ABOUT BRIDGET…
Born in a thatched cottage in Norfolk, her parents moved to a remote cottage in Radnorshire from where she was sent to walk to school, alone, aged four, passing terrors unknown. From there the family moved to Hay-on-Wye, the setting for the first of her autobiographical trilogy, Hay Before the Bookshops or the Beeman’s Family. In 1955, her beekeeper father moved the family to Northumberland.
In the 1960s, she attended Hereford College of Education, the location of her second book, Hit the Road, Gals. After leaving college, she walked alone for a year behind the Iron Curtain, the subject of her third book, Cold War, Warm Hearts. During these adventures she met the love of her life.
In 2000 and 2002, she made friends with women shepherds in the Cheviot hills. She bounced around on the back of their quadbikes, in all weathers, and took photographs as they managed their flocks. This work was exhibited in 2003.
After the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe in 1989, and the Soviet Union in 1991, she got on her bike, taking her camera to those formerly closed lands. Following country lanes and crossing international boundaries, she travelled with shepherds, horse wagons and herders in the mountains. She produced articles, exhibitions and reports.
Bridget and Bill moved to Morpeth, Northumberland. When their four children were young, in the 1980s and 90s, she was at the heart of the battles first against nuclear power stations being built at Druridge Bay in Northumberland, and later to stop RMC extracting sand from the beach. The campaigns were successful. At that time, a teenage boy stopped her in the street, saying: “Are you the lady who saved Druridge Bay?”
During the 2010s, she wrote seven books on the history of the market town of Morpeth. She travelled in the footsteps of the little-known girls, Juliana, Alice, Ada and Isobel, whose marriages were arranged to four generations of de Merlay barons in the 12th and 13th centuries.
From 2020 onwards, she completed Hay Girl: the girl from the bookshop town, her autobiographical trilogy.
A lifetime of adventure and writing and photography is being celebrated in Bridget’s final book, My Mother and the Curate. An illustrated compilation from two diarists who lived in and around the area of the book town, Hay-on-Wye. Published in a limited edition 2025 and 2026.
To order your limited edition, signed copy of Bridget’s new book, please send an email directly to Bridget at bridgetgubbins@btinternet.com with your full name and address. Bridget will send you bank details to make the payment and then post your book.
£20 for a copy of My Mother and the Curate by Bridget Ashton (plus £4 postage)
Special offer – £35 for 2 copies (still only £4 postage)
CONTACT BRIDGET TODAY!
I’d love to hear your feedback, ideas and stories!
Please get in touch if you’d like to purchase a book…