Hastings 960 Project

 This year is the 960th anniversary of the battle of Hastings.

Regency Leamington Spa.

The Regent Hotel Royal Leamington Spa.

We stayed here after Liam's 30th. It has a few Regency and Napoleonic contections.

When it was built in 1818 it was the largest hotel in Europe.

On the list of famous visitors are three Napoleonic Generals. Wellington, Lord Hill and Lord Uxbridge.

Years later, Napoleon III stayed here as well!

The grand looking entrance.

The main staircase.

Royal and Prince of Wales crests.

Queen Victoria and Napoleon III, who's son was in the British army and was killed in the Zulu wars.

The Duke of Wellington.

A full list of famous visitors.

The Santa Special 2025.

 First Santa Special, at the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway.

This railway way built in 1919 with a lot of ex WW1 trench railway track and locos from France.

I was used to transport sand from local quarries.

No 4 Doll, with our train.

Sebastian got to colour in a picture while waiting to see Santa.

GWR Castles and our family history.

 The GWR Castle Class Express Passenger Locomotives.

Clun Castle at New Street 2025.

My great Uncle Tom Reeves was a coppersmith for the GWR at Swindon and worked his way up to be a foreman. He told me that early Castles had a problem with the main steam pipe cracking and he had to help investigate it with senior Engineers. This involved tests travelling at full speed on the front footplate behind wooden shutters to measure pipe movement, expansion and deflection. No health and safety in those days. Note, his father, David Reeves (also a Foreman coppersmith) was killed in an accident in Swindon works.

A loco running under test.

Note, The main steam pipes contained super heated steam at 350 deg C and 225 psi.

The resulting design modification was a more curved pipe without a straight section in it.

Apart from WW1 (he served on HMS Royalist at the battle of Jutland) he worked all his life for the GWR and was very proud of it. He also said that when a loco came in for overhaul, it went out 'as good as a brand new one'.

Nanny Lesson, Tom and Flow.

As a child my favourite model railway loco was my Denbigh Castle. A Hornby Dublo diecast model. The story goes that the local toy shop was closing down when I was about to be born. As I turned out to be a boy, Dad rushed down and bought the castle!! 

The model was produced between 1959 and 1962 and also sold as a 'named train' set The Red Dragon (the Paddington to Carmarthen express), with two chocolate and cream coaches. I had four, each with a name board on the side (the loco had a head board as well). When I can get at it I will set it up for a photo.

Funnily when James was born, Barnaby's toy shop in Coventry was closing down and he did the same thing and stocked up for James as well!! 

Clun Castle.

Post script.

Spotted again at Moore Street station this week end.

The Leicestershire Yeomanry.

 My Local Cavalry Regiment.

Motto: 'Face The Enemy'.

The Leicestershire Yeomanry (Prince Albert's Own) was first raised in 1794. It provided cavalry and mounted infantry in the Boer War and WW1. In WW2 it provided two field artillery regiments.

Between the wars, still as a cavalry regiment, it's local bases were.

HQ - Leicester.

A Squadron - Melton Mowbray.

B Squadron - Leicester.

C Squadron - Loughborough.

D Squadron - Lutterworth. with drill halls at Market Bosworth, Market Harborough. Wigston, Ibstock and Hinckley/Burbage (opposite the Sycamores Pub).

During WW2.

The Two Field Artillery Regiments were.

154 (LY) Field Regiment Royal Artillery.

They were armed with 25pdr field guns and this and the limber were pulled by Morris C8 Tractors.

The regiment served in North Africa and Italy.

153 (LY) FR RA.

They were armed with 25pdr Sexton self propelled guns. Basically a 25pdr gun 

on a Sherman tank chassis.

The regiment was attached to the Guards Armoured Division from D-Day onwards.

The regiment was made up of three batteries each of two troops.

129 Battery (A&B troops) was attached to the Irish Guards Battle Group in 5 Guards Armoured Brigade.

130 Battery (C&D troops) was attached to the Grenadier Guards Battle Group also in 5 Guards Armoured Brigade.

131 Battery (E&F troops) was attached to the Coldstream Guards Battle Group in 32 Guards Armoured Brigade.

The Welsh Guards Battle Group did not have any attached artillery and was the other unit in 32 Guards Armoured Brigade.

