Rosie Rowley
@thehistoryspy.bsky.social
Formerly MaccHistorian. Love genealogy, birdwatching, trains, knitting.... So many hobbies, so little time.... from the Isle of Ely (not an island!), now living in Cheshire, England
Pinned
Rosie Rowley
@thehistoryspy.bsky.social
· Nov 17
#Genealogy intro:
Years researching: about 40
Hobbyist or pro: hobbyist
Fun fact/Wildest discovery: One of my Spridgeons has a road in Long Eaton named after him; another won a prize in an 1840 agricultural show for 'the best 4 stalks of rhubarb'
My niche/s: Macclesfield WWI memorials, Spridgeon ONS
Years researching: about 40
Hobbyist or pro: hobbyist
Fun fact/Wildest discovery: One of my Spridgeons has a road in Long Eaton named after him; another won a prize in an 1840 agricultural show for 'the best 4 stalks of rhubarb'
My niche/s: Macclesfield WWI memorials, Spridgeon ONS
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
Just booked to see The Longest Yarn WW2 knitted exhibition near Stoke - history and knitting, two of my favourite things! outsidearts.org/events/the-l...
The Longest Yarn 2: Britain at War - Dec 2025 - OUTSIDE
The stunning exhibition of knitted and crocheted wartime scenes will be on display at Great Wood Community Hall in Tean from 1-30 December.
outsidearts.org
November 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Just booked to see The Longest Yarn WW2 knitted exhibition near Stoke - history and knitting, two of my favourite things! outsidearts.org/events/the-l...
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
Emma, after watching yet another programme about railways: “They really changed the world, didn’t they.”
Me: “Absolutely, they enabled the spread of epidemics, made the Holocaust possible, and facilitated the exploitation of the Third World.”
Emma: “WTF is wrong with you??”
😶
Me: “Absolutely, they enabled the spread of epidemics, made the Holocaust possible, and facilitated the exploitation of the Third World.”
Emma: “WTF is wrong with you??”
😶
November 25, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Emma, after watching yet another programme about railways: “They really changed the world, didn’t they.”
Me: “Absolutely, they enabled the spread of epidemics, made the Holocaust possible, and facilitated the exploitation of the Third World.”
Emma: “WTF is wrong with you??”
😶
Me: “Absolutely, they enabled the spread of epidemics, made the Holocaust possible, and facilitated the exploitation of the Third World.”
Emma: “WTF is wrong with you??”
😶
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
November 21, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
Nature isn’t a “blocker” – it makes our lives better.
Our coast, countryside, heritage and wildlife underpin our food, water and health and put millions of pounds into the economy. The Government must not weaken the laws that protect them.
Our coast, countryside, heritage and wildlife underpin our food, water and health and put millions of pounds into the economy. The Government must not weaken the laws that protect them.
November 20, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Nature isn’t a “blocker” – it makes our lives better.
Our coast, countryside, heritage and wildlife underpin our food, water and health and put millions of pounds into the economy. The Government must not weaken the laws that protect them.
Our coast, countryside, heritage and wildlife underpin our food, water and health and put millions of pounds into the economy. The Government must not weaken the laws that protect them.
@familytreemag.bsky.social can I just check, this is the US Family Tree Magazine, not the UK one? Thanks.
November 6, 2025 at 10:27 PM
@familytreemag.bsky.social can I just check, this is the US Family Tree Magazine, not the UK one? Thanks.
If you're rushing to order wills because they're going up from £1.50 to £16, just double-check before ordering. Missed the middle name off two of mine so have had to re-order 🤦 At least I didn't do that after the price went up!
November 6, 2025 at 4:41 PM
If you're rushing to order wills because they're going up from £1.50 to £16, just double-check before ordering. Missed the middle name off two of mine so have had to re-order 🤦 At least I didn't do that after the price went up!
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
The UK has become a genuine multi-party country – but our voting system hasn’t caught up. The Dutch elections this week show how proportional representation can give everyone a voice, while keeping extremists out of power.
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @stephenmcnair.bsky.social
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @stephenmcnair.bsky.social
How to tame the populists: lessons from the Netherlands
Recent elections in the Netherlands show how a proportional voting system can prevent extremists from taking power. Lessons for the UK?
eastangliabylines.co.uk
November 2, 2025 at 8:42 PM
The UK has become a genuine multi-party country – but our voting system hasn’t caught up. The Dutch elections this week show how proportional representation can give everyone a voice, while keeping extremists out of power.
