Will Hazell uses a quirky and humorous approach to history to inspire people in Oxfordshire with a passion for the past.

With a style influenced by Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories series, Will uses every weird and wonderful fact he can get his hands on to catch the eye of his readers.

He started his blog, Local History is Awesome, in 2015, and it has since soared in popularity, with thousands logging on to read about riots, murders and p set against a picturesque Oxfordshire backdrop.

“I like reading dry proper history but I have a real awareness of how most people approach this and that it bounces off people’s brains", said the 23-year-old, of The Crescent, Witney.

“I think I’m sensitive to the things that most people can connect to. People love the ridiculous, the morbid, the macabre and the silly. It connects where history normally doesn’t.

“I’m aiming for my blog to be the in. I often mention some bigger more complex events, with the hope people then go off and read more about it.”

History has always been a love of Will’s, but it wasn’t until later in life he realised the extent of his own passion.

He read the Horrible Histories as a child and took it up at as an AS Level subject while in the sixth form at Wood Green School. He would drop it a year later, in what he refers to as ‘one of those horrible life moment that you forever regret’.

Will didn’t take up history in higher education either, instead opting to study sociology at the University of Nottingham.

He said: “I didn’t realise the extent of my interest in history until doing my sociology degree, when I started doing every essay I could around historical subjects. The realisation did come a bit too late.”

Will also worked as an editor for his student magazine, Impact, where he was constantly pushing to write articles with a historical slant.

Eventually, he made the front page with an article on the First World War. Though Will says the article was largely unappreciated, he considers it the beginning of his historical writing.

After returning home from university in 2015, he produced his first blog post: Witney’s History of War, Murder and Drunkenness. The response was quick and overwhelming, with Will’s approachable and humorous style appealing to a wide audience through social media.

He said: “I use a style not that much different from a student media context, in which you’re trying to grab people’s tiny attention spans with accessible writing.

“I think that’s just how I write. It comes very naturally. What I like about it is I’m writing the way I want to write and not trying to fit it into any kind of format.”

He uses his researching skills to find pieces of local history in newspapers, books and from local historical societies.

Talking about some of his favourite finds, he said: “In Charlbury in the 1890s there was a riot over kids being vaccinated. A lot of parents were against it so there was this massive riot in the middle of the village where windows were smashed and a number of people were arrested.

“It’s just interesting that there was this major uprising against something genuinely very good. That’s definitely one thing I found ridiculous and amazing.

“There was also an axe murder in the middle of Witney. It’s strange to think that that’s right where I had my first pint at the Blue Boar, this formative moment. Strange that 150 years earlier someone was there with tears running down their face having just killed somebody.”

The blogger and history buff, who works as a professional historical researcher, hopes to carry on with his blog and inspire others to do the same.

“History gives me meaning," he said. "It makes the world make sense. There’s a narrative in which we fit – a grand story that we can learn more and more about.

"Everything around you links to something that happened previously. Nothing exists in a vacuum. I think being sensitive to that makes life make sense and gives you a place in it.

"It’s always confusing to me when people don’t see life that way, when they don’t realise how much about them is based on decisions made previously.

"It’s this tapestry – and why would you not be interested in your own tapestry. It can be silly and funny and horrible and entertaining and it’s all right there."

To find Will's blog go to localhistoryisawesome.co.uk.