parish
Sandside, Beetham - 2 November - another community in the parish of Beetham
Hale, Cumbria - 2 November - went there yesterday, looked it up today, no article ... there is now
Ilse Crawford - 31 October - stub-sorted a shortlived magazine she edited, thought her interesting and notable
Greenacre School for Girls - 28 October - a previous version had been deleted as copyvio; the name was familiar as a school some childhood friends attended
imitating the dog - 23 October - saw their Hemingway piece at The Dukes tonight
Hanoi International School, 20 June - someone mentioned on a talk page that a Copyvio version had been deleted, so I created a minimal but sourced stub
Aquilo (band), 18 June - two local boys hitting the big time
John Comrie, 7 May - first editor of Black's Medical Dictionary
Christopher Rowe, 1 May - redlink on Classical Assoc list of former presidents where I was adding LD
Gazelle Group, 26 April - redlink to it in an FE college article, decided it needed an article
St Justinian, 24 April - harbour in Pembrokeshire, filling a redlink
Manchester Gazette (website), 16 October 2013 - created stub while disentangling website from defunct newspaper of same name, and then nominated it myself at AfD: first redlink in this list of articles I've created
Zopyrion (skipper), 31 July 2013 - saw redlink to this genus in a hatnote, turned it blue
Tyson R. Roberts, 25 July 2013 - highly ranked on "
Most wanted articles" and an attempt to create an article solely in VE. Failed: had to resort to Edit Source for some of it.
The Ides of April, 13 April 2013 - the latest Lindsey Davis, just read it
SS Alba, 22 Mar 2013 - shipwreck off St Ives, while tidying up Alba dab page
Trowbarrow Quarry, 18 Feb 2013 - local SSSI, industrial archaeology and rock-climbing site
L'Éphémère, 9 Feb 2103 - stub-sorted one of its founders, thought it needed an article
Nautilus Book Awards, 3 Feb 2013, curious about a redlink on a stub I was sorting. This was deleted in 2021: see
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nautilus Book Awards. Yes, on balance, it probably is a "Vanity award" and not worthy of a place in the encyclopedia. My first serious article creation to be deleted, not a bad record over almost 15 years.
Prague Biennale, 20 Jan 2013 - resolving a redlink in an artist's page
Worcester Busters, 19 June 2012 - had to create this stub for a baseball team in order to offer a link from similarly-named dragon boat team to its article
John Conyers (MP), 29 October 2010, after seeing he wasn't even linked as a redlink in a succession box for another MP - worked on two related dab pages too
George Frederick Young, 24 October 2010, after being surprised to find an MP redlinked as father of a stub I was sorting
DEA (charity), 6 December 2009, having found it missing while there was discussion of
DEA dab page
Thomas Walter Harding, 1 Nov 2009, to resolve a couple of redlinks for the sponsor of City Square's Black Prince and builder of
Tower Works.
Thwaite Mills, 30 Oct 2009, to resolve a redlink in the Museums section of
Leeds
All Saints' Church, Harewood, 5 Oct 2009, after spending yesterday rehearsing and singing a 40-part choral work there (15th century and grade I listed)
CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction, 8 Feb 2009, after going to a talk by 2008 winning author and finding no article though there was one for the fiction version
Classical Association, 13 January 2009, to resolve redlink in
Lindsey Davis (and elsewhere) - a previous article had been deleted as copyvio in July 2007
Leeds Intelligencer, 8 January 2009, to resolve various redlinks and because it needs an article
Leeds Mercury, 8 January 2009, to resolve various redlinks and because it needs an article
Knowsthorpe, 28 August 2008, it being in list of places covered by Leeds page of Genuki
Ryton, Shropshire, 21 August 2008, having established which Ryton William Craven's son "Baron Craven of Ryton" was associated with, decided its redlinks needed to turn blue.
