Norman Wisdom
What’s the first date you learned at school, in those dull history lessons? No question, it was of course that of the Battle of Hastings. 1066 (and All That).…
Station to station
Hello. It’s been a while. Quite a frantic few months, but now I seem to have found some time to hunt wrens again… Regular readers of this blog might recall…
Hymn to Her
My next post was going to be about the legacy of nasty Normans, and the wrongs they inflicted on those poor Anglo-Saxons. But Norman/Saxon tensions have been around for a…
Calendar Girl
I wish you all belated Easter greetings. This time last year I was posting about sacred chickens, pagan hares and Easter - or rather Eostre’s - bunnies. This time around,…
Rosie the rivetter
It’s National Women’s month, and International Women’s Day has just passed. So I thought it a good time to turn an eye upon women’s place in the world of work.…
Surely, Templars?
Everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, so I thought we’d start off with some fun. In 1982, a ‘non-fiction’ book was published with the title The Holy Blood and the…
Keep the home fires burning – please!
Here’s another post about the first world war. It’s such a compelling period to study: it’s so close in time to us, yet it’s slowly receding into “proper” history. My…
The Watkins Path
I do love a good walk. And as an amateur historian, I love the ancient paths and tracks that cover these islands. Not only the Roman roads which criss-cross…
Quizzing the Wren
I have spent Lockdown 2020 writing about all that wonderful history hiding in plain sight. There were 25 posts in all. Here are a few snatches of conversation from…
Now bring us some figgy pudding
Well, we’ve already started the big count-down to Christmas Day. We’re opening the little windows on our Advent calendars day by day, and - especially this year - dreaming of…
Essex Bad Boys: Richard Rich
What would you call a man who betrayed all who helped him when first starting out in life, and who dropped his friends at the first whiff of trouble? Who…
A drop o’ Nelson’s blood
A short while ago, my son, who is in foreign parts, as they say, started winging me snatches of sea shanties over the internet. “Listen to this one, mum”,…