Found that Blythe is sometimes spelled Blid or Blida. Put that spelling into Google and a whole lot of Blythes showed up. There is a minstrel to the King, Richard who played trumpet. Roger who owns land in Stannage and is a clerk. Adam who is the Kings clerk and was in Hastings Castle, and ran the Marshallsea. There are some in the battle of Agincourt. There is William lay clerk to the Bishop of York. Are they related? Some definitely are. Blyth priory is also spelled Blida in some documents too.
Emailed someone in the Dinnington History society to see if they knew of Blythe interests in Dinnington. Got a lovely email from their secretary and an invitation to see their medieval church. So might go and have a look if I can persuade husband to take me. You meet such lovely people when you do historical research. The Archivists are joining in the fun. They are just as pleased when I find something I have been searching for as I am.
Found a lovely old map of Lees Hall. The hall unfortunately was demolished by the council amid protests in the 70s. There are a number of photographs of it and campaigners have managed to get the old pond restored. Anyway it was very fragile and I said to the Archivists that it was probably too fragile to copy. She said we can scan it and put it onto cd for you. I shall have to ask more often about copies. Anyway it arrived this morning and it is a perfect copy.
I have started writing a lecture to give to local history groups and try and raise more interest and more members for the Friends of Bishops House. I have never given a lecture in my life and know that I shouldn't use copious notes but I have to work out what I am going to put in and what I will leave out as there is so much and I can't cover everything. At the moment I have 6 pages. No idea how long it would take to say it all. I remember my father on a Saturday morning pacing up and down and speaking out loud his Sunday sermon. I will have to do that I think but not when the family are around as they will think Mum has finally cracked. My father used to write down keywords on a tiny piece of paper as his sermon notes. I don't think my memory is up to that but then by the time I remember my father preaching he had already been preaching for about 25 years as he started as a lay preacher at the age of 16.
Emailed someone in the Dinnington History society to see if they knew of Blythe interests in Dinnington. Got a lovely email from their secretary and an invitation to see their medieval church. So might go and have a look if I can persuade husband to take me. You meet such lovely people when you do historical research. The Archivists are joining in the fun. They are just as pleased when I find something I have been searching for as I am.
Found a lovely old map of Lees Hall. The hall unfortunately was demolished by the council amid protests in the 70s. There are a number of photographs of it and campaigners have managed to get the old pond restored. Anyway it was very fragile and I said to the Archivists that it was probably too fragile to copy. She said we can scan it and put it onto cd for you. I shall have to ask more often about copies. Anyway it arrived this morning and it is a perfect copy.
I have started writing a lecture to give to local history groups and try and raise more interest and more members for the Friends of Bishops House. I have never given a lecture in my life and know that I shouldn't use copious notes but I have to work out what I am going to put in and what I will leave out as there is so much and I can't cover everything. At the moment I have 6 pages. No idea how long it would take to say it all. I remember my father on a Saturday morning pacing up and down and speaking out loud his Sunday sermon. I will have to do that I think but not when the family are around as they will think Mum has finally cracked. My father used to write down keywords on a tiny piece of paper as his sermon notes. I don't think my memory is up to that but then by the time I remember my father preaching he had already been preaching for about 25 years as he started as a lay preacher at the age of 16.
