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History

Penny Hampson

3 reasons to visit the picturesque Cotswold village of Swinbrook

February 11th, 2020

Last week I joined some friends for lunch in Swinbrook, a pretty Oxfordshire village. If you are looking for a quintessential English village, then Swinbrook fits the bill. A babbling stream runs through the centre, and there are quaint honeystone coloured Cotswold cottages galore. At this time of year, the village verges are covered in […]

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The Curious and Tragic Case of ‘Miss Paris’

January 31st, 2020

In The Monthly Magazine for 1810, I discovered this intriguing report for February. A death ‘in St Martin’s-street, Leicester-fields, Mrs Jones, but who had for some time resumed her maiden-name of Miss Paris.’ Immediately, I was hooked. Why did Mrs Jones merit a two-column report of her life and death? And why was she calling […]

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A Postcard from Kingham

January 12th, 2020

Just a short blog today. As the sun was shining, the husband and I decided to travel a little further afield for our Sunday walk. We ended up in Kingham, a beautiful village in the Cotswolds. Kingham is situated in a large bowl in the Cotswold Hills and close to the railway line linking Oxford […]

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The Harsh Reality of Life As A Climbing Boy

January 7th, 2020

Join me on The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog today, where I’m taking a look at the harsh reality of life as a climbing boy (Warning! It’s not for the faint-hearted)

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Discover the disease that terrified parents in the early1800s, and the man who argued for inoculation.

December 2nd, 2019

With all the doom and gloom around at the moment, I thought I’d look at what was being reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine for November 1802. Well, it wasn’t better then, much worse in fact, particularly with regard to a disease that we no longer have to contend with… smallpox. I discovered a letter from […]

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Have you got Toothache? Then See a Blacksmith

November 13th, 2019

This week I had to make an emergency visit to the dentist. Fortunately, I didn’t require any major treatment, but I wondered what might have happened, if I’d been living in the early 1800s. At the time, dentistry was not a regulated profession; in rural areas patients would go to the local blacksmith to have […]

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Discover More About Life in Nelson’s Navy

November 1st, 2019

My previous blog post covered only some aspects of life in the Royal Navy at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, so I thought I’d write a bit more about other aspects of life. Being pressed into the navy, didn’t mean one worked for nothing — all members of the crew were paid. From 1797, […]

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Worse Things Happen at Sea? A Look at Life in the Navy of the Napoleonic Wars

October 22nd, 2019

In researching for the latest story in my Gentlemen Series, I’ve been looking at life in the British Royal Navy of the period. I have to say, a lot of it made grim reading. If women had a hard time with lack of independence, and limited means of making a living during the early 1800s, […]

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Tewkesbury – The Town That Bought an Abbey

October 8th, 2019

Last week saw me on my travels again, this time to the historic Cotswold town of Tewkesbury, which lies at the confluence of the rivers Severn and Avon. It was the scene of a decisive battle in 1471, when the House of York defeated the House of Lancaster in the Battle of the Roses. But […]

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