A new Victoriana site

If you are interested in Victoriana, there's a new website crammed with images and articles from the Victorian world, including features on working life, history and fashion. Do check it out - an image gallery is planned from which you can download images for greeting cards, etc.

An unexpected treat!

I was in Oxford at the weekend, and wandered into the Bodleian library as they always have interesting exhibitions on. By sheer good fortune, there was a one-day Jane Austen Exhibition. The exhibition was to help launch the Jane Austen Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition. On show was the manuscript of her short stories and plays (Volume the First) written when Jane was a teenager, and Cassandra’s fair copy of ‘Sanditon’. There was also a set of Austen first editions owned by her brother Edward Knight. I was absolutely thrilled to see them - especially ‘Volume the First’ – somehow seeing Jane’s handwriting close up makes one feel closer to the author.

© Author’s photos of Jane Austen’s ‘Volume the First’ on display at the Bodleian, and the title page of Edward Knight’s copy of ‘Sense and Sensibility, also on display.

The Story of England

I have been greatly frustrated with my TV viewing recently as I kept missing Michael Wood's Story of England, but I caught up with episode 5 last night, which dealt with the industrial revolution. There was some very nice footage of Foxton Locks for canal fans.
I was fascinated by the item on hosiery trade in Leicester and the visit to the Framework Knitting museum, as this was the first time I have seen one of these machines in action. Wood used witness statements from the Framework Knitters Select Committee of 1844, when the trade was in an acute state of depression, to bring the workers' story to life. The select committee discovered children learned the trade from an early age; five and six year olds worked at stitching gloves or chevening (embroidering) stockings. They began learning how to use the stocking-frame when they were about nine or a little older. The story of Britain's child workers is the subject of my forthcoming book, and I hope to have some news for you soon.

A Flash of Brilliance

The weather was beautiful here last Sunday, so we had a walk along the old Chester Canal at Beeston (now the Shropshire Union Canal). I have long wanted to explore this section of the canal, as I wrote about the locks at Beeston in my exploration of the county’s canal network in Regency Cheshire. The locks kept sinking because there was quicksand under their foundations, and famous engineer Thomas Telford was called in to solve this knotty problem. He rebuilt the locks in cast iron, so they were less affected by the vagaries of the weather.



This was a really memorable walk for me because I saw a kingfisher for the very first time – a flash of blue and gold swooping along the canal – I was thrilled!
I hope to have some exciting news about my next book soon, so watch this space!
Image: Beeston Iron Locks © Sue and Nigel Wilkes

Burns and Bruce

We’ve just returned from a lovely holiday in Galloway. We always enjoy exploring Dumfries, which is closely associated with two of the most iconic figures in Scottish history: Robert Burns and Robert the Bruce (the subject of my latest feature for Aquila children’s magazine).

It was here that Robert the Bruce slew the Red Comyn before the high altar of Greyfriars kirk in 1306, very close to the spot where Burns’s statue now gazes down on the town.

We were lucky enough to get a guided tour inside Dumfries’s Theatre Royal as part of a special ‘open doors’ day for historic sites in Galloway. Burns was a keen supporter of the theatre, and I believe the outside of the building is still pretty much as it was in his day.

Photos: Statue of Robert Burns, and the Theatre Royal, Dumfries. © Sue and Nigel Wilkes.

Canal Ancestors

A quick update to say my latest feature on tracing your canal ancestors is out in this month’s issue of Discover My Past England, so do check it out if you have boatmen or canal company workers in your family tree.
Image: Canal boat family, 1920s. Fellows, Morton & Clayton were a famous canal carrying firm. Work and Workers, Arthur O. Cooke, (T.C. and E.C. Jack Ltd., c.1920s.)

Georgian Chester

A reminder that there are only a few days remaining if you would like to visit the Grosvenor Museum’s ‘Georgian Chester: the City in Art’ exhibition which closes on 12 September. Also, next weekend there’s a great opportunity for Cheshire history fans to explore some of the county’s hidden treasures. Free access to buildings of special historic interest and special guided tours are available as part of the Heritage Open Days festival.

Images: Park House, built in 1715, just one of the many spectacular buildings which sprang up in Georgian Chester. Park House was formerly the Albion Hotel. The Duke of Wellington stayed here when he visited the city in 1820. The Hotel had an assembly room. It was also the HQ of the Independent party, deadly foes of the Grosvenor family interest in the bloodthirsty political rivalries which split the city in Regency Cheshire. © Sue Wilkes.

An illustration from Regency Cheshire: Thomas Harrison’s Chester Castle works. The Propylea Gate is on the very far left. The county gaol, jury rooms and prothonotary’s office are in the building on the left. The Shire Hall with its massy Doric columns is to the right. The east wing (left) of the Hall was the military barracks; the west wing was the armoury. Stranger’s Companion in Chester, 4th edition, c. 1828.