THE BROWNS OF BOSTON

On Tuesday morning we headed off to visit my maternal relatives who mostly lived in the Boston (Lincolnshire) area. It was a beautiful 2 hour drive through the countryside. We arrived just in time for lunch. The couple we were staying with were related in some way I knew but was unaware of the relationship. We were warmly welcomed and once we were settled I asked the question of our hostess, "Where do you fit into the family?" "Your Grandfather was my uncle" was the reply. As Eileen was approximately my age I was a bit stunned. My mother passed away in early 2006 aged 92 and Eileen was her first cousin! Most of my family history research has been in relation to Dad's family so I really had no idea. Bob, Eileen's husband and a former Mayor of Boston has a part time job and had to leave after lunch. Eileen guided us on a local tour and took us to Frampton Church where my G/Grandfather and G/Grandmother were buried. Theirs were the first ancestors graves I have found on this trip. Most of the old grave headstones have weathered and eroded away to such an extent that they are unreadable. She then showed us where they (great grandparents) had once lived. It is now only a vacant allotment. She then showed me the farm where my grandfather (Mum's Dad) worked prior to his immigration to Australia in 1912-13.




The following morning we were escorted on a tour of Boston markets by ex-Mayor Bob while Eileen prepared lunch for a family 'get-together'. On our return the family members were beginning to arrive. By about mid-day 6 of Mum's first cousins and three of their husband's together with Ann and I were assembled. What a wonderful day ensued. Out came the photos, stories, facts AND the most wonderful family Bible. WOW! Two family members who children of some of those attending are into genealogy and sent the printed results of their work for my information. WOW! WOW! What a wonderful day. It is amazing how you can meet family members who you do not know and never even knew of their existance and feel so comfortable with them. When the meeting broke up and everyone went home I was suffering a bad case of information overload. That evening Ann and I took Bob and Eileen to the pub for a meal. What a pleasant end to an amazing day.

Thursday morning we again visited Boston to visit 'The Stump' which is the local name for the Parish Church. Parish Church! This Parish Church has a tower 272 feet high (83 metres) and the nave is 74 metres long by 32 metres wide. The area of the Church is 1864 square metres. It is sure SOME Parish Church! I think this is one of the most astounding Churches in a land of astounding Churches. It is not known for sure why it is called 'The Stump' but is suggested that it may be because the tower looks like a stump rising out of the flat ground from up to 40 kilometres away! While in the Church I found an Australian Memorial acknowledging locals who were involved in the early explorations in and of Australia. These included Joseph Banks and several men from Cooks Ship the Endeavour, both Bass and Flinders, and several other significant explorers in Australia's history. Unfortunately it was very embarrassing to see an Australian Memorial in such a shocking state of disrepair.

After that we then visited the Guild Hall, another old building with a very colourful history over a period of about 600 years. You never stop learning over here!

After a quick bite of lunch Ann and I were off for another very pleasant 2 hour drive home to The Lodge in Bury St. Edmunds. Today was another quiet one, wandering around the shops for a few hours, the supermarket to fill the larder and some necessary laundry.

Tomorrow we will head off in some new direction to see what we can find. Until the next post keep well.

Cheers and blessings from Ann and Dave.

MORE FAMILY MEETINGS

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny and was a good start for out trip to Felixstowe to meet some more of my family members. That soon changed; on our way at the second round a bout (fitted with traffic control lights) I stopped when the light turned yellow. BAD MOVE. The car behind 'thought' I would go through the lights so instead of stopping he accelerated. The inevitable occurred. No great damage to the car (but no doubt the insurance excess will cost me!) but Ann's nerves which were settling down well were all 'shot' again. With the feelings I had after this incident I was most proud of my calm discussions with the other driver. As an infamous Australian once said, "Such is life". For the information of my non-Australian readers those were allegedly the last words of the Australian Bushranger (outlaw) Ned Kelly. At least my troubles were somewhat minor compared to his!

