Category Archives: Out and about

An online search for Samuel Rawson Gardiner’s 1886 History of the Great Civil War revealed that the 1886 edition of the three volumes was available for £750. Finding the books on the shelves of the library, I turned to Gardiner’s … Continue reading →

A pre-war record of the parish from Kelly’s Directory. My favourite line is the reference to the production of  “large quantities of cider.” HIGH and LOW or NETHER HAM form a parish, 3.5 miles north from Langport West station on … Continue reading →

Fought in July 1645, the Battle of Langport was a significant victory for Cromwell’s New Model Army in its campaign against Royalist forces. The army of the Royalist general Goring was routed and driven back to Bridgwater.   Sir Richard Bulstrode, … Continue reading →

A wander through the family history of the Luxtons, my maternal grandmother’s family, brought an encounter with Roger Luxton of Bratton Clovelly in Devon, a man presented as an ideal grandfatherly figure by the clergyman and writer Sabine Baring Gould. … Continue reading →

Browsing the shelves of Waterstone’s, there seems more space devoted to the esoteric than to traditional religion. Perhaps a measure of the mood of the times, the rejection of all authority. Perhaps it is a vindication of the old maxim, … Continue reading →