Amberley Blog

On Saturday, 14th October, Conisbrough Castle was the venue for my first talk after the release of my book, Heroines of the Medieval World. In the glorious sunshine, the Castle looked spectacular, the ideal setting for a history talk. I grew up just 5 miles from Conisbrough Castle and so, as a child, every summer holiday included a picnic at...

The design problems of double-deck buses were basically two: to keep the height as low as practicable and to maximise seating capacity within the available dimensions. In the early days of the motor bus a full-width cab was placed behind the engine and the passenger-carrying bodywork was simply grafted onto the chassis behind them. This primitive configuration, known as 'normal...

Yeovil’s Merlin Helicopter Town - If Westland sneezes, Yeovil catches a cold! If you live In Yeovil Today your lifestyle is never very far away from helicopters and aircraft, with Westland now part of the Leonardo Company, being the local largest employer. A close family bond with aviation in the town that now extends over 100 years with aircraft manufacturing...

It’s surprising what fascinating stories can be found in old newspapers. When I say ‘old’ I’m talking about papers which were published 50, 80, 100 years or more ago. I’ve been delving through those published in my native Bristol for my latest local history book. It’s amazing that in 1908 the people of Bristol weren’t short for choice when it...

The Personal Journey Behind creating Vintage Signs of America For more than 15 years, I have been obsessively documenting buildings, signs, and statues for my website, www.RoadsideArchitecture.com. During this quest, I have driven more than 400,000 miles throughout the United States with my pack of crazy Terriers. While my website has grown astronomically over the years to more than 2,400...

Bradford, a Wool City isn’t it? Ask anyone what Bradford made its money from in the nineteenth century and there will be one answer – wool. ‘Wool city’, the capital of the wool industry, the richest city in Yorkshire with a millionaire on every corner, and all based on wool. Yet if this were true, why did William Cudworth, a...

As the first book to trace the history of the women’s rights movement through the prism of women’s dress, Wearing the Trousers: Fashion, Freedom and the Rise of the Modern Woman makes a fascinating curtain-raiser to the celebrations next year to mark the centenary of women gaining the vote. Women’s trousers, of course, have been everyday wear in the orient...

Many years ago the Severn Estuary, with the second highest tidal range in the world, was a barrier between two nations. Powerful tides made crossing the estuary very difficult even though great engineers like Thomas Telford once spoke of bridging this dangerous river. The long walk across the Severn. (Tim Ryan collection, The Severn Estuary Crossings, Amberley Publishing) Until the...

When General Kitchener described the refugee camps for Boer civilians as ‘Concentration Camps’, an enormous PR blunder was commited. Of course he did not know that 40 years later Hitler would use the same words to describe his death camps, a situation which has been exploited to the full by the Boers and Britain’s enemies. For example ‘an entire generation...

As I wrote this blog I became aware it was exactly 196 years since the first horse race was held on Kendal Racecourse on 7th August 1821 and I further recognized in my previous book about Penrith, and my future book looking at Teesdale, they all feature redundant racecourses. To the west of Kendal, off Brigsteer Road and below Scout...