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @stephenmcnair.bsky.social
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @stephenmcnair.bsky.social
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
Ragwort, St Aidan’s nature reserve, West Yorkshire, 2/11/25. One of my favourite plants and unfairly maligned. #wildflowerhour
November 2, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Ragwort, St Aidan’s nature reserve, West Yorkshire, 2/11/25. One of my favourite plants and unfairly maligned. #wildflowerhour
Well, who knew? To remove your MS account from a PC, you don't just remove it from the PC. First you have to unlink yourself in the OneDrive app. So if you omit that step, your OneDrive files are left on the PC! Then you have to re-add your account and try to unlink yourself in OneDrive first 🤬
November 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Well, who knew? To remove your MS account from a PC, you don't just remove it from the PC. First you have to unlink yourself in the OneDrive app. So if you omit that step, your OneDrive files are left on the PC! Then you have to re-add your account and try to unlink yourself in OneDrive first 🤬
#31daysofgraves 31: Memento Mori - not exactly Memento Mori but I wanted to include this one, in plot 3-219, #Macclesfield Cemetery. Brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. Transcription in alt text. Unusually, no dates of death are given but Ida died in 1993 and Albert in 1996.
October 31, 2025 at 10:49 AM
#31daysofgraves 31: Memento Mori - not exactly Memento Mori but I wanted to include this one, in plot 3-219, #Macclesfield Cemetery. Brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. Transcription in alt text. Unusually, no dates of death are given but Ida died in 1993 and Albert in 1996.
#31DaysOfGraves 29: Occupation - At #Prestbury St Peter's, near #Macclesfield, gravestone to the memory of John T Nicolson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Manchester University and his wife Margaret. They lived in Marple in 1911; two sons, Gilbert and Frank, were born in Montreal, Canada.
October 29, 2025 at 11:10 AM
#31DaysOfGraves 29: Occupation - At #Prestbury St Peter's, near #Macclesfield, gravestone to the memory of John T Nicolson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Manchester University and his wife Margaret. They lived in Marple in 1911; two sons, Gilbert and Frank, were born in Montreal, Canada.
#31DaysOfGraves 28: Column - #Macclesfield's Park Green War Memorial, originally dedicated to over 700 men who died in #WWI. #WWII names & 5 who died in other conflicts were later added. 50 men and 3 women omitted from the WWI columns were added in 2023. www.cheshireroll.co.uk/war-memorial...
October 28, 2025 at 10:49 AM
#31DaysOfGraves 28: Column - #Macclesfield's Park Green War Memorial, originally dedicated to over 700 men who died in #WWI. #WWII names & 5 who died in other conflicts were later added. 50 men and 3 women omitted from the WWI columns were added in 2023. www.cheshireroll.co.uk/war-memorial...
#31DaysofGraves Day 27: Tree - the stump of a tree which fell or had to be cut down in #Macclesfield Cemetery carved into a lovely wren scupture, photo taken in 2018 when it was fairly new (you may have to click on the image to see the wren?)
October 27, 2025 at 10:19 AM
#31DaysofGraves Day 27: Tree - the stump of a tree which fell or had to be cut down in #Macclesfield Cemetery carved into a lovely wren scupture, photo taken in 2018 when it was fairly new (you may have to click on the image to see the wren?)
#31DaysOfGraves 26: Figure - a rather erotic reclining female figure on the gravestone of "Eliza Crow, her professional name Madam Warton, who died Jan 27th 1854, aged 27 yrs. This tablet raised to her memory by a dear and sincere friend Arthur Nelson" ...
October 26, 2025 at 3:09 PM
#31DaysOfGraves 26: Figure - a rather erotic reclining female figure on the gravestone of "Eliza Crow, her professional name Madam Warton, who died Jan 27th 1854, aged 27 yrs. This tablet raised to her memory by a dear and sincere friend Arthur Nelson" ...
#31DaysOfGraves 25: Graveside ornament - a memorial in #Macclesfield Cemetery to Ian Curtis, lead singer of 1970s band Joy Division. Fans leave a myriad of items by the stone. "Love will tear us apart" is a song by Curtis released a month after his suicide in 1980 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Cur...
October 25, 2025 at 10:07 AM
#31DaysOfGraves 25: Graveside ornament - a memorial in #Macclesfield Cemetery to Ian Curtis, lead singer of 1970s band Joy Division. Fans leave a myriad of items by the stone. "Love will tear us apart" is a song by Curtis released a month after his suicide in 1980 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Cur...
#31DaysofGraves 24: Unique Animal - I don't have any photos of animals on gravestones so here is one of my great-grandfather, Albert William BULL, of Hitcham, Suffolk; he died in 1912 aged 54 when travelling home by horse & cart and fell off the cart shafts when the horse began to trot....
October 24, 2025 at 3:41 PM
#31DaysofGraves 24: Unique Animal - I don't have any photos of animals on gravestones so here is one of my great-grandfather, Albert William BULL, of Hitcham, Suffolk; he died in 1912 aged 54 when travelling home by horse & cart and fell off the cart shafts when the horse began to trot....