Following that we went to my Aunt "Mickey's" home. It was her 80th birthday. Mickey (real name Annemarie) is German born and married Dad's brother Charlie (known as Stan) when he was stationed in Germany in the RAF after the last War. There were some beaut misunderstandings about names and people. My father was Albert George, known as Bert to us in Australia and as George to his English family, Another of his brothers was Bertie Frederick, known the the family in UK as Bert and to us in Australia as Stan. What with the Berts, Stans and George it was very necessary to concentrate carefully. It was a wonderful day and it was easy for me to bond with the Aunt, 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins. Mickey also had a Sister and other family/friends over from Germany for the occasion which not only made it a multi-cultural day but also multi-lingual. I increased my knowledge of my family origins and picked up heaps of further family stories. Like any genealogist I found these steps backward to be progress. The day ended far too soon but we did not stay late as the shock of the morning was telling on Ann.

This morning we went to Church at Elmsett. This is the Church associated with my earliest discoveries to date. There was a baptism at the service and it struck me that that was the church and font where my great/great/great/great grandfather was baptised in 1749. That really was special. Once again we were made very welcome and enjoyed a cuppa after church with the parishioners.

On the way home we stopped off at the "Rushbrook Arms' for a Sunday roast lunch. And very nice it was too!

There are no special plans as yet for tomorrow, we will see what happens. On Tuesday we will be going up to Boston (Lincolnshire) where my Mother's parents and descendants come from. We will be meeting with some of my maternal relatives there. We do not know how long we will be staying there.

That's about it for now so I will close and might go for a walk into the 'Nutshell'!

Love to all, Ann and Dave.

PUSSY CAT, PUSSY CAT, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

No, we didn't see her but we did see her house! We waited patiently for her to invite us in for a 'cuppa' but it didn't happen. Maybe we should have rung to let her know we were coming!

It is a week since I last 'posted' a report. It has been a pretty full on week. On the Saturday we went looking for a Farm Shop near Needham Markets. We eventually found it (the sign was hidden by trees!) and had lunch. We then drove without help from Deidre through all sorts of back roads and villages and eventually got home to Bury. I decided to go for a walk into town, about half an hour, to visit the smallest pub in the World. The "Nutshell" is about 15 feet by 8 feet and that includes the bar and the space behind it for the bar staff. I peered through the window and decided that it was a bit crowded. I turned to leave but that didn't suit with one of the patrons. He signalled me in and in a flash there was a 'pint' in my hand. It turned out that he was a regular and a Scot to boot. Suddenly I was part of the crowd, about 15 of us, and had a great time. It is a fascinating place with all sorts of unusual decorations, like the 400 year old mummified cat hanging from the ceiling. The story goes that in days of yore it was a custom to seal cats into the walls of buildings to keep evil spirits away. This is said to be one of them. The ceiling is 'wall papered' with currency notes from all over the world. Likewise the walls have coins from all over mounted on the walls. I now feel like I am one of the regulars.

On Sunday we went to Church at Polstead. That was a great service, church and congregation. We were very cordially greeted and felt most welcome. That was the place with the thatched roof house said to be built in the 1360's. See the photo below. After that we stopped off at the Corn Craft (again) for lunch.

On Monday morning we headed off to London by 'bus. It was about a two and a half hour trip. I don't believe that they could ever pay the drivers of these buses enough. The trip into the city was a nightmare as a passenger, I'm glad I wasn't driving. We were not impressed by the appearance of the city from the bus. We were dropped off at Victoria Coach Station which is only about 100 metres from Victoria Underground Station. We needed to get a train to St. Pancras / Kingscross for our Hotel. It was a 5 stop journey and for the two of us cost 8 pounds. (About $17-70) It was about 12.30 when we got the train and it was packed like a peak hour train in Brisbane. But it sure was quick. We then had about a 10 minute walk to the Hotel. It was an old hotel but very clean and quite comfortable but the bed was a bit hard. By this time Ann had had enough for the day so I did my usual and headed off for a look around. I walked round for about 3 hours, tried to work out where my ancestors had lived in relation to the area, had a talk to a couple of Police Officers and had a look in a shopping centre for a couple of things. I then went back to the Hotel, after which I went next door to a Pub. (Just to check it's menu for tea of course!) As I walked in I was claimed by an Irishman at the bar and he forced me to have a couple of pints with him. He had previously visited Australia so we had a good discussion. We had a meal at another pub later.

