Twin brothers in arms

1914 only saw a couple of Wing-connected war casualties but unfortunately the same could not be said of 1915 and subsequent years. Today sees the 100th anniversary of the death of Harold Vallentine, the first to die in 1915, who served along with his twin brother Claud. Claud also died in the war in 1917, and a profile of the brothers is now available on the website.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, and good luck on your ancestor hunt this year.

I've added a new VALLENTINE memorial inscription to the website. There'll be more to come on the Vallentines shortly.

Update: very shortly in fact, I've also added the last remaining Vallentine gravestone to the website.

Random (somewhat farm-related) fact

You'll be pleased to know that the temperature at Burcott Lodge Farm from 25th to 30th June 1866 was a consistent 80F/27C. We have Robert VALLENTINE and his detailed record-keeping to thank for this - Robert was busy harvesting his first clover crop for the year over those dates. Robert also liked to share his conclusions with others, this isn't the first time I've come across reference to him and the farm in print! This particular snippet can be found in Talks on Manures by Joseph Harris, should you feel the urge to explore that particular topic further...

Robert VALLENTINE's prize essay

Anyone keen to learn about the retention of moisture in turnip land? Then you'll want to check out the essay by Robert VALLENTINE of Burcott Farm published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1856. Unfortunately one of the pages is blurry so some of the wisdom of his 20 years experience in growing turnips is lost, but an entertaining read none-the-less!

You can also check out page 269 of the same book for a much longer (54 page) article about farming in Buckinghamshire at this time. My poor printer isn't thanking me, but I'm off to snuggle up in front of the heater and extend my knowledge of Bucks agriculture!