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Two Glimpses of Somerset in the 1860’s

Two Glimpses of Somerset in the 1860’s

Shortly before Christmas in 1860,‘XYZ’ took a walk up Ham Hill and described his afternoon-out in a letter to the Editor of the Western Flying Post:      ‘SIR, – It being Christmas time, with your permission, I will endeavour to add somewhat to the light reading you usually provide at this festive period by giving a short description of a pedestrian excursion to Ham Hill on a fine frosty day last week.  Often, as the same road may have been trodden…

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The Yeovil Cheese Robbery and Other Cases

The Yeovil Cheese Robbery and Other Cases

Two cheeses valued at five shillings were stolen from Jane Corry at the Yeovil Market under the Town Hall on High Street during the evening of 13 January 1854, and three teenagers went to gaol. The three, sixteen years-old John Collins, George Vincent, 15, and William Sylvester, aged 16, appeared at the Somerset Quarter Sessions during the following March charged with stealing two cheeses the property of Jane Corry. The said Jane told the court that she had purchased 68…

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Miss Betty Balfour Comes To Town

Miss Betty Balfour Comes To Town

London born, Betty Balfour was a big star of the British silent cinema screens during the 1920s, and was acclaimed as the only British star on the international scene. In 1927, the Daily Mirror named Betty as the country’s most popular star, renowned for her mixture of good humour, cheerful character and sentiment – she was called the ‘Queen of Happiness’ Betty Balfour’s career began in 1920 when at the age of 17 she appeared in the silent film Nothing…

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The Langport

The Langport

One of the warships which saw much active service in the Navy of the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell, and subsequently with King Charles II’s, Royal Navy, was the Langport, completed in 1654 in Bright’s Shipyard, on the south bank of the River Thames. The Langport was 116 feet long, with a beam of nearly 36 feet, weighed some 681 to 694 tons net, carried between 50 to 62 guns, and was classified as a third rate Speaker–class frigate. Other ships…

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First Westland Crash – September 1917

First Westland Crash – September 1917

At about half-past ten on Monday morning, 3 September 1917, Flight Sub-Lieutenant John Emyr Thomas of the Royal Naval Air Service, an Air Department ferry pilot, took off in his Avro 504E two seater biplane from Westland’s airfield en-route for the Royal Naval Air Station Hendon. Accompanying the Flight Sub-Lieutenant in the observer’s seat behind him, was Mr Robert Norton, Westland’s commercial director, on his way to a meeting with Air Board in London. The take off was normal, but…

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Royal Patronage – 1840

Royal Patronage – 1840

Western Flying Post etc Feb. 3 1840 Royal Patronage – 1840 YEOVIL – It is most gratifying to the glovers of Yeovil and to the immense number of persons deeply interested in the prosperity of the Glove Trade in this neighbourhood, to hear, from the best authority, that our beloved Queen has resolved to carry out her well known principles of patronage of British manufacture, by wearing English white kid gloves upon the interesting and important occasion of her marriage…

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