To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you.  Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.

My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!

What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians.  When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.

Books of interest

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you.  Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.

My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!

What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians.  When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you.  Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.

My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!

What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians.  When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you.  Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.

My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!

What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians.  When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

I hope that your preparations are going well for Christmas 2014.  There always seems to be so much to do and so much preparation in the run-up to the “Big Day”. Reading blogs and carrying out any form of historical research is probably the last thing on most people’s minds!

So, to help ease your mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources or blogs new to you.  Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.

My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!

What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians.  When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

A date for your diary…

I will be at Bishop’s Stortford Tourist Information in the Market Square on Saturday 6th December 2014, from 10am until 12pm, signing copies of my new local history book on the town.

I look forward to meeting some of my readers then.

If you can’t make the book signing, but still wish to purchase my book, then please do click the picture below to purchase (in book format or Kindle) from Amazon.

In October 2014, I had a virtual book tour around the internet talking about my book and Bishop’s Stortford.  I visited the following blogs:-

• Worldwide Genealogy Blog: The process of writing a local history book.
• Essex Voices Past: Q&A session with Amberley Publishing on “how to get a publisher interested in your history book”.
• Ross Mountney’s Notebook: Home education and teaching history to children.
• Family History Across The Sea: Correlation between local and family history.
• Anglers Rest: Using vintage postcards to add to family and local history research.
• Bishop’s Stortford Museum’s Blog: Oral history of Bishop’s Stortford.
• Essex Voices Past: Bishop’s Stortford’s postcards which got away.

About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-

• Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
• Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
• Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).

I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.

I am delighted to be able to tell you that fellow local historian of Great Dunmow, Austin Reeve, has just published his book Remembrance: The World War One Memorials of Great Dunmow.

Austin has meticulously researched some of the men commemorated on the war memorials in and around Great Dunmow and recounted some of their tragic stories.  He has also gathered together a unique collection of photographs and memorabilia (such as postcards, medals, certificates and – most extraordinary – a battlefield will) from the families of the town’s fallen and combined it all into a compelling book.

If you are interested in the local history of Great Dunmow (a small town in North West Essex), or indeed, the fallen of the First World War, I would highly recommend this book to you.

I must admit to getting goose-bumps when I saw the front cover as I know my granddad and my grandmother were likely to have been in the crowd, and also possibly my great-grandparents – the two Kemp brothers commemorated on the memorial being my granddad’s cousins (my great-grandmother’s nephews).

If you wish to purchase this book for the highly reasonable price of £5 (inc p&p to the UK), please email Austin Reeve directly at ashble55[at}yahoo.com.  Austin’s book is proving to be very popular and he is currently just about to go into his third print run.  He asked me to tell potential buyers that he wouldn’t be able send out books immediately until his next print run is confirmed.

Please do get in contact with him, if you wish to purchase.

Lest we forget

This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Remembrance Sunday 2014: Great Dunmow’s Roll of Honour
– Reflections on the Tower of London’s Poppies
– The war to end all wars
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches
– Great Dunmow’s Military Funeral: A follow-up
– War and Remembrance: It’s a long way to Tipperary
– War and Remembrance: Great Dunmow’s Emergency Committee
– War and Remembrance: Great Dunmow’s Military Funeral 1914
– Postcard home from the front – The Camera never lies
– Postcards from the Front – from your loving son
– Memorial Tablet – I died in hell
– Memorial Tablet – I died of starvation
– Memorial Tablet – I died of wounds
– The Willett family of Great Dunmow
– Postcard from the Front – To my dear wife and sonny
– War and Remembrance – The Making of a War Memorial
– Great Dunmow’s Roll of Honour
– For the Fallen
– Aftermath

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

Today is my spot on the Worldwide Genealogy blog – a daily blog written by a collaborative group of genealogists/family historians and historians. Click on the image below to read my post about The Chelsea Pensioners of the 19th and 20th centuries.

You may also be interested in researching your military ancestors
If you decide to signup to access records from the Forces War Records website, type the code “AW40” at the checkout to receive a 40% discount for any type of subscription.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Reflections on the Tower of London’s poppies

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

Regular readers of my blog will know that beautiful medieval illuminated manuscripts have long held a particular fascination with me. Created in the medieval period – with some manuscripts now 700/800 years old – the medieval world seemed to have been inhabited by mythical creatures: jousting snails, cats in towers hurling missiles at their enemies, giant fish – to name a few. All elaborately and painstakingly drawn and painted by craftsmen from another era.

