PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Welcome to my PLYMOUTH DATA Website. My name is Brian Moseley. Pleas let me introduce myself, tell you something of my work and how to make good use of the site. I was born in 1947 in the Alexandra Maternity Home at Stoke, and lived in Warleigh Avenue, within sight and sound of the then Great Western Railway. After primary school I attended Sutton High School for Boys in Regent Street. All of my life I have had three interests. The oldest is in the railways and tramways of Plymouth; the second is in publishing, which only started in 1957; and the newest is Plymouth local history in general. The last started in 1961 when I became curious about the name over my local Post Office - "Keyham Barton". I had always been told I lived in Keyham so what was the "Barton" about? I discovered that a "Barton" was a manor house, a place of ancient importance, and that Barton Avenue was built on the site. A house is small and squarish but Barton Avenue is long and thin so clearly the manor house only occupied a small part of the land covered by the Avenue. I went in search of a map that might help and my diary records that it was on Saturday December 2nd 1961 that I first climbed the stairs of the Central Library to visit the reference library on the first floor. I was on hallowed ground: children did not venture up to the first floor in those days. The doors to the Reference Library were closed so I pushed them open gently, peeped inside, was immediately overawed and withdrew. The doors to the Scott Lecture Theatre were also closed but one set of doors were wide open, and thus welcoming. It was the home of what was then called the Devon and Cornwall Collection. They haven't been able to keep me away ever since. So I have now spent a half a century researching aspects of Plymouth history. 2011 looked a very long way away back in 1961 yet 1961 seems like only last week to me now. Between then and now I have produced several typed and duplicated booklets ("History of Transport in Plymouth", "Shipping on the River Dart", and short histories of Plympton Grammar School and Sutton High School) and eight printed books, including "Vanishing Plymouth" and five volumes of "Plymouth Through the Lens". On January 7th 2002 I launched this website, thanks to a heart attack and the persistence and help of an old Devonport High School friend from my Keyham days, Mr Chris Bollard, who had spent a couple of years trying to get me to go on the Internet. PLYMOUTH DATA is now celebrating its tenth birthday. During 2011 the site received 530,007 unique visits, a slight decrease on the previous year. In the same period 1,083,262 webpages were viewed. The site now extends to 1,960 webpages and these are updated as often as new information comes to light and new subjects added on a frequent basis. The best place to start looking at the site is from the A - Z Contents page. What isn't listed separately on that page will be found under one of the collective headings, like Army Barracks and Depots, Business Houses, Charities, Churches, Memorials and Monuments, Prominent Citizens, Railways, Roads and Streets, Royal Navy Establishments, Schools, etc. Readers should be warned that follow some old-fashioned conventions in the text. The apostrophe is alive and well on PLYMOUTH DATA as are the use of the terms Master, Miss and Mrs. For those researching matters relating to their family history the use of "Miss" and "Mrs" is important. One slightly unusual convention is that the First World War is always referred to as the "Great War". They were not to know at the time that there was going to be another not long afterwards. I am still in the slow process of adding details of the sources of the information at the end of each webpage. This is likely to take a long time to complete because I never recorded sources in my early years and am having to go back over my research all over again in a lot of cases. Every possible effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information published in PLYMOUTH DATA. Often errors that were made a century ago are being perpetuated today by people who do not go back to the original or contemporary sources to check it. Almost every date in the website has been double-checked with a newspaper of the time. And now for the bad news! I am not able to supply copies of any of the photographs on the website as the vast majority are the copyright of other people. I am not able to offer a research service as I am more than fully occupied with research of my own. Finally, I do not get involved in family history, other than my own and as required by my website. The cost of research and the maintenance of the website is funded entirely from my pension. I receive no grants from Plymouth City Council, the National Lottery or any other body. I also derive no income from the website. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I also acknowledge the help of Louise Mann, Anne Morgan, Deborah Watson, Alan Barclay and Ian Conday of the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office along with the former archivists Paul Brough and Sam Johnston. I still remember when former City archivist Keith Holt, who sadly passed away in East Yorkshire on August 10th 2009, introduced me to the collection of old newspapers that were housed in the basement of the Library building, way back in the 1960s. The Devon Record Office, Cornwall Record Office, Cornwall Local Studies Library and the South West Image Bank have also been very helpful on some matters. Lastly I should like to thank Mr Tom Jewell, of the Devon Family History Society in Exeter, along with members of the Plymouth Group, for their valued assistance in researching Prominent Citizens. Thank you for visiting the Plymouth Data website. Brian Moseley
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