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Bizarre Berkshire

Bizarre Berkshire

by Duncan Mackay (Author), SallyCastle (Illustrator)

  • Used

    Paperback 2011

    $53.18
Synopsis

From the story of the yew tree at the heart of all modern democracy to the world's first zebra crossing this A-Z guide to Bizarre Berkshire explores the people and places, the stories and the legends of the Royal county. UFOs, nuclear cows, crop circles and Hammer horror all feature in this rumbustious compendium of the strange and wonderful. You will be astonished at the things you didn't know about Berkshire.

$53.18

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 104
 Publisher: Two Rivers Press
Published: 24 Oct 2011
ISBN 10: 190167777X
ISBN 13: 9781901677775

Media Reviews
'Duncan Mackay has dug deep into Berkshire's murkier history, raising an eyebrow at a range of wierdness to exorcise any suspicions that the home counties might be predictable. This book grips your interest - and then continues to fire your imagination.' Lance Railton 'This is classic place-storytelling in the tradition of Herodotus (the Greek father of history ), who knew that the truth of a place cannot be reduced to empirical historical facts ( factition ), but also is born of myths, fancy and supposedly tall stories - which may eventually prove to be not so tall after all!' Kenneth R. Olwig, Professor of Landscape Theory and History Duncan's little book Bizarre Berkshire reveals some outstanding fragments of personal histories as well as moments in Berkshire life that have created national history. This delightful book is based in the rich seam of doubt and possibility which lies between real events and ' history' as revealed by eye witnesses or recorded by historians. Sir Michael Parkinson Lance Railton The book is constructed alphabetically - the 2500-year old Ankerwycke Yew at Runnymede, where King John signed Magna Carta (with his fingers crossed); the Bucklebury Fly (a C17th glass painting above the Winchcombe family pew in Bucklebury church); Caravanning (the retired Victorian army surgeon who invented the mobile traffic jam); Thomas Day, a C18th philantropist who hung around orphanages selecting pre-teen girls to raise as suitable wife-material (an experiment which failed, but bred the founder of NatWest); Eton (which he describes as the Galapagos islands of private education, operating under its own peculiar evolutionary rules . G is for Ghosts, and dwells on the area around Littlewick Green, Ashley Hill and the octagonal Romano-Celtic temple at Weycock Hill, one of only three such in Britain, which is haunted by a white lady (possibly one of the Vestal Virgins who may have served it - and could be buried alive if they ceased to be the latter - ). She has been seen widely locally, including walking across the sitting room of Bertha Lamb, who in 1918 founded the Littlewick Green WI (today's keepers of the hearth and home?). Duncan also mentions a Black Dog at Feens (or Ffiennes) Farm - where confusingly an Irish wolfhound-sized White Dog was also seen around 1985-6, disappearing 'as if running behind a black sheet' - and the headless ghost of Dorcas Noble, allegedly decapitated after her attempt to restore her lover's affections through love magic failed.
Author Bio
Duncan Mackay is a former winner of the Henry Ford European Conservation Award for Heritage. He is a former editor of the Twyford and Ruscombe Local History Society Journal. He has worked as: Director of the South East region of the Countryside Agency, Technical Director in the Babtie Group, Environmental Manager for Berkshire County Council, and Deputy Secretary of the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society. His publications include The Secret Thames (1992) Apples, Berkshire, Cider (1996) and Eat Wild (2010).