Local Historians & Co. in Midsomer Murders

How are local historians, antiquarians, etc. portrayed and what is their purpose? How are they involved?

It’s a simple question to answer: They are either the answer to a question (sometimes even the decisive answer to solving a case), or they are charlatans (and sometimes the murderer with very unsavoury opinions).

It also seems that local historians are often presented as the true guardians of knowledge, even if they haven’t studied. This is particularly evident in “Silent Land” (13×04) with the Kent couple. While she is a local historian and provides valuable insights into the history of St Fidelis, her husband is depicted as a character who is overly concerned about the situation. He sits in the pub all day, gets violent out of jealousy, but is an expert on the Tudor Constitution – unfortunately this knowledge is of no use to him. Quite unlike his wife.

This page lists all historians, antiquarians, archivists, archaeologists, restorers and museum staff.

Local historians in Midsomer County

Mother Athanasius

Catherine Vertue was born in Midsomer Vertue and adopted by her stepfather, becoming Catherine Norrington. She studied at Oxford and was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Faculty of History until 2008, when she published Catholicism in England after the Counter-Reformation. She then entered the Order of St. Mathilde at Midsomer Priory as Sister Catherine. At the end of the episode, she took her final vow and became Mother Athanasius. – (Midsomer Vertue, 14×07: A Sacred Trust)

Otto Benham

He is a local historian and expert on Roman Britain. However, in the episode, he is portrayed as a connoisseur and fraudster when it comes to red wine. – (Midsomer Magna, 08×06: Hidden Depth)

Christopher Corby

He is a local historian who has not studied archaeology. He is used as an errand boy by the trained archaeologists, but not as an equal researcher. Yet he is very well read and has incredible expertise in the smallest areas of local history. He is also an expert on the Milson family, Cicely and the Milson hoard. – (Midsomer Cicely, 18×05: Saints and Sinners)

Dorothea Grenville

She holds a PhD in history and is a local historian in Midsomer. In 2015, she was invited to give a talk at the quarterly meeting of the Midsomer Historical Society on a topic related to local history (the specifics of which she did not disclose). She is also knowledgeable about Sir Hugo Melmoth and his pagan circle and their activities. She maintained contact with Sarah Barnaby for at least two years, describing her as her “local historian colleague” in 2017. – (Midsomer (Oaks?), 17×02: Murder by Magic; 19×05: The Village That Rose from the Dead)

Philip Hamilton

Professor of art history and art enthusiast. He examines and restores the newly discovered fresco in the cellar of Midsomer St Claire, which turns out to be a doom painting. – (Herkunft unbekannt, 16×02: Let Us Prey)

Faith Kent

She is a local historian currently researching the former sanatorium of St Fidelis. – (March Magna, 13×04: Silent Land)

Ian Kent

Certainly not a local historian, God forbid, but an expert on the Tudor Constitution and Renaissance English literature. – (March Magna, 13×04: Silent Land)

NN

An unnamed local historian wrote a piece about the Bloxham family and mentioned that among them May Bloxham was discredited as a witch and murdered. However, the interest in medicinal herbs, including valerian, was passed on in the family afterwards. – (unbekannte Herkunft, 05×02: A Worm in a Bud)

David Orchard

School teacher for the modern age, from 1792 to the 1950s. – (Great Worthy, 14×03: Echoes of the Dead)

Brendan Pearce

He is a local historian. He tells the story of Little Rose Wilton, who is said to have died tragically on Christmas Eve in the late 19th century. – (Morton Shallows, 16×01: The Christmas Haunting)

Caradoc Singer

Local historian and art collector out of self-interest. Because he thinks that only he can appreciate them and that they are only safe with him. – (Midsomer Mow, 14×05: The Sleeper Under the Hill)

Wallace Stone

He is a pastor, local historian, and self-proclaimed “guardian of the moral health of the people of this parishes.“ – (Bow Clayton, 11×07: Talking to the Dead)

Owen Swinscoe

A well-read local historian. He buys everything he can get his hands on and is a great fan of Joan Alder. He runs the Joan Alder Society and its museum in the restored Alder family home. Discovers through a genuine love letter that the supposed autograph score of Joan Alder’s ‘Midsomer Rhapsody’ must be a forgery. – (Badger’s Drift, 08×08: Midsomer Rhapsody)

Archivists in Midsomer County

Adam Burbage

Archivist for the Ford Florey Wild West Society, who, whenever possible, immerses himself in his ideal Western dream world, enforcing law and order from the perspective of ‘Billy the Kid‘. – (Ford Florey, 13×03: Blood on the Saddle)

Maisie Gooch

An elderly woman interested in local history and a believer. Parish archivist of St Catherine’s, Midsomer Wellow, with Old Testament views: An eye for an eye, blood for blood. Cannot forgive what the local bell ringers did to his ancestors. – (Midsomer Wellow, 05×03 Ring Out Your Dead)

People working in a museum in Midsomer County

Alan Bradford

He is the curator of the museum at Aspern Tallow and gives tours of the village, including one about Jonathan Lowrie, whose house is now the museum. – (Aspern Tallow, 03×04: Beyond the Grave)

Giles Cato

Curator of the Midsomer Museum and a custodian. – (Causton, 09×01: The House in the Woods)

