Category Archives: history

West Country Tour Part 2

Sarah is continuing her trip through the West Country in Autumn

Buckle up, we have a lot of ground to cover.

Leaving Withypool

We could not leave the area without a visit to Tarr Steps, an ancient clapper bridge across the River Barle, and only a few minutes out of our way. This ancient stone bridge has been used by pack horses and travellers for centuries.

Exmoor Tarr Steps, River Barle

Exmoor Tarr Steps, River Barle.

For the word nerds like me…

dictionary open at the word "dictionary"

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word clapper comes from medieval Latin “clapus, or claperius”, which means a pile of stones. This is what appears in most of the information I found in the Exmoor guides.

However, Dartmoor National Park explains that the term originates from the Anglo-Saxon word “cleaca”, which means bridging the stepping stones. I think that describes the bridge far better, what about you?

Back to Tarr Steps

Tarr Steps, River Barle, ExmoorThe River Barle was flowing quite fast, and looking at the uneven stones of the clapper bridge, together with the movement of water, I admitted defeat. I could not be persuaded to walk across! However, my lovely assistant made the journey for me, so you can see how safe it is for those without balance issues.

The ancient bridge is the longest in Britain: 55 metres across and it has 17 spans. It is also Grade I listed and an ancient monument dating back to medieval times. The  fast flowing river carries loose branches and debris down to the bridge and every now and again the resulting flood damage needs to be repaired. Continue reading →

Richard III : a Mystery

Sophie reviews her feeling about kings, Richard III and takes a trip via Shakespeare to the Wars of the Roses

public domain via Wikipedia

I’m not quite sure when I first found Richard III a mystery of compelling interest. But it seems as if all my life he has had a hold over my imagination. And it’s personal. 

It started when someone, possibly my godfather, told me about the Princes in the Tower and how their uncle was rumoured to have murdered them. But, said this unidentified story-teller, there was no evidence they’d been murdered, they just disappeared. And Richard III was a decent man. Personally he doubted it.

So maybe that was it. Tell a curious child that someone is said to be a murderer but there’s no way of proving what happened, one way or the other, and you’ve inspired a fan for life.  Continue reading →

Armistice Day reprise (but definitely still worth a read)

Since it is Remembrance Sunday, Sophie is reprising her 2018 blog about Armistice Day

Sunset over poppy field, remembrance

Image by Diego Torres from Pixabay

Today is very special because it is both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. It is, of course, also the centenary of the end of fighting in the First World War.

Armistice Day - old radio

Image by Detmold from Pixabay

“Armistice” is an interesting word. It is a temporary truce during which warring parties meet to discuss possible peace. I remember my grandmother telling me that, before she told me anything else. I was very small.

The emotions coming out of the radio into the small suburban sitting room awed me. And so did those of the two elderly ladies, tough as old boots in my previous experience, who were both damp-eyed.

From them I picked up a terrible sense that we had made peace at the very last moment. And that we might not have. It has stayed with me ever since. Continue reading →

Historical costume 1800-1850: bonnets and hats

Joanna has realised that, in all her costume blogs, she hasn’t included bonnets or hats…

Sarah Siddons, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785, Public Domain, Link

It’s not that long ago that no lady (or gentleman, for that matter) would go out without wearing a head-covering of some kind. No one questioned the need for hats, caps and bonnets.

When Sarah Siddons sat for her 1785 portrait, she was wearing a hat. With feathers.  Of course, she was. And it looks splendid, don’t you think?

If you look closely at the 1894 image below, you’ll see that most of the spectators are children and almost all of them are wearing caps or hats. Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was no question of not wearing a hat or bonnet or cap.

Crowd waiting to see policeman's funeral 1894, by Paul Martin

Crowd waiting for policeman’s funeral, 1894, by Paul Martin © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

And that continued into the twentieth century. Hats, cloches, flat caps, trilbies. They’re all there in this coach party image. The dog is hatless, though 😉

Coach Party at Rhyl. Date: 1920s

Coach party to Rhyl, 1920s, by archivist – stock.adobe.com

After the Second World War, the widowed mother of one of my school friends managed to support two children by running a hat shop. Selling nothing but hats was enough to provide a living for three. But it wasn’t going to last. Continue reading →

Magic Roundabout Memory

Sophie has been revisiting her past, thanks to BBC radio…

writer's cat - kitten on radio

photo by Sophie Weston of author’s kitten

A couple of weeks ago, BBC Radio 4 Extra brought me up short with a magic memory. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. So I thought I would share.

For some readers of this blog, this will bring back memories of their own. I hope that, like mine, they will be good ones. Well, mostly.

woman on headphonees with others

Image by Mircea Iancu from Pixabay

But for most this will be a small vignette of a time that is past.

Before the Internet changed all our lives and habits. Before social media brought us infinite opportunities, along with monsters.

Come back with me, then, to a time before Twitter, X or Facebook. Before people walking down the street talking to themselves and/or staring at a small screen. Before widely accessible citizen journalism, Netflix and the billionaire broligarchy. (Pick your own monsters.) Continue reading →

Mantua, sumptuous on steroids? As was Rigoletto…

Just to prove Joanna keeps her promises…

Mantua palazzo ducale exterior

Mantua, palazzo ducale, exterior

Some time ago, when blogging about Palladio, I promised a future blog showing the amazing art in the palaces in Mantua. This is the promised blog. And this is the exterior of the ducal palace. Looks quite plain and austere, doesn’t it?

But I haven’t shown you the inside yet.

Prepare to goggle. Possibly to the point where you can’t cope with any more bling. That was certainly the case for me. Continue reading →

A 40th book with Mills & Boon so Sarah is celebrating

Busy fizz

bigstock-sml-Champagne-And-Fireworks-77919032.jpg

This summer Mills & Boon/Harlequin published my 40th book. No wonder I am celebrating!

It seems no time at all since I started began writing for Mills & Boon, but that wasn’t the start. Oh no.

I have always been a scribbler…

hand writing a letter with a goose feather AnnekaS/Bigstock.com

…and yes, looking at the picture on the left, it does feel that long ago!

There’s the short story I wrote in my teens and sent off to a teenage magazine. It received a polite rejection letter. No thoughts of Mills & Boon at that stage! Continue reading →

The history of beach huts and bathing machines…

…and the health-giving benefits of sea-bathing, explored by Liz

Cover of Beach Huts and Bathing Machines by Kathryn Ferry. Picture of beach huts.My interest, and the interest of fellow Liberta hivies (and friends) in the history of beach huts and bathing machines, began over one of Sophie’s delicious Shepherd’s Pies on the evening of 12 September 2019. I find it difficult to believe it was that long ago.

Some  of us were in London for our publisher’s lunch and that evening we were gathered around Sophie’s supper table talking writing and books, as you do.

During the course of the evening someone suggested that we should write and publish an anthology of novellas.

This idea was greeted with enthusiasm and we immediately began brainstorming ideas for a setting which would link our stories. Someone (whistles innocently) suggested beach huts. More of that later.

Beach Huts and Bathing Machines

Continue reading →

Dundee after the dance

Panorama of Dundee City

Dundee (photo Hans Musil)

Following my post about dance in Dundee, I thought I would share more of my impressions of the city. We weren’t there long, but even in a couple of hours I found much to inspire me, from historic ships to hysterics on the high street.

Before my trip in February I had only driven through Dundee once, so knew very little about it. A quick look online will tell you that it is the fourth largest city in Scotland and apparently its sunniest! Not that it was very sunny when we were there, but it was February, after all.

On a writerly note

Continue reading →

The Grand Tour taught gentlemen to admire Palladio

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of…

A Mansion in the style of Palladio?

Palladio's Villa Rotonda outside Vicenza

Palladio’s Villa Almerico Capra known as “La Rotonda”

Joanna here. Making apologies to Jane Austen, but I couldn’t resist. And the gents on the Grand Tour couldn’t resist, either, it seems, given how many Palladian or Neo-Palladian houses they built on their return.

When I saw what Palladio did, in the flesh, so to speak, I had to admit that it’s impressive. And much earlier (16th century) than I had thought.

This is the so-called Villa Rotonda, just outside Vicenza, Palladio’s adopted home town. It’s called a villa, but Palladio himself classified it as a palazzo. It is a perfectly symmetrical little gem, designed in 1566, with four pillared porticoes.

It seems to float on the little hillock where it sits. And it has, we were told, no foundations as such. Instead, it sits on a solid plinth and its very construction provides its stability. What’s more, when you stand in the portico behind the pillars, it’s not possible to see the steps down to the garden. Palladio designed the steps for precisely that effect. So visitors do feel as if the villa is floating. Continue reading →