The BackTracker History Show

Halloween Special: Thomas Thorneycroft & Tettenhall Towers Season:  4 Episode: 36 In this special seasonal episode, we explore Tettenhall Towers in Wolverhampton and find out more about it's most famous resident, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Thorneycroft. We also hear from well known and very well respected Paranormal Investigator, Karin Beasant. She tells us about an investigation she did at th...

Murder of a Taxi Driver: The Hunt for Percy Toplis (Part Two) Season:  4 Episode: 35 Francis Percy Toplis was a British criminal and imposter active during and after the First World War and well known to the police. He became the main suspect in the murder of Salisbury taxi driver Sidney Spicer on Saturday 24th April 1920. He fled the scene and the nationwide manhunt lasted six weeks. Find ou...

Murder of a Taxi Driver (Part One) Season:  4 Episode: 34 On the morning of Sunday 25th April 1920, the body of Sidney George Spicer was found in a hedgerow on a quiet country road near Thruxton Down, Andover. He had been shot in the head and it was quickly established that Spicer was a taxi driver from nearby Salisbury who had collected a fare the night before and driven five people to the R...

England V Wales: When International Football came to Town Season:  4 Episode: 33 It’s clear now that if England is chosen to stage the 2028 European football championships, none of the matches will be played in Bristol. (They won’t be played anywhere in the South outside the capital, in fact, but that’s a different story.) And yet, there was a time when the city provided a welcoming home to t...

His Masters Voice: Nipper The HMV Dog & other tails Season:  4 Episode: 32 When you think of famous dogs there are quite a few that spring to mind: Scooby doo or Toto for instance, there are few as instantly recognisable as Nipper, the terrier from Bristol. The cute little Jack Russell's face puzzling over the sound coming from the horn of an early wind-up gramophone became the enduring image...

The Body in the Chest Season:  4 Episode: 31 Brian Hocking aged 24, his wife Elizabeth, aged 25 and Norman Bamber were a friendly threesome, then Brian went missing. Gambling, greed, passion and sex were the ingredients to this unbelievable true tale of cold blooded murder. THIS PODCAST This podcast has been specially edited from a Bradley Stoke Radio show in Bristol, England.  If you li...

The Tragic Death of Leslie Howard Season:  4 Episode: 30 He starred in one of the most successful movies of all-time and was a world-famous actor. But Leslie Howard’s glittering career and complex personal life was cut tragically short when he was lost in a mysterious plane crash aged 50, the victim of a suspected Nazi anti-spy attack during WWII. The story only gets more shadowy from there…...

The Circus Of Varieties Season:  4 Episode: 29 An unassuming building in the centre of Bristol was host to some of the greatest entertainers Europe had to offer. It was the site of a very popular past time and regularly had major exhibitions and balls. It even played a part in the development of the area's aviation industry, but you wouldn't think it now. Listen to the story of a building now...

The Unsolved Murder of Gertrude O'Leary Season:  4 Episode: 28 Gertrude O'Leary had no enemies and very few intimate friends, although she nevertheless had a reputation among her neighbours and those who did business with her as being a kindly and generous woman. Yet, on 30th July 1949, when the shop was still found to be closed at 10.30pm, her regular customers became worried and called the...

Sarah Guppy: The Victorian Female Inventor Season:  4 Episode: 27 Sarah Guppy achieved amazing things in Bristol back in 1811. Whilst women of the time were expected to be carrying out domestic duties, Sarah Guppy was inventing new products and creating unique designs, including a design for a bridge to cross the River Avon. Sarah Guppy THIS PODCAST This podcast has been specially edited from...

The Dean Lane Pit Disaster Season:  4 Episode: 26 If you happen to be strolling around Dame Emily Park in Bedminster and you see, by the skate park, a large concrete slab that used to be the base of a bandstand, you may be intrigued to know that it covers the pithead of the Dean Lane Coal Mine. The site of Bristol's worst mining disaster. It was a normal Friday afternoon and those above groun...

The Evil in her Eyes Season:  4 Episode: 25 Noreen O’Connor aged 46, former nurse, was charged with murdering Miss Friederika Alwine Maria Buls, known as Marie aged 77, whose body was found in a bedroom at “Gardeen,” a cottage shared by the two women at Loxton, Somerset.  They had been living together quite pleasantly for a while. Even after Marie had two strokes, Noreen nursed and cared...

