John Richard "Jack" Ravensdale (27 Nov 1920–25 Sep 1994) was a British historian and author known for his publications on English local history.

Biography

Born in

Feltham Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston (UK Parliament constituency), Felt ...

, Ravensdale studied at

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college has origins from 1869, with the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...

until 1939. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he worked in Adult Education in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, until 1953 when he returned to live in Cambridge. There he lectured at

Impington Village College Impington Village College is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in Impington in the English county of Cambridgeshire. The buildings of 1938–1939 by Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry are Grade I listed. The school opened in 1939, tw ...

''The Domesday Inheritance'', Jack Ravensdale, Souvenir Press, London 1986 ISBN 0-285-62749-X and then at

Homerton College Homerton College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired in Homerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering of English Dissenters, Protestant dissente ...

, where he became Senior Lecturer in History. Ravensdale appeared as a speaker in the first episode of the 1982 BBC Two series ''History on Your Doorstep''. His book ''History on Your Doorstep'' (1982) was a bestseller. A street in

Landbeach Landbeach is a small fen-edge English village about three miles (5 km) north of Cambridge. The parish covers an area of . History The fen edge north of Cambridge was well populated in Roman times, and the village's situation on a Roman roa ...

, Cambridgeshire, the village in which Ravensdale lived from about 1971 and whose history he documented in great detail in ''The Domesday Inheritance'' (1986), is named after him.

Bibliography

* ''Liable to Floods'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK 1974 * ''The Local History Kit. HS31 Units 1 - 7'' (with Sallie Purkiss), Cambridge National Extension College, UK 1982 * ''History on Your Doorstep'', BBC Books, UK 1982 * ''National Trust Histories: Cornwall'', Willow Books Collins 1984 * ''East Anglian Landscapes: Past and Present'', Michael Joseph, London UK 1984 * ''The Domesday Inheritance'', Souvenir Press, London UK 1986 * ''In the Steps of Chaucer's Pilgrims: From Southwark to Canterbury from the Air and on Foot'', Souvenir Press, London, UK 1989

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ravensdale, Jack 1920 births 1994 deaths British historians