My old friend Willie Haswell has sent me a copy of his memoirs published under the auspices of the Living Memories Association.  Willie is now in his 90th year.

The Canongate is in Edinburgh and of course has nothing at all to do with Bristol Family History – except that over a quarter of a century ago I traced Willie’s ancestors. Although he and his parents and grandparents are and were Scots, the Haswells originally came from in Wiltshire and until recently some strands of the family remained in the Bath area.

My endeavours came to a halt with Daniel Haswell. He was born about 1775, reputedly at Bradford on Avon, a weaver by trade, who joined the army in Jersey in 1806, at the late age of 31, married a wife called Isabella and begat of long line of soldiers who served in various regiments of the British Army, becoming Scots somewhere along the way. If anybody can find Daniel’s baptism, Isabella’s maiden name or a record of their marriage, Willie and I will be your friends for life.   

If your immediate ancestors were poor and grew up in the Canongate, then Willie Haswell’s book is for you. I cannot recommend it too highly.

Flying saucers have landed..........?

He lives in a niche in Crail churchyard. Did he come from outer space? What do you think?

This is the Dead House at Crail: the caption reads "Erected for securing the dead MDCCCXVI" i.e.1816. It was used to keep bodies safe from professional "Resurrectionists" who supplied the brisk demand for corpses for dissection by medical men, no questions asked. Some years later, not far away in Edinburgh, Burke and Hare could not keep up the supply and "cut out the middle man", turning to murder.

"Resurrectionists” generally, but not always, low life, worked under cover of darkness digging up freshly buried bodies. It seems to have been a widespread activity and struck horror into most people at the time. The corpses of executed felons were often handed over to anatomists as in the case of Bristol's John Horwood in 1821.

Young John, only 18, was not only hanged but also anatomised and his skin used to bind a book which was displayed at Ship and White's (booksellers and newsagents) in Kingswood in 1951 as part of a local "Festival of Britain" exhibition. At the age of 14, being of a rather macabre bent, I spent much time gazing at this grisly relic through the shop window. My friend, Eddie White, the son of the business, then half my age, but now almost catching me up, denies all knowledge of the thing. (The book is now held at Bristol Record Office, and have I indented for it? No thanks!)

As to Brislington, St Luke's never aspired to a dead house, but we do boast graves with iron railings to keep out potential robbers and where it would be possible for the bereaved to picnic within the enclosure, as at Crail. On February 1828, two grave robbers were caught in our churchyard and taken in charge before the magistrate. They were revealed as Dr Wallis, founder of a Bristol school of anatomy and Dr Riley, another noted anatomist. They got off lightly: fined six pounds, perhaps because they were "posh". It was reported: “The parties then bowed very respectfully to the worthy magistrate and, wishing his worship a good day, left the house.”

Back to Crail. Having married into the Danelaw, so to speak, I soak up all things Viking. The Danes' Dyke, a bank or wall, about 4 foot high, made of uncemented flat stones, popularly built by Danish invaders, stretches from our holiday cottage at Little Craighead down to the foreshore. At one time it terminated at a rock in the north face of Constantine's Cave.

This is me and our dog Patch at Constantine's Cave where in 874, according to legend, the Scottish King of that name fought and died in battle against - "the Danes" - who had double crossed him in a land deal.

A little farther along where the golf course meets the sea, a widowed French princess, Mary of Guise landed in 1538 - by accident - en route to meet her bridegroom, James V of Scotland. After losing two baby boys in infancy, in December 1542 Mary gave birth to a daughter and in the same week King James died. The baby, six days old, ascended the throne. She was Mary, Queen of Scots.