Handwritten entry in a prison register: 'Sarah Powel, Committed September ye 11 By Giles Garner Esq., on the Oath of Daniel Merrett Overseer of the Poor of Painswick for her Refusing to Wear Such Badge or Mark as the Poor who Receive Relief of the Parishes ought By the Statute in that Case made and Since By Him Discharged.'

In 1759, a woman was held in Cirencester House of Correction for refusing to wear a badge to show that she was in receipt of parish relief in Painswick.
(From Gloucestershire Gaol Calendars, Michaelmas 1759, in Gloucestershire Prison Records on ancestry.co.uk. Image from Ancestry.)

120 Miles Walk to Court LOST HIS JOB AND FINED £2! [Small photo on left of a young man, white with dark hair. Text wraps round photo.] After having walked over 120 miles to answer a summons for a motoring offence, a London lorry-driver was fined £2 and costs at Lydney (Glos) yesterday. He was John Emmins, twenty-three, of Roshel-road, Stratford, E. He started his walk on Monday and arrived at Lydney yesterday. It was stated in court that he had been given breakfast by a Lydney business man who had also arranged for his defence. Emmins pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving a motor-lorry without due care and attention. He crashed into a traffic light standard in trying to avoid a pedestrian. It was stated that his employer dismissed him on learning of the accident. "My son walked to Lydney because he had not the money to get there in any other way," Mrs. Emmins told the Daily Mirror last night. "After receiving the summons he told the police that he could not afford his fare to Lydney. They replied that he must appear there, so he decided to walk."

From the Daily Mirror, 28 June 1934: A man walked over 120 miles from London to Lydney, Gloucestershire, to appear in court on a motoring charge. He was fined £2 (and costs).
(Image from British Newspaper Archive)

120 Miles Walk to Court LOST HIS JOB AND FINED £2! [Small photo on left of a young man, white with dark hair. Text wraps round photo.] After having walked over 120 miles to answer a summons for a motoring offence, a London lorry-driver was fined £2 and costs at Lydney (Glos) yesterday. He was John Emmins, twenty-three, of Roshel-road, Stratford, E. He started his walk on Monday and arrived at Lydney yesterday. It was stated in court that he had been given breakfast by a Lydney business man who had also arranged for his defence. Emmins pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving a motor-lorry without due care and attention. He crashed into a traffic light standard in trying to avoid a pedestrian. It was stated that his employer dismissed him on learning of the accident. "My son walked to Lydney because he had not the money to get there in any other way," Mrs. Emmins told the Daily Mirror last night. "After receiving the summons he told the police that he could not afford his fare to Lydney. They replied that he must appear there, so he decided to walk."

From the Daily Mirror, 28 June 1934: A man walked over 120 miles from London to Lydney, Gloucestershire, to appear in court on a motoring charge. He was fined £2 (and costs).
(Image from British Newspaper Archive)

Gloucestershire Echo: Entire KFC feast of fried chicken breasts and fries strewn across Cheltenham pavement this morning. Picture shows a KFC meal on the pavement.

Happy tenth anniversary of the Great Cheltenham Dropped KFC disaster. Everyone remembers where they were when they first heard about it, and it was the first in a series of cursèd takeaway food incidents in the town, which left residents quivering in fear.

A Family Business: Brothers Hanged Together in Gloucestershire, 1730-1830 A Double Execution. Woodcut from Hindley’s “Curiosities of Street Literature” (1871), p.372. (Accessed via Google Books) Recently I was looking through my lists of people who were…

Brothers hanged together in Gloucestershire, 1730-1830: An old blog post revised.
gloscrimehistory.uk/2015/03/20/a...

10th century Saxon sculpture from the Church of the Holy Rood at Daglingworth in Gloucestershire depicting the Cruxifiction. 📸 My own. #GoodFriday #Easter

The grotesque reframing of AI as something all authors secretly use is a nasty lie.
I write my books due to an urge to create art - to guide words out of my head and into the real world. It’s a taxing, slow, sometimes infuriating process - but it’s also beautiful and entirely human.

THOUGHT IT A JOKE Tetbury Man's Defence to Summons. At the Tetbury Petty Sessions yesterday, before Mr. G. Lowsley-Williams and other magistrates, R.A. Davis, pleaded not guilty to a summons for not having two efficient brakes on his motor-cycle. He affirmed that the constable did not test the disputed brake properly. He also added that he thought they were having a joke, it being All Fools' Day, and he was surprised at a summons being issued. The case was dismissed on payment of costs.

1929, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. When a motorcyclist was stopped by police on 1 April and was told he had a faulty break, he was surprised to receive a summons, because he thought the constables were playing an April Fool's prank on him. (The Citizen, 2 May 1929. Image via British Newspaper Archive.)

I've only had one, congratulating me on the lovely book they'd like to promote - which I didn't write and has nothing to do with my subject.

We're surrounded by animal noises & dung.

