World War 1: Aviation comes of age

World War 1: Aviation comes of age  is 3 week long course that is intended to take up about three hours a week but I found the optional further reading unmissable and so I had to allow more time.  

This also meant that having started the course late I was even later finishing it - it took me about 5 weeks in total and I really enjoyed it. Just shows how flexible the the cours is. It's a free online course from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for War Studies.

The course cover many aspects about the early days of aviation and how it evolved raidly through WW1 bring about the formation of the Royal Flying Core before the war and the Royal Air Force by the end of it.

There's many other intersting courses like this available via the Future Learn website so it's well worth a look.

SS Great Britain

We went to collect my son from Bristol just before Christmas and made good time on the journey, in fact with time to spare. 

Bristol is a fascinating city with many old buildings blending in reasonabley well with the modern, it's harbour and just the general atmosphere a being alive and well, thriving in fact. Faced with an hour or two burn it wasn't difficult to think of a good number of places to visit; in the end we went for SS Great Britain.

SS Great Britain was designed by brunel and was launched at Bristol in 1843. It is one of the most important historic ships in the world being the first steamship built of iron and also the first ocean going ship to be driven by a propeller and not paddles. More information is on their website.

The few hours turned out not to be enough time to do the visit credit but that's okay, the ticket is valid for as many returns visits as you like for a year, so next time we go to Bristol we can finish off of our tour properly.

Would You Visit Middlewich Museum?

Image from Middlewich Heritage

Middlewich has a long history readily traced back through modern history, Norman and Roman times. So why not visit Middlewich Museum? Simple, you can't there isn't one. 

You could be forgiven for thinking Middlewich is that little place that the A54 cuts through however locals can tell otherwise and that's part of the problem. Locally there's a huge amount of articles and data that is inaccesible to the public. Well Middlewich Heritage and other local groups are hoping to this right. Plans are in early stages though it seems that a trust managed museum may be the way to go. To this end a survey is being carried to try to establish what the public feeling is and what would be liked and your participation would be appreciated:

• You don’t have to be a resident to have a point of view, the survey is for all to fill in. We need the public’s point of view on heritage and on heritage in Middlewich to enable us to work in a more focused way, bring new projects online and make decisions on how we can best serve the public’s needs.
• The survey will be on line until 6th February and is mainly tick boxes so it will only take a couple of minutes to complete.
• The more responses we get, means we have more information to guide us with any future plans or fund-raising for the town and the surrounding parishes.

Please use the link below to load the form and pass on the link to others you feel would be interested to take part.

Thank you in advance

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LRDVY65

As part of the preparations a visit to Ribchester museum was arranged to see how a relatively small museum can be succesful. I was pleased to be involved in this along with half a dozen or so other representaives of local groups. We gleaned a lot ideas and in keeping with the plea above completed a questionare whilst it was all still fresh in our minds.

Archaeological Timeline - Middlewich Heritage

Salt Hot House - Middlewich Heritage

Wardle Canal - Middlewich Heritage

Community Dig Finds - Middlewich Heritage

ARP Wardens - Middlewich Heritage