I am a writer and publisher of history with a passionate interest in language, especially that incredible beast, English. My books are available through Amazon or at barbdrummond.co.uk
I am relaunching my career in September 2018 so will soon have a new website, details to follow.
Books will be available in print and electronic formats at most outlets. Those due for publication include:
MR BRIDGES’ ENLIGHTENMENT MACHINE : Forty Years on Tour in Georgian Britain
The story of Henry Bridges and his incredible monumental musical & astronomical clock, and its role in Britain’s art, science, curiosities and socialising.
FROLICKSOME WOMEN & TROUBLESOME WIVES: Wife Selling in England.
Voltaire allegedly said ‘The English are an ungovernable race.” Stuck with unworkable divorce laws, they made up their own.
THE MIDAS OF MANUMISSION: The Orphan Samuel Gist and his Virginian Slaves
This incredible transatlantic story covers human rights, and the links between Britain and her North American colonies.
I nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award on my blog, ocaclibrary.wordpress.com. Congrats! Keep up the great work!
LikeLike
Thank you so much for the nomination. I ad no idea there was such an award. I guess I’d better launch into some really strange stuff.
LikeLike
English is a fascinating language. Have you ever noticed, for instance, comparing English to French, we have many more words but are able to express concepts in fewer of those words.
LikeLike
Thanks for following my blog. English is that is a hybrid of Saxon and Viking, with Norman French and lots of others incorporated into it. English is a world language because it is a world language. French is one language I never learnt, so cannot comment. The reason we can use fewer words is that we have more choice, so can express what we mean more concisely. But Latin is even more compact, far more so than English.
LikeLike
I love your blog, Barb, thank you for your work!
It’s interesting and amusing, well written and always discussing topics from different points of view, so the reader has got a complete view of them and is made able to make an opinion of his own.
🙂 I’m following enthusiastically 🙂
LikeLike
Am delighted to have such a dedicated fan. Hope my scribblings continue to maintain your interest.
LikeLike
Hey, great blog here! I foresee more blogging awards coming =)) I see you’re a writer and publisher, would you mind criticizing the early chapters of my novel? Only if it won’t be hassle, in that case I totally will understand.
LikeLike
I read very little fiction and don’t get a lot of time online, but if you think I can help, then am happy to do so.
LikeLike
Hey Barb,
Just want to let you know I just nominated you as an official Health Demystified MVP (Most Valued Peep) for all your support and encouragement. This is my way of letting you know that I really appreciate you and I think you are awesome.
Welcome to the exclusive Health Demystified MVP Club.
Glad to have you on board,
Eric
LikeLike
Oh my goodness. I don’t know what to say. Should I thank my agent and my laptop for all their support? Should I be wearing a balldress for this acceptance? I think I’d better have a nice cup of tea. Cheers.
You may be interested that back in the early days of English hospitals the pharmacists/chemists were usually the first contact for people who were ill. As a result they had a pretty high fatality rate. Hospital/gaol fever – I think typhus – was the usual cause. I’m sure you are grateful times have moved on for your profession.
LikeLike
Wow, I must say you are a wealth of knowledge. Very cool! 🙂
LikeLike
Hello Barb, I’ve enjoyed all your enquiries into Bristol and its past since I found your blog, so would you mind if I list you as a ‘versatile blogger’? If you hate it, please say!
LikeLike
Thanks for the offer and glad you’re enjoying my stuff. I don’t hate the idea, just not sure if i can do all the stuff that goes with it. cheers
LikeLike
Thanks, and yes I usually do enjoy. All the ‘stuff’ – I know what what you mean! – I won’t be checking up on you 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for dropping a view words on my blog. Actually I found your blog from the link you had on your other homepage, as I am interested to follow that one (it was because you are writing about Bristol). Just a suggestion, as you link this blog with your homepage, why don’t you do the other way around as well?
LikeLike
Thanks for this. i keep meaning to do the link, but life gets in the way. I seem to be having a sudden surge of interest in my books at the moment. Why the interest in Bristol?
LikeLike
My husband and I plan to move back to Bristol in a couple of years time. He’s keen to show me and explore Bristol and around. But I think it’s good that I knew something that he might not know yet.
LikeLike
Peter Strong
188 Chartridge Lane
Chesham
Buckinghamshire
HP5 2SE
petergstrong@hotmail.com
Hello,
Re: Fine Ships and Gallant Sailors.
I purchased a copy of the above the other day which is based on a journal of shipwright Edward Bunkin.
The reason for my purchase was that my mother in law who is nearly nearly 93, was born in Plymouth on 4th April 1920 and registered in Plymouth South East on the 8th May 1920.
Her Father is shown on the birth certificate as Edward Bunkin – Shipwright HM Dockyard and her Mother as Ethel Bunkin formerly Corley. The home address was shown as 27 Tallox Place, Laina, Plymouth.
