Pam's Blog

2011-12-19T12:17:00.000-08:00

My little great grand-daughter is two years old today. I went to her party yesterday (Sunday) and she was so delighted when opening her presents, that to watch her was delightful for us too and kept all her grandparents and her two great grandmas happy just watching her.She liked the set of drums I bought her and so, I think, did her Daddy. Mummy will probably not be so keen! I have offered to keep them at my house if they become a nuisance - but I am willing to bet I shall not be required to do so. She had lots of lovely presents and they should keep her busy for a long time.

Well Christmas is upon us and we haven't had any snow yet! Not like last year - but I can't say I am sorry - I don't like being housebound because of the ice. Last year I couldn't get the car out for a week and did my grocery shopping online. How easy it is! A lovely young man carries in the goods. unloads them and all I have to do is put them into the cupboard. That means I handle the stuff just once instead of six times - once into the basket, a second time from the basket to the till, then again into the basket and once more into the car. Then when we get home I carry the goods into the house before I can put them into the cupboard. If you haven't tried online grocery shopping yet I can recommend it!!

I have recently been on a diet and lost a stone in weight - but - I fear some of it will be packed on again over Christmas. I have gone up a couple of pounds this last two weeks as I have been out for quite a lot of meals this month. My New Years Resolution will be to get back on the diet!!

Have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

2011-12-13T06:28:00.000-08:00

I would just like to wish all my followers and readers a

Happy Christmas

and a great New Year.

2011-11-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

We have just put the clocks back and I am still waking up rather early. My internal clock takes a week or two to settle down and adjust to the new times. Why on earth do we have to do it? Couldn't we settle for one or the other and stop all this chopping and changing? Do other countries change their time twice a year? Surely we ought to be on Greenwhich Mean Time and stay there. There are numerous conflicting opinions as to the benefits/disadvantages of different timings and no-one seems able to agree on which times are best. Apparently it was in 1916 that the Daylight Saving Bill was introduced and we have been following this silly system ever since. We must have managed before this and I'm sure we could manage again!

2011-09-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

If Jo Cottingham reads this - I did try to email you back but there was an error in your email address and it kept aborting. Please do try me again.

2011-09-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

I have just come back from a few days in Venice. Very nice hotel and the weather was splendid (wall to wall blue sky and 30C temp) so when I got home I felt cold for a few days. Venice was beautiful and I got some great pix.

I have had a query about the windmills of Swineshead recently and am working on that subject at present. Apparently there were two mills down Villa Lane, one at The Ivy and one at The Villa. They were both demolished just before WW2 in the late 1930s. There also seems to have been one somewhere near Tarry Hill as the Benefactions board in the church states that in 1699 William Hart left a windmill, two cottages and land near Tarry Hill. The cottages referred to as Hart's Cottages were at the southern end of Tarry Hill so perhaps the mill was near them. There was also a mill in Park Lane known locally as Wilson's Mill that was demolished some 70 or 80 years ago. Houlder's mill, built in 1833, was demolished in 1963 and North End Mill is still standing and is now a pet shop.

If anyone out there has any information about any of the mills in the village I would be pleased to hear from you.

2011-09-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

I am ashamed to see that I haven't written in my blog for some time. At least it suggests I have been busy with other things. It has not been a good summer for my usual activities such as gardening, but instead I have been going to the gym. I am now much fitter and ten pounds lighter than I was a few months ago. I must try to keep it up this winter.
However in winter I tend to spend more time working on my computer. The book was coming along well until I went into summer mode, but I shall be getting back to it soon so excercise may be put on the back burner.
I have had quite a lot of enquiries lately for help with family history/info re Swineshead, and answering the emails keeps me fairly busy. However I do enjoy that and it is lovely to have contact with people all over the world.

2011-02-11T03:04:00.001-08:00

I have just had a birthday - no I am not going to tell you which one! - but today a late present arrived in the post which has really excited me. My sister-in-law has sent me a note book that belonged to a soldier in WW1 or WW2, I am not sure which as there is no date on it, but it seems to be a recipe book and at the back some notes on lectures. I think he must have been training the men who were to be in the catering corps as the recipes are for large numbers of men.
Here is the first one in the book:

Recipe for 100 men - Cabbage, Bacon and Potato Soup.
Ingredients:
25 quarts of stock
4 lbs of onions
10 lbs of clean cabbage
10 lbs of potatoes
8 ozs of marg
4 lbs of bacon bones or trimmings
4 oz of salt
1 Faggot
I won't give you the method as I'm sure no-one will actually want to cook it, suffice it to say the last instruction was to skim of the fat and remove the faggot!

I am now going to read the rest of this book to see if there are any clues as to its age. It is in remarkably good condition whichever war it has come from. I will keep you posted.

2010-12-28T02:07:00.000-08:00

I have received an email from someone who has been trying to buy one of my books without success. I must point out to my readers that both 'A History of Swineshead' and 'Swineshead Remembers' are out of print. The only way to purchase a copy is to find one on Ebay or maybe even Amazon. If there was enough demand the publisher might consider a reprint, so it may be a good idea for some of you to write to him asking when there will be one.
Happy New Year everyone.

2010-11-19T02:55:00.000-08:00

I am writing a book about Swineshead at war and if anyone out there had a relative in either WW1 or WW2 and would like to send me any information that I could include in the book, I would very much appreciate it. I shall, of course, be writing about the boys on the war memorial, but any info about boys who were lucky enough to return could also be included. There must be a connection with Swineshead - either they lived there or were born there.
I look forward to hearing from some of you.