There were 4 guns in each Troop (eg E1, E2, E3 and E4).

So that meant there were 8 guns in a battery and 24 in the regiment.

Nijmegen Bridge 81 Years Ago.

 On this day in 1944 US paratroopers from the 82nd Airbourne Division crossed the River Waal to attack Nijmegen Bridge.

This is dramatically portrayed in the film 'A Bridge Too Far'.

Robert Redford leads his men across the River Waal.

The 82nd Airbourne Division.

In 2004, for the 60th anniversary of D Day, Fr John and Greg arranged for re-enactors to attend Mass to commemorate the US units based in Hinckley and Burbage prior to D Day.

I recently thought I must check which units they were and I knew just where to look as it is often discussed on the Hinckley FB page. I soon found posts from Greg stating that the 376^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFABn) had been based in Hinckley and 307^th Airbourne Engineer Battalion (AEBn) had been based in Burbage.

I noticed that some one commented 'yes and these were the troops who paddled across the river and Robert Redford played their Captain'    errr   really???

So I had to check that out.

FACT - Robert Redford played Maj Julian Cook, commander of the 3rd Battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) and they paddled across the river, so that's that I thought.

BUT

Reading on, the 26 flimsy canvas boats were assembled and crewed by men from the 307th AEBn. And the crews of the 11 surviving boats had the awful job of paddling back empty to collect the 2nd wave of troops. These brave men from Burbage crossed the 300m wide river seven times.

The crossing was covered by smoke screens and intense gun fire from several units.

On the river bank the 2nd Bn 504th PIR 'with every machine gun they could get their hand on' and the Sherman tanks of the Irish Guards fired their main guns and machine guns.

A bit behind them was a US artillery unit. The 376^th PFABn (the unit based in Hinckley), firing 75mm Pack Howitzers.

Then finally, further back was a British heavy artillery unit, the Leicestershire Yeomanry, firing their 25pdr self-propelled guns called Sextons.

What amazing local connections.

And guess where the 307th AEBn were camped in Burbage? The playing field next to the old Scout Hut!

Michael Caine's Irish Guards provided support.

The Grenadier Guards cross Nijmegen Bridge later as a result of the attack.

376^th PFABn the artillery unit which had been based in Hinckley prior to D Day.

I just love their motto.

307^th AEBn the engineer unit which had been based in Burbage and Ullesthorpe prior to D Day.

A US 75mm Pack Howitzer in action.

A Sexton SP gun.

P.S.  RIP Robert Redford who passed away this week.

Leesons and beer.

A Little Bit Of Leeson Brewing History.

The Leesons were brewing beer in Dublin from about the 1680s onwards but details are hard to come by.

The first English Leeson brewer I have come across was Charles Leeson of 6 Horninglow Street, Burton on Trent. His brewery and maltings were founded during the 1720s by Willian Newton and acquired by Charles Leeson in 1753. The premises comprised of a house, garden, brewhouse, tun house, malthouses and other buildings. In 1801 the family executors sold the brewery to Joseph Clay and Son who owned the adjacent Lamb and Flag Brewery.

My Grandfather John Leeson (standing at the back) at work in the 1920s.

He was a drayman working for the Hammerton brewery (1921 census). Family oral history says that he drove his wagon and team of 4 horses through Blackwall Tunnel regularly. 

The brewery was located at 32 Frances Street, Woolwich according to the 1916 directory. This was just outside the gates of the Red Barracks and a stones throw from the family home in Back Lane. None of these buildings exist anymore.

Link to 1890s and 1940s Maps

The directory is from 1916, it was like the yellow pages of its time. At some stage the street were renumbered to how we know them, odds on one side, evens on the other.

The map is from approx. 1940s.

Here is an older map aprrox. 1890's which shows the corresponding buildings before they were demolished. Use the slider to mix between the two.

The current generation of brewers.