Alex Craven

Sorry to read this Cath, must be horrible.

Working through the notes, just found that the church had a baptistry, and received oil and chrism from Heytesbury, so guessing this is no insurgency against the mother church.

I keep meaning to buy a copy.

You'll know whose notes I was relying upon. The visitor goes on to write 'sed stat ibi plumbum minus honestum loco fontium.' 'minus honestum' - of no virtue ('unadorned' in these notes), or of no use perhaps?

Also, do we see the lead font as the first attempt to exercise parochial rights there?

I was relying upon the notes of a former (medievalist) colleague. As to the font, I suspect that there never had been one, the church was a chapel attached to a collegiate church. I wonder if the lead font was their first attempts to appropriate parochial rights to the chapel (still no burial yard).

Register of S. Osmund

Non sunt ibi fontes ad baptizandum pueros... www.google.co.uk/books/editio... [p. 314]

Guessing pueros here means children, not boys?

I’m just searching for it now…

Is 'boys' a mistranslation for children perhaps? Was the lead font just for times when there was no alternative, eg. if a newborn was close to death? Or could girls be baptised in the lead font but not boys?

Help!

Medievalists! I'm writing about a church where it was said that in 1224 'there is no font to baptise boys, but one of unadorned lead in its place', and I have questions.

Sellafirld is certainly going to make for one of the more interesting VCH Cumbria. Volumes, that’s for sure. And @vch-home.bsky.social volumes are all already incredibly interesting, obviously.

Gloucestershire Learn about the Victoria County History of Gloucestershire.

This volume - one of three that @vchgloucester.bsky.social are currently working on - focuses on the town of Cirencester, a medieval town on a Roman site.

Work is also under way towards volumes on #Cheltenham, and on #Yate and the Sodburys - to learn more and support these projects:

Gloucestershire vol. XVI - Cirencester and District The research for the accounts of the prehistory of the area, the Abbey of Cirencester, the town and parish of Cirencester, Bagendon, Baunton, Daglingworth and Stratton.

More new *draft* text from @vchgloucester.bsky.social on the parish of #Coates, near #Cirencester.

All corrections, additions, or clarifications welcome! #Skystorians #LocalHistory

Out in the field taking final illustrations for the book on Herriard, and the late evening sun is picking out the mass dials on the parish church perfectly.

But the fundamental point is that the rail network is far, far more crowded than 30 years ago. In the year to March 1996, there were 761mn passenger journeys on GB's mainline railways. In the year to March this year, there were 1.73bn, almost back to the 1.75bn peak in the year to March 2019.

This surely is the stand-out statistic that needs to be known more widely.

Looks great! Congratulations.

A photo of the author holding up a copy of her book, which has a red cover.

Delighted that the print copies of my first book 'Birth, Death, and Domestic Religion in early modern London', just published with @universitypress.cambridge.org, have arrived! 📚📚📚

Woman’s memoirs give fascinating insight into life in 17th-century northern England Newly reunited manuscripts by Alice Thornton show how she navigated personal crises during tumultuous events such as the civil war

Alice! Top work @hagenilda.bsky.social @cordeliabeattie.bsky.social @sharonhoward.bsky.social et al!

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

I’ve finally found something referencing where they took a picture from - the Railway Times in 1905 - so it’s just a simple trip to the British Library. Thanks for your help.

I'd found the SW Circle via another page recommended in the thread, but thanks. Hoping if I contact them, one of their members might have something.

But really, I was hoping there might be an obscure but amazing archive I was unaware of (like the bus archive).

Thanks. I'm aware of the books, but not based in Hampshire. A colleague will check the books next time she's at the record office, but I was hoping they might have been reproduced from a collection somewhere. Online there are photos of Herriard station and of a L&SWR railmotor, so I'm hopeful...

This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for, thank you!

I’ve found photos of both online, so they exist, but I need find images that I can reproduce in a book - so either in an archive collection or private collection. None of the online pictures both with any kind of references. Can anyone help?

Railway historians/enthusiasts - can anyone suggest how/where I can find photos of obscure railways and trains? I would like photos of the L&SWR Basingstoke-Alton branch - ideally of Herriard station, and the railmotors that ran on the line.

And Wales too!

Ah, I hadn't noticed it wasn't in April. Thanks!

His later career included Hinckley, but he still had connections with Cirencester until his death. One can only assume he had a well-used rail card.

He was from Highworth, outside Swindon. Without bothering to do the family research, I assume his wife’s family lived in my parish - a family with her maiden name were neighbours (although none were natives of Preston itself).

Indeed! (Although I don’t know whether he was living in Ciren at that point.)

Ted Clack - Wikipedia

You can read the biography of Charles Edward 'Ted' Clack (including his exploits in both World Wars) on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Clack. Over two seasons the winger made 9 appearances for the Rokerites, failing to win any. Perhaps that is why he moved to Bristol City for free in 1923.