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This is the people’s history of Bristol. Not the famous people because their stories are covered elsewhere. What I am interested in are the stories of the working class, the poor, the people trying to make ends meet and people at the margins of society. These people make up 99.9% of society but their stories are so often forgotten. My life’s work has been all about shining a light on the lives of these amazing people.

Norman (aka George) and Doreen Lindegaard dtanding arm in arm with a view of the Gap of Dunlow

Irish Odyssey Day 4. The Gap of Dunloe

When it comes to the actualité of Day Four, I have a memory lapse and here, I shall commit sacrilege:  I can take or leave views. I like to be in among them rather...
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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...
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Norman aka"George" Lindegaard - before and after shots. The first looking up from his newspaper looking miserable and the second looking happy.

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...
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aerial view of the Lusitania Memorial Garden in County Cork, Ireland

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,...
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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,...
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Concealed/Reveal exhibiton poster

Concealed/Reveal – exhibition at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

I am late in drawing attention to the above exhibition, “Concealed/Reveal”, currently running at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery until 21 April 2024. I have been to see it twice, first because I was...
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Royal Baking Powder and Schilling Food Coloring, early to mid 20th century, photographed at Edmonds Historical Museum, Edmonds, Washington, USA.

HENRY JONES of Bristol, Baker & Biscuit maker, 36-37 Broadmead – Can you help?

HENRY JONES of Bristol, Baker & Biscuit maker, 36-37 Broadmead, On 27 Sept 1845 Bristol Times contains this advert re Letters Patent for making bread with the addition of water only. Dear Bristol History,...
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Uncovering the everyday stories of the people we must not forget

This was the headline of my article in Bristol Times (the local history supplement of Bristol Post) on 4 April 2023 “What are we going to do with all this stuff?” my son said...
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9/11 Pic of my old TV on that terrible day

My Memories of 9/11

“Why didn’t they use their cell phones?” an American child is reported to have said recently at the 9/11 Memorial Exhibition in New York. A British boy or girl may have been equally baffled....
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King Cholera in Bristol, 1832

Bristol was still reeling from the aftermath of the Reform Riots of 1831 with the condemned rioters in gaol awaiting their tragic fate, when a new peril appeared over the horizon: the Cholera Morbus,...
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