Cider-maker Cuthbert Rose of Cocklake, Wedmore recalls the local cooper, Teddy Thomas, who made and repaired the barrels used during cider-making.
Somerset Voices: Cuthbert Rose (b1907) Part 4
June 20, 2009 at 4:00 am (Biography, History)
Tags: Cocklake, Cuthbert Rose, Teddy Thomas, Wedmore
Somerset Voices: Cuthbert Rose (b1907) Part 3
June 17, 2009 at 4:00 am (History, Location)
Tags: Cocklake, Cuthbert Rose, Somerset, Wedmore
Cuthbert Rose produced cider on his farm in Cocklake, a hamlet near Wedmore, until his death in the 1990s. The type of cider produced depends on the variety of apples used, the weather, and the cider-maker’s personal recipe. Kingston Black, Yarlington Mill, The Dunkerton Late Sweet, Morgan Sweets and Stoke Red are all varieties of apples grown in Somerset. Some apples are sweeter, while others have high acidity; cider-makers blend these different types of apples together to achieve unique types of cider – usually sweet, medium or dry.
Titanic Lives: The Crew of RMS Titanic
June 14, 2009 at 4:00 am (Biography, Genealogy, History)
Tags: National Archives
Much has been written about RMS Titanic, but this has tended to concentrate on the ship and its passengers. Using sources such as crew lists, local newspapers, Titanic Fund minute books and the newly released 1911 census, this podcast from the National Archives traces the lives of a crewmen and his family and seeks to answer the question: What was life like for families in Southampton in the aftermath of the tragedy?
Town”Carnival” Poole Park 1937
June 13, 2009 at 4:00 am (History, Location)
Tags: Dorset, Poole
Poole “Carnival” Poole Park 1937 The film opens with the Barnardo’s Home Navy Band marching from the Jellico House in Constitution Hill Road To Poole Park .The parade is moving east to west.Floats ,Beauty Queen,and civic dignitaries abound. This film was taken by the pre-war local amateur film photographer Lee Hartnell
1911 Census for Wales Goes Online
June 11, 2009 at 4:00 am (Genealogy, History)
Tags: Census, Wales
2.4 million people in Wales were recorded in the census taken on the night of April 2, 1911. The records of those people living in all 13 of the Welsh counties in 1911 are now available online at www.1911census.co.uk, where they join the 1911 census records from England first released in January 2009.
The Second front
June 8, 2009 at 4:00 am (History)
Tags: Betty Marston, Bournemouth, Second World War
Whilst clearing out a friend’s house in Bournemouth following her death, Robert Mott found a letter by Betty Marston, who served in the RAF as an armoury truck driver. The letter is a fascinating account of the D-Day landings.
Census maps from 1871 now online
June 7, 2009 at 4:00 am (Genealogy, History)
Tags: Census
Digital versions of the original Registration District maps from the 1871 census (Catalogue reference RG 18/1-110) are now available to browse and download at cassinimaps.co.uk.
Somerset Voices: Bill Redding (b.1908)
June 6, 2009 at 5:49 am (Biography, History, Location)
Tags: Bill Redding, Nether Stowey
Bill Redding ran a blacksmiths shop in Lime Street, Nether Stowey, a village on the northern edge of the Quantocks. He and his father did the metal work for gates, bonded wheels for the wheelwright, repaired ovens, shoed carthorses, and looked after the local hunt’s horses. Bill Redding retired in 1976 after working in the shop for 53 years. At the time this recording was made the blacksmith’s in Nether Stowey was still operating.
Swanage (1889)
June 4, 2009 at 4:00 am (History, Location)
Tags: Corfe Castle, Dorset, Swanage, Wareham
This article on Swanage and the surrounding area by W. Armstrong Willis first appeared in The Gentleman’s Magazine, Published by F. Jefferies in 1889.
Somerset Voices: Dennis & Isobel Puddy
June 3, 2009 at 4:00 am (Biography, History)
Tags: Bristol, Dennis Puddy, Isobel Puddy, Westlands
Dennis Puddy began as an apprentice at Westlands and stayed with the company all his working life. He became an aircraft assembly fitter working on aeroplanes during the war and afterwards on helicopters, for which Westlands became famous. His was a reserved occupation, so he was unable to join the army. Isobel Puddy worked in the Bristol Post Office telephone exchange from 1940 to 1955, the year she married Dennis. During the bombing of Bristol in 1940, her family sheltered under the stairs rather than in an air raid shelter, because her father was frightened of being buried alive.
