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Here you will find an eclectic mix of pages showing our interests in many topics:
view the
SIDE MENU
if not already visible
See this important link, at the bottom of this page, to
"LEICESTERSHIRE OVERSEAS",
the late Tim Airey's site until his death in 2003.
It still exists, after a fashion.
Online Photo Repair and Restoration
service
Genealogy and our own family history
Leicester City Transport
The Royal Air Force and Military
Matters
Valerie's UK Heritage DVDs
Dig even deeper and you will find a host of other interests as shown on
our Links Page.
We hope you enjoy your visit to our website.
If you have any queries, we would be pleased to hear from you.
email: click the button on the left
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YOU IN NEED of photos being restored? ![]() BRING YOUR OLD DAMAGED PHOTOS TO LIFE AGAIN! Do you have any old photos which are crinkled, scratched or damaged in any way? Perhaps after flood or other accidental damage. Don't throw them away - they can be restored. Maybe I can help ... see my full page on our PHOTO REPAIR & RESTORATION SERVICE Just click the link or menu button to go to a new page displaying many before-and-after examples of my work. military - naval - transport genre photos a speciality Also slides, glass or film, card or plastic mounts, and negatives either loose or in strips. |
| OUR FAMILY ![]()
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| FAMILY
HISTORY Genealogy is one of the fastest-growing hobbies in the worldwide. Rob and Val have researched most of their families and you will find more details here. For more general genealogy links which might prove helpful if you're just starting out, click here. The table below shows some of the main names in our respective Leicestershire family trees. We moved to Hull in 1978, but we have no family here. OUR JOINT FAMILIES
We are members of the Leicester & Rutland Family History Society. A firm belief: "Every Englishman should know and be aware of his own history." Here's a quote by another Englishman: "England has become a dwelling-place of foreigners and a playground for lords of alien blood. No Englishmen today is an earl, a bishop, or an abbot; new faces everywhere enjoy England’s riches and gnaw her vitals, nor is there any hope of ending this miserable state of affairs." So said William of Malmesbury around 1130. William's father was Norman, but he was English through his mother. He lived in the early 1100s, just half a century after the Conquest, and was a monk at Malmsbury Abbey. He's famous now for being one of our very earliest historians. It seems he told it how it was. We forget our own history and heritage at our peril! |
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![]() MEMORIES OF LEICESTER CITY TRANSPORT 1968-1973 I joined Leicester City Transport in 1968 as a bus conductor and later trained as a driver. The image above was my cap badge! Local public transport was important in those days as fewer families had cars. There were more buses around 40 years ago – and certainly many more than are seen today. Some people are actually interested in all old forms of transport and there is an abundance of photographs here to interest any present-day bus enthusiast, and especially those with a specific interest in LCT. Go to a 5-page photo montage of LCT vehicles and journey back in time! LEICESTERSHIRE BUS MEMORIES Grantham to Leicester to Coalville to Coleorton .. c1955 a text article originally posted on LEICESTER OVERSEAS, now modified and updated and posted here. A child's-eye view of rides on the Midland Red and in Leicester, training days on LCT, and now also a short article on ticket machines.
