Local History

Circumstances have made me into a Local Historian over the last decade – I research issues that have happened within 30 miles of where I live in Stafford. My last book, Mary Queen of Scots in Staffordshire, (2019) dealt with the Queen when imprisoned in Tutbury Castle and Chartley Manor, and I am pursuing research into the Devereux family at Chartley while writing about Charles II’s escape after the battle of Worcester (1651)

Many years ago when I was studying O Level Social and Economic History, the chapter in my textbook on the building of the railways talked about a row with an aristocrat. The line was to be built through the land of powerful people, which meant an Act of Parliament had to be passed to give the company permission.