The Charitable Railway Ladies Season:  4 Episode: 24 Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol and was opened on 31 August 1840, as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway. Thousands of Victorians were employed by railway companies, from the locomotive driver on the footplate to the booking clerk in the station. For some of those people working the ra...

The Legend of Maude's Elm Season:  4 Episode: 23 A huge elm tree north of Cheltenham was felled in 1906 as it had become so dangerous. It used to be a favourite resting place for the Duchess of Devonshire, but this tree had a terrible origin story. Full of mystery, love and betrayal. This show is about a tale that has become embellished over time to become a local legend. So what happened at...

The Sad and Tragic Life and Death of Alice Woodman Season:  4 Episode: 22 In their shabby cottage in Cheltenham, Alice Woodman was found with her head nearly severed from her body, and lying by her side was a young man named Sydney George Smith, who was also suffering from a terrible wound in his throat, but what exactly happened?  THIS PODCAST This podcast has been specially edited from...

The Bristolian Creator of Penguin Books Season:  4 Episode: 21 Sir Allen Lane was a 20th-century pioneer of paperback publishing in England, whose belief in a market for high-quality books at low prices helped to create a new reading public and also led to improved printing and binding techniques.  THIS PODCAST This podcast has been specially edited from a Bradley Stoke Radio show in Bri...

The Beatles and Bristol Season:  4 Episode: 20 It was 1964 and they were the biggest stars on the planet. Mobbed by screaming fans wherever they went. Here’s what happened when the Fab Four came to Bristol THIS PODCAST This podcast has been specially edited from a Bradley Stoke Radio show in Bristol, England.  If you liked it please leave a rating and maybe a comment and if you’d like to...

The Devizes Workhouse Murder Season:  4 Episode: 19 On the morning of 30th January 1882, Charles Gerrish, who was sentenced to death at the Wilts Hilary Assize for the murder of an old man named Stephen Coleman, in the Devizes Workhouse, paid the extreme penalty of the law in Devizes prison. This was the first private execution which took place within the prison. Wiltshire had been remarkably...

The S.S Great Western and the Hero Engineer Season:  4 Episode: 18 Seven adventurous souls were grouped the Great Western 's bows, talking excitedly, their, hearts beating faster. They were on an adventure that would bring them either ephemeral fame, or disappointment, ridicule, maybe death. And they had paid 35 guineas for the privilege. They were the passengers who were  sailing from B...

Dickie Valentine: The Forgotten Fifties Singing Icon Season:  4 Episode: 17 On May 6, 1971, popular 1950s singer Dickie Valentine, his pianist Sidney Boatman and drummer Dave Pearson were killed in a car crash in Glangrwyney near Abergavenny. They were travelling along the bridge to a gig at the Diamond Club in Caerphilly when it happened. Here was a born entertainer who rose to fame to becom...

Season:  4 Episode: 16 Three people were killed and three injured when the Imperial Airways liner, City of Washington , bound from Bourget for Croydon, crashed at Neuf Chatel near Boulogne, the North of France on 30th October 1930. One of the victims was 29 year old Bristolian, Conrad James, a successful engineer who was coming home from Cairo to marry his sweetheart. Find out more about the...

Season:  4 Episode: 15 45 year old Charles Houghton had been convicted of the murders of two elderly sisters, Eleanor and Martha , for whom he worked as a butler.  They had given him notice after 22 years working for them due to his drinking problem.  He shot them both on the 7th of September 1926.  Listen to the events that led up to his despicable decision and what happened a...

Season:  4 Episode: 14 James Aitken, nicknamed 'John the Painter', was a Scottish radical and arsonist who went around the major Royal Navy dockyards in 1776 in an attempt to burn them down in an act of sympathy with the American Revolutionaries.  Listen to this incredible tale of one man's mission to gain notoriety and wealth. THIS PODCAST This podcast has been specially edited from a B...

Season:  4 Episode: 13 The arrival of Easter has been associated with eggs for centuries, The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring, but it was a Bristol chocolate company that first came up with the bright idea to make them out of cocoa. Hear the story of this devout Quaker family and the creation of one of the most iconic companies f...

Season:  4 Episode: 12 A plaque at the top of The Bank at Robin Hood’s Bay tells the story of a heroic rescue which took place 19th January 1881, when a collier brig the ‘Visiter’ foundered in a violent storm whilst carrying a cargo of coal from Newcastle to London.  The vessel, registered at Whitby and locally owned, was by then elderly, having been built in 1823 at Sunderland. She had...