Mather are designing the new 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sport Museum in Doha and I’ve been helping with the content development. That’s meant researching the story of different sports from all around the world, some familiar and loved (probably a bit too much cricket in there), others less known. Camel racing, anyone?
My latest research work at Silverstone has unearthed the story of Luffield Priory, the abbey complex on the site. It’s a fascinating tale of medieval life – and monastic misbehaviour – largely lost under the plough and the JCB but coming to life from the records and the digs. And I took an excursion into circus history to track down the elephant who visited the circuit in the 1950s!
I’m enjoying more work on the Silverstone Heritage Project, this time researching and writing up just about everything that’s happened at the circuit. It’s involved revisiting many years of watching sports with the F1 story, but new ground for me with motorcycles and production cars. This great picture is of Sheila Van Damme with her Sunbeam at Silverstone in about 1955. Her racing team partner was Stirling Moss.
Was published in `Best of British’ in June. The ice cream weather may have gone, but it was lovely to see my piece, subtitled `The golden age of ice-cream’, fronting up this summer-themed issue.
What a great job! I’ve just completed researching the history of RAF Silverstone and have now turned to the racing history of the site for the Silverstone Heritage Live Project. Silverstone’s owners, the British Racing Drivers Club, are leading this multi-million pound visitor experience, and I’m working directly with designers Mather and Co and the BRDC Archive.
`Belvedere Village – Victorian Prayers and Profit’ is a primary source- based article on the rapid development of Upper Belvedere in the 1800s. It’s a tale of pubs and patrimony, crooks and committees, old salts, villas and watercress. `Bygone Kent’ is the magazine of Kent’s history and `Belvedere Village’ will appear shortly.
(well, I found it quite exciting…..)
