I was looking for some news reports of my Grandfather and his family the other day. I knew he lived in Newton Abbot in Devon, South West England. He was born in the 1890’s, died […]
Snippets of old British news
Much like today, news media has always demonstrated its sensational side. The Illustrated Police News was a highly popular newspaper especially during the Victorian and Edwardian era, full horror and shock. Here is a classic […]
At Shire Hall in Nottingham, crimes were dealt with and recorded in the newspapers along with many names and help for historians years on. This free to use service (covering the period 1750 – 1950) […]
If you suspect that your ancestor may have been involved in a court case, whether accused of a crime, deported, imprisoned, or acquitted, I can potentially unveil the news as it was reported at that […]
Since auction websites like eBay entered the online arena the success of moneymaking ventures by some has in a way caused serious social and devastating historic damage. I am referring here to the thousands who […]
The job of clearing Britain’s cities and towns of unexploded devices after the war has taken many years. Indeed even today we see still hear of exploded bombs more than 70 years on. There have […]
Whilst doing more family research I sadly discovered that my great, great grandmother (Emily Cave (nee Windebank)) committed suicide in 1892 after drinking the contents of a bottle of Carbolic Acid. I found out about […]
2nd November 1936 – regular television broadcasting commenced from make-do BBC studios at Alexander Palace in North London. The corporation had already tackled the question of whether to employ the mechanical system invented by John […]
The Exeter Bank had been established in 1769 along with England’s first hotel, The Royal Clarence, destroyed by fire in 2016. Mr. Short was in Oxford in July 1776 and placed this advertisement in the […]
Food safety, the manner it was manufactured, stored, prepared and sold was never out of the news. Despite crude guidelines and basic regulations enforced in law, purveyors of every range of food were endlessly reported […]
A solicitors clerk working Bethnal Green is at the Old Bailey charged with deception, forgery, theft and embezzlement, 30th April 1894. Here’s the report from the London Evening Standard – Tuesday 01 May 1894. “John […]
The Nottingham Review and General Advertiser for the Midland Counties – Friday 04 June 1830 reports the extraordinary story of a recently deceased 100 year old man with a long and dubious past. “The veteran […]
A lamplighter in Whitechapel, going about his business in the early hours of Wednesday the 14th of July 1869, was set upon and assaulted. Various excuses were made when the case went to court as […]
What became the amazing Princetown Railway over Dartmoor from Yelverton to Princetown was fraught with danger during it’s creation. During it’s building phase there were news stories of danger caused by the weather or those […]
The Times of Malta are reporting today the dreadful case of about 100 children who died during a stampede at a Valletta convent during carnival 192 years ago (here). I have found two articles from […]
The horrors and cruelty that prisoners of war endured at the original Princetown Prison on Dartmoor are recalled in this brief item in the Western Times – Saturday 30 August 1845. “Dartmoor – It is […]
British Newspapers from centuries ago were full of reports, much the same today, of people disappearing or dying in suspicious in unresolved circumstances. The police on the river Thames during Victorian Times were kept particularly […]
One of the many thrills of living the life of a Victorian must have been the development of the ability to record sound and therefore to mechanically (later electronically) reproduce the human voice. Several ideas […]
Gang trouble, particularly in Birmingham, started to appear in the newspapers in the early 1870s with reports of “slogging gangs” causing huge disturbances with considerable violence. The media were describing them as large bodies of […]
The late 1800’s and Edwardian era were a time of great technological adventure and ‘world firsts’. Here The Hartlepool Mail are reporting that the forthcoming eclipse will be filmed using a process of moving pictures. […]