Tuesday we had booked an all day 'Historic and Modern London' tour. We were to be picked up at 7.30 at the Novatel just down the road. We were eventually picked up at 8.30 and then it was another hour it horrific traffic back to near Victoria Coach Station when we joined our tour 'bus for the day. It was a great day, Royal Horse Guard Museum, Changing of the Guard at Her Majesty's house, St. Pauls Cathederal, Covent Garden, Her Majesty's Theatre, Lunch in a pub, visit to Tower of London (including seeing the Crown Jewels), cruise on the Thames. It was a very good day but oh so tiring. Both Ann and myself were totally 'had it' by the time we were dropped off, not at the Novatel where we had been picked up, but at Victoria Station. Another tube trip. KFC looked good for tea and then a bit of horizontal relaxation.

Wednesday morning saw a leisurely breakfast then a trip on the tube again into central London for further private sight seeing. During this time I met and spoke to the Police on duty at the gate of Parliament. I took photos and had my photo taken with them, the first time in my life I have had my photo taken with a Police Officer armed with a sub-machine gun! As a result of the big day on Tuesday Ann had had enough by after lunch so back to the hotel. Once Ann was safely resting I headed off on the tube searching for sites of my ancestors lives. I had quite some success too! Between Wednesday afternoon and early morning Thursday I found 4 places which I consider would be much as they were when previous generations of Stannard's lived there and one which had been obviously knocked down and council flats built. One was where Inspector George Stannard of the Metropolitan Police lived when he retired in 1898. This all gave me quite a buzz.

After breakfast Thursday we headed back into Victoria (with our baggage) which I lodged in the English equivalent of a Cloak Room. Then we went to Harrods for a look at how the other half live. I felt intimidated just looking at the price tags! The prices for some quite simple things is beyond belief. After that it was back to Victoria to await out 'bus back to Bury St. Edmund. It was good to get 'home' to The Lodge but really while we had had enough of The Big Smoke it was an experience we would not want to have missed. Today (Friday) has been very domestic, Shopping, washing and ironing. Tomorrow we are off to Ipswich to help an Auntie (by marriage) celebrate her birthday and to meet more family members.

Hopefully I can add to this on Sunday night. Cheers to all, Ann and Dave.

IS IT REALLY FIRDAY?

How time flies when you're having so much fun! It is a wet Friday afternoon in Bury so I have decided to add to the blog. It is only then that I realized that I have done nothing with it since last Sunday. Now the problem is trying to remember what we have done.

On Monday we went to the village of Elmsett (I think). That is the village where my searching has stopped with the wedding of my GGGGG/Grandfather and GGGGG/Gmother in 1742. Once again we were stunned by the age, size and beauty of the Church in such a small community. It also amazing how close together these parishes are. In Australia our small country communities are about 20 or 30 miles apart which I believe is as a result of the old horse coaches needing to change horses at about that distance. I have come to the conclusion that the distance between the churches here is set by the distance people could walk to Church. The above photo of a road sign gives some idea. Polstead, Shelley, Stoke by Nayland and Hadleigh are all relevant to my family history and Hadleigh is quite a large town and not a village in my mind. At Elmsett there is a very interesting monument opposite the Church. It is the 1935 Tithe War Memorial. The history of this is quite unbelievable. It seems that there was a law in England which compelled farmers to pay a 'tithe' to the Church. It also seems that while the term refers to a tenth of income it did not quite happen that way in practice. In the 1920's and 30's there was a very severe recession in agriculture and many farmers were going under. In spite of their failure to make ends meet the tax was still set on previous earnings and could not be met. The Rector was not in the least sympathetic and demanded the full 'tithe'. There was a revolt in one case when attempts were made to take goods and chattels (by a Court order) by force. This became known as the Elmsett Tithe War and the full story makes interesting reading. The local History Group have published a beautiful book of the village history and I have bought a copy.

Our landlord told me a about a very nice tea room/ gift shop/ restaurant at a place called Monks Eleigh (pronounced eily) On Tuesday we decided to try it out for lunch. It is worthy of being recommended. I would suggest you get used to hearing references to it because I think we will be back! After a very pleasant lunch we headed off to the village of Polstead which has also had references in out history. While it does not play a huge part in 'my story' it is a beautiful place and the most beautiful setting for a church we have found so far. The church is on hill with a view looking out over the surrounding countryside. A really lovely setting.

