Author Archives: thehistoryinterpreter

#100daysofbfotc Day 37: Mark

by thehistoryinterpreter

Mark Braund bus conductorGrowing up in Clovelly, Mark was the fifth child in a family of eight. With so many other characters to write about, I did consider leaving Mark out of Barefoot on the Cobbles, yet I found that he needed to be there. Not only would his absence have left an unexplained gap in a run of evenly spaced children but what happened to Mark provided yet another strand that explained the subsequent behaviour of his mother, Polly.

Born in 1906, Mark resisted the lure of the sea and worked for the National Bus Company as a conductor and then a driver. In 1931, he was the conductor on a bus travelling through Horns Cross, when one of the passengers, Joseph Daniels, was killed as he alighted from the bus. No blame was attached to the driver, who was a distant cousin of Mark’s.

In 1935, Mark married Dorothy Good but he fell ill shortly afterwards and died in 1941. The couple had no children. Dorothy outlived him by over sixty years.

 ‘Polly pushed open the door to the bedroom where the boys slept. It always smelled musty, as only a boys’ room can. The clothes Mark had discarded the previous night were pooled on the floor next to the bed that he shared with Nelson. Polly passed her hand across the lad’s forehead. It felt clammy to the touch.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

#100daysofbfotc Day 36: Independent Street, Clovelly

by thehistoryinterpreter

Independent Street Flossie Harris on rightIndependent Street, one of Clovelly’s few side streets, first appears in the pages of Barefoot on the Cobbles when Mrs and Mrs Collins arrive as paying guests in the home of Mrs Stanbury.

There isn’t much to be said about a single street, an ordinary street, yet the incidents that took place there are the inspiration for the novel. Those houses, those inhabitants and a particular set of circumstances, all contributed to an appalling tragedy.

‘The path divided; Jack and his sledge swung to the right. Amelia was roused from her musings as they drew up at the far end of a row of cottages. Bright hollyhocks framed the newly painted door and the brass knocker shone.

 ‘You there Mrs Stanbury?’ bellowed Jack, rapping vigorously with the knocker. ‘Your guests be ’ere.’ ’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

#100daysofbfotc Day 35: The Western Front

by thehistoryinterpreter
Fromelles German Federal Archives This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.

German Federal Archive Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license

As a significant proportion of Barefoot on the Cobbles is set during the First World War, it needed to contain a scene from the Western Front. This was a challenge. I write by researching my characters’ geographical and emotional backgrounds, not in a vacuum. For the rest of the book, which all takes place in Devon, understanding the physical landscape, albeit with a twenty first century slant, was straightforward. Many of Barefoot’s main characters are female and although I am not a young female, I was once, so I can get inside their heads. I have never visited the battlefields, I have no experience of being on active service and I am not a young male. The thought of composing the battle scene was daunting.

I had already chosen the character, Abraham, that I would use for this part of the book and was interested to discover that he lost his life in one of the lesser known battles, a least from a British perspective (this particular battle has much higher prominence in Australian history). I had already formed an impression of Abraham’s personality but how would he respond to a war zone? I was unable to go to France while I was writing this novel but I read diaries, letters and memoirs written by those who took part in the battle. This gave me a much greater understanding of the landscape and help me to empathise with Abraham. I hope that I have created a believable character and a realistic environment. Despite having serious misgivings about my ability to think and therefore write, from the point of view of a First World War soldier, this is the chapter that I am most pleased with.

