A Place Called Killingbeck!!!

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This blog entry will be short—I promise—and mostly pictures. I just wanted to post some pictures of our trip up to Yorkshire on Thursday and Friday of last week.

I had my last exam on Thursday morning. I took my suitcase with me to the exam, and Gretchen and I left directly from my school and went to the car rental place. We rented a car, and then drove up to Yorkshire, which is about four and one-half hours north of London. (Incidentally, because of bad traffic, it turns out that London is about six and one-half hours south of Yorkshire!) Yorkshire is the place from which my Killingbeck ancestors came. There is a place in east Leeds called Killingbeck. We checked that out on Thursday night; spent the night in Leeds; and then scouted out Killingbeck some more on Friday morning. After scoping out Killingbeck, we drove east to Drax, which is a small village where some of my Killingbeck ancestors live. It was really neat to see some of these places!

On Saturday, Gretchen and I had a chance to go to the London LDS Temple, which is about an hour and one-half south of where we live—in the countryside. We’ve included a couple of pictures from that trip. Last night we went down to the Hyde Park chapel for a Christmas concert, which was really nice. Today we have a bunch of things to do. We really only have a couple of days left in London (because we’ll be in Spain tomorrow through Friday). One thing on our list today is to visit Abbey Road (a little Beatles nostalgia), which is one of those things that we just never got around to yet. Well, that’s basically all I’m going to write for now. Oh, except one more thing. Gretchen wanted me to mention that at one of the gas stations we stopped at on the way back from Yorkshire on Friday night, they had Dyson-brand hand dryers in the bathroom. (You know Dyson—the commercials with the vacuum cleaners that can pick up bowling balls!) Gretchen said that her hands were dry in a matter of just a few seconds. Just thought you might want to know…

Enjoy the pictures—I think there are two or three pages of them this time. I tried to explain everything in the captions, rather than write it all here. Cheers!

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Photos

Home Sweet Home
Gretchen and I are posing next to a "Killingbeck Drive" street sign in Killingbeck, Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Killingbeck is a small area in eastern Leeds. I'd like to say that people liked us so much on our visit that they decided to name the street after us. But that's not true--the street was already there.

Big & Nasty
We couldn't find anything else open at 9:30pm when we got to Leeds, so we ate at the McDonalds in Killingbeck. Not being McDonalds frequenters, we didn't really know what to order. I had a chicken sandwich that was disgusting, and Gretchen had a "Big & Tasty"--"Big & Nasty" was more like it. This thing was huge and tasted oddly like the "special sauce" that was smothered all over it. Three bites into it, Gretchen was done...

Welcome to Drax
Welcome to Drax, Yorkshire. Conveniently, the 30 sign next to the welcome sign serves not only as a speed limit sign, but also the population sign. This place was tiny! Drax Parish is where my great, great, great, great grandfather, Thomas Killingbeck (born 1811), and his immediate ancestors were born.

At least it had a golf course...
Drax is a small little village where some of my Killingbeck ancestors were born. It's about 30 miles south of York and 30 miles east of Leeds. It's really, really small (maybe a couple of hundred people--maybe). Whereas my mom's ancestral lands that we visited in Wales were nestled in the Welsh mountains, my dad's ancestral lands were nestled in the shadows of a nuclear power facility. I will keep quiet here and just allow my mom to make a witty comment... Oh, and surprisingly, Drax had a golf course (but no grocery market)!

Drax School
This is the Read School (formerly the Reade School according to the plaque), founded in 1667. But you probably knew that much from looking at the picture. It's on the edge of Drax (which is itself on the edge of civilization), and I suppose it's entirely possible that my great-great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Killingbeck (born in Drax in 1811) or his father, William, or his father, George, or his father, Thomas Killingbeck (born in Drax in 1724), could have gone to school there.

Drax Church
This is the "Parish Church of St. Peter & St. Paul Drax." It is located right in the center of Drax and is surrounded by an old cemetery. Gretchen and I walked around looking for Killingbeck tombstones, but didn't find any.

Main Street
Welcome to Main Street, Drax! This road wasn't wide enough for two cars to pass in opposite directions (because of the cars parked on the side), so we had to pull over several times to let another car pass in the opposite direction. But I'm guessing there really isn't much traffic in Drax--it's tiny. The Huntsman Pub (on the left) is the closest thing to a restaurant that we saw here. You can see the church in the background.

Drax Church Closeup
Here's a close up of the steeple on the church in Drax. We didn't get to go in because it was locked up, but I'm guessing it was pretty inside due to all of the window that are on top. It seems to be pretty well kept up.

The "outskirts" of Drax
This is a picture of the "suburbs of Drax." Looking at this, I can more fully appreciate why my ancestors chose to settle in Indiana when they immigrated to the United States...

