Meet another member of the Flitney family: Albert Flitney, Sexton at Butlers Cross in 1939.

I’ve read dozens of old newspaper clippings about the Flitney family. Most are reports of births, marriages and deaths, but just occasionally something a little more unusual turns up. The following is an account of a stroll through the ‘fragrant English countryside’ written by a diarist by the name of ‘Longman’. It was published in…

A postcard and a visit to Well Manor Farm

You might wonder why I'm sharing this rather ordinary looking postcard.  The views of Buckingham (The Square and Town Hall, the old jail, the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, an old house, the River Ouse) are perfectly nice but not especially interesting. It’s neither very old nor rare, but it is special in…

A Sleepy Dog Story

Once upon a time, there was a boy who longed for a dog of his own. One day when the boy was nine years old, a travelling funfair visited the village where he lived. The fair arrived in large trucks and with the trucks came the showmen in their caravans. Inside one of the caravans…

A Country Tale – Images of Rural Life

Looking at this week’s prompt it seems appropriate to write about dogs, shepherds, sheep, views, and/or gates. Why then have I chosen to write about countrymen with beards? Simply because the Sepia Saturday photograph (left) reminds me of my great-great grandfather Benjamin Stopps. The two men don’t look particularly alike. The similarity has more to…

Sepia Saturday 326 – Subject Technical Data

Don’t be fooled by the title of this post I won’t be providing much (if any) technical data.  I can tell you the proof sheet was produced by my husband. He used Kodak Safety Film, and the proof sheet is numbered from 0 to 35.  Kelly our Beagle is the subject of most of the…

Leonard Flitney (1880-1953) a third son for Eli and Ellen.

Leonard Flitney was five weeks old when Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield stepped down from his second term as Britain’s Prime Minister. Born on the 14th March, 1880 Leonard was the third son of my paternal great grandparents Eli and Ellen Flitney. The weather showed great promise that spring, but July bought violent thunderstorms…

A Vintage Holiday Greeting

As many of you already know our son, his wife and their two little daughters are spending Christmas and the New Year with us.  They arrive on the 6th December and return to Australia towards the end of January 2016, which means I will be away from my blog for a few weeks.But … before…

You Need Hands

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt shows a lady playing a harp. Was she a famous harpist or is the harp merely a prop? I have no idea but thinking about it reminded me of the time my mother in law purchased a portrait sitting for Terry and I. As some of you already know I…

Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases

A quick check in our bathroom cabinet reveals thirteen cold & flu remedies, five different types of sticking plasters and numerous other pills and potions. When did it become necessary to have so many? When I was growing up just three things resided in the family medicine cabinet. The first was a large jar of…

I’m a Phillumenist!

Not a lot of people know that and why should they when I've only just found out myself.According to Wikipedia Phillumeny (also known as Phillumenism) is the hobby of collecting different match-related items: matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchbooks, matchcovers, matchsafes, etc., The word, derived from Greek phil- [loving] + Latin lumen- [light], was introduced by the British collector…