100 Years of Cox

Send us Fan Mail Frances describes her recent visit to the Bodleian library to read Budget letters. Frances also visited Great Comp to give a presentation on Vera, and describes the house and garden, for those who have not yet been able to visit Kent and experience Great Comp. She also visited The Hockey Museum in Woking, who have received a new bequest, including more photos of Vera and her frien...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads more letters from 1945, in which the siblings describe VE Day, VJ Day, the atomic bombs and the July 1945 General election. The siblings are horrified at the devastation in Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped. After 80 years, the stories are still shocking. You can contact Frances by email - machellcoxletters@gmail.com or X/Twitter  - @CoxLetters  or Blue Sky -...

Send us Fan Mail Frances is reading letters from 1945, as the Machell Cox siblings experience the end of WW2 and VE Day in May and VJ Day in August. In this year of 2025, as we acknowledge the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2, the opinions and observations of the siblings clearly bring the events of 80 years ago to life. Seven of the siblings are in England - Enid, Edmund, Arthur, Bernard, Cuthb...

Send us Fan Mail This continues Aldwyn's story from the previous episode - listen to S4E10 first. In 1912 Aldwyn took 3 months to travel from Likoma island, Lake Malawi, to Folkestone on a German East Africa steamship, describing plenty of details on board ship. Anyone for a coffin sofa bunk? After being delayed at Zanzibar Aldwyn writes " I hope this time I am fairly under weigh."...

Send us Fan Mail This is Aldwyn's story, in Africa, in 1911 in Nyasaland (now Malawi) - continued in the next episode. He is Anglican clergy, responsible for a large Mission station, at Kota Kota, on the west side of Lake Malawi in central Africa. But the Bishop wants him to move to Likoma island.  And then a murder happens.  His siblings follow the news, by letter, from England. You can cont...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads letters from 1912 from the Machell Cox siblings about visiting Enid and Cyril's house, Endhall in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton. Family letters also discuss Wibbly-Wob, Women's Suffrage, pears, jigsaws, Vera's knee and the anxieties in Europe that might lead to war, finishing with Christmas at Sydenham, and another Christmas Budget, written by the siblings...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads letters from 1911 and 1912 from Enid about their new house, Endhall in Tettenhall Woods, Wolverhampton. The family all give their opinions and Frances finds where the house used to be located. Edmund wants to know what the siblings all think about Votes for Women - please give details - and they do. Vera suffers a knee injury during the England v. Ireland Ladies&apos...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads letters written by the Machell Cox siblings where they discuss the first planes to fly in England as well as motor cars. The letters in this podcast are from 1907 up till WW2. If you have forgotten which sibling is which, or you are new to this podcast, S3E4 Ten siblings - Who is who - will give you a recap. Bernard (No.6) was a wealthy London stock broker and owned...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads some letters written in April 1910 by the Machell Cox siblings. Edmund is yet again a delinquent, he is late writing his letter and thinks he should resign from the Budget. Avice is in Torquay with Bernard where he is recuperating after removal of his appendix and they tell their landlady all about booby traps. Enid describes Vera playing in an exciting hockey match...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads two letters, written by Aldwyn in Nyasaland in Feb and April of 1910. Aldwyn drew a sketch map of the mission station at Kota Kota (now Nkhotakota), showing the church, school & hospital buildings.  I found his sketch, including the many buildings. The kitchen is separate to the dining room building (due to the risk of fire), and Aldwyn even drew the mud huts whe...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads two letters, written by Aldwyn in Nyasaland in January 1910. A village school is being built, with mud walls and a thatched roof, but it is only completed when Aldwyn uses his rifle to shoot game, so the villagers will get some dinner as payment. The 'CJ' steamer does not arrive, so Aldwyn does a lot of walking between villages, in the mud. 300 come to chur...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads five letters, written by Bernard, Cuthbert, Arthur, Wilfred and Vera in February and March 1910. There is a great deal of polite arguing about whether the siblings should discuss (argue about) politics in the Budget. Bernard has appendicitis and is at the Brooklyn Nursing Home. Avice and Cecil are engaged. Cuthbert has been to a lecture and is fascinated with Shackle...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is all about the funeral procession of Edward VII in May 1910, as winessed by the Machell Cox siblings, through handwritten family letters, read by Frances. Vera again demonstrates how she is a great letter writer, and Bernard's annotations, on the funeral programme, after WW1, were unexpected. Does anyone know any more about the King's little dog Caesar? Ho...

