John Owen Smith

It is not easy to record the history of a parish in a consistent manner, let alone to give an understandable picture of its progress through the centuries. Some information is no longer available,...

This is the story of one of Australia's Pioneer Women, who spent most of her life in the gold fields of Bendigo.In 1841, aged only 19, Ellen Suter fled poverty and squalor in the back-streets of...

When Canadian troops arrived in Great Britain during the Second World War, they were given quarters in old, cold, damp barracks buildings in the military town of Aldershot. For these young men...

Margaret Hutchinson was born in 1904, and grew up as part of a large Quaker family living in an old farmhouse on top of Marley Heights, situated between Fernhurst in Sussex and Haslemere in Surrey...

Philip Brooks mastered the intricacies of medieval Latin to translate the contents of the Winchester Pipe Rolls, and in this book he opens our eyes to the rich source of information found in the...

n the mid-nineteenth century men, women and even children were being transported to other British Colonies for crimes as diverse as stealing a loaf of bread and murder. In 1831, men from the village...

These two plays, written by a local historian, tell the story of the Lark Rise to Candleford author in the days before she became famous. In Flora's Heatherley we see her in Grayshott (her...

In 'Lark Rise To Candleford' and 'Heatherley' Flora Thompson wrote the story of her Victorian country childhood and her youth in village post offices. She was sixty when she wrote her well-known...

Written to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Grayshott Civil Parish in 1978, this book tells the history of the village from its earliest beginnings as a minor hamlet of Headley to its status as a...

This is the first in a series of publications through which we intend to illustrate the history of the parish of Headley from different perspectives. In this book, we show some of the buildings,...

Nowadays, when sleep doesn't come readily, I close my eyes and go back over sixty-five years to County Cavan ... I see myself with a bucket in each hand, go through the gate where the cows stand...

Surrey is a lovely county in which to live-and write. Down the ages, writers of all kinds have sung its praises, and used it as a setting for everything from romantic entanglements to alien invasions...

The pieces included in this book were written over a period of twelve years or so, and come from a variety of inspirations. The majority are short stories written for recreation and entered in...

The author has turned detective. In this book, he discovers the true identities behind the pseudonyms which Flora Thompson employed within her writing to hide the identity of the people and places...

Two historical dramas based on events during and after the Workhouse Riots of 1830 in Selborne and HeadleyAuthor: John Owen SmithPublisher: John Owen SmithPublication Date: Dec 07, 2024Number of...

For 700 years the small isolated community in the Wey valley at Shottermill was a corner of industry. By the end of the nineteenth century there had existed six watermills which over the years had...

For 700 years the small isolated community in the Wey valley at Shottermill was a corner of industry. By the end of the nineteenth century there had existed six watermills which over the years had...

Walk in the footsteps of Sir Robert Hunter, co-founder of The National Trust, over Hindhead Common and around Waggoners Wells. Plus a short history of The National Trust's acquisitions at the west of...

In September 1786, a lone sailor was murdered on Hindhead Common by three men. This much is common knowledge. But was the sailor alone? In his book The Broom-Squire, the Victorian author Sabine...

When, as a young girl in County Cavan, the author wanted to have an excuse to give to her mother when she came home from her ramblings, she would tell her, "I've just been over to Connolly's." The...

When a railway line opened in 1859, cutting through the hills of south-west Surrey on its way from London to Portsmouth, it presented an enticing new possibility. Now professional people could choose...

What happens when you mix the characters of Macbeth and Hamlet together in a game of medieval football?These three plays are designed to be performed as an entertainment at a medieval banquet, with...

Flora Thompson has become known almost exclusively as the author of 'Lark Rise to Candleford'. These nature notes, written in the 1920s while she lived in Liphook, Hampshire, predate that work by...

For several years there has been a booklet available describing the Footpaths, Bridleways and Byways of Headley parish. However it suffered from the very real problem that its world ended at the...

It is about 60 miles (or 95km) to walk from Guildford to Portsmouth Harbour, and it can be done. If, however, you would prefer to let the train take at least part of the strain, this book has divided...

Following on from Walks around Headley, this book covers another dozen circular walks in an area situated at the west of the Weald, or roughly where the counties of Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex meet...