See what I mean.

Also in Polstead I saw a man working in his front yard hedge trimming. His house was one with a thatched roof. I asked the age of the house and he told me that he had had the roof repaired recently and the thatcher said that from the methods used in the construction of the roof he would date the house as being built about 1360. I asked if the roof was a high maintenance thing and he said that it would need servicing again in about 20 years. About the same as a tiled roof. Also the insulation properties of the roof make it much better.

By the Tuesday afternoon Ann had a bit of a sore throat and wasn't too flash on Wednesday so I decided to go into the Suffolk Records Office in Bury. I had to register and then was allowed to search from an amazing collection of records including Census, Parish Records, Wills, and all sorts of other records. And all of this is free of charge. I was like a kid in a lolly shop, I didn't know where to start. I did a bit of research for a few hours without finding anything spectacular but it has certainly got me interested. As someone once said, "I'll be back". I am working on a particular anomaly regarding my G/G/Grandfathers family. In my 'tree' and several others there is a 'son' and I now think he is not a son but a nephew. Some day I will sort it out. (I hope)

Yesterday (Thursday) we left home with the intention of visiting the village of Chattisham which is quite significant in my research. We set Deidre to take us there. She was determined to take us up the motorway and we wanted to use 'back roads' so we did our own thing. Poor old Deidre was continually telling us that she was 'recalculating' until either we got to a position where the motorway was out of the equation or she gave up! On the way we had a detour to Monks Eleigh! When we got to Chattisham we found the church is in the process of having major restoration work done. As a result everything inside is either removed or covered. Again it was no doubt a beautiful Church but unlike the others we have visited it was much smaller. I guess that it would be very 'cozy' with 100 people in there. All in all, with the back roads, the morning tea at Monks Eleigh and the visit to Chattisham, it was a pleasant day.

Today we had another walk around it town, some shopping and of course morning tea at Harriets! As I complete this the rain seems to have eased and the forecast seems better for the weekend. On Monday we are going down to London and will be there until Thursday. I will let you know about it all later.

Dave and Ann.

DUXFORD AIRSHOW AND MORE

Here we go for another 3 days of news. Friday we went into the Town Centre again for a further look around and ended up spending about 4 hours there. Luckily it's more looking than spending. The weather was a bit 'iffy' but did not cause us any problems. We are getting to know our way around (I think!) During this time we had (well at least Ann did) tea at Harriets Tea Room. As usual I had coffee. Very nice and a bit above BJ,s or Micheles. After that we went to the local supermarket and did a bit of shopping. Meat is about the same in British Pounds as it is in Australian Dollars at home, or maybe a bit more. Mince over here is as dear as fillet steak back in Oz. Fruit and veges are about the same as at home. One thing that has surprised me is bananas, as cheap or cheaper here than in Queensland! Work that one out if you can.

The Duxford Airshow was held this week-end. It is the 90th anniversary of the RAF and Duxford near Cambridge was one of many WW2 airfields. My childhood hero, Douglas Bader was stationed there at one stage in his career and I thought that I might take the opportunity to go to the airshow. It is expensive but I thought 'What the heck, this is a once in a lifetime chance, to hell with the expense." Entry (for seniors) was 24 pounds 95 pence. I headed off (on my own) intending to find the free park and ride at junction 11 on the M11. I followed the sings at junction 11 and never did see the park and ride but ended up at the airfield. What a great day!!! I have always been a bit of a Walter Mitty when it comes to aircraft and flying. I never thought that I would ever see the day when I would see 12 or 14 flight worthy Spitfires lined up on the apron, together with a Hurricane, a Messerschmidt ME109 (albeit with a Rolls Royce Merlin motor), P39, P40, P51 Mustang, F86 Sabre, Hunter, Meteor, Seafire, Nimrod, Four C 47 (or DC3, Gooney Bird, or whatever name you know them by) to name some. There was also a amazing flypast and demonstration of it flying capabilities by a Vulcan Bomber, (flown by David Thomas) built by the British to be nuclear ready and now out of service for some 10 or 15 years. That is just some of the flying aircraft, the museum displays were unbelievable including many of the WW2 bombers including ones labeled "Enola Gay" and "Memphis Belle", not the originals I daresay! There was the massive American B52 surrounded by many US Jet and older fighters, there was an F111 and what I never believed I would ever see, a "Blackbird". For those of you who do not know, this was the fastest aircraft ever built, capable of over 2000 miles per hour. I have read about the design, building, testing and use of this aircraft and it is an amazing story. I case you haven't guessed, I had a Wow of a day in spite of showers and threatening heavy rain.

