Category: History

Shrouds of the Somme

My grandfather was shot through the back of his neck by a sniper at the Somme. He was fortunate not to bleed to death. Three other Bellews died and have no graves.

Witney

Witney is famous as David Cameron’s constituency from 2001 to 2016  but three hundred years earlier Witney was synonymous with blankets.

Art at the Merrion

Sated with opera and black pudding we drove up the M11 to Dublin on Monday morning. Six of us in a hire car with our bags is cosy and, sportingly, the General took the rear gunner’s seat at the back. We met the Judge and Mr and Mrs Dog Lover for lunch at the Merrion.

MV Kerlogue

The Wicklow Mountains is one of the last places you’d expect to find a World War Two German War Cemetery. There are 134 graves two of which are for crew members of a German destroyer and two torpedo boats sunk by the British in 1943.

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Categorised as History

Witchfinder General

Yesterday I left you in Essex on a bank of the Stour estuary at Mistley. The Mistley Thorn where we lunched has a strange and disturbing tale to tell on a board on its west wall.

Wrabness to Mistley

On Tuesday I took a slightly shorter walk than usual, only five miles. As usual, it was along a tidal stretch of river – not the Thames, the Stour that divides Essex from Suffolk and joins the North Sea at Harwich.

A Royal Baby

A royal baby was born 199 years ago at Kensington Palace. Her father was the fourth son of George III, the Duke of Kent, her mother was Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

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Categorised as History

Montauban to Paris

To Montauban yesterday morning to catch the 09.17 to Paris Montparnasse train that had started from Toulouse. A second class, window seat upstairs not far from the on-board café is a snip at Euros 36. It is a two-hour journey noth-west through Agen to Bordeaux and then another two hours north-east to Paris.

Rokeby’s Half Crown

Rokeby Hall is a fine Georgian house in Co Louth not far from Grangebellew. It was built for Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby and Archbishop of Armagh. My brother, also a Baron, is at present only a Diocesan Reader in Armagh but I have hopes that he may follow in Lord Rokeby’s ecclesiastical footsteps.