OK, I'm re-purposing my blog. Who knows what I might put up here, but I'm going to start with some genealogy.

Today I'm going to try and track down Amelia Butler, baptised on 30 August 1835 at St Mary's in Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire, the daughter of Thomas Butler (1814-1904) and Amy Barefoot (1815-1895).

What do we know already?
Well, in the 1841 census she was aged 7 and living with her parents at Church End in Swaffham Bulbeck (HO107/72/4 Folio 10B). Then we lose her entirely until she pops up in the 1881 census, again at her parent's house in Swaffham Bulbeck (PRO Ref RG11 Piece 1678 Folio 79 Page 24) listed as a cook and unmarried. Her age is given as 40 (she should be 46) but the name is correct as are her parent's names so this is definitely her. She then appears in the 1911 census at 95 Cowper Street, Hove in Sussex aged 75 and listed as an old age pensioner (Class: RG14; Piece: 5195). Sussex might seem a bit of a stretch but many of the Butlers moved to the Brighton and Hastings area and Amelia is recorded dying in Brighton in 1917 (GRO Death 1917Q4 Brighton 2b 276 Amelia Butler aged 81.) We also have a complete census record for Thomas and Amy and therefore know that Amelia was not at home in the intervening censuses.

First steps
Does anyone else know more than me? A Google search only shows information I already have. A search of Ancestry public member trees doesn't look too promising with seven trees; a couple of duplicates, one is mine, and one seems to have the wrong father. Viewing each of the tree I find no additional clues, in fact none of them have even the three census records. Intriguingly, one of the trees mentions that in 1875 she was a cook at Swaffham Bulbeck, but there is no citation, so nothing I can check as to where this information came from. I have a Kelly's trade directory from 1896 but she isn't listed in that and in fairness I didn't expect to find her in there, but it was worth checking. Anyway, we have confirmation that she worked as a cook.

The other census records
First efforts to find Amelia in 1851, 1861, and 1871 are a complete failure. I even try taking out 'Butler' then 'Amelia' from the searches but there is nothing even close. Let's start at the other end. Success with 1901! Amelia is living in Brighton at 2 Stone Street. Her birthplace is transcribed as Southam, Cambridgeshire but looking at the image I can see it is Swaffham, so I put in a correction to Ancestry. Sadly, she has no occupation listed but her age is 64 (66 expected) and she is unmarried.

Disaster!
1891 gets a hit as well; Amelia is a cook living at 2 Stone Street in Brighton aged 59 (expected 56) from Swaffham but, she is listed as a widow and the daughter of Sarah Hide aged 78 from Swaffham who is the head of the household and also a widow. What? Is the whole Amelia in Sussex a load of rubbish? I look at the record again and there are some boarders staying at the same address. A quick look in 1881, when Amelia was at her parents, shows a Sarah Hyde from Swaffham operating a boarding house out of 2 Stone Street. So, my new theory is that the enumerator got it wrong, Amelia was neither a daughter nor a widow.

I chase Sarah back through the census records. In 1871 and before that she is born in Hastings and operated a boarding house whilst doing laundry work following the the death of her husband, George, sometime between 1851 and 1861. At no point does she have a daughter called Amelia. That doesn't help with Amelia but it does show that the record is confused in 1891.

1851-1871
So back I go to searching the rest of the census records and no matter how broad I cast the net I can find no matches, hey ho. So what might Amelia have been doing? She could have been working abroad, although I doubt that in 1851 a 16 year-old would have done such a thing. Still, on the plus side, I did find her in 1891 and 1901, and that appears to be more than anyone else has done so far.

2014 review

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, of cabbages, and Kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether we should have a music roundup of 2014." No carpenters in this selection mind...

Gig-wise I've been very, very naughty but I hope to do much better in the new year with four already booked. The purchase of a Sonos system has meant that I spent a lot of time ripping my entire music collection to a NAS where it is now instantly available in two rooms, independently or together. But hey, vinyl is killing MP3s so this year I also got a turntable (technically it's a Christmas present, but I had to test it out!)