Send us Fan Mail Frances has been in the northern hemisphere for a few months, visiting family and undertaking a great deal of Machell Cox research. Coming up in the podcast will be more stories from 1910, more hockey and Vera and Great Comp and more crossed letters, as Frances continues to unpick the story of these ten interesting siblings, born from 1868 to 1884. In May 2022 Frances gave a talk...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is all about hockey. Frances reads poems written about Vera and hockey in 1908, as well as letters written by Vera, describing hockey tournaments at Weston-Super-Mare in 1911 and at Great Comp, home of the Heron Maxwells, in 1912.  Vera is a great letter writer, and her vivid descriptions makes it very easy to imagine the events  that occurred. 0:00 Intro 3:10 Vera, h...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads a second letter, written by Matilda Machell a week later, on Thursday 27th April, 1826, from 22 Gloucester Place in London. Ten letters of Matilda's have survived, all were written in the 1820s to her favourite brother, Christopher, back home in Beverley, Yorkshire. Minnie (Matilda's daughter) kept these letters; after her death they were transcribed by her...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads a letter written by Matilda Machell on Tuesday 18th April, 1826 from 22 Gloucester Place in London. Ten letters of Matilda's have survived, all were written to her favourite brother, Christopher, back home in Beverley, Yorkshire. Minnie (Matilda's daughter) kept these letters; after her death they were transcribed by her husband (Dr Cox) in 1912, for the te...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads four letters, written by Neville, Edmund, Avice and Enid in January and February of 1910. Neville has had a fabulous holiday in England, and writes his last budget letter before sailing to Canada, including plenty about the politics of the day. Edmund is angry with his siblings about politics being included in the Budget and doesn't write a letter, then feels re...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads three letters, written by Cuthbert, Arthur and Vera in January 1910. Arthur has been setting booby traps around the house. Vera has thoughtfully provided three county hockey matches to entertain her siblings; they also go to watch the football and the rugby. The siblings decide to have a fancy dress party at home, to celebrate Vera's 26th birthday. They all go t...

Send us Fan Mail Frances gives an update on where the siblings are in 1921, details confirmed by the 1921 Census. Seven siblings have been located on the census, an eighth, Aldwyn, is in London but has not yet been found. (Neville and Wilfred were abroad.) Frances reads the final items from the 1909 Christmas Budget: A Country Ramble, by a Perambulating Pedagogue - written by Cuthbert, based on Dr...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads some more from the 1909 Christmas Budget, one of  the special holiday editions written annually by the ten siblings and their father, printed and bound by Bernard and read aloud in the drawing room in Longton Avenue, after tea, on Christmas Day. Avice’s contribution was called - A Day in the Life of a Govvie at Portal, all about her work as a governess for the wealth...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads three letters; Wilfred's letter was written in August 1909, Enid's was written in October and Bernard writes his on Chrstmas Day Wilfred writes from Montana in the USA, where he is working as a miner. Enid and Cyril have had loads of people to stay, and they have been making lantern slides from their Swiss holiday photographs.  Then there is a tragedy – the...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads from the 1909 Christmas Budget, one of  the special holiday editions written by the ten siblings and their father, printed and bound by Bernard and read aloud in the drawing room, after tea, on Christmas Day. Bernard, Vera, Neville, Cuthbert and Avice are at home in Sydenham on Christmas Day in 1909, with Father, and Arthur is coming to visit in a few days. Enid is w...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads six letters, written in September and October of 1909, by Neville, Cuthbert, Arthur, Vera, Edmund and Avice Neville is back home from Africa; he writes about the journey and the cricket matches which were played between the first class and the second-class passengers. Cricket on a steamship. Quite bizarre. He also mentions the SS Waratah, which remains a mystery, as...

Send us Fan Mail Frances reads five letters, written in July, Aug and Sept of 1909, by  Vera, Avice, Edmund, Enid and Bernard. Vera writes the fascinating sentence - for two days I have been alone in my glory. She also describes the Girls Friendly Society Festival - tea and games in the garden of one of the big houses in Sydenham. But it pours with rain, so 70 people have tea in the cellars.   Dr...