Gracechurch Hardback Book
John Ayscough’s Gracechurch (1913), is a vivid and moving account of the author’s childhood and youth, growing up in Ellesmere, Shropshire in the 1860s and 1870s.
Gracechurch (1913) is a fascinating account of Bickerstaffe’s boyhood and of Victorian Ellesmere’s genteel - stratified society. Ellesmere then was one of the two Shropshire towns (the other being Whitchurch) owned by Earl Brownlow, and ‘viceregally’ ruled by his kinsman-agent (a principal character in the book). All the places and persons were given fictitious names in the original 1913 publication but, thanks to a discovery in a local country house library of a key in an annotated copy, almost all the names of the real people behind the aliases can be identified.
This book contains an extensive introduction, chapter end notes and an appendix containing a list of people and places identified. The other good fortune was a gift of a collection of glass negatives (now in the Shropshire Archives) of images of Ellesmere contemporary with the young Bickerstaffe’s boyhood. Extensive use is made of these along with more recent photography in the 27 illustrations
Postage to UK only. £5.95
For shipping to other parts of the world, please email christopher.jobson@gracechurchbook.co.uk for a quote before purchase.
Also available to buy from Ellesmere Library.
John Ayscough’s Gracechurch (1913), is a vivid and moving account of the author’s childhood and youth, growing up in Ellesmere, Shropshire in the 1860s and 1870s.
Gracechurch (1913) is a fascinating account of Bickerstaffe’s boyhood and of Victorian Ellesmere’s genteel - stratified society. Ellesmere then was one of the two Shropshire towns (the other being Whitchurch) owned by Earl Brownlow, and ‘viceregally’ ruled by his kinsman-agent (a principal character in the book). All the places and persons were given fictitious names in the original 1913 publication but, thanks to a discovery in a local country house library of a key in an annotated copy, almost all the names of the real people behind the aliases can be identified.
This book contains an extensive introduction, chapter end notes and an appendix containing a list of people and places identified. The other good fortune was a gift of a collection of glass negatives (now in the Shropshire Archives) of images of Ellesmere contemporary with the young Bickerstaffe’s boyhood. Extensive use is made of these along with more recent photography in the 27 illustrations
Postage to UK only. £5.95
For shipping to other parts of the world, please email christopher.jobson@gracechurchbook.co.uk for a quote before purchase.
Also available to buy from Ellesmere Library.
John Ayscough’s Gracechurch (1913), is a vivid and moving account of the author’s childhood and youth, growing up in Ellesmere, Shropshire in the 1860s and 1870s.
Gracechurch (1913) is a fascinating account of Bickerstaffe’s boyhood and of Victorian Ellesmere’s genteel - stratified society. Ellesmere then was one of the two Shropshire towns (the other being Whitchurch) owned by Earl Brownlow, and ‘viceregally’ ruled by his kinsman-agent (a principal character in the book). All the places and persons were given fictitious names in the original 1913 publication but, thanks to a discovery in a local country house library of a key in an annotated copy, almost all the names of the real people behind the aliases can be identified.
This book contains an extensive introduction, chapter end notes and an appendix containing a list of people and places identified. The other good fortune was a gift of a collection of glass negatives (now in the Shropshire Archives) of images of Ellesmere contemporary with the young Bickerstaffe’s boyhood. Extensive use is made of these along with more recent photography in the 27 illustrations
Postage to UK only. £5.95
For shipping to other parts of the world, please email christopher.jobson@gracechurchbook.co.uk for a quote before purchase.
Also available to buy from Ellesmere Library.