Home Thoughts From Abroad
The two letters partially reproduced for this article were sent in 1859 by a Brislington man, Richard Turner, to his widowed mother, Mary, and the family back home. He and his wife Liz had...
Is Your Name Comet?
As my small band of followers will know I have a family connection with Outer Space. Way back in the days of yore I was idling through the Brislington parish registers when I spotted...
My Booklets for Sale – Proceeds to Charity
To those, like me, who prefer to read from a hard copy, I still have a few of my booklets from the days when I photocopied and bound them for interested parties. They are...
A Brislington Autograph Book, 1916
Through the magic of the internet assisted by the mention of Brislington on this blog, I was recently contacted by Carol Gordon of Bolton, Lancashire. A while ago Carol bought a tiny autograph book,...
Brislington Coal
There are references to coalmining in Brislington from the early 17th century: the first being in 1614 when Anthony son of William Roache, collier, of Brislington was apprenticed to Chris. Powell, a Bristol weaver....
Index of names: Brislington’s & St Anne’s “We shall remember them”.
I had a few people who enquired whether I might add an index to “We Shall Remember Them” book so they could easily track down their Brislington and St Anne’s ancestor in World war...
I love synchronicity – how I ended up owning a Lysaght’s plaque
I love synchronicity. The story of how I was given my treasured drawing of the Five Collier Boys was at that very moment in preparation and not quite ready to go up on the...
The Miller Family Football Team, 1914
With the Euros on our collective minds I am honouring our Brislington family team, the Miller family. By 1901 the Millers arrived at 9 Grove Road with a large family and were soon blessed...
The Pillinger Family History in Four Volumes
How it all started for me! This is the history of the Pillinger Family that I began to unearth nearly 50 years ago when I stumbled across a gravestone in St Luke’s churchyard in...
“We shall remember them” : Brislington and St Anne’s in the Great War 1914-1919
If you attend church on Remembrance Sunday it is quite likely you will hear the names of the local War Dead read aloud by a member of the congregation. St Luke’s, Brislington is no...
About Me
I have been researching the social history of the West Country for 45 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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