A clay pipe

These days smoking is regarded as a self destructive and antisocial habit but it wasn't always so. Until fairly recently smoking was considered normal amongst men and many thought it beneficial to hea...

Philip Draper and Jane Oram

Cohabiting may be thought to be something new, but Philip Draper and Jane Oram lived together as man and wife way back in the mid-19th century. Just why they didn’t marry we don’t know, but this e...

A Spoke Shave

Some of the tools used in times past strike us, these days, as just a tad dangerous for the user. Such a tool was the spoke shave. These were sometimes known as a draw knife. We have such a tool at Ma...

William Willis lived here

William was born in Poulshot in about 1811. It was in this old Northbrook cottage that he lived with wife, Eliza, and their family. His wife had been Miss Eliza Dark and they married on 25th Octobe...