2010-11-16T11:46:00.000-08:00

BT has seen fit to change my home page. Why do they do it? If it's not broke why fix it? Everything is twice the size it was and now I can't read my emails properly. I can only see one line at a time!
Well isn't it nice to hear some pleasant news? I shall look forward to next year's Royal Wedding.
I think William has found himself a really lovely wife and she seems to be a confident young lady too. She should make a very good queen when the time comes.

2010-11-11T11:26:00.000-08:00

Well I see it is a while since I wrote anything here. I have been distracted for the past few months as a friend of mine died suddenly which was quite a shock. This kind of thing makes you think of your own mortality, doesn't it? I have always wanted to be buried when my time comes and not cremated, so to this end I am purchasing a burial plot. It takes some time as it is necessary to apply in writing to the church warden and then she takes this letter to the next PCC meeting. If everyone agrees that I can have the plot I have chosen then I have to pay up and it is mine! I have chosen a shady little spot near some trees and close by the path which I think will be very pleasant.

On a happier note, I am getting quite proficient with my ProShow Gold programme and have made a decent presentation of my holiday in China in 2005. I am hoping to make one of Swineshead before long and put it on my website. Watch this space!

2010-08-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

I am currently learning some new computer skills. I joined an AV (audio visual) group and having purchased the programme ProShow Gold, I am now able to make a presentation and (hopefully) put it on a disc. I have had to look out my old holiday pix to use in my first presentation but when I become proficient at this I will make one of Swineshead to put on my website.

2010-04-09T01:55:00.000-07:00

I have decided that this plaque (see yesterday's post) is not a firemark and have pursued the possibility that it is connected with the coat of arms of one of the families associated with Swineshead in the past. It does not seem to have anything to do with the de Gresleys or the de la Warres and I have tried to find other names associated with the village such as Fairfax, Mowbray, Bolle etc but cannot find the arms of all of them.
Apparently a boar's head signifies hospitality.
Any suggestions anyone?

2010-04-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

I was asked recently if I knew the meaning of the three stars that appear over a boar's head on the Swineshead Bowling Club badge. I did not know the answer and if anyone out there does so, please would they let me know.

However, I have discovered that the boar's head appears on a few houses locally in the form of a plaque, without the stars but with the Latin inscription 'per utilitas' underneath it. As they are on old buildings I wondered if maybe this plaque could be an old firemark for insurance purposes. These were common in the nineteenth century and proved to the fire fighters that you were a paid up member of their insurance company.

If anyone has any comments on this theory I would be pleased to receive them.

2010-03-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well the U3A Open Day went well. I understand we have 51 new members and I have three of them on my waiting list for the Family History Group. We were busy all the time - there was never a lull in the proceedings. Everyone wanted to talk to us and seemed very interested in our displays. All in all it was worth all the hard work.

Easter is just about upon us. Where does the time go? We are a quarter of the way through 2010 already. However we have a BBQ Summer to look forward to - if the prediction is correct this time. It all went pear shaped last year so I will believe it when I see it. I won't be rushing out to buy new garden furniture or half a dozen bottles of sun cream! I can't wait to get out there and start gardening though. Lots of my plants died in the frosts so I need to take stock and go shopping for some new ones. That will be fun!

2010-03-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

12th March

Well the U3A Open Day is nearly here and we have all been working hard on our displays. The Local History Group had a practice run last week and we were all very pleased with the result. I have just to complete my Family History Group display and then it is all systems go! I do hope some of you out there will be coming to see what we have been up to.

Mother's Day looms on the horizon and I look forward to seeing my offspring on Sunday.

My little great grand-daughter is blooming and growing fast. How time flies.

Boston U3A

2010-01-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

I am a member of the Boston U3A - that is the University of the Third Age - and we meet on the third Tuesday in the month at the Assembly Rooms in Boston Market Place. To show the public what we get up to, we are having an open day on 16th March 2010 starting at 11am. The general idea of the U3A is that we meet at the monthly meetings and from there we can join different groups. There are groups for all kinds of hobbies and interests such as whist, bridge, walking, dancing, singing, medieval history, local history, lace making etc etc. The group leaders are going to put on a display of their particular subject. Mine is family history and I had such a good response I had to divide the group into two. As leader of this group I have to think of something to display at the open day. I am also in the local history group and will have things to prepare for that as we are all contributing to quite a big display.

New Books

2010-01-08T05:12:00.000-08:00

At the moment I am working on a new book about the boys on the Swineshead War Memorial. It is provisionally entitled Swineshead's War Heroes. This won't be finished for a couple of years as I am currently involved in one or two other projects. For example, this year is the 150th anniversary of the death of William Ingram and it is proposed to celebrate this with some events in Boston during the spring and summer. I got involved with this because William Ingram lived at Swineshead Abbey for a few years and this fact was mentioned in my book A History of Swineshead.
For the last couple of years I have been on a committee to restore an old tithe map which our last vicar found in the church when having a clear out. He found a rusty old metal tube and inside was the map. It has now been restored and lodged with the Lincolnshire Archives. We had a copy made to display in our village hall but it has not been hung yet. Watch this space!

I am reliably informed that the map has now been hung on the wall in the Village Hall along with some framed old posters donated by Peter Sharman.