Today’s selection of images from the British Library’s collection of illuminated manuscripts is the sea-nymphs and mermaids (and a merman too!) of the medieval mind.

Click on any picture to be taken to the British Library’s full description of the image.

Detail of a mermaid sitting on a bar border holding her tail in one hand and a circular mirror in the other. From Scholastic miscellany, (France, Central (Paris), between 1309 and 1316); shelfmark Burney 275 f.404

Miniature of a mermaid playing a harp luring sailors in a boat. From Bestiary, Guillaume le Clerc (England, 2nd quarter of the 13th century); shelfmark Egerton 613 f.38

Detail of a miniature of a mermaid and a fish. From Image du Monde (Le livre de clergie en roumans) (France, Central (Paris) and England, 2nd quarter of the 15th century); shelfmark Harley 334.

Detail of a miniature a mermaid with a mirror and comb. From from Les Fais et les Dis des Romains et de autres gens (France, N. W., Normandy (possibly Rouen), c. 1460-1487); shelfmark Harley 4372 f.79v

Detail of a miniature of the siren (Syrene) or mermaid who holds a fish, and the prow of a boat with two men in it, one rowing. From Bestiary, with extracts from Giraldus Cambrensis on Irish birds (England, S. (Salisbury?), 2nd quarter of the 13th century); Harley 4751 f.47v.

Detail of a miniature of a mermaid and merman with bow and arrow from Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the ‘Smithfield Decretals‘), (France, S. (Toulouse?), Last quarter of the 13th century or 1st quarter of the 14th century); shelfmark Royal 10 E IV, f.3.

Detail of a bas-de-page scene of a mermaid. From Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the ‘Smithfield Decretals‘), (France, S. (Toulouse?), Last quarter of the 13th century or 1st quarter of the 14th century); shelfmark Royal 10 E IV, f.47.

Detail of a bas-de-page scene of two grotesques fighting with domestic implements; between them is a mermaid. From Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the ‘Smithfield Decretals‘), (France, S. (Toulouse?), Last quarter of the 13th century or 1st quarter of the 14th century); shelfmark Royal 10 E IV, f.69.

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that does fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong,
Hark! Now I hear them – Ding-dong, bell.

William Shakespeare, The Tempest, circa 1610-11

This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following
– Smithfield Decretals: The story of the sinful hermit
– Smithfield Decretals: The story of the medieval spinster
– The cats of the Macclesfield Psalter
– Early-modern images
– Images of Medieval animals
– Images of Medieval music
– Images of Tudors
– Images of Medieval devils
– Images of Medieval funerals
– Images of Medieval cats