{{
Genukiwry}}, 20 August 2008, template to add link to Genuki pages from articles on West Riding places, with optional parameters; also {{
Genukiery}}, {{
Genukinry}}, {{
Genukiary}} in next couple of days, for East Riding, North Riding, Ainsty of York
Cicerone (publisher), 8 August 2008, well-known UK publisher of walking guidebooks etc
James Garth Marshall, 17 July 2008, MP and son of Leeds industrialist, previously a redlink, and the chap who created the
Tarn Hows landscape I visited last week
Simon Fell (Yorkshire Dales), 25 May 2008, stub created as easiest way to disentangle the various links for the mountain which were pointing to the man
Simon Fell
Scarborough General Hospital, 3 April 2008 - stub created because it was previously a redirect to a Canadian hospital
Alastair Dunnett, 12 Mar 2008 - stub created to resolve redlink in
Dorothy Dunnett and after suggestion in DDRA newsletter that there should be a page for him
David Bowe (politician), 18 Jan 2008 - to resolve various redlinks after another editor had disambiguated him (former MEP, as opposed to actor of same name)
Marcus Morris, 10 Dec 2007 - saw him referred to as a notable person not yet in WP, researched a bit, created stub article to resolve several existing redlinks
Cistercian Way, 25 Nov 2007 - a disambiguation page to link to the English and Welsh paths
Francis John Hyde Wollaston, 25 Nov 2007 - leading on from exploring links around the Williams Wollaston led me to this man who seems distinctly notable, made a stub for him
Mainstream Publishing, 22 Nov 2007 - Scottish publisher of several G Brown books and others, seemed notable
Courage: Eight Portraits, 22 Nov 2007 - article on
Cicely Saunders said she was mentioned, I wondered who the other 7 were, researched, added as footnote to the book's entry in author G Brown's bibliog, then decided to make it an article
South West Coast Path Association, 21 Nov 2007 - notable organisation needing an article, after major improvement work done on the article on the path itself
Emmaville, New South Wales 7 Nov 2007 - it needs a page, even though the population is only 303 (correction: that was 2001 census, it's down to 247 in 2006!), and was already redlinked from the "Cities and towns in the New England region of New South Wales" navbox
Emmaville, 5 Nov 2007 - a dab page. Some of my Cornish in-laws lived a few years in the NSW settlement.
St Gregory's Minster, 15 Oct 2007 - read about it while researching
Kirkdale Cave following a link from
York Museum Gardens, found it to be grade I listed with a noteworthy sundial, and worth a page: created a stub.
York Art Gallery, 12 Oct 2007 - just a stub because it needs to be there and was a red link in the GA candidate York Museum Gardens.
A660 road, 11 Oct 2007 - it was previously a redirect. There are articles about many other roads, and this is my local main road.
Mary Robinson (Maid of Buttermere) 23 May 2007 - having witnessed confusion between her and the poet of same name, among students studying Romantic poetry. Not a long article, but a bid to disambiguate them - links provided from various relevant places. Hope it all hangs together properly and is in proper Wiki style: the article could and should probably be longer, will get round to that some time.
9 April 2008
10,000th edit - requesting a move from
PAUL to
Paul (bakery), having come across the latter duplicated article while
stubsorting stubs starting with "Pa", as my contribution to the unsorted-stubs backlog!
24 Jan 2008
6,500th edit - continuing the campaign against "is been", inspired by
WP:TYPO
16 Jan 2008
6,000th edit - one of a series of disambiguations of "Grand Hotel", part of a series of tidying which started with
The Grand Theatre, Lancaster and went on from there.
9 Jan 2008
5,500th edit - one of a series of edits looking for, and fixing, "is been"! (Also did "should of" and similar)
1 Jan 2008
5,000th edit - tweaking
Exmoor article in its Featured Article candidacy
10 Sept 2007
1,500th edit - putting sourced info about
Humber Bridge tolls protest to replace deleted info
19 Aug 2007
1,000th edit - tidying up a Leeds school page (replacing stub category by stub template).
25 June 2007
500th edit - part of a disambiguating effort about various "Troutbeck"s
28 May 2007
100th edit - made a redirect as part of a general tidying up around "Robin Hood", place in West Yorkshire
9 June 2006
My first edit - I can't really remember the circumstances: I guess I looked for the information in WP, didn't find it there, found it elsewhere, and added it; clarified existing links too.
Did You Know contributions
...that Gavin Patterson, the new CEO of BT, is known for his open shirt collar? 12 January 2014 (stub I re-created - though without this fact - after a previous one had been wrongly speedy-deleted; massively expanded, and nominated, by
Andrew Davidson
... that critics described the 2002
comedythrillerTriggermen as "neither noticeably comic nor remotely thrilling"? 26 April 2012 (article I helped rescue from AfD by finding refs, and
MichaelQSchmidt then expanded)
... that the Lancaster City Museum houses a Roman tombstone with a dramatic depiction of a Roman soldier with a decapitated opponent at his feet? 26 December 2011 (article I created and
Prioryman expanded and nominated)
... that Henry Dorling, step-father of cookery writer
Mrs Beeton, was the first Clerk of the Course of
Epsom Racecourse? 3 September 2009 (article I created and nominated)
... that statues of The Boy with the Leaking Boot are found in
Cleethorpes (England),
Winnipeg and
Toronto (Canada) and several cities in the United States, but his origins are obscure? 17 July 2009 (article I created and nominated)
... that Muphry's law states that "if you write anything criticizing
editing or
proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written"? 23 July 2008 (article I expanded and nominated)