This morning we went to church at Little Waldingfield, the village where my great grandfather was baptised. It was an 8 am service so that meant an early start. The Rector, David Mathews, who was to be leaving on transfer soon , (now cancelled apparently) was a lovely men and we were made very welcome by him and the whole congregation. By that I mean the other 4 people who came to the service. After that we came back to The Lodge and enjoyed a late breakfast. Then I went for a walk for an hour and half or so. As the weather was pretty ordinary in the afternoon we stayed in and listened to the thunder. It was also fairly cool so there was no incentive to do much else.

They are predicting a day or two of slightly better weather so we will play it by ear tomorrow. I have to go into town again for some business but after that, who knows.

Until the next post, Dave and Ann

THURSDAY

I got up this morning to go for a walk. I've been doing a fair bit of walking and it has had some interesting moments. On our first morning in The Lodge (don't call me Kevin) I walked outbound along the lane. Within 50 metres I saw some cute little furry critter dart across the road and into the hedge. I now know it was a squirrel and have seen a few more in various places. Another 100 metres and I met 3 deer in the stubble in a farmers paddock (field). It looked like a doe and two fawns which were about three quarters grown. Anyway back to this morning, I just got out the door and it started to rain so I cancelled that plan. After a very leisurely breakfast and wash-up we decided to go for another drive into 'ancestor country'. All the places where the ancestors that I know of lived are within about 20 miles of here. Each village or town is only about 2 to 4 miles from the last. Hadleigh is a much larger town than most and has another old and beautiful church. In there on the wall was a memorial to a former rector, Benjamin Stannard Fryer MA, Dean of Bocking who was rector for a year and a half prior to his death in 1910. He must have been very popular as the memorial is significant and he was not there long.

After that we went to Raydon where my G/G/Grandmother was baptised. This is the first Church we have visited which was locked. As we were leaving another couple came and he was taking photos. He asked me if I would take a photo of both of them (on his camera). He was obviously a yank. I made the mistake of asking if he had some significant connection to the Church. He didn't answer but proceeded to pull out his drivers license. His surname was Raydon and assured me that his ancestors gave the town its name.

Today we had a few problems with Deidre. Whenever we park the car anywhere I take her off the windscreen and put her out of sight. Yesterday in the process I dropped her. No apparent damage but today her voice was very scratchy. I played with the controls and then she went mute so she stopped talking to me. Later, after several wrong turns she must have got sick of all the mistakes because she started saying "recalculating" and then she started working OK. But we were continually getting of course. I do not know if she was giving wrong directions or I was not correct in following her instructions. Anyway after quite a few wrong turns I decided to do my own thing and headed home by what I thought was the right way. Later she seemed to agree with me and by the time we got home our relationship had been sorted out.

One thing about all the wrong turns we get to see a lot more of the country. Deidre is programmed to never do 'U' turns so every wrong turn takes us on a round about trip to get back on course. Add to the adventure.

The attached photos show the memorial mentioned.

The main through road for traffic passing through Hadleigh which is not a small village but a sizable town. The cars on the left are parked as is the truck (lorry) on the right. The car in the middle is coming from the opposite direction. Please note that the cars can park facing in either direction which takes some getting used to!

The third photo is a country road between villages, not a main road but it becomes interesting when you meet a tractor or lorry.

It looks like we are in for a few days of pretty unpleasant weather so I might have to try and get to the Records Office and do some research.