Leicester City Transport : Leyland Atlantean PDRA/1 : PBC 115G Their first, and very flowery, overall advert bus, in 1971, on what was then the relatively new service 62 to South Wigston. LEICESTER TRANSPORT HERITAGE TRUST was formed in 2007, and now has a new website. They have an interest in, and preservation of, all manner of road transport over the decades in and around Leicestershire, with a special focus on the Midland Red and LCT. |
![]() T.S. TIGER Leicester Sea Cadets and Royal Marines Cadet Unit in honour of my time there 1965-1972 This is a link to an organisation that gave me some of the best 7 years of my life. Click the Tiger badge above to go to their site. But please read on first. For any lad in his mid-teens, with nothing particular to do and seeking adventure and a wider interest in life, I can't recommend joining a cadet unit highly enough. Sea Cadets or Marine Cadets, the adventure and fun and mates are the same. It's all part of our same Royal Navy, and it's all a question of preferences. I originally joined the Sea Cadets in 1965, but was quickly 'poached' by a Marine Colour Sergeant, and that was that. I stayed on as a sergeant-instructor till, aged 22, I and my wife left to go and live in Hull. I always intended to offer myself to the local Sea Cadet Unit in Hull, but shift patterns forbad, the chances passed, and to my regret, I never did. The Royal Marines Cadet Unit, at TS Tiger in Ross Walk, Leicester, was the saving of me, and gave my life direction and focus at the time of a family break up in my mid-teens. I could have so easily 'gone in the other direction', and as people say, become a wrong'un. Instead, I went camping, rowing, caneoing, rock climbing in North Wales, and made a great load of mates. I learnt pride in myself, my uniform and the Corps, and got some badly needed discipline. I can't thank them enough. Except to put a link here and wish the CO and all the lads and lasses down there, who work so hard for each other and their proud unit traditions, great good fortune for the future. To go directly to their website for more information, address, contacts, etc, click the fearsome tiger above. Or ring them direct on 0116 266 2865, Tues or Thurs evenings, 19:00 to 21:30. For guys n' gals in Hull that have an interest in the sea and would like to take part, T.S. IRON DUKE is Hull's own unit, based in Argyle Street. They can be contacted by clicking the link, or email tsiron.duke@yahoo.co.uk |
Past devotees of Tim Airey's LEICESTERSHIRE OVERSEAS might be forgiven for blinking on sight of this logo!
Unfortunately Tim's site has not returned, but much of it is still
available at the remarkable WAY BACK MACHINE. This website is unsurpassed when
searching for old web information. More correctly known as the Internet
Archive, it is a brilliant and largely unknown resource which also
includes old media, music and image sites. Tim and his wife Carol
created LEICESTERSHIRE OVERSEAS from their home in Calgary, Canada, and
it was a work of genius, highly popular with many early users of the
internet who were natives of Leicester & county. As far as I can
see most of Tim's text is still here including the worldwide bulletin
boards, all the hundreds of emails and contacts sent to him, as well as
stories and histories. Some larger graphics will not load but many do.
For those interested in "the Foresights", the pages appear to be
largely intact. This page is
for 6 Aug 2003, the best link I can see that seems to load the
majority of Tim's stuff. It really does contain a veritable goldmine
and was one of the best things to happen for Leiceter and the county in
recent years. |
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THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH and what happened to King Richard III Below is a quote from the 1813 account of William Hutton's tour around the Bosworth Battlefield, which includes some of the written and local knowledge of that time, some 350 years after the battle itself. William Hutton's book is now online, at Google eBooks, and can be read here on my Sutton & Wawne website where I help out at the local museum. It's hard going, but here is an extract towards the end, page 220 I believe: "Richard it is universally acknowledged performed prodigies of valour. Desperate, perhaps, at the last, he rushed furious into thickest of the fight, slew numbers and among them the standard-bearer of Richmond, with his own hand; and fell at last, ingloriously (if tradition may be credited), by a treacherous blow from one of his own followers. His body was thrown across a horse and carried for interment to the Grey Friars at Leicester. , After revenge and rage had satiated their barbarous cruelties upon his dead body, they gave his royal earth a bed of earth, honourably, appointed by the order of King Henry the Seventh, in the chief Church of Leicester called St Mary's, belonging to the order and society of the Grey Friars." So there we have it. Folk going back even to before the Battle of Waterloo knew exactly where Richard's body lay. And all these years, every time I drove over West Bridge, I believed it was down there in the river. Shucks! |
Finally, here's a
link to a most excellent Leicester website ...
The local radio station has been going since 1968,
and regularly wins awards.
Not surprisingly, it's in our old home town ...
Where the Red Cheese comes from,
and Gary Linneker !
The first stop for news, sports and features
for Leicestershire and Rutland.