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lornaspacey
Sep 4, 20192 min read
The Story So Far..
Two years ago, after completing thirty years in teaching, I decided to try something new; writing a book. I wanted to write a book on...
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lornaspacey
Nov 161 min read
After a break, I'm back again!
My first task on resuming my writing was to seperate the book chapters into individual books for each hotel. I'm editing as I go,...
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lornaspacey
Aug 11, 20211 min read
The first book is published
Last week saw the publication of my first book, "The Secret History of the Seaside Grands" . It is full of stories about these grand...
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lornaspacey
Dec 15, 20203 min read
The Royal Hotel, Whitby and the Monopoly Connection.
At the turn of the 20th century the manager of the hotel was Emile Bruvet an Irish born son of a French immigrant. Emile’s father was...
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lornaspacey
Oct 14, 20205 min read
The Laughtons in Scarborough
I was delighted when I came across this book, which gives the whole story of the Laughton family's life in Scarborough and the hotels...
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lornaspacey
Jul 6, 20204 min read
The Llandudno Grand Hotel "The Welsh Ritz"
At the opening of the Llandudno Grand on 3rd July 1902, adverts in the press are full of the news that the hotel was built, decorated and...
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lornaspacey
Jun 22, 20203 min read
The Hero of the Crimea Turned Hotel Keeper.
Major Johnson was new to hotel management having spent his whole career in the army. He retired from the army in 1880 and was given a...
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lornaspacey
May 27, 20206 min read
My First Published Piece
I was recently approached by the local magazine, "Grange Now". They are based in Grange Over Sands and contacted me for some stories...
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lornaspacey
Apr 27, 20204 min read
Troubled Builder to Celebrated Engineer
The contractor originally given the role of building the Scarborough Grand Hotel from Cuthbert Broderick’s plans was Daniel Climie. ...
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lornaspacey
Apr 16, 20201 min read
The Impact of Covid-19 on Research
As I reported in my post of 31st October 2019, there is no substitute to actually going to an archive and handling real live documents. ...
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lornaspacey
Mar 16, 20202 min read
Hitler's Plans for the Scarborough Grand
You would think that researching a hotel history would be fairly straightforward, but having finished (or so I thought) Scarborough quite...
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lornaspacey
Mar 5, 20203 min read
The Fate of the Dover Grand
Obviously the proximity of Dover to the continent would be as much a problem to the Dover Grand Hotel during this war as it had been...
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lornaspacey
Feb 10, 20202 min read
The Llandudno Jewelry Robbery
In 1913, the Grand Hotel made the headlines as the venue for a jewelry robbery involving the Wartski Company (whose solicitor was the...
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lornaspacey
Nov 26, 20191 min read
Tynemouth Grand and the Suffragist Movement.
In 1911, having been recently widowed, Maggie Sherlock took over as manager of the Tynemouth Grand Hotel. Her predecessor, Mary Tickle...
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lornaspacey
Oct 31, 20192 min read
Researching at an archive
Many documents can be found on line and it is a great way to begin research, but to add flesh to these bones, nothing beats a visit to an...
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lornaspacey
Oct 18, 20191 min read
Finally a Breakthrough
Finding an article on the opening of a hotel is a great start to research. Finding one for the Swanage Grand Hotel did pose some...
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lornaspacey
Oct 3, 20192 min read
The Frustrations of Research
I try to be thorough when doing my research, that's the point of doing the book; to give out accurate and carefully checked information....
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lornaspacey
Sep 20, 20192 min read
Grange Over Sands Grand and the Stuntman
One intriguing article in the Lancaster Guardian of 3rd August 1956 reports on a stillroom man working at the Grand Hotel called William...
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lornaspacey
Sep 16, 20192 min read
The Thrill of Discovering a Long Lost Story
One of the magical things about researching this sort of book is the stories you come across along the way. In their time these stories...
18 views0 comments
lornaspacey
Sep 6, 20191 min read
Scarborough Funicular Railways
I have spent the afternoon researching the funicular railways of Scarborough. I suppose with the topography of the town, access to an...
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