All articles in Local & Family History
18th April, 2018 in Folklore, Local & Family History, True Crime
Who put Bella in the wych elm?
Watching the many detective series on television it is easy to form the opinion that murderers are always caught. Sadly, that is not the case and one mysterious death in Worcestershire has gone unsolved for seventy five years. At the height of the Second World War four young…
9th April, 2018 in Local & Family History, Transport & Industry
The recasting of Big Ben
The great bell on which the Westminster clock would strike the hours was to be the largest ever cast in Britain. Sir Charles Barry’s (he had been knighted in 1852) original plan called for an hour bell of 14 tons together with eight quarter bells of various sizes, but Edmund Beck…
27th March, 2018 in Local & Family History
The value of referencing in genealogy
Providing references to sources can transform your practice of genealogy and peoples’ opinions of it. Good references provide the key to bulletproofing your work and sharing findings with others. Genealogy is little more than anecdote when the sources for facts are not…
27th March, 2018 in Local & Family History, Transport & Industry
10 facts about the first Irish railway
Author Kurt Kullmann takes us through 10 historical facts about the very first Irish railway which ran from Westland Row to Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire). 1. When the first Irish railway was opened in 1834, it did not go the whole way from Dublin (Westland Row) to Kings…
21st March, 2018 in Local & Family History
10 historical facts about Tipperary
Author Debbie Blake takes us through 10 amazing historical facts about Tipperary. This beautiful landlocked County is part of the province of Munster with an intriguing rich history… 1. The last ‘witch’ to be burned in Ireland was Bridget Cleary from Tipperary, whose husband Mi…
21st March, 2018 in Folklore, Local & Family History
Essex landscapes and ghost tales
One of the most evocative descriptions of the Essex landscape is the first chapter of the Sabine Baring Gould’s book Mehalah. He writes of Mersea Island, ‘A more desolate region can scarcely be conceived and yet it is not without beauty.’ This is true of many Essex landscapes tha…
20th February, 2018 in Local & Family History, Maritime, Transport & Industry
A short history of Sheerness Dockyard
The Isle of Sheppey, some nine miles long and half as wide, lies on the southern side of the Thames estuary and is separated from the north Kent coast by a narrow channel of the sea called the Swale. Sheerness in the mid-seventeenth century was a short, beak-shaped point of uninh…
16th January, 2018 in Local & Family History, Natural World
The devastating storm of 1953
The devastating North Sea flood of 1953 caused catastrophic damage and loss of life in Scotland, England, Belgium and The Netherlands and became one of the worst peacetime disasters of the 20th century. 307 people died in England, 19 died in Scotland, 28 died in Belgium, 1,8…
12th January, 2018 in Entertainment, Local & Family History
Did Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ come from Derrygonnelly in County Fermanagh?
‘That’s it!’ I said firmly, ‘we’ve drawn a blank. I’ll have to go streetwalking!’ George (my husband) groaned. He hates it when I wander around streets asking what he refers to as ‘innocent strangers fool questions’ about local history. He trails me, ready to come to my defence i…
12th January, 2018 in Folklore, Local & Family History
Dublin Folk Tales For Children – Quest for the Smelly River
When writing Dublin Folk Tales For Children, I was (in part by necessity!) strongly inspired by ‘place’. Not just a geographical place, however, but also an emotional and sensory place. This for me was the Dublin that smelled of salty shores, sugary teas and ripe rive…
12th January, 2018 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture, Women in History
How militant were women’s suffrage campaigners in Gloucestershire?
February 6 1918 was a landmark date for all those who had fought for women’s parliamentary votes. On that day, an Act of Parliament gave most women over the age of 30 the right to vote. A huge milestone but, given that all men over 21 were enfranchised at the same time, not as hu…
5th January, 2018 in Local & Family History
A brief history of Luton
Luton owes its existence to its situation. Just to the north of the town are the springs that give rise to the River Lea and, all around, are the chalk hills. Over the years, the river has played an important part in the life of the town, not least in the powering of water mills…