On 23 March 1958 Buddy Holly and the Crickets played at Bristol’s Colston Hall. I had a ticket but nobody to go with. I was in the doldrums, and it was a Sunday. I...
9 May 1943, something was up, my cousin Joyce Comley arrived “to mind me”. She was sixteen and very grand. Children then were supposed to be “seen and not heard” which didn’t suit me...
Tuesday June 2nd, 1953, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. I was 16, pleased to get the day off school, [five years of misery], and shortly due to start work at J.S. Fry &...
12.5.1937, one month before I was born. Very few men, except for those in drag; women in pinnies; numerous kids….…. Do you recognise anyone? First posted in https://bristolfamilyhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/16 Thanks to Dorothy Acford.
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...
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.
Brooklea House, Brislington and the Budgett Link
03 April 2025
The War of 1812 – Bristol’s American POWs
13 March 2025
Richard Hendy, mariner, 1926-2024
12 December 2024
The War of 1812 – Bristol’s American POWs
Mar 13, 2025