By nature I'm a chronicler, an investigator and an interpreter, so history is a natural calling, when I was studying at York an eminent professor there defined historical research as: "selection and interpretation". In a different era and a different life I would have been one of those troubadours who goes from village to village picking up stories, adapting them and reinterpreting them. The mass media and published word killed that off for a couple of centuries, at least as a viable occupation. What the Internet does is allows you to reinvent the story telling and investigation without the travel, less worn shoes, more worn fingers, eyesight and keyboards.

So this whole section is about the things I have been following up on, some of it all my life, some from sheer whimsy, some pure nosiness, if any of it is of interest to you in your journey I'm pleased, I think we are all travellers, some choose to record and retell what they experience others do not.

You'll find a mixture of sight, sound and writing, for now it includes some meanderings I undertook recently in my home county of Cheshire, which has a literary angle. The family history links up appropriately here too and I've recently added the search for "Twinkle Toes" - an elusive relative who seemingly died in the wrong year, played for Newton Heath and appears in the history books.

This is the section of the site I plan to develop most, a sort of personal chronicle, any information about the places and people I mention would be very welcome indeed and will if appropriate be included, pictures are welcome too, really anything that adds to the story.

I've now completed the story about a rambling journey I've been undertaking in Yorkshire where the Lyke Wake Walk ends and the road on the edge of time begins - click here: Journey In Time or on the link below.

If you are here for the In Search of Twinkle Toes it makes sense to go to the Family Tree link first then you will know where Twinkle Toes (John Barker) fits in, it also links you to the back story via the Hughes History which is a lot more than dry information, it even has some funny old photographs of the days when we all had more hair! There are also pictures of Hammond ancestors and family to be found there too.

However, if you are here for the Hammond family information that can be accessed directly via the Hammond button below. This is currently based on the extensive work that Carolyn Pearce has done, how we are connected can be best understood by following the story from the Family Tree link.

Finally a few words of thanks: to my sister Gill for the early black & white family photo's and putting up with the ribbing, to my Granddad Hughes for the original family story, to Carolyn for the Hammond research, but most of all to Lynda for putting up with all of this and being the focus of some humour in the Notes From series...