All articles in Local & Family History
20th May, 2019 in Fiction, Local & Family History
Norfolk in the spotlight: Theatres, fairgrounds, and family fun
All the world’s a stage. As writers, I think we like to work from the wings, pulling strings and scribbling things as our characters perform. Norfolk has a dazzling and delightful history of theatrical wonders, the Georgian Theatre Royal of Norwich, the Edwardian Circus of…
20th May, 2019 in Local & Family History, Natural World
A brief history of Cornwall’s rivers
Those visiting Cornwall too often overlook its estuaries in favour of dramatic cliffs and wide-open sandy beaches, but in doing so they fail to appreciate the jewels in its coastal crown. These drowned river valleys are aesthetically diverse, and their respective histories are si…
16th May, 2019 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Tracing history through the names of pubs and inns
Much has been written about the origin of pub names, and the way they reflect the changes in royal houses, from The White Hart of Richard II to The Bear and Ragged Staff of the Earl of Warwick. A keen local historian can also glean a wealth of information about the local area by…
15th May, 2019 in Local & Family History, Military
Bloody Easter 1916: The Liverpool Irish in Dublin and France
Just before Easter 1916, Percy Beazley, strode along Dale Street in Liverpool wearing a military uniform, he was a man on a mission. As he passed, British soldiers sprung to attention and whipped off smart salutes. This was not, however, just another wartime street scene in Liver…
15th May, 2019 in Folklore, Local & Family History, Natural World
What lies beneath…
The Earth, on whose surface we live out most of our life, has been described as ‘the deep manuscript of time’ – a book of solid and molten rock, written in minerals and moisture, fire and ice. It is a long, slow book, once you dip even a little way below its surface, and look ben…
13th May, 2019 in Biography & Memoir, Local & Family History, Military
Uncovering Josef Jakobs
In many ways, history is a tapestry, formed of myriad multi-hued threads woven together into a complex whole. Some of which is visible to us… and some of which is invisible. We rarely see the entire tapestry and many sections are faded and worn by time. In 1988, I asked my mother…
10th April, 2019 in Local & Family History, Military, True Crime
Wartime London: A criminal’s paradise?
The natural inclination, when thinking about wartime London, is to imagine its people huddled in Tube stations and bomb shelters, singing rousing choruses of “Roll Out the Barrel”; of a defiant population fortified by Churchill’s soaring oratory. Certainly, there is truth to this…
27th March, 2019 in Local & Family History, Transport & Industry
Aberdeen’s granite men: Hard men, hard work
Granite is the hardest of building materials. In the North East of Scotland it has been used for centuries – for stone circles, burial cairns and later for castles. Even large parts of the great cathedral of St. Machar in Old Aberdeen were built from granite. The hard nature of t…
25th March, 2019 in Aviation, Local & Family History
Bennachie’s casualties of war
2019 marked the 80th anniversary of the declaration of war on 3 September 1939 and, just a few hours into the conflict, the Bennachie hill-range in Aberdeenshire was witness to an accident resulting in the deaths of two RAF airmen. Bennachie is of course a magnet for wa…
13th February, 2019 in Local & Family History
A short history of the Fens
The Fens have always been a unique part of England: few places today retain an individual character but Fenland certainly does. For many hundreds of years, they were regularly under water for a great part of the year: they were therefore mainly pastoral economies, supplemen…
8th February, 2019 in Local & Family History
A history of Oxfordshire
What do we know about Oxfordshire, and is any of it true? What do you think of when you hear the word ‘Oxfordshire’? It might be home, or childhood. Perhaps holidays, music festivals, academia… maybe Morse, Lewis and Midsomer Murders on TV. We all have our own mental image, exper…
28th January, 2019 in Local & Family History, Military, Society & Culture
The Prison of Norman Cross: The Lost Town of Huntingdonshire
During the Napoleonic Wars many thousands of prisoners of war arrived in Britain often to languish in the war prisons for many years. Norman Cross Prison Depot, near Peterborough, was one of the largest with accommodation for up to 7,000 captives and used from 1797 until it close…