Research, roots, and Saxon ramparts

 

Author and road named for her grandfather, 
Murray Dowding, near Old Sodbury, Gloucestershire.
Photo credit: Rich McDonough

After taking hundreds of photos on my recent research trip to England, this one kind of captures a lot of how the trip went. 

It was fantastic. I met family (some I'd never met before) and friends old and new, discovered histories, heard narratives, and drew close to my roots here, in Chipping Sodbury, part of the beautiful Cotswolds. 

At left, I am standing beside the street named for my grandfather, Murray Dowding, who was a talented photographer and who took thousands of photos of his part of England from the 1890s-1930s. His photographic record is in archives all throughout Gloucestershire, and part of my trip was to see as many as I could.

The other part of my trip was to research a book based on my father's experience as a boy, bombed during a work shift at the local Yate aircraft parts factory (Parnalls), in 1941. 

Difficult reading, hard material to work with, I drew close to the war and my father in a way I never have. The book-writing commences now.

I discovered so much about my father's life in wartime England, in archives and on-site videos, and through listening to the Yate Oral History Project (headphones image). Thank you to David Hardill for all his help there.

This part of the research trip was generously supported by a Canada Council Research and Creation grant, and I am and will be forever thankful for the opportunity to travel to England (where I was born) to do research on a book about my father's wartime experience. Stay tuned, it will be finished next spring, more to come as I work with all this material.

More to come too, as I slowly process and digest this amazing trip. Trip of a lifetime friends, truly.