As Edward Bunkin is an extremely unusual name we believe Edward to be her father, but then again it’s very strange as you show in the book Ada St Clair Quick as being his wife.
My mother in law was put into Bernardos at the age of 6 years and the reasons behind it have always been a puzzle to her and the family.
If you could pass this email on to the Bunkin family, you would be doing my Mother in Law and her children a great service.
Kind Regards,
Peter Strong
LikeLike
Hi Barb – thought you had stopped posting as nothing of yours was appearing in my reader, but obviously it was a WordPress glitch. I’ve tried unfollowing and then following again so we’ll see!
LikeLike
good to see you back. No, I’ve not stopped – well on my way to 700th blog so think it might be time to do some pruning. Nobody else seems to have had that problem tho I tried to get it onto hosting but still don’t know whay that didn’t work. thought you were too busy to comment. Cheers
On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 11:30 PM, texthistory
LikeLike
Great blog about history…. I guess you got things to tell about ottomans :))
LikeLike
I read lots of stuff, on lots of different topics. I am interested in the Ottomans as I think their legacy, esp on modern Middle Eastern politics, and in the Balkans, is more important than often assumed. Their empire was based on tribes rather than lines on maps, and that has caused immense problems for Europeans.
LikeLike
Barb, where are your books? I came to put one on Goodreads, but now I’ll have to go check my Amazon account! Woe is me!
LikeLike
There’s a post with all my kindles including the microcosm one – forgot to thank you for the review of it on amazon. the rest should be easy to find on amazon or my webs.com website is still somewhere out there in the ether. Thanks for your support. They are on a lot of book websites, but most say they are out of stock – they’ve nevr bothered to get them in stock is why.
LikeLike
I agree. Strange ideas are the best!
LikeLike
Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. Why do they have to compete?
LikeLike
Hi Barb! I don’t know how you found Life As a Wave, but I’m glad you didi! Although I don’t blog about linguistics, that has been the common theme of my academic and professional career for almost 2 decades. I especially love the sociocultural aspect of language and how we are constantly redefining “meaning'” Anyway, glad to be connected! I look forward to reading your posts.
Cheers,
~~~S Wave~~~
LikeLike
Hi Simone, I thought you found my blog on Blackfish, anyhow, hope you like my posts – there are now over 1,000 of them. Read them too fast and your head might explode.
LikeLike
I’m sure you’re right! 🙂 Either way, here we are. I’ll make sure to keep my head on securely as I read. Have a great weekend!
LikeLike
Thanks. keep your head wherever it needs to be. We’re not building rockets here. Cheers
LikeLike
Hi Barb. I love your site and share your passion for reading and writing. “The stranger the better.” I really laughed when I read that. The oddities of life never cease to amaze me and I appreciate so much your sharing some of them with us. And keep criticizing. Some things need to be questioned. Laughing out loud. Write on!
LikeLike
Thanks. am having problems getting to WordPress to upload stuff at the moment, but will sort this out soon. glad you’re enjoying it.
LikeLike
Thank you for visiting my blog! I look forward to checking out your history writing (I dabble there myself). Cheers! Pete.
LikeLike
Hope you enjoy it. I think it’s aproaching5,000 posts.
LikeLike
A fine blog! Congratulations.
LikeLike
Thanks, glad you like it.
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2014 19:53:36 +0000 To: texthistory@outlook.com
LikeLike
Thanks Barb. Delighted to have found your erudite and useful site 9(a rare combination!). looking forward to lots of reading here. Regards Thom
LikeLike
You’re welcome. Not sure how useful it is, unless you’ve got a time machine, but I write what I love. It seems to work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A fascinating site. I’m looking for more information on Shiel’s (also spelled Sheil’s) Institution in Armargh, where my great-grandfather, Stephen Mates, a retired RIC sergeant, was listed as superintendent in 1901 and 1911. I get the impression that alms houses were several cuts above work houses in terms of amenities and quality of life. In fact, my great-grandfather was left the enormous legacy of £664 in 1908 by one of the residents at Shiel’s, indicating that one didn’t even have to be poor to live there. I would appreciate comments and insights.
