About btsarnia.org

Welcome to our site which celebrates the life and work of Brian Torode of Cheltenham, a man who was much loved and is still greatly missed, following his unexpected short illness and subsequent death in 2014.

We aim to bring you a flavour of his love for people and his passion for history. He came to Cheltenham from Guernsey during the early 1960s and immediately became interested in its story. Here you will discover his books on the architect, John Middleton and the Hebrew Congregation of Gloucestershire. Brian was an enthusiastic member of the Cheltenham Local History Society so we have made available his studies of the Cheltenham architect, W. H. Knight, the area of Tivoli, the Cheltenham MCs and much more.

Brian was a priest within the Anglo-Catholic tradition so we have included his studies of the Oxford Movement in Gloucestershire and his talks on local saints, pilgrimage and holy wells as well as a few of his sermons.

This site also features essays, notes and research by Richard Barton. In 1985 Brian and Richard were instrumental in setting up the Gloucestershire and North Avon Catholic History Society and, between them, they contributed many articles to the Journals. Brian was the editor of the Journal for some years. Whilst these publications may be perused in the Gloucestershire Archives many church histories and short biographies have been made available on this blogsite. 

There is also an extensive section on genealogy too, mainly families from the Channel Islands and from Gloucestershire and surrounding counties.

In addition a growing number of friends have allowed their articles to be posted on this site too.

Please use the Menu to navigate and remember to scroll down to ‘older posts’ in the larger categories.

Do check back from time-to-time to see what’s new! If you follow the site you will receive email notifications of items as they are published.

If you are planning to reproduce photographs and other images from this site please apply to the webmaster at btsarnia@gmail.com or use the comments section at the foot of each post. If you are using the text please acknowledge your source – btsarnia.org