Just before leaving for our recent trip, the oven decided not to work. The minimum call out repair charge wasn’t much less than a new oven, so, on our return, I was all set to invest in a rep…

Day 12 This morning, it is time for the trip I’ve been looking forward to the most. I’ve wanted to go to Ightham Mote for nearly sixty years, since I first read Anya Seton’s Green Darkness in which…

For the past year or so, the A Few Forgotten Women team have been working on a book. This is a multi-authored compilation combining aspects of women's history with case studies. We are very excited to...

Day 10 It is moving on day again, this time to our final site for this trip, just outside Maidstone at Bearstead. This time, I manage to put the right destination in the satnav. It is a tricky one …

Day 8 There’s a light drizzle so we opt for what we expect to be the most indoorsy of the two options left on our itinerary for this part of the trip and head for Walmer Castle. The importance of c…

Day 5 Having already done the activity planned for today, we decide to drive through Brighton to  Shoreham and look at the nature reserve there. We manage to find a very reasonably priced car …

Yes, we’ve been away again, this time to Sussex and Kent. These are both counties I’ve visited before but extended visits were in childhood, so it was time for a return as part of the &…

Another story hits the pages of Granny's Tales. This is one 'From the Other Side'. It involves an enslaver, a maltster and a midshipman who served on HMS Victory during the Napoleonic Wars. This is on...

Looming large, is the Devon Family History Society’s 50th birthday, sell-out, residential conference. My house is now crammed with goody bag items, raffle prizes and other paraphernalia. Ther…

Today was the day that our luck with both the weather and the wifi signal in the van deserted us. Fortunately, the sat-nav had recovered from its hissy fit and was now working, This was just as well as we had to negotiate the city centre and my attempts to download a map were foiled by the demise of the wifi signal.

Occasionally, we are able to bring you stories that stand alone and are not the result of one of our Forgotten Women Friday research days. It is a privilege to share John Smith's careful research into...

It always feels strange posting about trips away when I am safely back home but I don't normally post in real time. This was the day that the sat-nav decided not to work; this was apparently my fault. Never fear, I can do old school with my trusty ordnance survey map. I could locate the day’s National Trust property of choice, in this case Croft Castle, although it was a little difficult to work out on which side of the large estate the entrance lay.

After a resounding early morning thunderstorm, we utilised our National Trust membership as usual and paid a visit to Berrington Hall near Leominster, pronounced Leminster. The rain had died down to an occasional drizzle by the time we arrived. We began by looking at the house. Co-incidentally, one of the volunteers was a former vicar of a parish near home.

Still with an eye on the weather forecast, we decided to go to Goodrich Castle on what was predicted to be the least worst day we had left. As things turned out, after some light drizzle first thing, the day was hot and sunny. Possibly a little too hot to be ideal and certainly humid but we counted this as a win.

Day 1 Another month and another recent short trip away in the pursuit of our aim to stay in every English county. The county of choice this time was Herefordshire. In the hope of dodging the rush hour traffic, I left earlier than I needed to join Chris and the caravan. Dodge the traffic I did but instead I had to cope with blinding early morning sun for much of my journey.

I'm taking part in Dawn Walk for Samaritans

Apart from the delights of the annual invasion of no longer so small folk, life continues to be hectic. Despite saying ‘never again’ numerous times, I find myself in the throes of residential confe…

Apart from the delights of the annual invasion of no longer so small folk, life continues to be hectic. Despite saying ‘never again’ numerous times, I find myself in the throes of residential conference organising once again. A sell-out event to commemorate Devon Family History Society’s 50th anniversary this one. Please can anyone explain why, when I am definitely ticking things off the to do list, it isn’t getting any shorter?

Host Andrew meets Dr. Janet Few and hears about a highly skilled woman, and they go looking for clues of a 19th century woman's parents in Highgate, Middlesex.

We have just uploaded nine more stories of girls who spent time in the Orphanage for fatherless girls in Brixton; you can read these here. We are pleased to introduce Grace Mary Ambrose, Esther Sophia...

Our 13th Forgotten Women Friday collaborative research project will be on 25 September, when we will be looking at women who lived in the Suffolk village of Herringfleet in 1881. This is the first of ...

You would think that there would have been little time for family history with all this gadding about hither and yon in recent weeks. After all, I’ve been away every month for the last five months …

A parish entry reveals an argument that proved pivotal to the abolitionist cause, at a time when an estimated 20,000 Black people were living in the country

It always feels odd uploading holiday posts once I am safely back home but here is our final day in Wales. Today is our last day and we head north to Newton House, to tick the ‘National Trust property in Carmarthenshire’ box. We found this property a bit ‘alternative’. It is used more as a community space than as a way to share an historical narrative.

There were plans for three out of the four days of our stay, so a decision had to be made about what to do with the spare day. We are aware that there are parts of the country we’ve never been, so places have to be particularly special for us to be thinking of a return visit. With that in mind, we are unlikely to stay in this area again, so I chose a return visit to the wetlands to see the section we didn’t have the energy for last time.

The weather forecast insists it will be 19 degrees and cloudy. We dress accordingly and set off for Weobley Castle. Oddly the sat nav thinks this is in two different places about half a mile apart and although I am enjoying following along on my OS map, it is hard to see where the entrance might be. Inevitably, we have opted for the wrong sat nav possibility and here we are in a farm.

A short drive along the northern shores of the River Lougher and we are at the Llanelli Wetland Centre. We have a lovely wander round, popping in and out of various hides and unlike many of our forays to see wildlife, we do see a wide variety of wildfowl. The list is below if anyone is interested. There is also a distinct and pervading smell of cannabis at one point, although no other people are in view; very strange.

As caravan club frequent flyers, we are offered three night’s stay for the price of two. Always a sucker for a special offer, we look to see if, between the two of us, there is a gap in the diary. Fortuitously, there are a few days when we are both free, almost unheard of, especially at the time of the year but an opportunity not to be missed.