Driving Miss Daisy
After driving around our empty hotel parking lot for 2 minutes, Gretchen turned to me and pronounced, "It's really not that much different driving here..." I'm not sure that she got the full effect of driving on the left side of the road, but I suppose she's right--it isn't that much different. ;)

Jewelry Party
When I got home at 10:30 on Wednesday night, I was surprised to see that Gretchen's jewelry-making party was still going strong. The guy on the right, Aaron Lock, wants me to be sure to point out that he wasn't there to make jewelry--just to pick up his wife (who is standing in the back). I think Aaron has made cameos in the last three blogs--he's the guy that I explained American football to on Thanksgiving Day. Oddly enough, because Erika (his wife) is American, Aaron is now one of the few Brits who enjoys country music...so I'm sure they'll come visit us in Nashville someday.

For Heidi
Once again, a picture for Heidi, BBC's biggest fan!

Killingbeck Bus Stop
This is a bus stop in Killingbeck. Because my name has always been so obscure, I just had to get a picture of everything up in Yorkshire that said "Killingbeck" on it.

Killingbeck Cemetery
I am standing in front of the little church in the middle of Killingbeck Cemetery in east Leeds. Oddly enough, there were no Killingbeck graves in the Killingbeck Cemetery. But the cemetery has only been there since 1895, well after my ancestors had come across the Ocean to Canada and the United States.

Just in case you didn't believe me...
Here's a close-up of the Killingbeck Cemetery sign, just in case you doubted it. I'm also glad to report that our car was undamaged when we left.

Surprise, Surprise...
Gretchen, always finding humor in these situations, was overjoyed to revel in the inordinately high number of Chinese restaurants, Chinese medicine stores, and acupuncturists that we saw in Killingbeck and in other areas of east Leeds, my ancestral homelands. So maybe I am part Chinese afterall... Did I mention that my great, great, great, great, great grandfather's, William Killingbeck's, middle name was Hung? ;) "She moves, she moves..."

Numbers 1 - 8
This was basically the first thing that we did when we got to Leeds on Thursday night. After checking into our hotel, we drove over to Killingbeck. At first, we didn't see the name "Killingbeck" anywhere, but then Gretchen saw the first sign--Killingbeck Drive--and then we noticed the name popping up everywhere.

Numbers 9 - 16
Welcome to Killingbeck Drive!

Veni, vidi, vici
After winning the lottery, Gretchen and I decided that we wanted to build something really ostentatious.

Overacheiving Relatives
This is the McDonalds Employee of the Month plaque. You'll notice all of the names for 2006--Ryan Slade Killingbeck, Helen Cole Killingbeck, Keely Taylor Killingbeck, etc. Okay, so actually, Killingbeck at the end of all of them just refer to the fact that this is the McDonalds in Killingbeck; none of them are my relatives. But it did look kind of funny. Of course, not as funny as the look on the employee's face when he saw me taking a picture of this plaque!

Hillfort
It's hard to tell from this picture, but this picture is taken looking up a hill. This terraced hill is a part of Killingbeck Meadow (in east Leeds). In the last couple of years, archaeologists have found bronze age, Roman, and medieval artifacts here. It is believed that there was a hillfort on top of this hill approximately 1,000 years ago--quite possibly inhabited by the first Killingbecks.

Comments

[tricia123]

I know Killingbeck!
Seth and Gretchen, Nice to know you found Killingbeck OK. I live about twenty miles away. There used to be a good hospital there, which treated heart patients but it closed a few years ago. Enjoy the rest of your holiday! Pat in North Yorkshire.

[Ed Killingbeck]

My Ancestral Homeland as well!!
My Great-Great Grandfather, Joseph, settled in Connecticut, USA in the late 1880s, and the Connecticut Killingbecks hail from Leeds. It was nice to see some images from your trip, and allow me to get a feel for our heritage. The name "Killingbeck" itself, I think, translates to Man of the River, or Boss of the River.....going back to the Saxons and the Normans....according to a former Deputy Prime Minister of Education under Margaret Thatcher's term....he was visiting my next door neighbor, and he took a keen interest in looking up the name. Anyway, thanks for your log on your trip....Ed Killingbeck, South Windsor, Connecticut.

[Killingbecks in London]

Well, Ed--or can I call you Cousin Ed--thanks for checking out the post. I've heard several theories on the etymology of the name Killingbeck, and I appreciate this new one. Thanks for your comment.

[sean killingbeck]

long time
hey cuz, its me sean your uncle daves son .came across this by accident. nice to see you , its been a long time . if your ever in port huron ,michigan look me up.