Out of 44 musical purchases this year my pre-2014 acquisitions totalled 22, 19 on CD and 3 on vinyl:

• Tales Of Mystery And Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project: I used to have this on vinyl, way back in the day, so this was a bit of a nostalgia purchase.
• End is Forever by The Ataris: I love the later stuff by The Ataris and as this was only 50p I thought I would dip my toe in some earlier material. Not disappointed.
• On The Sunday Of Life, Signify, Metanoia, and Stupid Dream all by Porcupine Tree: OK, I have to admit these were me being a complete-ist. Having said that, most of the material is really very good so I don't regret splashing out when the prices dipped enough to make it worth a punt.
• I have to say that I do like the Original Album Series. Usually there are four or five albums for an extremely good price. This year I picked up ELO, The Doors, and Jim Croce. Top stuff all of them.
• I heard Ben Howard on Later... and whilst waiting for his second album to be released managed to pick up his first, Every Kingdom, in HMV at a special price. Thoroughly recommended.
• This year I fancied trying North Atlantic Oscillation so I started with their Fog Electric album which was right up my street.
• In a similar vein, and because I like The Pineapple Thief anyway, I picked up Bruce Soord and Jonas Renkse's Wisdom of Crowds as well as TPT's One Three Seven. Both extremely good.
• Until The Colours Run by Lanterns On The Lake was recommended to me and turned out to be an excellent purchase.
• There were a few rockier albums which were released in 2013 but ended up on my Christmas list so failed to make my 2013 roundup. Fortress by Alterbridge was one such, a fantastic album.
• I was a bit disappointed with the Live in Tokyo album by Portnoy,  Sheehan,  Macalpine and Sherinian. It was, to me, very self-indulgent and no real improvement on the original tracks.
• On the other hand, I was very pleased with English Electric Full Power by Big Big Train and Like Clockwork by Queens Of The Stone Age.
• Finally, I thought The Temperance Movement's eponymous album didn't really live up to the hype.

Overall a very good haul and, despite slight disappointment with a couple, not an actual duff CD to be seen. The vinyl purchases, from a charity shop (I'm such a shameless hipster) were pure nostalgia:

• Rod Stewart's Foot Loose & Fancy Free from 1977.
• A little more current was Alf, the debut solo album of Alison Moyet from 1984.
• Spandau Ballet - The singles collection. Honestly, you can't go wrong with this stuff!

And so to the releases of 2014 of which I managed to pick up 22.

• I'll start with more from the Original Album Series which, whilst technically released in 2014, span earlier years and so won't qualify for inclusion in my top ten. Two excellent releases: Robin Trower who is a brilliant guitarist, and Runrig who are an awesome live band.
• Well, I love Thunder and the live Xmas Show 2013 was brilliant. Sadly I won't get to see them on tour in March as I'm on holiday but I'm so pleased that they've got a new studio album in 2015 and I've pre-ordered it as I just know that it's going to be fantastic.
• The Fall of Math by 65Daysofstatic was recommended by a friend a while back but I spotted the 2014 re-mastered edition and was very pleased with this.
• Another hyped, eponymous album was from Augustines and, I'm afraid, it too was slightly disappointing.
• Mystoria by Amplifier also didn't hit the heights I expected of them. The Octopus was such a great album in my opinion and they've struggled to reach that form again.
• Robert Plant seems to be doing well with his solo career and Lullaby...and the ceaseless roar was an excellent album.
• The Pineapple Thief had a new release with Magnolia which was every bit as good as I thought it would be.
• It's been a while since their last album but Engineers released Always returning which I bought with a bonus instrumental CD. Since their vocals are always very subdued anyway it's a bit like having two copies of the album that are practically the same, but hey ho it's a very good album so no complaints from me.
• I've always thought that I would probably like Bigelf so I tried their Into The Maelstrom, and I do. very much. Good purchase.
• A band that I do know and like, Transatlantic, turned out another fantastic album with Kaleidoscope.
• Finally in this section, I did enjoy the Pink Floyd release of The Endless River. Not classic Floyd but well worth having.

