In using documents to research landscape history and ecology, there are two related golden rules to observe:
In any conflict of evidence between what the landscape itself has to say and ...
When we are honoured by a Royal visit nowadays, we await with confidence a punctual arrival by helicopter or Rolls Royce, and there is often a great deal of preparation ...
Within the collections of the Warwickshire Museum, is an exceedingly rare 16th century lute. Not only is this instrument of incredibly high quality, but it was made by one of ...
One of the best-known features of the little church of St Milburga in the scattered hamlet of Wixford near Alcester, is the enormous yew tree outside the south porch. In ...
This volume contains a survey of the lands belonging to the Earl of Warwick in Warwick in 1575; it is detailed in its description, by street, of the property held ...
Few battles in British history have left as indelible an impression on the popular imagination as the first major engagement of the English Civil War, fought at Edgehill, between Radway ...
The letter
Few personal letters written by Oliver Cromwell before 1640 have survived, so this letter1 is of particular value for the insight it provides into his character at a critical stage of ...
Princethorpe College, which is located in a former Benedictine priory, owes its existence to the French Revolution. However, its story really begins in the 17th century.
On 13th May 1630 Marie Granger ...
Restoration
In September 2015, Kenilworth’s Pound was officially opened following restoration driven by Councillors Gordon and Pat Cain and the Kenilworth Civic Society. A campaign involving local residents raised interest and ...
I volunteer at Warwickshire County Record Office and my current volunteer project, which I have now been working on for about a year, involves CR2028, a collection received in 1980. Bundles ...
In the archives of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust there is a database listing the names of children in the town who were apprenticed to trades in order to keep them ...
The current handsome Georgian building in Jury Street stands on a site that had been successively St Peter’s Chapel, the Cross Tavern and an earlier Court House. The surviving Court ...
Even when on holiday it’s difficult to escape…
Anyway, the pictures are of Lyeden New Bield, Northamptonshire. Unusual inasmuch as what you see is not a ruin, this is the state ...
For a small village, Church Lawford certainly had its fair share of clock makers, of which Daniel Dalton was one. There is an intriguing record that may explain how the ...
It is always an awkward feeling when research dispels the myth of a much loved local treasure.
On display in the Great Hall of Warwick Castle is a small and delicate ...
Although there are piles of weighty solemn looking documents kept in the strongrooms of the Warwickshire County Record Office, there are a good deal of gems down there that could be ...
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust owns many fascinating and important treasures relating to arguably Britain’s greatest playwright. However, often overlooked in its collection is a rare and fine portrait by William ...
At Christmas time families often have their own traditions and stories for the holiday period, unique to their own personal histories and communities. In many cases, these stories are represented ...
There was schooling in Warwickshire’s Chilvers Coton in the 17th Century without the aid of a school building, because of the educational concerns of the Newdigate family of Arbury Hall. ...
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582 at Temple Grafton Church. He was 18 years old whilst she was 25 and three months’ pregnant, quite common in those days. Her ...
In July 1715, the country was in a state of tumult. Riots were taking place across England and Scotland, opposing the accession of protestant King George 1st. In Birmingham, protestant ...
Sir Thomas Puckering (1592-1637) owned the Priory in Warwick, now the site of Warwickshire County Record Office. He was the MP for Tamworth and Sheriff of Warwickshire, and his memorial ...
This recipe is taken from the Elizabeth Barkham’s recipe book, c.1664-1680. The pages are paper in a limp vellum cover, entitled (on cover, very faint) “Madam Elizabeth Barkham her book, ...
Whether the buns I produced are anything like the ones produced in 1650 one will never know. They were jolly tasty, but not sufficiently so to warrant all the time ...