Colin Cooper

Works as security at the Causton Museum. – (Fletcher’s Cross, 02×03 Dead Man’s Eleven)

Sylvia Lennard

Set up a living museum in Great Auburn. – (Great Auburn, 19×01 The Village That Rose From the Dead)

Sarah Proudie

Curator of the Ellis Bells Museum in Lower Warden. She is the great-granddaughter of Ellis Bell. – (Lower Warden, 06×04 A Tale of Two Hamlets)

Owen Swinscoe

(Already mentioned in ‘Historians.) – (Badger’s Drift, 08×08: Midsomer Rhapsody)

Jeremy Thacker

Curator of the Mama Lucy Museum. It has an exhibition about, of course, Lucinda Thacker, the famous missionary Mama Lucy of Ethiopia. She was his mother. – (Midsomer Deverell, 10×02: The Animal Within)

Amanda Watson

She is a curator at a museum that is not named. Is it the Midsomer Museum? A museum in Midsomer Parva? The village has enough history. Or a completely different museum? – (probably Midsomer Parva, 12×03: Secrets and Spies)

Volunteers in historical societies in Midsomer County

Joyce Barnaby

Involved in countless societies, groups and so on, most of which have a historical context. For example, as an extra on a film crew or in the Midsomer Murders Conservation Group.

Sarah Barnaby

First secretary, then chairwoman of the Midsomer Historical Society.

Maureen Stubbs

Founder Member of the Great Pelf branch of the Midsomer Conservation Society. – (Great Pelfe, 13×07: Not in My Backyard)

Conservator in Midsomer County

Sandra MacKillop

She is restoring the destroyed painting of Jonathan Lowrie in the Aspern Tallow Museum. – (Aspern Tallow, 03×04: Beyond the Grave)

Archaeologists in Midsomer County

David Heartley-Reade

Academic archaeologist, but not an honest one: he writes a book about his father Paul’s research and passes it off as his own. – (Midsomer Priors, 07×03: The Fisher King)

Paul Heartley-Reade

Academic archaeologist. In the 1970s he was the archaeologist who found and helped open the tomb of Midsomer’s Fisher King at Midsomer Barrow. – (back then Midsomer Priors, 07×03: The Fisher King)

Penny Henderson

Academic archaeologist and descendant of the famous martyr Cicely Milson. – (Midsomer Cicely, 19×05: Saints and Sinners)

Note: The following people work or have worked as archaeologists in Midsomer County, but are not from here

Alex Dyer

Academic archaeologist and member of the archaeologists’ team investigating and digging into the remains of Cicely Milson and the Milson hoard. – (19×05: Saints and Sinners)

Zoë Dyer

Academic archaeologist and member of the archaeologists’ team investigating and digging into the remains of Cicely Milson and the Milson hoard. – (19×05: Saints and Sinners)

Dexter Ingram

Academic archaeologist and member of the archaeologists’ team investigating and digging into the remains of Cicely Milson and the Milson hoard. – (19×05: Saints and Sinners)

Dr James Lavery

Academic archaeologist working at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford. A loyal friend of Paul Heartley-Reade. Was on the team that found and helped open the tomb of Midsomer’s Fisher King at Midsomer Barrow. – (07×03: The Fisher King)

Antiquarians in Midsomer County

Atticus Bradley & Ernest Bradley

The brothers are antique dealers. They enjoy attending funerals and helping with house clearances, er, pardon me, estate valuations, looking around for items that would sell well. – (Badger’s Drift, 16×05: Killings of Copenhagen)

Hugo Cartwright

The owner of the antiquarian bookshop “Hugo’s Antique Bookshop”, where he also sells books stolen (by Simon Wilmington) from the library of Aloysius Wilmington. But lives in the pub. – (unnamed place in Midsomer County, presumably Causton, 11×05: The Magician‘s Nephew)

Jamie Cramner

A fraudulent antiques dealer who buys furniture and property from Joan Beverley and other elderly women for little money, even though they are worth much more. – (Causton, 09×08: Last Year’s Model)

Harvey Crane

Antiquarian bookseller and great fan of Joan Alder. Member of the Joan Alder Society. Auctions the estate of Arthur Leggott with a large collection on Joan Alder. – (Badger’s Drift, 08×08: Midsomer Rhapsody)

Laura Hutton

Runs an antiques shop and writes romance novels. – (Midsomer Worthy, 01×01 Written in Blood)

Mr Judd

The owner of a second-hand bookshop in Little Upton, where Amelia Plummer regularly sells items she has previously stolen. It’s an arranged game: Amelia steals things for which Mr Judd charges his son Ralph. Amelia Plummer then sells them back to Mr Judd. She doesn’t make a lot of money, but ‘every penny helps’. – (Little Upton, 08×07 Sauce for the Goose)

Othello Khan

Owner of Khan’s Kollectables in Mods Mire and multiple quiz champion. But doesn’t have a good hand with the management. – (Mods Mire, 24×02: Book of the Dead)

David Mostyn

An antiquarian with a shop in Midsomer Market. Seems to be doing too well financially. – (Midsomer Market, 10×05: Death and Dust)

Simon Reason

Not your typical antique dealer, but he lives in his antique shop because he separated from his wife. And it’s packed to the rafters with all kinds of stuff. – (Goodman’s Land, 04×05: Dark Autumn)