Wigs and 'Crops'

You can read my feature on the changes in hairstyling fashions during Jane Austen's lifetime here on the Historical Honey website.

Image from the author's collection: 
Hester Lynch Piozzi (Mrs Thrale) in the 1780s. Note the ‘high’ hairdo. An engraving by E. Finden after Sir Joshua Reynolds. Johnsoniana Vol. I, Henry G. Bohn, 1859.

Historic Howden

Howden Minster.

My Jane Austen blog has some photos from my recent visit to Howden in Yorkshire.

Canal Boat Ancestors and Teachers

A narrowboat cabin, 1870s.

A classroom in the early 20th century.

The cover story of the September issue of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine includes my latest feature on canal boat ancestors, plus my feature on Teacher Registration Council registers (available from Findmypast and the Society of Genealogists' Library) so do check it out if you have canal ancestors or teacher ancestors. It was very difficult for canal children to get an education as they were always on the move.

Canal horses and donkeys, 1870s.

On Sunday 10 August, some heavy horses will be visiting the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, so you will be able to see a wonderful demonstration of horse-drawn canal boating.

Our Flanders Adventure V: A Place of Sanctuary?

A shattered tree, with the remains of a German gravestone.

One of our most interesting stops on our Flanders adventure was Hill 62, a museum at Sanctuary Wood near Ypres. The museum has many photos of the Great War as well as original artefacts from the battlefields and trenches.  Outside the museum, you can see some original British trenches which were preserved after the war by the Belgian family which owned the land. The site is still littered with shell-holes, and it had rained heavily the night before, so the bottom of the trenches was quite muddy.

Mud was one of the soldiers' biggest problems: it made it difficult to move men and equipment as horses and vehicles got bogged down.

A trench full of water.

Hill 62, Sanctuary Wood.

Now we were able to get a real flavour of what life in the trenches must have been like for my great-uncles, although of course we did not have anyone shooting or firing shells at us!


We had to imagine the constant roar of artillery, the smell of cordite and burning flesh - and the rats. It must have been terrifying.

A giant handbag is not very practical for exploring the trenches!

The trenches zig-zagged, so that enemy soldiers who broke in couldn't fire along the trench.

Not Long Now!

My forthcoming book A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England is now available for pre-order from Amazon UK (release date 30 October) and Amazon US.  Update 14 August: You can now also pre-order the book direct from Pen and Sword Books.
Discover Jane Austen's world and immerse yourself in the vanished world inhabited by Austen’s contemporaries. My book is an intimate exploration of how the upper and middle classes lived from 1775, the year of Austen’s birth, to her death in 1817. You can read some advance reviews here.

'Will you do me the honour of reading that letter?' Darcy meets Elizabeth in the park. 

Jane Austen and Whitchurch

Jane Austen.

Visit my Jane Austen blog for my new post on the pretty town of Whitchurch in Hampshire.

Our Flanders Adventure IV: Loos Memorial

Harry Dickman, Lancashire Fusiliers.

Our next stop on our Flanders journey was Loos Memorial (Dud Corner) in France, where the deaths of two of my great-uncles are commemorated. Harry and Herbert Dickman both volunteered to serve in 1915, but were killed within a few weeks of each other in 1916. Their bodies were never found.

This was a very moving moment for me as I have wanted to visit their memorials and pay my respects for a long time.

I felt sad when my visit was over, but the Loos Memorial seems a very fitting last resting place for my relatives as they were both Lancashire miners.

Harry Dickman, Loos Memorial panel, Lancs Fusiliers.

Dud Corner is sited in a mining area, and immense coal spoil heaps loom large on the horizon. But you can hear the birds singing, and the cemetery is bright with flowers.

Loos Memorial

Herbert Dickman, Loos Memorial panel, Royal Fusiliers.

Original modern photos © Sue Wilkes.

Photo of Harry Dickman in uniform published by kind permission of Mandy Taylor (to whom copyright is reserved). I am very grateful indeed to Mandy for letting me include this lovely photo of our ancestor.