FLAGGONERS FROM FARNHAM
With a small selection from Aldershot
Before I start, I need to clarify what is included in this book and what is not, because I would hate you to buy it and then complain that there was nothing on … or …. The volume looks explicitly at the history of the names on stoneware flagons and bottles in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Farnham, Surrey and Aldershot, Hampshire. It does not look at the manufacture of these products, nor does it talk about their makers. Largely it does not look at glassware used in the towns either, and thus, deftly avoids glass bottles.
Having mentioned all the negatives (a terrible way to start any advertising blurb!), it does aim to look at the users of stoneware, by which I mean it looks at the people, families, and companies who put their names on the containers. The work is an exercise into the history of the traders in the area.
UK sales only
£15 paperback £25 hardback
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TALES FROM A
COUNTRY CHURCHYARD
St Michael and All Angels
Thursley
What do an unknown sailor, the man who taught King George VI to ride horses, a prodigal Hungarian violinist and a senior ‘Resident’ from Sarawak all have in common? They are interred in St Michael and All Angels’ churchyard in Thursley, Surrey. Beside them are generations of farmers, blacksmiths, bakers and other village folk.
Here are a selection of their stories, ranging through the centuries. From war heroes to criminals, from sailors to shop keepers, from knights to a count’s servants, Thursley has been home to them all.
Read their fascinating tales inside.
UK sales only
£15 paperback
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PICTURES FROM A
COUNTRY CHURCHYARD
St Michael and All Angels
Thursley
Having read the stories, you can now see the memorials in glorious colour. "Pictures" contains over 100 pages, printed on premium paper and sized 21cm by 28cm. If you cannot visit St Michael and All Angels personally, you can now enjoy the views to understand the stories as if you were actually there.
UK sales only
£25 hardback only
FARNHAM GLASS AND STONEWARE
Including a section on Aldershot
A very personal book detailing the author's collection of 19th and 20th pottery and glassware from Farnham. The work has descriptive passages of some of the more popular pot and bottle producers, such as Fenn Farnham, Farnham Dairy, Farnham Brewery, and Quinettes. The new section includes Aldershot, with ware from Allen and Lloyd, Barretts and army-linked pieces. A lavish picture book containing over 160 pages, printed in colour on premium paper, sized 21cm by 28cm.
UK sales only
£30 hardback only
TRAVELS WITH THE YOUNGEST HEADMASTER
Around the World with George W. Pigott (1868-1949)
THE LIVERPOOL ECHO, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1949
OFFICE BOY TO HEAD MASTER
World Trip to See Ex-Pupils
PIER REUNION
Mr. George W. Pigott, who started as one of the first office boys in 1879 with the Echo and who became a head master at 21, left an envelope with the Echo in November 1941, to be opened on his death.
He died last night, aged 81, at Southport Infirmary. When the envelope was opened to-day, it was found to contain cuttings for his obituary notice and an advertisement for the Deaths column.
Mr. Pigott was 35 years headmaster of the Great Homer Street Council School, Liverpool. He retired in 1930, and set off travelling round the world in search of his old boys. He journeyed more than 80,000 miles, looking up ex-pupils, including Europe, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. He retained considerable interest in the office where he started work as “a little red-headed chap,” and was a frequent contributor to the Echo. After his office-boy venture Mr. Pigott served an apprenticeship in Stanley Road Board School, obtained two years college training through a Queen’s scholarship, and at 21 was head master at Prestatyn. He became head master at Great Homer Street in 1894, and ended his teaching career as head master of Netherfield Road Council Schools, in all having 41 years’ unbroken service as a head master.
Some of his reunions with ex-pupils during his retirement were very dramatic. Once, when walking on the promenade at Napier, New Zealand, one who had not seen him for 28 years recognised him...
UK sales only
£15 Paperback
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FASCINATING FARNHAM
Farnham in Surrey is a pretty, Georgian market town, some thirty-five miles or just under an hour from London on one of the main train lines from Waterloo. This closeness makes it a commuter town, with all the advantages and disadvantages that distinction brings. It was Guy's deep-seated love of walking in open spaces and Farnham’s proximity to both the North Downs in Surrey and green fields of Hampshire that attracted him here more than anything else.
One of his other interests is local history. Guy loves researching basic information, which he can then regurgitate for the benefit of walkers on the hikes that he leads.
