Michael Lovelace Browning was born at Exmouth, Devon
in 1937 and educated at
St. Peter's
Preparatory School, Exmouth, Exeter School and Kelly
College, Tavistock, to which he was awarded a county
scholarship. Following school he was articled to
Ware Ward & Co. chartered accountants in Exeter.
Having qualified he later went into industry and in
1964 moved to Bristol.
He married Anna Lynne White
in 1965 and they had three daughters Georgina,
Juliet and Jemma. Michael and Lynne purchased Elm
Tree Farm, Hallatrow in 1968, moved in the following
year and have lived there ever since. For many
years Michael was Finance Director of HAT Group plc
and amongst other things became a takeover
specialist, accounting for scores of acquisitions in
the UK and abroad. His work took him to America,
Far East, Middle East and Australia. In 1986 HAT
fell victim to a takeover and Michael subsequently
spent nearly two years as Chief Executive of Lorne
Stewart plc before retiring at the age of 51. He
was not short of things to do.
As well as having a large house and garden to
maintain, Michael acquired some nearby run down
cottages, which he renovated, added to, subdivided
and let. Much of the manual work he did himself and
he maintained the properties thereafter. During his
earlier life Michael played a number of sports
competitively, namely rugby, cricket (in 17
different countries), hockey, squash and table
tennis. When advancing age eventually forced his
retirement from competition, he took up tennis,
joining Bishop Sutton Tennis Club and represented
them, when they were desperate! He was soon elected
Treasurer and was largely responsible for the club’s
dynamic growth in membership and expansion and
upgrading of the playing facilities over the ensuing
years. His long time contribution was recognised in
2004 by receiving the BANES Club Volunteer of the
year award.
Michael was one of the original members of
Bristol &
Avon Family History Society and later became Vice
President. He was responsible for a project to
transcribe and index (before computers!) all the
marriages from 1754-1837 for the county of Avon
(approximately 175 parishes - over 150,000
marriages), which took some 15 years to complete.
Seven volumes of these, covering the Bristol
parishes and Bedminster, were published in book
form. Over the years he received and answered many
thousands of postal enquiries involving the marriage
index.
As well as researching his own family
history in depth Michael turned his attention to
local history transcribing and indexing a huge
number of parish and some private records for High
Littleton and Hallatrow. He typed these up and
published them under various categories in booklet
form. There were between 30 and 40 of these
booklets altogether, ranging from 30 to 300 pages
each. Despite requests to sell them, Michael made
them freely available in institutions such as
Somerset Record Office,
Society of Genealogists
Library and
Radstock Museum.
Michael also collected
some 400 old photographs of the parish, which he has
exhibited at the Church Hall. He has also
contributed many articles on local history to
several different publications and on rare occasions
given talks on the subject. He provided all the
history (apart from 8 pages) and most of the
photographs for the book
"High Littleton &
Hallatrow - A Pictorial History",
which was published by the
parish council for the millennium.
Early in 2004 Michael was diagnosed with prostate
cancer, which had already advanced to an inoperable
stage. Encouraged by his family and supported by
the Parish Council the contents of Michael’s
booklets have been made available on this website.
Michael died on 3rd May
2006 and was buried at High Littleton cemetery. A
Thanksgiving service was held at Wells Cathedral
on 13th June 06.
Much of Michael's work has been donated to
Radstock Museum.