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

Remember the men of this place who died for freedom and honour A.D. 1914-1918

Percy Charles Archer: died 15 July 1917
John Lewis Pasteur Armstrong: died 22 June 1916
Frederick Attridge: died 9 October 1916
Frank William Bacon: died 4 December 1918
Amos Alfred Barrick: died 31 December 1916
George Henry Barrick: died 11 June 1918
Frederick John Bartley: died 26 March 1917
George Henry Beard: died 7 September 1916
Albert Brand: died 8 October 1915
Frederick J Burchell: died unknown
Alfred Richard Burton: died 5 April 1917
Harold Vincent Burton: died 22 December 1916
Thomas F Burton: died 29 November 1918
Edwyn (Edwin) Bush: died 24 April 1917
David William Button: died 8 December 1918
William Henry Carter: died 24 July 1918
Alfred Thomas Caton: died 13 April 1918
Frederick Chapman: died 6 December 1918
Frederick George Clarke: died 30 July 1916
Alfred Coates: died 21 May 1918
Stanley Richard Coates: died 2 September 1918
George Cock: died 4 January 1918
William Coppin: died unknown
Sydney Cox: died 13 August 1918
Albert Crow: died 1 November 1914
William Frederick Crow: died 5 October 1917
Benjamin Thomas De Voil: died 1 July 1916
Ernest Cecil Freshwater: died 8 May 1915
Arthur Edwin Greenleaf: died 3 August 1916
George Frederick Gunn: died 18 July 1917
Arthur Gypps: died 16 October 1917
Harry Hines Halls: died 26 March 1917
Ernest Edward Harris: died 8 August 1918
Frank Harris: died 21 November 1916
Leonard Melsome Hasler: died 21 September 1917
Stanley Howland: died 21 October 1916
Thomas David Jarvis: died 16 July 1916
Gordon Parnall Kemp: died 26 September 1917
Harold James Nelson Kemp: died 28 May 1916
George Henry Ledgerton: died 2 November 1917
Frederick James Watson Lines: died 12 December 1915
Frank J Lodge: died 26 March 1917
Arthur Thomas Lorkin: died 26 March 1917
Hayden Lyle: died 6 November 1918
Llewellyn Malcomson: died 5 October 1916
Leonard Frederick Mason: died 12 September 1918
Ralph Milbank: died 23 March 1918
George Nelson: died 3 November 1917
George William Perry: died 17 November 1916
Francis Louis Pitts: died 15 June 1915
Bertram James Porter: died 2 September 1918
George Rawlings: died unknown
Arthur T Reed: died unknown
Harry Charles Edwin Robinson: died 28 March 1918
Henry Alfred Robson: died 28 April 1917
Frederick Isaac Rootkin: died 22 August 1915
Frank Edward Sams: died 1 November 1914
William George Saunders: died 26 March 1918
William Sayer(s): died 29 March 1915
Harold Mackenzie Scarfe: died 3 May 1917
Charles Edwin Sewell: died 24 March 1915
Frank Sewell: died 18 May 1917
Sidney Sharp: died 1 October 1918
Walter Sharp: died 9 April 1915
Arthur Smith: died unknown
Sidney J Smith,unknown
Victor Spurgeon: died 8 October 1918
Percy A Stock: died 9 December 1917
Arthur George Stokes: died 26 October 1914
Ernest Archibald Stokes: died 19 February 1919
Edward Charles Stone: died 23 August 1918
William Matthew Stovold: died 6 November 1914
Montague Beavan Tench: died 10 August 1916
Harry Turbard: died 12 November 1915
Joseph A Turner: died unknwon
John S Wackrill: died 12 October 1918
William Waite: died 11 July 1917
John Joseph Walsh: died 19 November 1917
Edward Warner: died 21 March 1918
Hubert John Welch: died 29 September 1918
Arthur Albert Willett: died 25 February 1916
Frank Willett: died 23 October 1916
James Wilson: died 10 September 1915
A Edgar Yeldham: died 10 November 1917
Arthur William Young: died 21 November 1915

Not on the town’s war memorial but commemorated
on the Congregational Church’s memorial
Walter Vosper Jakins: died 10 July 1917

Buried in St Mary’s Churchyard but not
commemorated on the town’s War Memorial
Charles Henry Parham: died 30 June 1918
C Spiers: died 7 November 1918

They whom this tablet commemorates, at the call of King and country left all that was
dear to them to endure hardships and face dangers. And then passed out of the
sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice giving up their lives
that others might life in freedom.
Let those who come after see to it that their names be not forgotten
(War Memorial in St Mary’s Church, Dunmow)

100 years on from the start of the Great War, the moat of the ancient Tower of London contains a sea of blood-red poppies – some of which represent the dead of this small north Essex parish.

Lest we forget

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Reflections on the Tower of London’s Poppies
– The war to end all wars
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches
– Great Dunmow’s Military Funeral: A follow-up
– War and Remembrance: It’s a long way to Tipperary
– War and Remembrance: Great Dunmow’s Emergency Committee
– War and Remembrance: Great Dunmow’s Military Funeral 1914
– Postcard home from the front – The Camera never lies
– Postcards from the Front – from your loving son
– Memorial Tablet – I died in hell
– Memorial Tablet – I died of starvation
– Memorial Tablet – I died of wounds
– The Willett family of Great Dunmow
– Postcard from the Front – To my dear wife and sonny
– War and Remembrance – The Making of a War Memorial
– Great Dunmow’s Roll of Honour
– For the Fallen
– Aftermath

© Essex Voices Past 2014.