This is old news, but I’m sad to see that Zahringer’s in Kingswood closed in 2022. When I lived in Kingswood from 1937-1966, Mum and Dad always took our clocks and watches there to...
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...
I recently wrote to the Bristol Evening Post voicing my concern for the plans regarding the Seamen’s Church in Prince Street, Bristol. The letter appeared on 2 March 2023 “The recent piece in the...
In 1874 a young woman called Pollie Wells wrote to her brother Charlie at Southampton. Exactly a hundred years later I saved the letter from the flames – her niece, an old lady called...
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...
Chapter 11 of my book, ‘Killed in a Coalpit’, about the lives of the Kingswood district colliers is entitled ‘A Young Hero – Edward Albert Powell’, who was known as Ted. At the age...
Whenever my Mum’s sister, (who we called Pem, never Auntie) arrived on her bi-annual visit from London, and her job at the Shepherd’s Bush Post Office, Mum, (Flo), my little brother, Colin, and me,...
On 27 July 2022, my son Kevin took me for a grand day out to celebrate my 85th birthday. The venue chosen was the Hopewell Colliery at Coleford in the Forest of Dean. We...
It will be no surprise if I say I am interested in those women who in days of yore, when it was doubly or trebly difficult, managed to have a life outside the domestic...
In the present year, 2022, Amelia is number 3 in the top one-hundred girls’ names. Before we get to Amelia Pillinger let’s start with…two historical Amelias: The name first became popular when the German...
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.
A “shaggy heifer” tale, or “One thing leads to another”
11 February 2024
Connections – Sappho and Jonathan Dove’s Odyssey
02 February 2024
