Berkshire and South Oxfordshire churches: hidden gems and stories

Where can you visit a private library within a church? Or see rare examples of the macabre funerary art which swept Europe after the Black Death? Or find graffiti recalling the incarceration of Levellers in 1649? Catherine Sampson reveals all.

Comments Off on Berkshire and South Oxfordshire churches: hidden gems and stories

The Victorian Plentys

At the Newbury Branch January 2020 meeting Ellie Thorne of the Berkshire Record Office outlined the history of the Plenty company, an innovative and successful engineering firm founded at the turn of the nineteenth century. Lifeboats, steam engines, boilers, pumps, diesel engines and even a delivery van were produced at Plenty's Eagle Ironworks in the heart of Newbury.

Comments Off on The Victorian Plentys

Boiled cats, mercury and Jesuit Drops: healthcare in Georgian Newbury

Whilst the physicians and surgeons of Georgian times were technically regulated by their professional bodies, standards of training and practice were unenforceable. Itinerant “doctors” moved from town to town, dispensing miracle cures for all diseases

Comments Off on Boiled cats, mercury and Jesuit Drops: healthcare in Georgian Newbury

The life and times of Robert Tebbott (1782 – 1850)

Around 1820 the Prince Regent, about to become George IV, decided that Windsor Castle should be rebuilt as a royal residence. The contract for the work was awarded to Robert Tebbott. The original estimate of £120,000 soared to £1.2 million.

Comments Off on The life and times of Robert Tebbott (1782 – 1850)

Jack of Newbury

Jack of Newbury is a legendary figure of early Tudor England. However, you have to get the right one, out of several, including four generations of the same family where the heir was named John

0 Comments

- End -

No more pages to load