Hampshire

Over the years I have written and researched extensively on the subject of naval dockyards, not just those serving the British Royal Navy, but also those created in many other countries around the world. Without these yards, no nation in attempting to project itself as a world power, could meet with any degree of success. It was within these yards...

Aldershot is proud of being a Victorian town. Every year (pandemic allowing) it holds its ‘Victoria Day’, which begins with a grand parade through the town led by “Queen Victoria”, with marching bands, floats, vintage vehicles, and community groups all coming together to celebrate Aldershot’s nineteenth-century heyday. The Victoria Day Parade in Victoria Road. (A-Z of Aldershot, Amberley Publishing) It...

Having produced two previous Postcard Collection books, ‘John Henry Spree’s Nottinghamshire’ and ‘Hastings and St Leonards’ I thought I would try again and decided to choose Portsmouth which was another location that was associated with the Spree family. In 1959 my Grandmother and Grandfather Spree together with my Mother and Father decided to move from Nottingham to Portsmouth and buy...

Saturday 15th July 2017 was a day to remember. Well it would be if only I could remember it. I know I was in bed having not been awake long. Then a thunderclap pain in the back of my head hit. I recall taking two paracetamol and lying down. It was about six weeks later before I was well enough...

The 1990s was an interesting time for bus operations as it saw the consolidation of the bus operating industry where a lot of companies that had been privatised and sold to their management teams in the late 80s were sold on to the emerging big groups. Such as Badgerline, Drawlane, later British Bus, and after that, Arriva and Stagecoach. Also a...

What is ‘secret’ about the history of Aldershot? The story of Aldershot’s growth from a small, rural village to the famous ‘home of the British Army’ and a thriving town has been told in various publications, including my previous Amberley titles Aldershot’s Military Heritage, Aldershot Through Time, and Aldershot History Tour. However, within the overall narrative there are many lesser-known...

Romsey is a small market town nestled on the River Test and caught roughly midway between Winchester, Salisbury and Southampton in the South of England. It may be small but it has a lot of history. Sure it’s not as old as nearby Amesbury, which is just twenty five miles or so away and dates back around five thousand years...

Aldershot has, for over a hundred and sixty years, been famous as an “Army town”; indeed its name has become synonymous across the country with the Army. Yet now it is a town undergoing considerable change. Not only has the garrison recently been completely rebuilt, but 148 hectares of old Army land has been given over to civilian redevelopment, on...