From a ramshackle Keswick poor house, in the heart of England's Lake District, Isaac Cragg emerges in 1770 to find his place in a part of the world caught between centuries of rural tradition and the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. Together with his new bride, Ruth Osburne they move from the harbour town of Workington to settle down in the town of Cockermouth and raise their family. Their offspring enter the woollen mills and other trades in the midst of a socially tumultuous time where mass rallies call for significant political change and widespread enfranchisement. Hunger, disease, imprisonment and the hint of rebellion are not far away. The culmination of research over 20 years, this book traces the lives and times of the Cragg family.