When he was younger, much younger, Guy tells us he lived in a house called Peregrines. At that time, he was blissfully unaware of the falcon species but knew the word peregrine meant a wanderer or a pilgrim from the Latin peregrinus. Guy took this theme to heart through his later life and wandered for more than thirty years. Eventually, in May 2017, he moved to Farnham, but before that he lived a nomadic life, pausing in London; Tennessee, USA; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Pattaya, Thailand and Siem Reap, Cambodia, to name a few of his temporary residences along the way. Unlike some of his previous dwellings, Guy relates that he fell in love with Farnham as soon as he arrived.
That lead him to mention one of the central features of his book. The stories wander from subject to subject, but each links to the previous one (or occasionally to one that is substantially previous). Sometimes the connections are geographical, sometimes through a person or subject, occasionally they are very tenuous – but a link there is. He points out from the start that although almost everything that follows is historical fact, an occasional streak of personal, unhistorical sarcasm does creep in. You have been warned! And the paragraph that opened this review offers the starting point, a peregrine.
But always the stories are fascinating, and that is the real central theme of this book - Fascinating Farnham.
UK sales only
£15 paperback
£25 hardback
£18.50 per copy
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FASCINATING FARNHAM - The walks
A companion guide to Fascinating Farnham
I wrote the book ‘Fascinating Farnham’ earlier this year looking at some Farnham, Surrey stories and telling the thrilling parts for everyone to read. However, readers wanted more…
Fellow walkers asked me for routes linking the fascinating subjects, mixed in with the stories. I pondered that suggestion but realised the resulting book would lose some of its qualities, and it was long enough already! The answer was obvious – a new book. ‘Fascinating Farnham – The Walks’ was born.
Here is that book…
Included are ten of my favourite routes ranging from a short around-town 'wander' to allow you to see some of the fascinating places in Farnham to an eleven-mile ramble downhill from Hindhead, covering the stories of the unknown sailor, the Bossom air crash, the wigwam murder and linking up with mills, caves in Moor Park and even an 'elephant mooring post'! The book finishes with a quick look at some of our local ghosts for those so inclined.
120 pages, printed in full colour.
UK sales only
Paperback only £11
£13.50 per copy
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COFFEE WITH THE DUSTMEN
A life story of Sir John Verney, Bt
Sir John Verney, Bt (1913-1993) was the archetypical English gentleman. A decorated war hero, one of the early members of the SBS, a skilled and prolific artist, he drew the covers of Collins Magazines for fifteen years and wrote a dozen books including a best-seller about his experiences in World War Two. John became an ardent conservator of buildings, a founder of the Farnham Building Preservation Trust, a local councillor, served on diverse committees and became a friend to many. Known in Farnham for riding around town on his old black bicycle wearing a battered trilby hat.
John could number among his varied achievements being the inventor of the Dodo-Pad. Sir John was ‘of The Establishment’ without being ‘part of The Establishment’.
‘Coffee with the Dustmen’ is the full story of his life, from his birth, early years in India and his schooldays. The work covers his extraordinary war career, his family life, work as a councillor and conservator as well as covering his other eclectic interests in Farnham, Surrey. It concludes with a chapter on his ‘retirement’ to Clare in Suffolk and his legacy to the world.
“Fills a long-awaited need”.
UK sales only
£15 paperback
£25 hardback
£18.50 per copy
£9.99 per copy
BRITISH TRANSITION TOWN MONEY
In March 2007, Totnes produced the first known true British transition pound. Three-hundred notes were printed and handed out to the 160 people gathered in St John's Church at an evening called 'Local Money, Local Skills, Local Power'. These first issue pounds were rapidly followed by a second issue - more durable, wallet-sized and in far greater quantity. Other towns started to follow suit; Lewes in 2008, Stroud in 2009 and more. The movement was born. This book will attempt to catalogue all the known issues of the notes that followed on the back of the revolution. In a separate section, the world of LETS schemes and the vouchers that supported them is explored.
Finally, by way of a short diversion, a tour around a few of the 20th- and 21st-century vouchers frequently collected by followers of the transition currency completes the work.
The book includes local currency notes from British Transition Towns and similar schemes: Brighton, Bristol, Brixton, Exeter, Findhorn, Hawick, Hay on Wye, Kingston upon Thames, Lake District, Lewes, Stonehouse, Stroud, Tooting and Totnes.British LETS: Bath, Calderdale, Cardiff, Chichester, the People's Bank of Govanhill and Newcastle-under-Lyme. 20th- and 21st-Century Vouchers: Birnbeck Island, Cornwall, Herm and the Independent Money Alliance.
121 pages. Printed in full colour throughout, this book contains scaled reproductions of over 150 notes in the above categories.
£19.99 per copy