Bristol History – Celebrating the lives of ordinary people

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Hello I’m DP Lindegaard and I’ve been researching social history in the West for nearly 50 years

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Warts and all - my family history: Honours; Pillingers; Frays & Lindegaards

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Richard Hendy, sitting in his armchair

Richard Hendy, mariner, 1926-2024

With sadness I heard that Richard Hendy had died early in December after a short illness. For the relatively brief time I knew him I was privileged to call him my friend. We met after he wrote to me in response to a letter in the Bristol Evening Post, and later the newspaper published his memoirs. Richard was born on 15 March 1926 and had he lived until next March 2025 he would have been 99 years old. When I last spoke...

On Giants’ Shoulders – Clifton Suspension Bridge & Museum, 26 September 2024. A personal view

My sister-in-law has just acquired a black Alsatian puppy in place of my brother’s old dog which died recently.  I asked the pup’s name. She said: “Brunel! You know he was Colin’s hero?”  Yes,...

Charles Rose Perrett and Mary Perrett

The dashing, young Charles Rose Perrett!

Many thanks to John O’Connor of the Museum of Totterdown & St Luke’s Community Heritage, 2024, who kindly forwarded two photographs of Charles Rose Perrett and his wife Mary Ann. (I regret to say...

Gleson/Glisson Family of Brislington

I have heard from Peter Wynn who has published two articles in the Genealogists’ Magazine about his Glisson family of which one is entitled “The Glissons of Bristol & North Somerset: a Family in...

Kingswood Park Bandstand

The Fantastical Kingswood Park: Then and Now

I cannot say that a visit to Kingswood Park is my first memory, but one Sunday, 9 May 1943 would easily make the top five.  I was just over a month short of my...

CONNECTIONS! Two Chalk Horses & a Canal – Cherhill, Westbury & Caen Hill Locks.

Like to the lark at break of day arising, (from sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate Sonnet 29, Shakespeare It is not strictly true to say I had never seen the Chalk Horses...

St George, Hanham Abbots

“St George, Hanham Abbots”, “Pearsall of Willsbridge” and other stories. (My birthday week, June 2024, Part 2)

After an afternoon spent in the sunny gardens, musing on the misadventures of Francis Creswicke, it was an unexpected bonus to find that St George, Hanham Abbots, which is attached to Hanham Court, was...

Entrance to Hanham Court

Francis Creswicke, an old friend: visiting Hanham Court Gardens Open Day, 9 June 2024.

When I was a stripling of about 40, I first came across Francis Creswicke aged eighty-nine on a gravestone at Bitton, my paternal home parish.[1] Now I am rapidly catching up with him, though...

The Willoughby family of Brislington – revisited

The Willoughby family, Roman Catholic gentry, at “Wick”, Brislington, 1787 – 1824. When my friend sent me a cutting of an oldish article from a family tree magazine she did so because it covered...

Come out with me - book cover

“Come Out with Me”, Then and Now.

A glorious late spring day in 2024, one to anticipate sumer is acumin in, luhde sing cuc-cu, wrong on both counts (at least so far – I’m writing in mid-July – not much summer...