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 the latest newsletter from Jackie Friel, the Chair of the Friends of Brislington Brook, (info.fobb@gmail.com) was of extra interest to me. Jackie writes: “Some of you may have come across Brooklea House Steps while playing in Nightingale Valley as children. Known locally as ‘the haunted steps’, they featured...
Having watched the tail end (oops!) of Crufts the other night, (9th March 2025) I remembered one of our beloved dogs of days of yore, Kepler by name, who came second in a sausage...
The fledgling United States of America declared war on Great Britain in June 1812. This war seems to be all but forgotten in this country despite our burning of the White House and possibly...
In mid-December 2024 I learned the sad news of the death of my friend Richard Hendy. Our friendship alas goes back less than two years, a very short time in his long life. We...
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,...
Many thanks to John O’Connor of the Museum of Totterdown & St Luke’s Community Heritage, 2024, who kindly forwarded two photographs of Charles Rose Perrett and his wife Mary Ann. (I regret to say...
I have heard from Peter Wynn who has published two articles in the Genealogists’ Magazine about his Glisson family of which one is entitled “The Glissons of Bristol & North Somerset: a Family in...
I cannot say that a visit to Kingswood Park is my first memory, but one Sunday, 9 May 1943 would easily make the top five. I was just over a month short of my...
Like to the lark at break of day arising, (from sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate Sonnet 29, Shakespeare It is not strictly true to say I had never seen the Chalk Horses...
After an afternoon spent in the sunny gardens, musing on the misadventures of Francis Creswicke, it was an unexpected bonus to find that St George, Hanham Abbots, which is attached to Hanham Court, was...
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.
The War of 1812 – Bristol’s American POWs
13 March 2025
Richard Hendy, mariner, 1926-2024
12 December 2024
