John Richard "Jack" Ravensdale (27 Nov 1920–25 Sep 1994)"John Richard Ravensdale" (obituary), The Guardian 11 Oct 1994, London was a British historian and author known for his publications on English local history.
Biography Born in Feltham,1921 England Census, The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; 1921 Census Returns; Reference: RG 15/6123, ED 7, Sch 104; Book: 06123, accessed on ancestry.com 2025-03-12 (subscription required) Ravensdale studied at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge until 1939. After World War II he worked in Adult Education in Cornwall, until 1953 when he returned to live in Cambridge. There he lectured at Impington Village CollegeThe Domesday Inheritance, Jack Ravensdale, Souvenir Press, London 1986 ISBN 0-285-62749-X and then at Homerton College, where he became Senior Lecturer in History.Liable to Floods, Jack Ravensdale, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK 1974 ISBN 052120285X. In 1972 he received a doctorate from the University of Leicester.
Ravensdale appeared as a speaker in the first episode of the 1982 BBC Two series History on Your Doorstep."History on your Doorstep", BBC, accessed 2025-03-12 His book History on Your Doorstep (1982) was a bestseller. A street is named after him in Landbeach, the Cambridgeshire village in which he lived from about 1971 and whose history he documented in great detail in The Domesday Inheritance (1986).
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
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