A number of years ago I gave a talk in which I mentioned how a group of people from the area, Newbury, Berkshire, UK, moved to North America. The people included Rev. Thomas Parker and Rev. James Noyes. In 1634 they arrived in Ipswich (then known as Agawam) and later in 1635 moved along the […]
Newbury around the World Read More »
I mentioned previously about the roadside water pumps, the other thing people often ask about are the milestones. Milestones have a long history going back to at least the Romans. They marked every thousandth double step, hence the latin for thousand, “mille”. This equated to 1618 yards or 1479.5 meters. Throughout history the measure of
Thatcham milestones Read More »
There are a number of pumps dotted around Thatcham and I am often asked about them at history talks. This is a write up of my understanding of the roadside pumps along the A4, I am aware there are other pumps around, in gardens for example. In 1763 people in the Colnbrook area complained about
Thatcham roadside pumps Read More »
For years I have wanted to be able to read some of my old, non-PC, floppy disks. A few years back I decided it was time I made a start (see posts here). The initial idea was to use an Arduino, with a PIC32MX as a fallback, connecting it to an external Amiga floppy drive
Amiga Floppy Reader Read More »
This is a quick potted history of building/structure of Thatcham Parish Church, I will do another more detailed post of the history in a later post. I have noted in previous posts some of the history of the church (here) and the name (St Luke’s or St Mary’s). It is believed a church, originally a
A short history of St Mary’s Church Read More »
The Plough Inn went to auction, again, recently and I have had a number of enquiries, mostly around the suspicious discovery of a body, since this last happened (see previous post) so thought I would give a short update. The north part of the building itself is beleived to date to the 17th century with other parts added
The Skeleton at the Plough Inn Read More »