That's about it for now. Catch you all later. Dave and Ann

WEDNESDAY IN BURY

On Wednesday we decided to have a look at the Abbey Gardens in Bury (St. Edmunds) These gardens are near the Cathedral and are the site of the old Abbey and contain the ruin of many of the old buildings. These things are almost impossible to comprehend. They were built over 700 years BEFORE Cook sailed down our east coast. The gardens (and everything else) are absolutely beautiful. We walked from the multi storey car park (the only place where you can park at a price). On the way through the Town Centre we looked as some of the markets (Wed and Sat are market days), had a cup of coffee and Ann had a look through Marks and Spencers. We the walked around the gardens until lunch time. Ann wanted to have a look through the Cathedral Shop while I went to the Suffolk Records Office to see what was available there to further my research. They have all sorts of historical records, parish, wills, newspapers, etc. etc. dating back to about 1200 on micro fische and I am allowed to search them. Who knows what I will find. After that we went the cafe at the Cathedral and had lunch. We spent our time talking to an 82 year old 'Salvationist' who was there having lunch. I understand that he has recently lost his wife and suspect he goes there for a good meal and company. He was really good company and a lovely man. Danah, he plays the Euphonium (or however you spell it!) It was mid afternoon by the time we got home so we had a quiet time although I later went for a walk to the supermarket to get milk. It was a nice sunny day, one of the few we have had. While there has been very little sun, there has also been very little rain. As I type this (Thursday morning our time) there is light rain falling and the prospect is for a few days of showery weather. Well it is about time I got some breakfast for 'The Lady of the House' so I had better close this. Till the next issue, bye.