There are so many, oft used, words and phrases to describe the Western Front: horrific, damaged, muddy, bloody, terrifying, boring, a tragedy, ravaged; all those things. I think I will leave you with some words from chapter 8. ‘Across the plain where the purple clover once bloomed and the swallows used to dive, men prepared for death in a blood-stained ditch. The lurking mist that accompanied the persistent drizzle obscured the view but the deathly crumps of falling shells resounded as the wire-cutting party were sent into the abyss. From the vantage point of the higher ground, the Germans were set to defend the salient without thought for the cost in human pain.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

#100daysofbfotc Day 34: Uncle John

by thehistoryinterpreter

John (Kivell) BraundThere is a passing reference to Uncle John in chapter 4 of Barefoot on the Cobbles, when he assumes the responsibility for his sister, Matilda. Born on 6 October in Bucks Mills, John was the eldest of Albert’s surviving uncles. Like his father, grandfather and brothers, John was a fisherman. In order to distinguish him from the other Johns in the same family, who also lived in the village, he was known as ‘Johnny Kivell’. He took his wife’s maiden surname as a nickname, as opposed to her christian name, which was the method adopted by the other Johns. He was also called ‘Big Johnny Kivell’ and he was renowned for his strength. He allegedly carried a hundredweight of limestone up the street. This is undoubtably an exaggeration but nonetheless, a lifetime of hauling lobster pots obviously required plenty of muscle.

Johnny Kivell and his wife Susan had eight children and they also brought up a granddaughter. He lived all his life in Bucks Mills. After he married, John made his home at number 9, now known as ‘George’s’. In the 1890s he and his growing family moved next door, to number 10, which has now been amalgamated with the adjacent cottages. The family were devout Methodists and John was instrumental in the building of the new Methodist Chapel in the village in 1907. John died on his 91st birthday, in 1930.

 ‘Uncle John says her [Matilda’s] language is something shocking. Her excuse is the devil’s got her tongue. Sounds like she’s gone proper mazed. She used to go to chapel regular, now she’s saying she’s going to hell. Uncle John’s been having a right time of it.’

 Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

#100daysofbfotc Day 33: Bideford Bridge

by thehistoryinterpreter

Bideford BridgeIn Chapter 2 of Barefoot on the Cobbles we cross Bideford Bridge with Polly, as she goes to begin a new life on the eastern side of the River Torridge. In 1280, the ford that is thought to give Bideford (By the ford) its name was replaced with a wooden bridge, to enable pack-horses to cross the river. At 677 feet, it is thought to be one of the longest medieval bridges. The twenty four arches are of uneven width and there are several theories as to why this came about. It may be that each arch was funded by a different gild and the disparity in their donations meant the arches were not a uniform size. Alternatively, it could be because the available oak beams were of different sizes, or that the piers were placed on firmer ground and the stony outcrops were not evenly spaced. There is also a legend that the piers were set on bales of wool, a symbol of the town’s wealth.

The original wooden bridge was subsequently encased in stone. The bridge was widened in the 1790s and again in 1865, twenty six years before Polly makes her crossing. It was to be further widened in 1925. There were attempts to run a permanent railway track across the bridge but the only time a train crossed the bridge was during the First World War, when temporary tracks were laid. In 1968, a section of the bridge collapsed and one of Barefoot’s characters, Leonard, was to man the safety boat whilst reconstruction took place.

‘Unusually, there was not a gasp of a breeze coming from the river as Polly turned to walk across Bideford bridge, narrowly avoiding the brewer’s dray that was heavily laden with barrels for the inns on the quay.’  

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

 

#100daysofbfotc Day 32 Ada Wakely

by thehistoryinterpreter

 

Ada

Ada Wakely grew up in the fishing hamlet of Peppercombe, the fourth of five sisters. She appears in Barefoot on the Cobbles as an acolyte to her elder sister, Polly. It is Ada who travels to Bideford to attend Polly’s wedding and Ada who is in Clovelly to assist when her sister gives birth to her firstborn.

One of Ada’s personal tragedies is alluded to chapter 4 of the novel. After marrying a cousin of Polly’s husband Albert, Ada settled in Bucks Mills as a fisherman’s wife. Her son was born after seven years of marriage. Sadly, he was severely disabled and died at the age of twelve. This was not to be the only misfortune in Ada’s life but you will have to wait for the post about her husband, George, to learn more. Ada herself lived to the age of 105, dying in 1981.

