Not on my watch

Attempted theft under false pretences. The following news articles are too big for the page so I will stick with transcripts.

The News

CHARGE OF OBTAINING A GOLD WATCH BY A FORGED ORDER

From Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser 25 July 1860 (p7 col3)

Wrath and Savior

More wonderings in Scotland

This time I pick up on a question posed earlier: the Cape Wrath Trail, could I do that? (See also Wonderings in Scotland.)

Carriage mode

It turns out, over the years, that I encountered the Cape Wrath Trail (CWT) many times and travelled along parts of it, sometimes without knowing it, before mapping out the route(s) and seeing whether it was something I could achieve. I have only one image of relevance in my surviving collection; the last from the West Highland Way in Fort William, so I am going to rely on creative commons and donations. Above is one of my own, see end of post.

Wonderings in Scotland

The West Highland Way and diversions.

When I began thinking about this blog, I realised images would be in short supply, so I turned to my box of treasures for rescue. It turned up a couple of surprises, and lots of memories, which are the real treasures.

Why now? Well, two things: first on iPlayer a BBC Scotland program about the last hermit in Britain (The Hermit of Treig); second a series of You Tube videos about boaters Jo and Lorna doing the West Highland Way. Here are some recollections of my own.

Monumental Error

Private James Cale

Here is another in my occasional series about the men commemorated on the war memorial in the churchyard to St James, Ogley Hay, in the West Midlands of England. The sad thing about this one is that the name on the memorial is wrong.

Going Gregorian

Or when was your ancestor buried, exactly?

The Times, Saturday June 19 2021, includes The year when 11 days of British history vanished (p32 col1). I had known about this, and even remembered the correct dates from a pub quiz question: What happened in England between the 3rd and 13th of September 1752? Answer: nothing! I was tempted to skip to the next piece, but something kept me reading.

Boating in lockdown: annual review

Essential cruising, broken alternators, and the cost of living on the cut in the tax year 2020-2021.

Field path near Cropredy, Oxfordshire.

At the start of the tax year just ended I was moored at Cropredy in Oxfordshire, it was the thirteenth day of lockdown. Although I have not counted miles walked, I must have covered many times the distance travelled by boat, which was a mere 155.7 miles. For much of the year boat travel has been restricted to the essential, so my exercise on foot has covered much more ground.

Viking hokey-cokey

Back in July Ancestry revised their output on DNA, based on a much larger, and growing sample of test results, 44,000+.

Previously, I have considered this topic in Ancestry Genetic Communities (March 2017), and Pardon my French! (September 2018). In the second of these I found it hard to believe the complete absence of any Scandinavian component to my genetic heritage, other than indirectly via Normandy.

Another Bick in the wall

A while back I found a hint on Ancestry about John Cowley, the ancestor of Ellen, who married Tom Dennis, long time publican of the Railway Inn / Tavern, in Ogley Hay, then in Staffordshire. Previous episodes in this strand can be found at: Excavating the Cowley branch, Cowley’s the Name, and Navvy army. These are not direct ancestors, but I have found their story intriguing.

Remembrance: Pte 306722 David Caulton

Here is another in my occasional series about the men commemorated on the war memorial in the churchyard to St James, Ogley Hay, in the West Midlands of England. There is no particular order to these posts. Previously, I have tried to focus on the actions that the men were involved in, but for many there is little information available online (without subscriptions beyond the ones I already have), and this is mostly the case this time. This means that my research is incomplete, but I am encouraged by a recent positive reply to my exploration of Pte Hubert Sanders. But what of the man prior to the war?

My first port of call was Ancestry, where I discovered that Pte David Caulton (in military records “Coulton”) died on 3 May 1917, and that he was born on 13 Nov 1893, mother Annie Elizabeth Crannage. From there I was able to locate him in the 1901 Census: