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Published: October 5th 2010
A taste of the weather to come
cool and showery in BuckinghamshireIt is useful to have a theme to guide your travels. The 'must see' list can be useful. Buildings, museums, food, villages or mountains are all good. Alcohol can be a very acceptable theme. For this leg, though, we are using family history. Three out of the four 'lines' of our respective families originated in the British Isles. Fortunately, a few of them came from places that we would have liked to visit anyway. Unfortunately, some of them left this part of the world, partly at least because they didn't like it much. You would have to punt, therefore, that some may not be high on the 'must see' lists.
We sat down while we were in Brittany to work out precisely where we need to go and tried to plan a little where we might need to spend some time. It all became a bit of a worry. We worked out that we will need to move through much more quickly than we had intended. We will actually have to do some work as well. The plan is to spend a week or so in most locations giving us time to try to track the old rellies and to
have a bit of a look around the areas where they lived. We will generally be travelling by train and bus with rental cars to supplement. Along the way we need to catch up with people we have met on our travels and perhaps some family.
A nice comfortable trip across from France on the Eurostar was marred a little by the amount of luggage we had to handle. Even after dumping the tent and much of the camping gear we still had too much. So we bought another bag. Foolish move. This one was a cargo bag but it had wheels on it and that sounded like a reasonable move until we hit London. To make the connection with our intended train to Northampton we used the Tube. Some stations have escalators but in far too many such modern devices are not available. The backpacks had gained almost as much weight as we had in Europe and, with the additional wheelie bag - whose wheels were of no value on the stairs - it was a lot of fun moving up and down the far too many stairs. Still, I shouldn't complain. My bag at least was lighter
The fog got heavier
And so did the rain. Nice to see it through the Eurostar window, not first-hand than it started out with my almost new Timberland sandals being lifted off my pack from the baggage area in the Eurostar.
During the first couple of weeks we stayed in a large village, Haddenham, in Buckinghamshire near the capital of the county, Aylesbury. Then in East Hadden near Northampton. From here we came to Cheshire. We will visit Scotland where we will need to spend some time around Glasgow and Edinburgh and will need to get to Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Devon, London and both Ireland and Northern Ireland. Along the way we want to see some of the good bits and want to catch up with people we have met but it is highly likely that we will spend an inordinate amount of time in county records offices, parish offices, archives units and graveyards. So that is probably what we will tend to write about.
Haddenham is reputedly the largest 'village' in the UK. It is about 10 miles from Aylesbury and the Buckinghamshire Research Centre and a 40 minute bus ride from Oxford. There is a chance that we would have skipped Aylesbury if we hadn't needed to visit the Research Centre. I suppose it
Eurostar stats
Didn't quite make the 300km/hr mark is really just like any town. Aylesbury has all of the services that you might need but there doesn't seem much to recommend it beyond that. Haddenham, on the other hand, is a very nice place. Unless you were operating with a very different frame of reference, you wouldn't call it little but it is still a village with what might be a village feel. All of the services and more than we would expect in a village with at least 3 pubs, a pretty good Indian and a Chinese restaurant as well as a fish and chip shop, a bakery/pie shop, a service station, health centre and at least one school.
In Haddenham we made the transition from the tent complete with a stay for 2 weeks in a very nice apartment. Suffice to say that the tent is now a memory nicely blotted out by a very well restored old cottage/cow byre with all of the mod cons in a quiet, comfortable village and at a good, if not amazingly cheap, price.
Of course, we spent the greatest percentage of our time in the Bucks Research Centre trying to track the Hedges, Arnolds and their ancestors.
Last French entry in
the slowfeet graffiti survey No-one we have found who is researching this line has made it very far with this mob, probably largely because a lot of Bucks records tend not to be included on the various web-based databases.
We knew that Samuel Hedges had been run over by a cart. We found the newspaper published a week after his accident reporting on the coronial inquiry. He was 61 at the time - a good age and one where you still capable of all sorts of things. He was riding on the shaft of cart - the bit that goes between the horses - that was being driven by his first cousin. They were on their way home from Aylesbury to Wingrave after a parade by a non-conformist church around the town and the market. It seems that none of them were the worse for drink and that Samuel insisted on riding on the shaft. He was apparently trying to balance the cart to some extent. There were reported to be 10 adults in the cart. He fell off and the cart wheel ran over him. He was taken to the infirmary but died 5 days later. The coroner made the point that
Oxford street
plenty of sandstone as expected if it had been a man in charge of the cart he (the man in charge of the cart) would have been in a lot of trouble. The cousin happened to be a woman.
There is a lot more to be done but we have made it back to the early 18th Century and with some pretty reasonable material into the 17th Century. Also took the chance to have a beer and a feed in the Rose and Crown in Wingrave. Even though it looks as if Pat's relatives were pretty much non-drinkers in the old days, one may have dropped in for a pint occasionally and the pub is old enough to have been there as far as we can tell. Nobody in the graveyards though and none in any of the other villages where they lived. Highly likely that, being 'ag labs', they weren't of that part of society that could spend cash on gravestones.
We left Haddenham with less baggage than we arrived. The wheelie bag has now gone along with most of its contents. We are still too heavy. So are the backpacks, but they are now manageable.
The ticket inspector at Northampton
took one look at us and said 'Tourists? What are you in Northampton for?' To be brutally honest the actual town/city is possibly not one you would visit for its beauty. But there are very nice areas around. We have now confirmed that one of my ancestors was buried in a little village called Lowick So we had a beer and a feed in the local pub, the Snooty Fox, in honour of the family. Very nice it was too. Others came from Finedon, Wellingborough, Great Broughton, Daventry, Bozeat and Earls Barton. Some of these places are very nice although most are now becoming popular with commuters and not all of the incomers have great taste in architecture.
In Northampton we were able to sort out an issue about my father's line that has caused problems for years. Dug out the record of my great, great, grandfather at 11 years old being essentially expelled from Lowick and sent to Wellingborough. His father had died when he was 2 years old. His mother stayed in Lowick with her new husband and children. Tom was sent off to become a shoemaker and a reasonably well accomplished thief. None of your fiddling
Oxford college quad
strictly off-limits, even to future comedians and prime ministers leg of mutton or pocket watches for Tom. He was nailed for 9 charges and was duly sentenced to death under the mandatory sentencing regime in place at the time. Luckily for him, and those who owe him their existence, he was sent to Australia instead of the hangman.
Staying for a week or more at a time in a location is useful in letting us stay in rather nicer places than we had become used to. Outside Northampton we stayed in farm buildings close to East Haddon. Very nice accommodation thank you very much in a converted stable. Everything you could want, except dicky internet, and very comfortable. Much better than hotels.
We are now in Chester to track some Kirkhams and their bits and pieces. Very pretty place and just a little wet so far but another top place to camp. More on that later.
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Virginia
non-member comment
We should have you research the in-laws as well
Pat and David, Your scholarship is to be admired. perhaps one day Andrew and I may have a similar adventure. We have information about one of my English ancestors, possibly because they too came here as convicts but I know very little about the English woman who married my Italian great grand father. That Italian part may provide the key to my getting Italian citizenship and if I do Tess and Georgia as also eligible - an EU passport would be great for them for future travel and work. So if you have any "loose threads" for the Coles' side we may be able to continue the search.