Colin Holmes has penned his new book, Leighton We Loved - Revisited, featuring stories and photos from times gone by. It is the author’s second publication in his local history series, and he hopes readers will enjoy a trip down memory lane.
Colin told the LBO: “The book is a follow up to my first book, Leighton We Loved and Lost. The town has changed so much in the last 30 years, and I wanted to show people what it was like and have another look at the people we knew."
Colin’s work also contains some personal history – “there are pages with people I knew and things we did” - while he also interviewed people from both home and abroad.
Colin explained: "As for the research, I spent hours talking to people, some as far off as Canada, to find out information. And I had a bit of luck with the research from Canada. I was talking to Christine Moore who runs the Leighton Buzzard History and Memories site on Facebook, and she had a relative who lived in the town where the people I was researching went to.
"In 1850 they left Slapton along with other members of the village all Methodists and sailed to first America; then they went on to Canada. All this information came from letters that were lent to me. The letters described the crossing of the Atlantic when the weather was really stormy, and how they prayed every night to arrive safely.”
Colin’s book can be purchased for £17 from Nature’s Harvest, North Street.
4. Hustle and bustle
An early photo of the Market Square looking towards Lake Street. Photo: Colin Holmes