History

“No Pasaran!”

by | 14th October 2026 | Counter-Heritage, History, Walks | 0 Comments

“Where Are the Faces We Seek?” This extract from a contemporary poem gives a flavour of the 1930s. You’ll hear about the Means Test which was, in essence, a vicious attack on the unemployed living on the dole during the Great Depression when unemployment as a national average reached 25%. The extract shows how domestic and foreign policies were intertwined,   ‘Where are the faces we seek, the British faces? Let the living answer the roll call of the dead … Where are those who tramping on Means Test marches Knew that the road they had taken against oppression Led to the front in Spain The shouts in Trafalgar Square of “No Pasaran!”’   Narration: The rise of Hitler in 1933 and his aggressive foreign policy led socialists and communists and liberals and men and women of all persuasions that a stand had to be taken when Franco led a fascist revolt against the democratically elected Spanish government in 1936. There was a belief that if fascism could be stopped in Spain, then that united front would show fascist powers such as Italy and Germany that war would not pay. In short, victory against fascist aggression in Spain could deter further wars. Working women and men, the unemployed and the intelligentsia began to make their way to Spain in the face of opposition and disapproval from British government. Many without passports walked the Pyrenees and made their way to the universal front that separated freedom from oppression and the rise of European fascism. The British government refused to heed the warnings from Spain.  Ignoring German and Italian aggression in Spain,...
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Stroud to Swindon and Brunel all the Way

by | Jun 26, 2025 | , | 0 Comments

From Stroud to Swindon for a Football Match (Brunel All the Way) Start your journey at the Platform One Café, Coffee and croissants and Katie and Rick, 3 tables, 6 chairs, a trunk, 15 railway puzzles (Always one on the go for travellers with a brief encounter), Sundry...

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Sapperton after the Great War

by | Jun 26, 2025 | , | 0 Comments

Sapperton in the 1920s   My grand-dad served throughout the Great War from 1914 to 1918. He was made redundant in 1919, in London, so he and his family moved back towards my grandmother’s home of Stroud. They lived in a Nissen hut by Minchinhampton Aerodrome (today’s...

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STEAM Museum Swindon

by | Jun 25, 2025 | , | 0 Comments

Dear Famous Five, If you want a great day out then you ought to come to the STEAM Museum in Swindon. Because this is what I saw when here today on holiday:   A gift shop, a fire engine, giant locomotive wheels, name plates and numbers, signals, holiday haunts...

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Capel’s Viaduct Stroud

by | Jun 25, 2025 | , | 0 Comments

History at Capel’s Viaduct It’s a great walk down to Capel’s Viaduct, Past old ridge and furrow and tenterhook hedgerows, Teazles here and there to raise your nap, Imagining the patchwork quilt of fields of two centuries ago, Field-names such as Bacon Slad, Calves...

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A Stroud Valleys and Canal Walk

by | Jun 25, 2025 | , | 0 Comments

A Stroud Valleys Railway and Canal Walk   At first glance, it might seem a bit odd to link old railway stations and halts near Stroud with Shelley’s poem Ozymandias. But if I give some famous lines a Dr Beeching tweak then I think you’ll know what I mean: ‘Look...

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