Magic lanterns were a popular form of education and entertainment in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The collection at the Woodchurch Village Life Museum includes this fascinating nineteenth-century lantern.

The popularity of clandestine marriages in the 17th and 18th century can make it challenging to research your ancestors in the local parish registers. Unless, that is, you know where else to look.

In 1894, Thomas Kenward, headteacher of the National School, was struggling to get pupils back into class after the summer holiday. It was clear that for many of his students there were competing priorities.

It’s no fun being poor, and certainly not if you lived a few hundred years ago. Josie Mackie examines the requirement for paupers to wear stigmatising badges when receiving help from the parish.

Bob and Pat Chown identify some significant issues—and potential pitfalls for researchers—with the 1939 Register, a wartime ‘census’ of the civilian population living in Great Britain on 29 September 1939.

While carrying out some research on the Royal Military Canal, I came across a fascinating map produced by the Historical

With the 2021 census for England and Wales just around the corner (it takes place on Sunday 21 March), Bob

The summer of 1812 produced another call of duty for the Woodchurch men in the East Kent Militia. The majority

Three Woodchurch families stand out as ‘important’ over the last 1000 years. Coins found by metal detectorists and others tell