‘Ada arrived from Peppercombe on the Friday bringing family news.

‘Ma sends her love,’ she said. ‘She wishes you well, ’tis in part the journey, you know she’s never liked the town. ’Tisn’t that ma hasn’t taken to Albert so much but he is from Bucks and that’s hard for her to swallow. She wants us all to settle down in Peppercombe and not go no further.’

‘And shall you?’ asked Polly.

Ada reddened.

‘Well,’ she said hesitantly, ‘who knows? Maybe I’ll be wed to a man from Bucks too one day.’ ’

 Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

#100daysofbfotc Day 31: Percy Cornelius

by thehistoryinterpreter
Capture

Western Daily Mercury 20 January 1912

We only meet Percy Cornelius when the other characters, who share his Torquay household, mention him. You would be justified in asking why he appears in Barefoot on the Cobbles at all. He is included because his existence and his subservient attitude towards his wife, help to explain her attitudes and behaviour.

It appears that Percy lived in Torquay all his life. He was born in July 1881 and baptised at Upton parish church. Percy lived with his family in Market Street, Torquay and attended the local infants’ school. As a teenager, Percy, a butcher’s assistant, was summonsed for leaving a horse and trap unattended. The horse wandered off. The police had warned Percy about not securing his trap on previous occasions and he was fined ten shillings, or seven days’ imprisonment.

In 1912, when he was working as a manager for Messers Nelson of 186 Sidwell Street, Exeter, he was fined again, this time for adulterating sausages with boric acid. This was used as a preservative but could have harmful effects. Its use was not banned but it should have been labelled. The sausages had actually been made in Bristol but Percy was fined £2 plus costs for allowing them to be sold. This incident was referred to in an early draft of chapter 11 but suffered under the delete button’s mighty power.

Percy married in 1913 and he and his wife had two further children after Kathleen, who is mentioned in the novel. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Percy was a bus cleaner living in Chatto Road, Torquay. He died in 1967.

‘I don’t suppose it affected you in the countryside but we’ve had trouble obtaining foodstuffs here. Of course, there’s never a problem with meat, Mr Cornelius being a butcher but we’d like to have a few more vegetables for the table.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

#100daysofbfotc Day 30: Mr Tuke

by thehistoryinterpreter

Picture1At the time of Barefoot on the Cobbles, Harry Tuke was the head gardener at Clovelly Court. We meet him in the summer of 1909, when Daisy has just come to work for him as a live-out servant. I wanted to explain Daisy’s move to Torquay and her rather unusual role there as a gardener. To place her as the Tuke’s employee not only help to do this but also gave me the opportunity of making the Tuke’s son a love interest for Daisy.

A Yorkshireman by birth, Harry was in Clovelly in 1893, when he married Eliza Brenchley from Kent in Clovelly church. By this time, Harry was in his thirties and it seems likely that he had just taken up his post at the Court. The Tukes had just one son. As head gardener, Harry’s home was Gardener’s Cottage, close to the church, the Court and the gardens that he tended. He worked for the estate for over forty years, retired to rooms over the stables and died there in 1936. He was involved in the life of All Saints Church, being both a sidesman and a member of the Parochial Church Council.

Harry Tuke’s role as a senior servant to Mrs Hamlyn and his home, which was away from the cobbled street, set him apart from Clovelly’s fishermen. His family were consigned to an ambivalent social milieu, not quite a villager, yet lacking the status of the respectable middle-class.

‘Mr Tuke had noticed the allure that the garden held for Daisy and the thoughtful gentleman had begun to tell her more about the plants and how to tend them.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

Day -2 Wednesday 5 September

by thehistoryinterpreter

To say the last few days/weeks/months have been hectic would be an understatement of mammoth proportions. No sooner did the job we must not mention draw to a close, than the descendants descended. This was swiftly followed by a visit to the Secret Lives conference in Leicester, where I did manage to very briefly catch up with some family history friends across the globe.

