Category: Watch

Archaeologists working on behalf of HS2 have made some amazing discoveries at the site of the ruined St Mary’s Church in Stoke Mandeville, which are changing our understanding of the local landscape and its history. Learn about how an archaeological excavation takes place, and how archaeologists have uncovered 2000 years of history at Stoke Mandeville, from an Iron Age and Romano-British settlement, to the decline of the church and churchyard in the late 19th-early 20th century.

Buckinghamshire has a 600 year history of subversion, sedition and espionage. The county has been home to radical plotters, heretics and heretic hunters, agents provocateurs and informers. Two world wars brought spies, secret agents and saboteurs to the county and many of our stately homes housed wartime code-breakers, eavesdroppers, boffins, intelligence chiefs and even Nazi officers. A surprising number of women spies were incarcerated here and the first use of covert surveillance photography was against local women. From religious martyrs and gunpowder plotters to atomic secrets traitors and the domestic terrorists of modern times – this county has seen it all.

Retired Civil Servant, Denise Beddows has a background in research, investigation and intelligence analysis. Her career has taken her to work in a number of countries across several continents. She writes – as Denise Beddows – true crime, and – as DJ Kelly – local history and biographical fiction.

A member of the Society of Authors and the Society of Women Writers & Journalists, she regularly contributes articles to local, national and international press and journals. She reviews books and films for publishers and journals, and is a volunteer researcher for several local history groups.

A trained and experienced public speaker, she regularly gives talks on different topics to a variety of community groups and at literary festivals. She is married, with one grown-up daughter. She and her husband live in Buckinghamshire.