Val Scully

Originally from Manchester, Val is based in the North East of England. Her first novel, Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree, is set just after the First World War in rural Lancashire. She had plans for a follow-up, but became entirely possessed by the story of Mary Eleanor Bowes, ancestor of the Queen. My Name is Eleanor was published in 2016.

The sequel, Molly Bowes, picks up the story of the family in the aftermath of Eleanor's dramatic life and takes us to the creation of the glorious Bowes Museum in County Durham. Interwoven in the book's events is the impact of the Peterloo Massacre and the ensuing rise of Chartism among the ironworkers of the Durham Derwent Valley, where the Bowes family property is Gibside (NT)

In the C18th, this valley was the site of the largest ironworks in Europe, established by Ambrose Crowley. A Heritage Lottery project, The Land of Oak & Iron, funded a new edition of the definitive academic book about Crowleys, Men of Iron by M.W. Flinn. Working with another volunteer, Geoff Marshall, Val transcribed the book to create a new edition.

This was followed by the publication Tales of Derwentdale and the Extraordinary J.W. Fawcett. These myths and legends of the Derwent Valley were published in 1902: Val researched the mysterious life of the chronicler and adventurer who wrote them down, and the new edition includes her biography of this extraordinary man.

As editor and publisher, she created an accessible A4 book about Crowley's, using text by local historian Susan Lynn and C18th Swedish iron master/industrial spy Angerstein and illustrated by contemporary maps and watercolours.

In 2021, she worked with Peter Stark and Bill Lancaster to produce Releasing the Genie of Coal.

In 2022, to raise funds for Path Head Water Mill in Blaydon, she created a new edition of Brickworks of the North East by Peter Davison.

More information is available on her website: www.valscully.co.uk