This is a special Brickdust episode, where host Andrew Martin welcomes back one of his previous guests for an update on their brick wall progress. For this first episode of this new episode type, we’re heading right back to July 2021 for our episode – ‘The Activist’ to welcome back our Season One guest Pam Smith!

Listen to the episode

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others…

The Brick Wall – Sir Richard Etherington

When we last heard from Pam in July 2021, she was asking for help from listeners because whilst researching the local history of Rillington as part of her Rillington One-Place Study, she’d hit a research Brick Wall with Sir Richard Etherington.

Pam had become aware of the Etherington family of Driffield, after seeing their coat of arms. Those Etheringtons were connected to George Etherington who was Knighted in 1485 after the Battle of Bosworth.

However, despite extensive research, Pam had not been able to connect Sir Richard Etherington, who had been Knighted in 1603 to the other Etheringtons…. was there a connection?

Now in 2025, Pam is back with an update. Did she make a breakthrough – and if so, what did she discover?

If you fancy testing your sleuthing skills, then head over to our Brick Walls page to see the current list of challenges set by our guests.

The Question

We asked you a question:
What is the weirdest or silliest name that you’ve found whilst researching your family history?

We’ve picked some of our favourite answers and you can hear them in the episode.

Head over to our Question page to send us your answer, or if you fancy sending us a voicemail (which we may use in a future episode), then find a quiet space and head to our SpeakPipe page.

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Episode Credits

• Andrew Martin – Host and Producer
• Pam Smith – Guest