AND SUDDENLY IT'S SEPTEMBER

My most sincere apologies to all and sundry. With one thing an another I seem to never have the time to sit down and do this. In the last installment I said that we may be going to church for evensong at Dibley (It's Turville really!). We did and that increased the crowd by about 20 per cent. The Monday was a public Holiday (Bank Holiday) and we decided to keep off the road as everywhere was pretty busy. By Tuesday we were getting a bit 'stir crazy' so headed off for a day out on the roads of England. We decided to have a look at the South Coast as it is much closer to Henley than to Bury St Edmunds. Poor Ann is not coping too well with the traffic, the narrow roads and lack of places to pull off the road for any reason (read a map, take in the view, call of nature, or anything else), the volume and speed on the motorways, her poor vision, etc.etc. are keeping her too stressed for her own good. By the time we got to Brighton she was feeling a bit second hand and we drove for ages to find some where to stop. When we found a place we had to walk miles to see anything. We walked for a while but Ann's hip was playing up so she went back to the car. I went for a walk on the beach and took a few photos. I always knew the beach was pebbles, not sand but was totally unprepared for the size of the pebbles. I reckon some were the size of cricket balls. I took my glasses off and put them on the 'beach' while I took a closeup photo of the 'pebbles' and a couple of other shots. (I can see the view in the camera better without them) I started to walk off and suddenly thought "my glasses!" Panic reigned supreme for a few minutes, without the glasses my distance vision is not much chop, and in the pebbles they were perfectly hidden. There were no distinctive points on the beach and I was in real trouble. I put the camera on the beach, it is easy to see, and used it as a reference point and searched (by feel) in ever increasing circles. Eventually I found them but had obviously stood on them at some stage as they were out of shape but luckily not broken. At about this time I was ready to call Qantas and see if I could change my flight home to the next day and I'm not joking. Luckily Ann is more level headed and talked me out of it. We decided to head home (to Henley) but instead of putting the GPS on just followed the coast of the English Channel westward for a while. After a couple of hours we decided to find a B and B instead of going back to Henley. We ended up at Southsea at Portsmouth (near Southhampton) By this stage I had had enough and was starting to feel stressed also (maybe it is contagious!) As we were driving into Southsea a lineup of cars were on my tail and adding to my 'wish I wasn't here' feelings. To get rid of them I turned up a little lane and there in front of us was a neon sign "VACANCY" It was a guest house and it turned out to be a beauty. Spotlessly clean, plenty of room and only 65 Pounds for the two of us for bed and breakfast. We had to buy a couple of toothbrushes and clean 'nickers' but it was great. Ann put her feet up and I went for a walk. On the way I passed a Pub "The Florence" and noted that there was a great looking restaurant attached. We had a lovely dinner later and I or course had a couple of mandatory pints. It turned out to be a pretty good night. There was a good breakfast the following morning. The chap who owns? manages the guest house is a very likable bloke and has a picture of himself with the late Queen Mother in the lounge room. One of the other guests asked him about it and it seems he served on the Royal Yacht 'Britannia' for quite a number of years. As he was not wearing any uniform in the photo I presume he was "in service" on the ship..
When we left we had a leisurely look around Portsmouth with all of it's naval history. We visited the old Garrison Church which has no roof, the Portsmouth Cathedral and a state in memory of Nelson who spent his last night in England there. The Cathedral was awe inspiring and so steeped in history (as is everything over here). Another memorial which was particularly inspiring was a monument 'To all the seamen who gave their lives in the defence of this country and have no grave other that the sea'.
After that we gradually made our way westward to Bournemouth where we had lunch in a place that we have not seen anywhere else over here, a shopping centre. After lunch we had a visit with a cousin Mary who lives at Lymington. Her grandmother and my grandfather were brother and sister. We had a lovely couple of hours with her and then headed off back to Henley. We are most thankful for our trusty GPS "Deidre" as she keeps us on track and when we do go astray merely says "Recalculating" and tells how to get back on course. She is the best buy I have ever made. On the way home we stopped of at a pub and had 'Cumberland sausages and mash' which was pretty good.
The following day (Thursday) we telephoned the owner of the cabin at Bury St. Edmunds (Suffolk) to make sure everything was in order. He advised that the cabin was vacant so we decided to go up to Suffolk a few days early. On Friday morning (not too early to miss the peak traffic) we packed and loaded up and again put ourselves in the hands of "Deidre". About 3 hours later we arrived at "The Lodge" and were met by the owners. We are very happy with it, spotlessly clean and the owners are lovely people, his name is Dave and he is a fisherman and they are caravaners, need I say any more. The kitchen and bathroom are very small and overall it is 'cozy' but we are comfortable here. We were hardly out of the car before Dave's wife had the kettle on and came over with a cuppa. After that off to the supermarket to get in some supplies. Dave later took me for a drive around town to show me where various things were.
Saturday morning we went into the markets and walked about for a while. In the afternoon we went for a drive to a village of Little Waldingfield. That was where my great grandfather was born in 1852 and baptised in 1854. The village which was much bigger than I expected but still only a small town had this magnificent church dating back to 1200's. Like most churches over here it was open so that we could go in and look and try and comprehend the size and history of the place. I found it a very emotional and moving experience. Sunday morning we went for a drive around town and found another supermarket. Once again "Deidre" came to the rescue and got us home. In the afternoon we went to Evensong at the Edmundsbury Cathedral. Another wonderful experience.
Monday morning Ann became domesticated (washing and ironing) and I went for a look at a Pommie Hardware shop and ended up walking around the city for a couple of hours. After lunch Ann had a rest and went for a walk.
Today (Tuesday) we took some sandwiches and a flask and headed off to visit some of the other villages where various Stannard ancestors were born, lived, married, worked and died. There are several all within a couple or so miles of each other. I decided to make the first one Shelley where my g/g/grandfather was born in 1809 and my g/g/g/grandfather died in 1854. Once you get off of the 'A' roads the roads are winding, narrow (about one and a half car widths) high hedges each side, no shoulders and very few places to pull off much less stop. I sure keeps you alert!
"Deidre" took us to Shelley and I could see no church. I went up to a house, pretty modern, only about 500 years old I'd say, to be greeted by a big golden lab. The lady of the house came out and when I told her what I was about she was more excited than I was. She assured me there was a church, and paused and said, listen to the bells. Sure enough the bells were tolling. Shelley consists of 40 residents in total. She pulled on her boots and coat (it was raining) and walked off down the road with a "follow me". She led us to the church which it a big sandstone building with a big Norman Tower, clock and bells. I suspect it could comfortably seat 150 - 200 people and is in pretty good repair.. They hold weekly services there. It is amazing. We sat in the car beside the church and ate our sandwiches and then went on to Stoke by Nayland. This is a bigger town but so is the church there. It is like a Cathedral anywhere in Australia. I suspect the Norman tower is about 60 feet high and again in good nick. After that we came back to "The Lodge"
I am sorry about the long time between reports, will try to do better in the future. I'm getting weary and I think it is time I turned in. I'll be in touch. Dave and Ann