"Thames Valley County Memories" is one of 7 titles in the new County Memories series from The Francis Frith Collection. This wonderful paperback showcases the Thames Valley area's unique story with fine historical photographs, maps, traditional recipes, heritage and industry, archaeology, fascinating local facts and folklore.

We invite you to personalise your copy of "Thames Valley County Memories", and create a wonderful gift or keepsake. Before you buy, simply add a personal message which will be printed on the title page of your book - perfect for anniversaries, birthdays and retirements! More about this

This stunning NEW book release from The Francis Frith Collection is now available for only $24.00.

"Thames Valley County Memories" is bursting with information snippets and local facts about the Thames Valley area. Learn about boating on the Thames, and "Three Men in a Boat",  dialect words and phrases from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire,  making a Living – trades and industries of the area in the past,  folklore, customs and ghosts of the Thames Valley area,  to name just a few! Read on for a few of the fascinating "Did you know...?" facts from the book.

• The Making of an Archive
• Thames Valley County Map
• Thames Valley - An Introduction
• The Thames Valley from Richmond-upon-Thames
• "...to say nothing of the Dog"
• Berkshire and the Kennet Valley
• The Thames Valley from Henley-on-Thames to Oxford
• Making a Living
• The River Thame and the Chilterns
• Food and Recipes
• The Oxfordshire Thames and the Cherwell and Evenlode Country
• Folklore, Customs and Ghosts
• Voucher for a Free Mounted Print

• ISBN: 1-84589-111-2
• Written by Martin Andrew
• Printed to order and Despatched in 3-5 days
• Add your own inscription! - tell me more...
• 144 pages, Paperback

• The county town of Reading, Berkshire grew up on the north bank of the River Kennet just west of its confluence with the River Thames. First mentioned in AD871, it emerged from obscurity when Henry I founded Reading Abbey in 1121, which rapidly became one of the greatest and most powerful abbeys in England. Now only shapeless flint walls survive.
• The moaning ghost of Thomas Barrie is said to haunt Newbury's Market Place, where in 1538 he was punished for spreading rumours about Henry VIII. His ears were nailed to the town pillory and were then chopped off; Thomas died of shock, and his ghost has roamed the area ever since.
• The author Kenneth Grahame lived in Church Cottage in Pangbourne, where the River Pang joins the Thames. He sought inspiration for his famous book "The Wind in the Willows" from stretches of the River Pang.
• There was an important settlement at Goring on Thames in prehistoric times, and it was at the ford here that the ancient routes known as the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way joined. The earliest recorded bridge over the Thames at Goring was erected in 1837. This was a toll bridge, and the various charges were not popular with one local man, who is said to have always taken his pig with him when crossing the bridge to save some money – a pedestrian was charged one penny to cross the bridge, but only paid a halfpenny if he was driving a calf or pig.
• One of the interesting items in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is the lantern that Guy Fawkes was holding when he was caught in the cellars below the House of Lords in 1605, about to set fire to the barrels of gunpowder that would blow up James I and his parliament.
• Lace-making was once an important industry in Buckinghamshire, and there are some fine examples to be seen in the Buckinghamshire County Museum in Aylesbury. Queen Victoria was once quoted as preferring "Bucks lace" for her pillows. Buckinghamshire lace became very sought after, but was mainly made by poor women and children; pauper children in poorhouses were often taught to make lace in Lace Schools in the 17th century which would provide them with a means of making a living. Lace-making was not a healthy job; the lace-makers often had poor eyesight in later life, and many of them developed a stoop, form bending over their work from a young age.
• The expression "on tenterhooks" has its origin in the blanket- and woollen cloth-making trades, which were carried on in towns like Witney. After fulling, when the cloth was beaten in vats with water and fuller's earth to get rid of grease and give it a firm texture, the pieces of cloth were "tentered" – hung out to dry in the open, stretched on strong hooks (the "tenterhooks") fitted to huge wooden frames. To be "on tenterhooks" thus implies being under tension.

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