Irish Odyssey Day 3 concluded. The Engine House
“Around 1700, a strange noise began reverberating around British mineshafts. That noise – harbinger of the Industrial Revolution – was subtle at first, but it grew louder with each passing decade until it enveloped...
The Museum of Bath Stone (the story of Combe Down and its stone)
Contrary to opinion, I don’t spend all my time chained to a computer, and I am trying to write shorter blogs. This is a small, interesting Museum about one of my niche subjects where...
The Loss of the Barque “Wilson” of Bristol, 1833. Everyone aboard SAVED!
This short entry is in the grand tradition of Serendipity, or “One thing leads to another”. Elsewhere in this blog, you will find the Beara Peninsula in County Cork, on Day 3 of the...
Irish Odyssey Day 3, Part 2
“By Ros, Car, Lan, Tre, Pol and Pen shall ye know Cornishmen”. (Survey of Cornwall, Richard Carew, 1602) The white walls and plain, utilitarian lines, (none the worse for that), tell a tale. In...
Irish Odyssey Day 3 part 1- A Unique Cable Car, a Model Enthusiast & “Cousin Jack” at Allihies.
I refer you back to the teasing trailer elsewhere on this blog called “If there is a hole dug anywhere on earth, you’re sure to find a Cornishman at the Bottom”. At Allihies, the...
Irish Odyssey – Day 2. Famine, (& what the contemporary Bristol papers said); Lough Hyne & Bristol University; Holy Water & Essential Virtues
The second day of our Irish Odyssey, 11 April, along the Wild Atlantic Way started at Skibbereen. George’s expression in these photos could represent “Before” and “After” though they were taken seconds apart. In...
The Great Laxey Wheel & the Miners of Laxey and Snaefell
Caroline said “What about the Isle of Man? I’ve always fancied going there.” We were planning a few days away, somewhere not too arduous, for around the time of my 86th birthday in June...
An Irish Odyssey – Part 1: The Lusitania
On 9 April 2025, three of us, George, Kevin and me, were in Ireland; George is a native Irishman, Kevin, a passport holder, and me, a Brit, without a red corpuscle of Irish blood,...
“If there is a hole dug anywhere on earth, you’re sure to find a Cornishman at the bottom”
This is a version of my short article in South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group’s Newsletter 67, Spring 2025 with an added, UNEXPECTED SEQUEL. My title was filched from “Trelawny’s Cornwall”, by the BBC Radio...
The Ubiquitous Budgett family of Bristol – links to Brooklea House & the US Army in 1943
First, as the March 2025 BAFHS journal amply illustrates with its article on Ridgeway Park Cemetery, it is easy for family historians and conservationists to overlap, which is why a couple of paragraphs in...
About Me
I have been researching the social history of the West Country for 50+ years. During this time I have collated information on a wide range of people living and working in the West Country including miners, ethnic minorities, petty criminals, sailors, tommies, benefactors, brassmakers and many more. The thing that I find amazing is that ordinary people always lived extraordinary lives. I hope you like my blog that brings together my lifetime of research.
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Irish Odyssey Day 3 concluded. The Engine House
13 September 2025
The Museum of Bath Stone (the story of Combe Down and its stone)
13 September 2025
31 August 2025
