Category: HISTORY

East Sussex Lay Subsidy Rolls: 1550 – Rotherfield, Cuckfield, Horsham, Lewes and others.

There is a permanent page for this post here . Update: I recently attempted an analysis of what the cow hides actually list, which you can view at your own risk on the permanent page.

In 2009 I paid for the National Archives to copy these Lay Subsidy Rolls (tax payments collected on cow hides), because nobody has previously requested this be done, so they were not available. These rolls (rots) may also be relevant to other genealogists, so I am sharing high resolution images of them here. I still have a record of the receipts.

Key
Amounts are usually given in Pounds, Shillings and Pennies
The ‘j’ indicates the last penny of each amount

Note
It would take me far too long to order these rolls (rots) according to their Borough, village or district and I could easily make a mistake, because they are so hard to read. Thus I will simply list them with their Roll file index name and leave it to others to dig further! Continue reading “East Sussex Lay Subsidy Rolls: 1550 – Rotherfield, Cuckfield, Horsham, Lewes and others.” →

Electric car found in pyramid!

Do you remember reading those wonderful books in the 70s by authors like Erich von Daniken and the like, all about aliens visiting Earth milienia ago? How I miss the simple optimism of those books. But now, somebody has actually discovered something strange in the great pyramid:

Remember a few years ago, scientists and engineers managed to get a small wheeled-vehicle up one of those two narrow shafts that lead from the King’s Chamber (tomb) to the exterior of the pyramid in the direction of certain stars? They came up against a tiny wall and although the little robotic vehicle could peer over it, nothing could be seen in the small chamber opposite. They ran out of funding.

Well, they have funding again and last month managed to break through the wall. They found what looks like a robotic vehicle from ancient Egypt! Imagine that! It is battery powered.

You can find out more about ancient pyramids and how they might have originated in my book Unknown Place, Unknown Universe. BOOK 3 in the series, Worlds Like Dust, will be published some time in the next two months. Watch the trailer for Unknown Place, Unknown Universe below. I hope you like it, and if you do, or have anything else to say about this post, please leave a comment.

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Video booktrailer: The Devil’s Own Dice

The Devil’s Own Dice is mostly set in 13th Century Burgundy, France and covers the great Battle of Bouvines, which shaped Europe for the next few hundred years. I have had a look on the internet for any tours of the battle sites in the book and the best I can come up with is Battlefield Tours by Leger Holidays who have many tours to France, mostly for battles of WWII.

But they also do a tour of Burgundy so that might be worth checking out.

There was a tour of the Bouvines Battlefield to mark the 800th Anniversary, last year, but unfortunately I missed it!

Anyway, here is my video. I would like to know what you think of it so please stop long enough to comment:

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