UK – TIME TO VISIT OUR FAMILIES.
Early morning on the 7th April was very cold –5C as we set
off to catch the ferry from St. Malo in Northren France to Portsmouth. It was a calm sea and a comfortable crossing. Although it took 8 hours, time appeared to fly past.
SOUTH
After docking we made our way to our overnight hotel Ellington Lodge. This took a bit of finding since it did not advertise its name, however, after Jeannie asked directions we just happened to be in the car park of the place we were looking for. The building at the front was a big country hotel, nothing like the one we were looking for but after driving up and down the road several times it was time to pull in and ask. It turned out that our accommodation was at the back and had been renamed.
We arrived at the same time as Mat whom we had arranged to have a drink with. After a convivial evening and breakfast we left for Abingdon to see David and family. We decided that before we went much further we should buy a Sat-Nav (Tom Tom) as we thought this would help us to get to David’s and on to John’s in Hereford.
The Sat-Nav did its job, we met up and had a pub lunch with David, Jayne and Adam followed by a walk by the river and took in a couple of caches.
We then left for Peterchurch in Hereford to stay with John & Sarah with the Sat-Nav performing brilliantly.
During our stay we enjoyed various trips out into the countryside, Brecon Beacons, Hay-on-Wye and of course Hereford where Jeannie bought her first and only pair of walking shoes, for serious walking that is.
Postcard type picture of the Hereford Contryside
NORTH
Next we headed north on the M1 to Chesterfield to visit Jeannie’s brother and sister and extended family. The date was 11th April, Colin’s Mothers (Aunty Mary) birthday so we
bought a lovely bunch of long stemmed yellow roses and stopped off at the Chesterfield Crematorium and placed them on the site where almost all of our families ashes are spread. What an emotional time that was. The site had been soil when Jeannie saw it last, now it is lush green grass, a bench placed to sit and overlook the grounds and looking out to Chesterfield. Whilst we were there we heard strange noises coming from further down, we saw people in long flowing robes, chanting and swinging what appeared to be incense. We later found out from a groundsman that it was a pagan funeral of a five-week-old girl named Harley who had died of SIDS. Her mother was 20 her father 60 and a bikie, hence the child being named Harley.
We had arranged to stay with Jeannie’s brother David and sister-in-law Janet. We arrived about 4pm
The table was laden with enough food to feed an army, many of our favourite things but even with six of us to eat, sister Anne and Ken arrived, but we could not even make a dent in it.
Of course we went off to ‘town’ shopping. It was so sad to see what was formerly a bustling market town looking more like a ghost town. The market square was almost deserted; this is because the Council have increased the rates for the stallholders who consequently are not making enough profit. Of course there are also shopping centres to contend with as well.
We did manage to find two caches very close to where David and Janet live so we were pleased about that notwithstanding that it was very muddy.
The six of us met with our cousin Kathleen and her husband Frank for Sunday lunch at a local pub. It was great to see everyone again; it had been a long time since we had seen each other.
The Family Gathering
During our stay we visited Edale deep in the Derbyshire moors to look for the the roots of Colins' family, we marvelled at the countryside and the desolate region of that area. Considering his roots are from farming stock it must have been a very difficult life during those bygone years.
A Bleak Edale
From Chesterfield we drove over to Lincoln for a three nights stay to do some family history investigation,
LINCOLNSHIRE
Unfortunately the records in the Lincoln Archives were only the same as I had seen from the films I had ordered at my church family history centre. I was excited to find the Church FHC was in Skellingthorpe, where our ancestors were born, but they had nothing, absolutely nothing that was not already on the Internet, their computers were down anyway. I expected them to have fiche records of the local area like we have in Brassall (Australia) but nothing. At least we saw the places our great grandparents came from. We visited the church in both places, the Rector and his wife were in the churchyard when we were there and offered to search the names we were looking for, which he did and emailed us the results which were very few and nothing to connect to us.
We did however find two caches including one in the tiny wall surrounding the lawn of the Cathedral.
Lincoln has a lot of history and quaint little shops and I am sure it would be lovely to visit during the summer.
From Lincoln we set off to Woburn
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE/BEDFORDSHIRE
Woburn is where our gr grandfather was born, on our grandmothers’ side. We stopped to look in the churchyard of Aspley Guise, nothing there either as it was extremely cold we spent only five minutes looking at the gravestones. At least we saw were they lived and could visualize what it would have been like in the mid-late 1800s.
Next stop was to stay with a lovely couple Jen and David that used to live next door to Colin, where we stayed for three nights. It was lovely to sit and chat and catch up, really lovely people. We also enjoyed lunch with Jen, David and Chris at a local pub. Chris was also a former neighbour of Colin’s and has been a great help over the years and especially during the last 12 months.
Lunch with friends
The weather was kind enough for Colin to drive Jeannie around to see the Chiltern countryside, and in particular Chequers (the country home of the Prime Minister).
From here we went to Crawley and stayed overnight with Colin's former boss, he lives only ten minutes away from Gatwick Airport and drove us there the next morning. We were able to leave the car at his place whilst we visited Anna and family in Dubai.
The weather in England was cold and wet, typically English, but the hospitality was warm and friendly. A big thank you to everyone
