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This cider bottle c.1895 turned up in an orchard hedge on our Devonshire farm this week. Coincidentally, the character I’d created from this time was based on a real person, in this very orchard harvesting apples for cider. It makes me think… was this the actual bottle he drank from in real life?

It was discarded here more than a century ago. The farm had a long history of cider making. An auction notice from 1923 lists cider-making equipment, a bottling plant, 59 empty casks, eight hogsheads of cider and bottled cider among the contents of the farm. The old cider press is still at the farm too. This discovery certainly made me wonder.

This cider bottle c.1895 turned up on our Devonshire farm this week. Coincidentally, I published a book earlier this year featuring a character from this time based on a real person, in this very orchard harvesting apples for cider. It makes me think… was this the actual bottle he drank from in real life?

It was discarded here more than a century ago. The farm had a long history of cider making. An auction notice from 1923 lists cider-making equipment, a bottling plant, 59 empty casks, eight hogsheads of cider and bottled cider among the contents of the farm. The old cider press is still at the farm too. This discovery certainly made me wonder.

This cider bottle c.1895 turned up in an orchard hedge on our Devonshire farm this week. Coincidentally, I published a book earlier this year featuring a character from this time based on a real person, in this very orchard harvesting apples for cider.

It makes me think… was this the actual bottle he drank from in real life?

It was discarded here more than a century ago. The farm had a long history of cider making. An auction notice from 1923 lists cider-making equipment, a bottling plant, 59 empty casks, eight hogsheads of cider and bottled cider among the contents of the farm. The old cider press is still at the farm too. This discovery certainly made me wonder.

This cider bottle c.1895 was found on our Devonshire farm in an orchard this week.

Could this have been the actual bottle belonging to the real man portrayed in my book?

It was discarded in the orchard on our farm more than a century ago. The farm had a long history of cider making. An auction notice from 1923 lists cider-making equipment, a bottling plant, 59 empty casks, eight hogsheads of cider and bottled cider among the contents of the farm.

Remarkably, the old cider press is still here. And now this bottle has turned up in the same orchard that features in the book I wrote, where I imagined the character and others gathering the apple harvest and making cider in 1910.

‘Henry’ was a real person who lived and worked here. The story is fiction, but it was inspired by the people, places and events in the farm’s history.

I have to say finding something like this in the exact place I wrote about is rather special.

Around 75 years separate these two photographs of the same farmyard in Devon.

The young man on the tractor was only about 18 years old when the first photograph was taken. He spent the rest of his life living and working on this farm, where his own story became inextricably linked to this place. Many years later, his life became the inspiration for one of the central characters in Book 3 of The Black Harvest Trilogy.

One other small connection made me smile because the dog in the modern photograph became the inspiration for Henry Harris’s loyal pointer dog in Book 1 Where the Crows Watch.

It’s remarkable how much of this farmyard remains unchanged. Some places really do seem to hold on to their stories, generation after generation.

I’m not posting this as a promotion, but because the photographs and the novels are so closely connected. I thought people interested in Devon’s rural history might enjoy seeing how the real people and places behind the story have endured across the decades.

I found this old family photograph while researching the real history behind a historical fiction trilogy set in Devon, and thought it would be interesting to return to the same spot today.

The first photograph was taken around 1949. The second was taken from almost the same position this year.

Researching the trilogy led me to old family photographs, newspaper reports, diaries and artefacts connected with the people who lived and worked here over many decades. It has been fascinating seeing how much has changed, while also realising just how much has remained the same.

The books are works of fiction inspired by real events, but discovering pieces of local history like this has been one of the most rewarding parts of writing them.

I’d love to see if anyone else has old “then and now” photographs from around Devon. They offer such a fascinating glimpse into the county’s past.

While researching The Black Harvest Trilogy, a historical fiction series inspired by real events, I spent years tracing the history of one Devon farm and the people whose lives became connected to it over generations.

I uncovered old family photographs, newspaper reports, diaries and other artefacts. I thought some people here might enjoy seeing a few of the original discoveries that helped shape the novels.

The books are works of fiction, but they’re inspired by the real history of the place. Names and some circumstances were changed to protect privacy and to create a cohesive story.

I wonder about other discoveries people have made while researching local history.

These photos show a few of the surviving traces of the nineteenth-century man whose life inspired the character of Henry Harris in Where the Crows Watch.

The old bread oven, stone sink, cider press, ancient stairs, doorway, and horse harness used for farming are all shown here and would have been used by him during his lifetime. His grave still survives nearby.

It’s remarkable to think that these objects have outlived the very man who once relied on them every day.

Discovering the history of this man eventually inspired Where the Crows Watch, the first book in The Black Harvest Trilogy.

I thought members of this group might enjoy seeing a few genuine pieces of that history as they’re still here on our farm in Devon today, where they’ve been for about 150 years or more, practically untouched.