This and many other fascinating facts and scintillating stories are in 'At the Tree, Executions in Gloucestershire, 1722-1790'. Details of how to buy are in the pinned post. (3/3)

When Edith Saunders was condemned for murder at the Lent Assizes in 1759, she should have been hanged 2 days after her sentence, but that date would have fallen on Good Friday, so her execution was postponed until the following Monday (not a holy day). (2/3)

Ah, spring! - the season when people in 18th-century Gloucestershire had a good chance of indulging in that popular pastime of going to watch a hanging, after the Lent Assizes had taken place. Not over the Easter weekend though, as executions did not take place on 'holy days'. (1/3)

Duckling season has begun, and DucklingWatch is back for another year! Please submit your mallard brood sightings in GB to citsci.org/projects/ducklingwatch and share this post to spread the word 🦆

Mosaic floor that shows a close up of the figure of 'Spring' with a basket of flowers in one hand a small bird in the other. Decorative scrolling surrounds

This #MosaicMonday we're celebrating the new season. Here's a close up of the figure of 'Spring' with a basket of flowers in one hand a small bird in the other at Chedworth Roman Villa, Gloucestershire.

📷Ian Shaw

Big toy panda leaning against bamboo growing on small island surrounded by water. Pile of logs to left of panda. Duck houses behind. Trees in background.

Unexpected wildlife at Newent lake! #Gloucestershire

Duelling French Prisoners tried at Gloucester, 1808-1811 Illustration from How to Fence by Aaron A. Warford (1884), ‘Quarte’, p.12. Project Gutenberg eBook. During the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815, thousands of prisoners of war, many of th…

New blog post:
gloscrimehistory.uk/2026/03/19/d...

Duelling French Prisoners tried at Gloucester, 1808-1811 Illustration from How to Fence by Aaron A. Warford (1884), ‘Quarte’, p.12. Project Gutenberg eBook. During the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815, thousands of prisoners of war, many of th…

New blog post:
gloscrimehistory.uk/2026/03/19/d...

Not any more! It has moved to the old Debenhams building in Northgate St, alongside the University of Gloucestershire.

Paragraph from the protest statement: 'Such evils are the inseparable consequences resulting from the manner in which Races are conducted, and they introduce into a Place which is avowedly, at other times, one of the most orderly and peaceable in the Kingdom, every species of disturbance, licentiousness, and debauchery.'

In 1833, local magistrates, clergy and residents published a notice in newspapers protesting about the Cheltenham Races, which they said introduced 'every species of disturbance, licentiousness, and debauchery' into their town.
(Cheltenham Chronicle, 29 Aug 1833. Image British Newspaper Archive.)

Paragraph from the protest statement: 'Such evils are the inseparable consequences resulting from the manner in which Races are conducted, and they introduce into a Place which is avowedly, at other times, one of the most orderly and peaceable in the Kingdom, every species of disturbance, licentiousness, and debauchery.'

In 1833, local magistrates, clergy and residents published a notice in newspapers protesting about the Cheltenham Races, which they said introduced 'every species of disturbance, licentiousness, and debauchery' into their town.
(Cheltenham Chronicle, 29 Aug 1833. Image British Newspaper Archive.)

And now available at Toadstools Bookshop in Newent: www.toadstoolsbookshop.co.uk

Spotlight on Forest of Dean indie shops THE role of independent shops which stocks local artwork, crafts and literature has been praised by a Forest of Dean author.

From The Forester: Spotlight on Forest of Dean indie shops supporting local artists, crafters and authors.
www.theforester.co.uk/news/local-a...

'At the Tree: Executions in Gloucestershire, 1722-1790' is now on sale at Toadstools Bookshop in Newent, Glos. This is a lovely independent bookshop supporting indie and local authors. They offer a postal service too. www.toadstoolsbookshop.co.uk

A lovely oil lamp from Roman Cirencester (Corinium) with its lion motif. Now part of the collections at Corinium Museum in Cirencester. 📸 My own. #RomanBritain #Cirencester

A small and very pitted menhir stands on a patch of carefully mown grass. Card behind are queuing for petrol or parked beside a new wooden chalet/lodge. The stone itself is shaped like the number 1 and pitted like pumice. You could fit your hand into the largest hole.

The Tibblestone, an ancient pitted stone on a crossroads near Tewkesbury on a garage forecourt. Lost and found buried by a gardener in 1948. One of Gloucestershire’s very few standing stones. #StandingStoneSunday #UrbanPrehistory

I do have A levels, but didn't get the grades I needed because at 18 I was more interested in partying than studying. I went to university 8 years later as a (supposedly) mature student and got a 2:1. Later I did an MA with the OU and was awarded a distinction. So there.

'At the Tree: Executions in Gloucestershire, 1722-1790' is now on sale at Toadstools Bookshop in Newent. This is a lovely independent Gloucestershire bookshop, supporting indie and local authors. Have a look at their website!
www.toadstoolsbookshop.co.uk

TRANSLATION 'Honoratus to the holy god Mercury, I complain to your divinity that I have lost two wheels and four cows and many small belongings from my house. I would ask the genius of your divinity that you do not allow health to the person who has done me wrong, nor allow him to lie or sit or drink or eat, whether he is man or woman, whether boy or girl, whether slave or free, unless he brings my property to me and is reconciled with me. With renewed prayers I ask your divinity that my petition may immediately make me vindicated by your majesty!

"Carvings, Inscriptions etc”
#WyrdWednesday
Romano British curse tablets were deposited at temples as requests to the gods for vengeance. Here is a fine example from Uley in Gloucestershire. Two wheels & four cows is a grievous theft. I hope they were returned.

Painting featuring a green field full of purple crocus flowers and yellow daffodils

'Crocus & Daffodils' by UK contemporary painter Susan Entwistle #WomensArt
#spring #March