local-history – Dig Up Your Ancestors

A History of Forge Cottage, Drayton

This is the story of the extended family of blacksmiths who lived and worked in my house and garden for most of the 19th century.

A Herculaneum Potter

230 years ago dozens of families from the Staffordshire potteries migrated to Liverpool to become the workforce at a huge new pottery factory, Herculaneum. The family of enameller John Edwards was one of them.

Lady Criminals on the Thames

Meet three women charged with crimes in London’s east end in the 1870s — brothel keeper Ann Gilligan, smuggler Mary Jones and illicit tobacco-seller Margarethe Schmidt.