These photos show a few of the surviving traces of the nineteenth-century Devon farmer whose life inspired the character of Henry Harris in Where the Crows Watch.
The old bread oven, apple press, ancient stairs, doorway and horse harness for farming shown here would all have been used by him during his lifetime, and even his grave still survives nearby.
It’s remarkable to think that these objects have outlived the people who once relied on them every day.
Discovering the history of this man eventually inspired Where the Crows Watch, the first book in The Black Harvest Trilogy.
I thought members of this group might enjoy seeing a few genuine pieces of that Devonshire history as they’re still here on our farm today, where they’ve been for about 150 years or more, practically untouched.

The two boys in this photograph are from our family farm in Devon in the early 1960s. The little car they’re playing in is still on the farm today, over sixty years later.

I recently found the old photograph and discovered this car in the same barn where it was left decades earlier.

Some things disappear. Some wait to be remembered.

As a writer of historical fiction, I found the story behind these two boys and their little car too good to ignore. It needed to be told.

Have you ever come across an old photograph that felt like it should be in a novel?

Our family has been dairying on this farm since 1949.
The first photograph shows the herringbone parlour in use during the 1970s. The second shows the same parlour after the herd was dispersed in the early 2000s, when it stood abandoned for years.
Today, cows are milked by robots nearby.
Although the technology has changed dramatically over the last 75 years, the farm remains in the same family.

Our family has been dairying on this farm since 1949.
The first photo shows the herringbone parlour in use during the 1970s. The second shows the same parlour after the herd was dispersed in the early 2000s, when it stood abandoned for years.
Today, cows are milked by robots nearby.
Although the technology has changed dramatically over the last 75 years, the farm remains in the same family.

The black and white photo was taken sometime in the 1940s or 1950s and shows my father in law outside the old milking parlour on our Devon dairy farm. The modern photo taken this year was taken from almost the same spot. Interestingly, the Nuffield tractor in the second photo also belonged to him.

The extract on the left was taken from a newspaper report I found dated 1944 and the letter on the right is the version I later used for a historical novel inspired by the events on a real Devon farm.

I found the letter so powerful that I kept much of the wording almost verbatim. It’s true that eighty years later, it still feels incredibly personal.

Just wondering, has anyone else come across something similar that feels like it shouldn’t be altered?

These agricultural certificates still hang on the wall of our Devon farm almost a century after they were awarded. They belonged to the family whose lives helped inspire many of the people and events woven through the trilogy.

Although the books are fiction, farming lies at the heart of all three. They explore themes that many farming families will recognise: succession, inheritance, family expectations, isolation, depression, resilience and the challenges of passing land, businesses and traditions from one generation to the next.

The stories were inspired by a real farm, more than seventy years of diaries, family records, photographs and memories. Researching the trilogy also uncovered a history stretching back centuries, while a rare Neolithic arrowhead discovered here suggests people were living on this land thousands of years before the farm itself existed.

Today Malumdon Farm, the final novel in the trilogy, is published and brings the story to its conclusion.

I’m interested to know how many others have old farm records, certificates, diaries or photographs that help tell the story of their farm and the generations who lived and worked there.

My father-in-law kept diaries for more than seventy years, recording life on a Devon farm across changing times and generations.

They weren’t written for publication. They were simply his record of everyday life—farming, weather, local events, family milestones and the challenges of rural life.

Reading them gave me an insight into a world that was rapidly disappearing, and they eventually inspired one of the principal characters in Malumdon Farm, the final novel in my historical trilogy.

What fascinates me is that ordinary records can become extraordinary with time. A lifetime of observations can reveal as much about history as official documents.

For readers and writers of historical fiction, how important are real diaries, letters and personal accounts to the stories you enjoy?

Some stories don’t need much invention and this place is real. There are several items still in situ on the Devon farm The Black Harvest Trilogy is based on, like the harness pictured.

I’ve spent years researching the history of this place and I’ve tried to stay as close as possible to the events that happened here.

The lives, losses and secrets that inspired these books all began here.

On 11th June Malumdon Farm, the third book is published, bringing the trilogy to its conclusion.

I’d be interested in hearing from other historical fiction readers and writers. How important is the truth to you in the stories we read? Does it bring something to the experience to you to know it’s rooted in reality?

I wonder, do places find us before we find them?

Twenty years before I ever set foot on the farm that I’d later live on and write about, a framed picture of it watched my life unfold from my parents’ wall.

My father had no link to the place and came from working class roots, with no interest in maps, artwork or local history at all. Yet he not only bought it, but framed and hung the picture where it still is today, by the front door.

While researching the real events that inspired my historical fiction trilogy, I found myself returning this.

Has anyone else encountered a place, object or family story that seemed insignificant at the time but later became central?