40429947_2119337771419084_5245309143308304384_n.jpg

Photo thanks to Dr Penny Walters

What little I was able to sample, suggested that it was an excellent weekend and I was pleased to be able to deliver my Occupational Hazards presentation to a full and appreciative audience. Next, it was home to two days of showing distant relatives round their ancestral areas, a day of meetings and then it was now.

I arrived back from my evening meeting with still plenty that needed to be done before my 10am departure and decided to sleep first and get up early. I awoke, convinced it was morning and began my daily routine, only to find that it was 2.30am. Needless to say, sleep then eluded me. I finally got back to sleep at 4.30am for an hour, accompanied by the most peculiar dreams. I hopefully completed all that needed to be done in time and prepared to enter what might be a ten day internet black hole. Will I survive? Unless I am already home, this post is coming to you via random free wifi somewhere or other. Those of you who rely on Facebook to tell you when I have posted something may find notifications magically appearing there. These will have been uploaded by my data self aka Martha who I have (rashly?) given access to my page in my absence.

Inevitably, I left the house thinking I had forgotten something. I locked the door and got half way down the path before I realised that I was still wearing my slippers! Then followed my usual lengthy wait, surrounded by luggage, at the coach stop, whilst my travelling companion disposed of the car and walked back down the hill to join me. Owing to a past-its-best printer, my coach ticket was decidedly blurry, making the QR code unscannable. ‘Never mind,’ says the driver, I can’t see it anyway. Should I be worried about this? Hopefully it is just his near vision that is faulty. Then, at Tiverton coach station, there are helpful instructions to drivers along the lines of ‘put the brake on’ and ‘don’t drive if there is something in the way’. Am I being driven by someone who needs to be reminded of this? The coach seat belts are officially the tightest in the world but we survive. At a services somewhere on the M4 we have to rescue some passengers whose coach has broken down, making it quite cosy in ours.

Once at Heathrow, I ask for directions to a bus to take us to the Travel Lodge. ‘Do you have a scannnable credit card?’ I am asked. This is not the first time that someone has expressed doubt that I might have such an indicator of the modern age. Do I look that provincial? I am in some doubt as to whether we are alighting at the correct stop but it seems that we are. The cheerful receptionist tries to persuade us that the unique selling point of our room is its distant glimpse of the runway, maybe this makes up for it being as far as possible from reception. Never mind, it will be good practice for the cruise ship.

#100daysofbfotc Day 29: Albert

by thehistoryinterpreter

Albert

Albert allows us to view the events that occur in Barefoot on the Cobbles through masculine eyes. His reactions are very different to those of his wife, Polly. Throughout the book, the relationship between Albert and Polly develops and changes. We are introduced to Albert in the first chapter, when he is the shy young man, wondering how to approach the feisty girl from the neighbouring village. Albert’s tender relationship with his young adopted sister, Eadie, is an interesting insight into his character. He is a taciturn, hardworking fisherman, yet he has a tender side and we observe this in his interactions with his own children. It is largely through Albert that we understand the struggles of the Clovelly fishermen and the impact of a life that is circumscribed by the vagaries of the sea.

We follow Albert through the comparatively peaceful early years of his married life, then watch as tragedy touches the family. With Albert and Polly’s lives spiraling terrifyingly out of control, we find Albert desperately trying to understand his wife’s actions. As Albert strives to support Polly, we empathise with him in his impotence.

Born in Bucks Mills into a fishing family, Albert spent his married life in Clovelly. He lived until the age of ninety four and continued fishing until just a few years before his death.

‘In the bay, the herring were running and Albert and Bertie were making the most of the season, silver darlings shimmering in their nets. They would fling open the cottage door at the end of each day, bringing in the scent of the cold sea, fish scales sticking to their oiled-wool jumpers and to the backs of their scarred hands.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.