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...

I am delighted that since my hiatus, the Royal has reopened and its 175 year history can continue. I was reviewing my Whitby work ready...

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,...

Last week saw the publication of my first book, "The Secret History of the Seaside Grands" . It is full of stories about these grand...

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...

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...

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...

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...

I was recently approached by the local magazine, "Grange Now". They are based in Grange Over Sands and contacted me for some stories...

The contractor originally given the role of building the Scarborough Grand Hotel from Cuthbert Broderick’s plans was Daniel Climie. ...

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. ...

You would think that researching a hotel history would be fairly straightforward, but having finished (or so I thought) Scarborough quite...

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...

In 1913, the Grand Hotel made the headlines as the venue for a jewelry robbery involving the Wartski Company (whose solicitor was the...

In 1911, having been recently widowed, Maggie Sherlock took over as manager of the Tynemouth Grand Hotel. Her predecessor, Mary Tickle...

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...

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...

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....

One intriguing article in the Lancaster Guardian of 3rd August 1956 reports on a stillroom man working at the Grand Hotel called William...

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...