LikeLike
Ok, I know nothing about Northern Ireland, but you are right, almshouses are totally different. They were generally founded by wealthy merchants to fill the gap caused by the closure of the monasteries, so can date from the 1500s, generally to maintain a specific group of people, eg a rich sailor might leave money to maintain retired seamen, or they may be founded by guilds for their members, so you might find merchant venturers, or tailors almshouses. Some were founded again by wealthy, for specific parishes and are often named after the donor, as yours seems to be. Poor houses were established by local parishes to deal with the soaring numbers of poor caused by the closure of the monasteries creating a population explosion. Work houses were, as the name suggests, pretty grim – hence the campaign by the founder of the times and others to abolish them. Basically, nobody wanted to pay taxes to maintain them, and as with the NHS today, there is no end to the need for them.
s you note, almshouses admitted some who were wealthy, they were for the worthy, ie unable to work, often without relatives to care for them. the role of superintendant was a very responsible one; the person needed to be trusted with money, as well as dealing with care of often frail people, so ex military were seen as a safe pair of hands, and also military pensions were often limited. People admitted to almshouses were seen as very fortunate, they had a safe, secure environment surrounded by their peeers. Some of the buildings are fantastic, often centrally located, some with great views. Hope this helps.
LikeLike
Thanks very much; your reply hits a number of nails on the head and helps enormously. My great-grandfather also had four of his children, in their 20s, living with him in 1901, and one daughter in 1911. Shiels must have been a rather pleasant place.
Regards,
Michael
LikeLike
People worked till they dropped, so retirees were rare and generally respected. I used to know people who dreamed of being accepted into an almshouse when they retired. Glad to have been of help.
LikeLike
I continue to be amazed at how hard it is to find material on the web. After several hours searching for Charles Shiels (also spelled Sheils), I found this, which confirms what you said about alms houses, at http://www.ucitltd.com/PDFs/issue22.pdf
At more than 2,500 sites throughout the United
Kingdom, almshouses provide over 32,000 homes
for the needy, as many of them have done since the
Middle Ages. On the island of Ireland however no
more than a handful of sites survive[s] and the Charles
Sheils Charity is responsible for five of these, four of
which are in Northern Ireland and one is in Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
The earliest almshouses share their origins with
hospitals which formerly housed and cared for
the poor and the elderly as well as the sick. They
provided ‘hospitality’ to travellers, especially to
pilgrims and were supported by ‘alms’, collected
through the church.
The Charles Sheils Charity was founded by the Will of
Charles Sheils who died in Dublin in December 1861.
In the absence of any family, he directed the bulk
of his considerable fortune through an elaborately
detailed Will to the foundation of a Charity for the
care of the ‘deserving’ poor. This led to the building
of the five sets of almshouses between 1867 and
1872. There are approximately 137 almshouses
located over the five areas. Each of the four sites
in Northern Ireland is protected as historically and
architecturally important and statutorily listed as
category grade B+. The locations are Killough, Co.
Down; Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim; Dungannon, Co.
Tyrone and Armagh, Co. Armagh. Unusually for its
time, the Charity was governed, and still is, by equal
numbers of Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic and
Presbyterian Governors.
LikeLike
The net used to be a lot more helpful for researchers like you, but is more driven by ads so history takes a back seat if you can find it at all. Ireland generally lost a lot of important records due to the troubles, which doesn’t help. I have a book on almshouses so will see if it can help. Have you tried to find your ancestor’s will? Might have something, or try local history groups, libraries or the record office or the charity itself. Hope this helps
LikeLike
Yes indeed. I don’t have his will, but I know that he died in 1921.
On relations between relations: I have a letter from my dad (1909-1979) to my mother before they were married saying something like “I think my grandad was a cop.” Apparently there wasn’t a great deal of interest in genealogy, let alone family history, in my family, and apparently my dad never met his paternal grandfather. Very different from today!
LikeLike
Thank you on behalf of Daylight Tune Ministry to like our ministry blog. May our poetry bless your hearts and minds 🙂
LikeLike
Hello Barb, lovely to meet you. Looking forward to perusing your blog. The coat of thistledown completely captured me. 😉
LikeLike
Great to have you following. Looks like the thistledown coat will be a hard one to follow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love your blogging concept! Am always a fan of time travel;)
LikeLike
Thanks, always glad to have another follower.
LikeLike
Hi Barb! Great blog – I also love reading and writing and sharing ideas. And the English language, in all its glory (although I’m Greek!) Looking forward to browsing through your gadzillions of posts!
LikeLike
Glad you like my stuff. English is a bit of everything including Greek so something for everyone
LikeLike
“The stranger the better”. cheers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Barb,
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts. And your blog is truly a space that enriches me. I have taken a bit of liberty in nominating you for the Versatile Blogger Award (the official post citing the nomination will be out next week). I hope you would accept it. But evenif it is otherwise, my support and love to your blog will continue. Always looking forward to your posts! Cheers
LikeLike
Thank you so much. I So glad you’re enjoying it.
LikeLike
And if I’m not mistaken (I don’t have time to look it up right now, somewhere along the line a shambles either was or was somehow related to a slaughterhouse. The shifts are fascinating–as are our reactions when the language changes around us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was the commonest use of it as it survives in street names e.g. York. Just found mention of fishambles in Dublin
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for that. We had friends just coming in the door and I didn’t have time to check.
LikeLiked by 1 person