#31daysofgraves 23: cross - a very beautiful and rather elaborate Celtic cross in #Macclesfield cemetery, erected in memory of Thomas John Donohue (died 1927), his wife Sarah (died 1960) and their daughter Elsie Margaret Donohue M.A. (died 1983 aged 91)
October 23, 2025 at 4:02 PM
#31daysofgraves 23: cross - a very beautiful and rather elaborate Celtic cross in #Macclesfield cemetery, erected in memory of Thomas John Donohue (died 1927), his wife Sarah (died 1960) and their daughter Elsie Margaret Donohue M.A. (died 1983 aged 91)
#31DaysOfGraves 22: landscape - Azmak Cemetery, where Walter Bancroft of #Macclesfield was buried in 1915 #WWI sent by the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) to his family www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=8... @cheshire1418.bsky.social @cwgc.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 10:14 AM
#31DaysOfGraves 22: landscape - Azmak Cemetery, where Walter Bancroft of #Macclesfield was buried in 1915 #WWI sent by the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) to his family www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=8... @cheshire1418.bsky.social @cwgc.bsky.social
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
If you were a major genealogical website and one of your jobs was to make digital copies of historical sources available online and you were digitising a major national collection of wills would you:
a) check that they were all there or
b) not bother so much
Guess which option Ancestry went for...
a) check that they were all there or
b) not bother so much
Guess which option Ancestry went for...
October 21, 2025 at 4:13 PM
If you were a major genealogical website and one of your jobs was to make digital copies of historical sources available online and you were digitising a major national collection of wills would you:
a) check that they were all there or
b) not bother so much
Guess which option Ancestry went for...
a) check that they were all there or
b) not bother so much
Guess which option Ancestry went for...
#31DaysOfGraves 21: Bronze/Brass - Mill St Mission #WWI war memorial, the only WWI memorial in #Macclesfield with a woman's name - nurse Sarah Wiggin (spelt Wiggins!), who died of pneumonia in Preston on 2 Nov 1918. Among others is George Pickering, died 1917 www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=1...
October 21, 2025 at 3:47 PM
#31DaysOfGraves 21: Bronze/Brass - Mill St Mission #WWI war memorial, the only WWI memorial in #Macclesfield with a woman's name - nurse Sarah Wiggin (spelt Wiggins!), who died of pneumonia in Preston on 2 Nov 1918. Among others is George Pickering, died 1917 www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=1...
#31DaysofGraves 20: Wreath - the grave of Francis Walton in plot J8453, the first casualty of #WWI to be buried in #Macclesfield Cemetery, featuring a military cap surrounded by a wreath www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=3... @cheshire1418.bsky.social
October 20, 2025 at 10:38 AM
#31DaysofGraves 20: Wreath - the grave of Francis Walton in plot J8453, the first casualty of #WWI to be buried in #Macclesfield Cemetery, featuring a military cap surrounded by a wreath www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=3... @cheshire1418.bsky.social
Reposted by Rosie Rowley
If you live locally or use Congleton station then please do sign this petition.
www.change.org/p/bring-back...
www.change.org/p/bring-back...
Sign the Petition
Bring Back Sunday Trains for Congleton
www.change.org
October 12, 2025 at 7:20 AM
If you live locally or use Congleton station then please do sign this petition.
www.change.org/p/bring-back...
www.change.org/p/bring-back...
#31DaysOfGravestones 19: #SocialGroup - five #WWI CWGC gravestones in Plot X, #Macclesfield cemetery, for James Campbell (d 5 Jun 1918), George Davies (d 14 Feb 1917), Herbert West (d 15 Jan 1919), Arthur Shaw (d 29 May 1919) and Joseph Murphy (d 3 Jun 1917) www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=9...
October 19, 2025 at 10:45 AM
#31DaysOfGravestones 19: #SocialGroup - five #WWI CWGC gravestones in Plot X, #Macclesfield cemetery, for James Campbell (d 5 Jun 1918), George Davies (d 14 Feb 1917), Herbert West (d 15 Jan 1919), Arthur Shaw (d 29 May 1919) and Joseph Murphy (d 3 Jun 1917) www.cheshireroll.co.uk/soldier/?i=9...
#31DaysOfGraves 16 and 17 - Obelisk Relocated: A panel from an obelisk which stood outside Christ Church, #Macclesfield but was destroyed by vandals in the 1960s. It commemorates Charles Roe (1715-1781), a local industrialist who commissioned the church. www.christchurchmacc.co.uk/charles-roe
October 17, 2025 at 9:34 AM
#31DaysOfGraves 16 and 17 - Obelisk Relocated: A panel from an obelisk which stood outside Christ Church, #Macclesfield but was destroyed by vandals in the 1960s. It commemorates Charles Roe (1715-1781), a local industrialist who commissioned the church. www.christchurchmacc.co.uk/charles-roe