Here come the excuses. This my preferred order on this particular day, tomorrow it could be a slightly different list. It doesn't include any of the undeniably great albums which I failed to buy. I can't listen to everything; I have a full-time job, a family with grandchildren, other interests, and a limit as to how much I can spend on music. All this notwithstanding, here are my 2014 top ten albums:

• (10) Escape From The Shadow Garden by Magnum. Probably their best album since Brand New Morning, an outstanding return to form.
• (9) OK, it was a bit left-field for me but Splinter (songs from a broken mind) from Gary Numan came highly recommended by my oldest friend, a big Numan fan. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't cut the mustard, but it turned out to be a masterpiece and I'm very grateful that he pestered me into buying it. Cheers Vin!
• (8) Different Shades of Blue, yet another album from the prolific Joe Bonnamassa. In fairness he does a lot of covers and tracks with other people so it was refreshing to have an album of his own material, and he never disappoints.
• (7) As I enjoyed North Atlantic Oscillation's debut album I just had to buy their latest, The Third Day which was stunning, please buy this.
• (6) A blast of the past came in the form of Brighouse band Embrace who released an eponymous album eight years after their last. I always loved Embrace although they never seemed to get the major breakthrough that they deserved, bit like Thunder in that respect. This album mixed things up a bit with classic Embrace riffs and electronica / dance rhythms. I really liked it and was really pleased that they were the 'house band' for the Yorkshire Grand Depart at the First Direct Arena in Leeds with Hope&Social in support.
• (5) Supergroups are usually inconsistent or transient so I'm hoping that Flying Colours are going to stick around for a while. This year saw them quietly release the brilliant Second Nature, surely destined to be a classic rock album?
• (4) Feeder are currently in hiatus although I understand that Grant Nicholas is working on new material with Taka, so that's something to look forward to. In the meantime he has released a solo album, Yorktown Heights, which ticks all my boxes. It's kinda stripped back Feeder with the emphasis on the lyrics. very, very good indeed.
• (3) And so to the top three (trumpet blast) and the nicely eponymous (using that word a lot) album from Royal Blood which really blew my socks off. Superb.
• (2) And in complete contrast is the beautiful and haunting Distant Satellites from Anathema which would have been my album of the year if it wasn't for that pesky chap...
• (1) ...Ben Howard and his incredible I Forget Where We Were. What a stunning album.

2013 Review

19 December 2013 – so here is my musical roundup of 2013. The number of live gigs was definitely down again this this year, my own fault, nothing to do with the quality of artists at local venues. I did manage to get further afield this year, so that's a positive. I'm pleased to see that the First Direct Arena in Leeds has got off to a good start. I really hope that they can keep it up as there was strong competition from the O2 Academy in the latter half of the year. Venues in York seem to be struggling to get people through the doors. I'm not sure why this should be as there have been some excellent acts performing in the city, possibly one of the stronger years for talent.

My CD collection has swelled by another 25 albums, but that's nearly half the number from last year. Of those, 14 were released this year, 10 were older, and one was a 2013 re-issue of a 1995 album. My top ten new albums for 2013 were:

1. Dimensionaut, Sound of Contact
2. The Next Day, David Bowie
3. Opposites, Biffy Clyro
4. Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep, Spock's Beard
5. The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories), Steven Wilson
6. All Hell Breaks Loose, Black Star Riders
7. Echo Street, Amplifier
8. The World is Yours, The Union
9. Xmas Show 2012, Thunder
10. Dream Theater, Dream Theater

Some, well four actually, didn’t get in my top ten. Here they are in no particular order:

• Afterthoughts, Nosound
• A Far Cry From Home, Stolen Earth
• Oceans of Time, Touchstone
• Field of Reeds, These New Puritans

Of the older issues, it isn’t fair to rank them as the reasons that I bought them vary so much, so I present them by artist alphabetically:

