Sapperton after the Great War
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...
STEAM Museum Swindon
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...
Capel’s Viaduct Stroud
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...
A Stroud Valleys and Canal Walk
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...
The Gauges at Gloucester
Gloucester ‘On Monday, the Great Western line was opened throughout from London to Gloucester … 114 miles … four hours and a half distance reckoned by time … by ordinary trains; but there is an express train to and fro each day which performs the distance in five...
Charles Richardson and Sapperton
Charles Richardson, Sapperton, and Charles Dickens A GWR Pilgrimage Brunel diary entry Boxing Day 1835 about the Cheltenham & Great Western Union Railway: ‘… it’s an awkward line and the estimate’s too low …’ Charles Richardson became Brunel’s resident...