Monthly Archives: December 2018

Day 4 #bfotc sources

by thehistoryinterpreter

Day four of the ‘advent calendar’ focusing on some of the historical/genealogical sources that I used in the writing of Barefoot on the Cobbles.

Bideford Bridge

View from the Wharves

Two chapters of the novel are set in Bideford. The resources of the Way of the Wharves project were very useful. I was able to see one of their exhibitions, go on a guided walk and access their website, in order to learn more about the history of East-the-Water, where Polly was in service. The volunteers, who have been working with the help of Heritage Lottery Funding, have amassed a significant amount of material about the history of this part of Bideford. If you are local, I recommend joining one of their tours.

More information about Barefoot on the Cobbles can be found here. Copies are available at various events and at all my presentations. You can order from Blue Poppy Publishing or directly from me. Kindle editions are available for those in the UK, USA, Australasia and Canada.

Day 3 #bfotc sources

by thehistoryinterpreter

Day three of the ‘advent calendar’ focusing on some of the historical/genealogical sources that I used in the writing of Barefoot on the Cobbles.

CaptureIn the novel, my characters take a railway journey. In order to make that section of the book realistic, I needed to research the routes that would have been available at the time. For this, I turned to the invaluable Jowett’s Railway Atlas. It seems that this is now out of print, which is a great shame but there are some second hand copies available online.

The book consists of beautiful, hand-drawn maps, illustrating when each particular railway line was open. By using this I was able to track the tortuous journey that Polly needed to make from Clovelly, via Bideford, Barnstaple, Exeter and Newton Abbott, to Torre Station in Torquay.

More information about Barefoot on the Cobbles can be found here. Copies are available at various events and at all my presentations. You can order from Blue Poppy Publishing or directly from me. Kindle editions are available for those in the UK, USA, Australasia and Canada.

Day 2 #bfotc sources and how not to write trip advisor reviews

by thehistoryinterpreter
Torquay Town Hall Hospital

Torquay Town Hospital

Day two of the ‘advent calendar’ focusing on some of the historical/genealogical sources that I used in the writing of Barefoot on the Cobbles. When it came to the chapters set in Torquay, I needed a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse to befriend one of my main characters. I was able to use the excellent Red Cross website in order to choose my named character who nursed at the hospital in Torquay. This database contains details of 90,000 individuals who volunteered with the Red Cross during World War I. Normally, searches would be by name but it is also possible to search by location or hospital, which is what I needed to do in order to find those who were working in Torquay. In addition, the site provided me with valuable background information about the role of VADs. The index is also available on FindMyPast but as the Red Cross site is free to search and leads to images of the record cards, it seems sensible to start there.

And trip advisor? I hear you ask (mild gory details alert). What I was trying to write was ‘Our party of eight had six menu choices ……’. Inadvertently, one of the vowels changed, giving my post a very different meaning. I am still trying to live this down, although I am predicting that the venue will now be packed! I am blaming auto-correct. That and the fact that there was a contact lens related incident last week. On Monday, I removed a lens to find that only half had come away. I was in the car in the dark at the time and judicious poking about in my eye failed to reveal the other half of the lens. My house doesn’t do bright lights but in marginally better light and with the aid of a mirror, once home, I tried again, to no avail. The next day, with a fair amount of gunk emanating from my eye and the distinct impression that I had at least half a barrel of grit in it, it was off to minor injuries clinic. Yellow stuff was squirted in my eye and I was examined under special lights. Cotton bud-like implements rolled back my eyelids. The verdict was that there was no half lens in there but that I may have scratched my eye in an attempt to find it. Five days of ointment squirting pass with no discernible improvement. I write said trip advisor review one-eyed and shortly afterwards notice a ridge across my pupil – ah ha there is the rolled up lens that had officially been proclaimed to be no longer in my eye. I successfully remove it and instant relief!

More information about Barefoot on the Cobbles can be found here. Copies are available at various events and at all my presentations. You can order from Blue Poppy Publishing or directly from me. Kindle editions are available for those in the UK, USA, Australasia and Canada.

Day 1 #bfotc sources and other news

by thehistoryinterpreter

Well it is advent and I usually offer an ‘advent calendar’. After the 100 days posts, I am not sure I can commit to 24 ‘windows’ for you to open but we will see how we go. I have decided to focus on some of the historical/genealogical sources that I used in the writing of Barefoot on the Cobbles.

When you are trying to recreate a geographical past, old maps are invaluable. For the scenes set in Bideford and Torquay, I made use of reproduction, large-scale Ordnance Survey maps issued by Alan & Godfrey. Their output covers a range of British towns, with maps from the 1860s to 1910s. They say, ‘Most of the maps are highly detailed, taken from the 1/2500 plans and reprinted at about 14 inches to the mile. They cover towns in great detail, showing individual houses, railway tracks, factories, churches, mills, canals, tramways and even minutiae such as dockside cranes, fountains, signal posts, pathways, sheds, wells, etc.. Each map includes historical notes on the area concerned. We also publish a series of smaller scale Inch to the Mile maps.’ There are maps available for more than one date for some towns.

Using the 1904 map for Bideford, I planned a courting scene set in Victoria Park, clearly depicted on the map. Fortunately, I double-checked in the newspapers and discovered that the park was created for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, not her golden jubilee. I was writing of the early 1890s; the park was not there at the time, so the scene had to go.

Walter Henry's 24 Nov 2018In what passes for normal life, I have been busy book promoting. This week has meant talks in five locations (who thought that was a good idea?) from Taunton, to Plymouth, to Bude. I have also sat in Walter Henry’s lovely bookshop signing books.

I have chatted to my lovely Pharos online students, giving advice on writing up their family history. Their course is coming to an end but January will bring the start of my course on tracing people and places in the early twentieth century, a period that I enjoyed focusing on for Barefoot. Family historians often neglect the twentieth century as being ‘not really history’ but there is plenty to be discovered about individuals and the communities in which they lived between 1900 and 1945. Twentieth century research brings with it the difficulties of larger and more mobile populations as well as records that are closed to view. This course sets out to provide advice for finding out about our more recent ancestors and the places in which they lived, so it is ideal for family historians and local historians alike. You will be surprised how much progress you make if you concentrate on a small time-frame.

More information about Barefoot on the Cobbles can be found here. Copies are available at various events and at all my presentations. You can order from Blue Poppy Publishing or directly from me. Kindle editions are available for those in the UK, USA, Australasia and Canada.