• The Silent Enigma, Anathema (re-issue)
• American Beauty, The Greatful Dead
• Live Dead, The Greatful Dead
• Working Man's Dead, The Greatful Dead
• Hotel Radio, The Hazey Janes
• The Winter That Was, The Hazey Janes
• The Rainbow Bridge Concert, Jimi Hendrix
• Tall Ships, It Bites
• Sounds That Cannot Be Made, Marillion
• Crossing the Line, Simon McBride
• All the Little Lights, Passenger

The Winter That Was

Thursday 12 December 2013 - Due to the timing of some errands I found myself with a spare couple of hours to kill in York, so popped along to The Duchess. I knew that The Hazey Janes were playing and that Andy might be turning up. It was very quiet when I arrived. There were six people standing at the barrier and me, so I secreted myself towards the back. The sound and lighting engineers turned up and another chap who stood next to a pillar, then three of the six at the front clambered up onto the stage to play, they were support band The Article.

I really, really liked their first track, Lost In Circulation, almost a prog track, going off in all kinds of directions, and a fantastic start. The rest of the set seemed to be a mix of their own stuff and some covers, most of which I didn't recognise except for The Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've). Their vocals reminded me of early Cheap Trick but they were very muddy and indistinct, hence I never caught the name of any but the first track. The Article are very young but there is clearly nascent talent there, they just need to ditch the covers and get the vocals right.

Andy and Dan arrived a just after The Article started, swelling the number of us punters to seven. They too seemed to share the view that the band held promise. During the interval we adjourned to a nearby hostelry so that we could talk without shouting at each other, and we came back as The Hazey Janes (THJ) were mid-way through their first track. Meanwhile, the audience had increased by six, making a grand total of 13.

THJ are billed as a country-turned-indie-pop outfit from Dundee, although that description probably doesn't do them justice as their music actually spans everything from shoegazing to rock, quirky pop to balladry. Whilst they have supported acts such as Snow Patrol, Elbow, Idlewild, Brakes, Aberfeldy and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, I've never heard of them or any of their music. What was apparent, right from the start, was that this was a musically mature band, very tight, and confident of their performance. They were obviously disappointed by the low turnout but determined to put on great show and the handful of us attending were enthusiastically grateful for that.

Many of the tracks were taken from their latest album, The Winter That Was. The ballad-style tracks had an air of Del Amitri about them, but they also produced rip-roaring rock, foot-tapping country, and a frankly awesome track Everything Starts Again. And, kudos to them, even though we were a pitiful crowd, they came back and gave us two songs for an encore, one of which was a cover of a Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris track (I think it was Return Of The Grievous Angel).

After the performance we stayed behind while Andrew Mitchell (lead vocals and guitar) produced a box of CDs and both Andy and I bought a copy of The Winter That Was each which Andrew kindly signed for us. I shall definitely be checking out their back-catalogue.

I'm probably not best placed to cast stones, and it might have been due to late-night Christmas shopping, but for bands of this calibre such a poor turnout must be depressing. The outlook for live music looks bleak.

First Direct Arena, Leeds

Wednesday 4 September 2013 - We were fortunate to miss 'The Boss' doing the pre-opening opening of Leeds' latest entertainment venue, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the legend that is Elton John at the proper opening. It was also a chance to check out the acoustics to see if we might want to watch other artists/bands playing here.

The seating at the arena is fan-shaped, so a good view of the stage can be had from most sections. I wouldn't fancy being down on the flat area at the front though and the boxes and higher tiers looked a bit distant. We were on the right hand side, just below half way and the view was great.

The show started with 2Cellos , a pair of Croatians playing electric cellos attached to various effects boxes. They launched into a blistering mini-set of rock material; Smooth Criminal, Where The Streets Have No Name, Highway To Hell and Smells Like Teen Spirit. This gave the rest of Elton's band a chance to filter gradually on stage whilst providing a minimalist backing to the hand-banging duo.

After the applause had died down, Elton himself came on-stage and, seating himself at his piano, immediately launched into The Bitch Is Back. Hit followed hit as we were treated to; Bennie And The Jets, Grey Seal, Levon, Tiny Dancer, Holiday Inn, Believe, Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, Philadelphia Freedom, Candle In The Wind, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long Long Time).

