I was made aware of Hazel Churchward’s errata in the Village Pump Summer 2010.
On page 58 Hazel has applied her right to flag some inaccurate entries in the book ‘ A Pictorial History of Newton Longville’ which I researched, wrote and produced with Jimmy Bates between 1991 and 1995.
As with any project that relies on research, both from libraries and local residents, many of whom are no longer with us, it is natural that mistakes can be made.
The reason for publishing this blog is to keep the project alive and for people to share their memories and perhaps fill in gaps in the book itself.
I’m still proud of what we achieved in publishing the book, and it is good to know that it is still useful for people today, even though it is a piece of history itself. I also hope that Hazel feels she has made her point now and understands that I am happy to open an Errata on this site, to make sure that we have addressed any factual inaccuracies.
Unfortunately we can’t list all of Hazel’s items in the Errata, but we have chosen to include those that we believe add value to the context of the original publication, and for those we are grateful.
Posted in: General.
A few weeks back my mother arrived at my house clutching a stuffed envelope and told me that there were letters from the children at Newton Longville School who had seen copies of the book.
The letters were addressed to the parish council but they had been passed on to my mother to give to me.
My wife and I read every single one of them, and were thrilled to see that the book had been used in lessons at Newton Longville School. The letters from the children were fantastic, and it felt great to know that some fifteen years after publishing the book it is still generating interest today.
To all the children that wrote us letters, thank you very much, it made our day!
Regards
Roger
Posted in: General.
We received an email yesterday with some questions concerning the French family and Church End. If anyone can help please post a reply or email me direct.
I am just wondering if you have any knowledge of the age of the older houses in Church End, Newton Longville. I have been looking into my husband’s family history on his mother’s side and have traced them back to Thomas French, farmer, and his family, who lived at Church End in the 1840s and 1850s (no house number given in the 1851 census).
We did come over to Newton Longville a couple of weeks ago and could see that the Church End houses nearer the church were probably Victorian or older, hence my query as to whether you have any idea as to the dates they were built.
Thomas French died, I think, in 1857, and his daughter Mary is shown in the 1861 census as having come back to Church End and being a ‘farmer of 81 acres’. We also found two ‘French’ gravestones in the churchyard, a Stephen French (possibly a brother or cousin of Thomas, also living in Church End in 1851) and a little girl, Mary Ann French.
I realise, given the history of Newton Longville, that the French family is probably numerous, but any information you may have on Church End dates, or the French family in Newton Longville in general, would be much appreciated.
Posted in: Village Questions.
This project has been a while in the making, and your patience is appreciated as we work to make it into a usable reference point for people interested in the history of Newton Longville.
Very soon we will be releasing the book A Pictorial History of Newton Longville in its original form as an ebook which can be viewed and searched online.
There were many images that didn’t make it into the original book and we will be looking to create online galleries to share those with you.
In the meantime you can access a fairly complete collection of images on our Flickr gallery by clicking here
Posted in: General.
