On Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:18:02 +0100, Amanda Kerby <[email protected]> wrote: > My prized book is my Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke’s History of City of > Gloucester! Hi Amanda and Listers, Your reference to this author, Amanda, reminded me that I have an old book by the Rev. T.D. Fosbroke entitled The Wye Tour or Gilpin on the Wye with Picturesque, Historical and Archaeological Additions, which was published in 1822. It's an original copy bound with the author's Companion to the Wye Tour (1821.) Your comment about a prized book has set me thinking about which of my Bristol books is my prized book? I think I would have to select books by two authors. These prized Bristol books, which I have read and read until they are falling apart, are William Barrett's The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol (1789) and Samuel Seyer's Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bristol and its Neighbourhood (1821, Vol.I, 1823 Vol.II) Does anyone else have a prized book or books connected with the B & S area? Josephine

On 29/09/2012 14:57, Josephine Jeremiah wrote: > On Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:18:02 +0100, Amanda Kerby > <[email protected]> wrote: > >> My prized book is my Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke’s History of City of >> Gloucester! > <snip> Does anyone else have a prized book or books connected with the B & S area? > > Josephine I frequently refer to "The Annals of Bristol" by John Latimer and published by J. W. Arrowsmith in Bristol c1908. There are five volumes covering from the early 1500s to 1900. They are fairly well indexed and quite useful. Reg Harris

On 29/09/2012 16:05, RJ Harris wrote: > On 29/09/2012 14:57, Josephine Jeremiah wrote: >> On Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:18:02 +0100, Amanda Kerby >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> My prized book is my Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke’s History of City of >>> Gloucester! > >> <snip> Does anyone else have a prized book or books connected with the B & S area? >> >> Josephine A book I have been pleased to read recently is "The Diary of William Dyer: Bristol in 1762" Edited by Jonathan Barry and published by The Bristol Record Society 2012. Reg Harris

Reg, that sounds an interesting one, I might look that up. Talking of books, has anyone read Augustus Hervey’s Journal? There’s a copy listed on our local NZ TradeMe (like ebay) at a high price of $77. Here’s a precis... Augustus Hervey was born into the wildly eccentric family of the Earls of Bristol, a lineage so different from ordinary folk that it was said there were three sexes: men, women and Herveys. Indeed, Augustus's father was the infamous cross-dressing courtier. A secret marriage and a notorious bigamy trial surrounded the young Augustus with scandal, and he was happy to escape to sea. But if the family thought the Navy a dull and conventional career, Augustus was soon to prove he had true Hervey blood in his veins. With powerful patronage, he rapidly achieved independent command, and in the closing years of the War of Austrian Succession he showed himself to be a surprisingly effective naval officer. It is at this point that his journal begins, but while it offers a valuable insight into the Navy of the time, it becomes more generally entertaining when Hervey turns to describing his peacetime campaigns among the ladies of various Mediterranean cities. When war broke out once again in 1756, Hervey was to participate in some important events, including the disastrous Battle of Port Mahon, 2002 Paperback 388 Pages Amanda Kerby NZ

On Sat, 29 Sep 2012 23:18:19 +0100, Amanda Kerby <[email protected]> wrote: > Talking of books, has anyone read Augustus Hervey’s Journal? Hi Amanda and Listers, Thanks for the reference to this, Amanda. It's another one I haven't heard of before. In the U.K. this book can be obtained far more cheaply, through AbeBooks, than the price you've mentioned. I was thinking of Ickworth, the seat of the Herveys, Earls of Bristol, earlier this week, because I saw a building that looked like Ickworth Rotunda on a television programme. There's information on the Herveys, who were Earls of Bristol and Marquesses of Bristol, on the following National Trust web page: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/history/view-page/item419225/255235/ Josephine

On 29/09/2012 14:57, Josephine Jeremiah wrote: > Does anyone else have a prized book or books connected with the B & S area? Five Years of Colliery Life or the Adventures of a Collier Boy in a Somersetshire Coal Mine by Jonathan Presto (1884) is one. And stretching geography a little, I'd add The River Wye - A Pictorial History by Josephine Jeremiah (2004) Ian

On Sat, 29 Sep 2012 16:18:06 +0100, Ian Sage <[email protected]> wrote: > Five Years of Colliery Life or the Adventures of a Collier Boy in a > Somersetshire Coal Mine by Jonathan Presto (1884) is one. Hi Ian, I found this title intriguing so I did a search for it and came up with a reference to the book on this interesting web page, which has reference to coal pits in the B & S area: http://humanities.uwe.ac.uk/bhr/Main/coal/3_coal.htm Speedwell and Deep Pit at Kingswood are mentioned. My grandfather, a coal miner, worked there when he was young. Josephine

On 30/09/2012 09:27, Josephine Jeremiah wrote: >> Five Years of Colliery Life or the Adventures of a Collier Boy in a >> Somersetshire Coal Mine by Jonathan Presto (1884) is one. > I did a search for it and came up with a > reference to the book on this interesting web page, which has reference to > coal pits in the B & S area: > > http://humanities.uwe.ac.uk/bhr/Main/coal/3_coal.htm > > Thanks for that link, Josephine. It's one I haven't come across before. I am not sure if your search led you to the information (which I am unable to verify) that Jonathan Presto was a pseudonym for Charles CHALLENGER - a surname which I know appears in the ancestry of listers. In the style of the day, he is fairly careful not to give specific names of pits and people, but he relates how he began work in September 1864, aged 12 at a colliery which had then been working for 40 years. Taking the pseudonym at face value, Charles seems to have become professionally upwardly mobile and achieve a corresponding social respectability. He can be identified in censuses - for example, as a tramway manager at Neath in 1881 and consistently gives his place of birth as Clutton. In 1861 he is still at Clutton with father Paul and mother Elizabeth; it therefore seems probable that he began work locally, either at the Fry's Bottom or Greyfield pits. The book gives much the best first hand report of Somerset coal mining that I am aware of, and though the account is doubtless sanitised for wider consumption I regard it as a bit of a treasure. Ian