Harris & Sons of Plymouth, Devon

  By Nigel Overton Harris & Sons of Plymouth, Devon: From House Painters & Glaziers to Decorators, Furnishers, Picture Frame Makers, Gallery Owners and sometime suppliers of Artists’ Materials, Fancy Goods and Stationery. Having by chance recently come across an advertisement for Harris & Sons in a circa 1930 Plymouth guidebook, I was prompted to Read More…

Reading the Stone

By Michele Leggott There is only one other headstone like it in the whole of St Mary’s Churchyard. Genealogist John Pickering confirms for us that the stone marking the burials of Hugh Corbyn Harris and his sister Frances Emma Harris is unusual in being slate. The other slate marker belongs to the grave of John Read More…

Shedding some light on the Plymouth Paddons

Contributed by Nigel Overton, City Heritage Curator, The Box, Plymouth Museums Galleries Archives Further word from Plymouth confirms that Henry John Paddon (1803-1874) and Francis William Paddon (c.1804?-1860) were indeed two individuals, but they were two men who had much in common. Both are mentioned in the Harris family correspondence, and both appear to have Read More…

Emily’s Plymouth, 1840

Can we reconstruct Emily Harris’s Plymouth from traces in family letters and what the city archivists can show us now? Nigel Overton takes us on a tour of central Plymouth based on material compiled by Graham Naylor from the addresses we forwarded a couple of weeks ago. It’s a magic experience that suddenly makes vivid Read More…