In 1761, John Wesley who was interested in prison reform noted that Bristol’s Newgate Gaol was lately wearing ‘a new face’ and had changed for the better from ‘the filth, the stench, the misery...
Peace with the infant republic of America was declared in August 1783. With the small detail that Britain had lost the war apparently discounted, it appears that the arrogant assumption was made that everything...
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....
In 1988 Australia celebrated the bi-centenary of the arrival of the First Fleet to Botany Bay. I cannot claim an exact relationship with the late David Pillinger of Tasmania, and his direct descendant, a...
It is often the case that the very next day after you have committed something to print more information will come to light. So it is with the family of Harriet Bumford Darke. When...
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...
Years ago when researching my paternal family I came upon hitherto unsuspected connections with an ancient industrial history. From that time I became obsessed (not too strong a word) with the lives of coalminers,...
Some years ago my distant cousin, the artist and author Ian Pillinger bought a bag of items in a junk shop which “looked interesting”. Being a man of many talents, he started to put...
It has been said often enough that “Bristol is a village”; you will generally meet someone you know, or if you were my Dad, you would “get talking, and know their Auntie Fanny” or...
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...
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.
Richard Hendy, mariner, 1926-2024
12 December 2024
The dashing, young Charles Rose Perrett!
20 October 2024
Gleson/Glisson Family of Brislington
06 October 2024