From his collaboration with Leon Russell (The Union) we had Hey Ahab, then I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues. Next, one of my favourite Elton John tracks, and I have a superb cover by Dream Theater, was Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding. It brings me out in gooseflesh every time and this was no exception.

From his latest album, The Diving Board, we had the first track that I was unfamiliar with, Oscar Wilde Gets Out. He certainly hasn't lost his touch. Back to the hits then; Sad Songs (Say So Much), Daniel, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, The One and Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me. By now everyone was on their feet and desperately hoping that it wasn't all over. It wasn't. He rounded off with I'm Still Standing, Crocodile Rock, Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting), another fantastic new track Home Again, and finally Your Song.

OK, he can't quite manage those high notes anymore but we can forgive him that. His current band features drummer Nigel Olsson (Uriah Heep, Spencer Davis Group, Elton John Band and a session drummer) and Davey Johnstone from his original line-up of the 70s. Elton's four backing singers included two who are legends themselves; Rose and Lisa Stone from Sly And The Family Stone.

Acoustically, the Arena is fantastic. We could hear every single word that Elton sang, despite the fact that some of the bass notes made the legs of my jeans vibrate. Each instrument was distinct and clear. So I highly recommend the venue and, of course, do try and catch Sir Elton on his tour.

3 September 2013 - Today's outing was to the disused platform area of Bolton Percy Station which, again, is a nature reserve managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. However, I had previously spotted some bracket fungi on the road to Thorp Arch Trading Estate so thought that I might start there and also take in All Saints Church at Thorp Arch before making my way to Bolton Percy. God, that sounds so sad!

I parked up at Thorp Arch and immediately spotted a rabbit dashing back into it's burrow, so I set up my tripod and waited for about a quarter of an hour. He didn't come back of course and I took some pictures of the fungi and then made my way around to the church.

All Saints, Thorp Arch was mentioned in in the Domesday Survey and has undergone a number of rebuilds; first in the Norman style in C12, the Perpendicular style in 1485, and finally in the Medieval style in 1871/72 by the architect George Edmund Street. At the front of the church was a sundial mounted on an old looking octagonal pillar. I later found out that this was probably the support for a font presented by the mother of Revd. Christopher Atkinson in 1756. There was also a sundial on the side of the tower and a goodly collection of ancient gravestones, some looking rather Gothic in a cladding of ivy.

Then I drove to Bolton Percy, which is a rather small reserve. Most notable was a large bush just inside the entrance which seemed to be a butterfly magnet. I saw Tortoiseshells, I've no idea which variety, what I took to be Wood Whites, and a couple of yellowy Brimstones. I'm no expert so please take these identifications with a pinch of salt. Of course the trains roaring passed caused them to be very skittish and I wasn't very happy with the focus of the butterfly pictures. Hey ho.

Again, the whole set can be seen at https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100919022204905244251/albums/5919683501069738609

30 August 2013 - By way of a digression, I 'ave mostly been taking some time off work and taking pictures of stuff. I started out on Friday by visiting Hetchell Woods, a nature reserve managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It's a mix of woods and grasslands and has Bardsey Beck flowing alongside its edge. There were quite a few dog walkers when I first arrived so initially I just had a preliminary look around.

I started at an unusual area just south of the reserve itself, a set of earthworks associated with a Roman site called Pompocali. The location is distinctive for its many small circular features, with traces of tracks. These are thought to be kiln sites from the lime burning that took place between about 1700 and 1850. The lime was used for agricultural use and for mortar using the limestone quarried from the field close by, just across Milner Lane.

The trail through the woods took me passed quarry workings, either limestone or gritstone, and a set of rocky outcroppings known as Hetchell Crags. My path took me along the top of the crags at first and then further on was a hairpin turn and I came back along the base of the crags and adjacent to the beck.

Along the way I took pictures of flowers, fungi and insects as I went. There was a bit of a breeze but fortunately I had taken along a couple of freezer clips which held some of the flowers nice and still so that I could get some reasonable pictures.

The whole lot can be seen at https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100919022204905244251/albums/5917973751674210241