D is for Dad

 I've mentioned before that I never knew my Dad, he was killed in a motorbike accident in 1954, a few months before I was born. I always knew that and there were photographs in the house but he was rarely talked about after Mum married his older brother when I was 3 years old. 

Apart from photographs I only have a few bits belonging to him. He did his National Service after the war in the RAF and I believe was posted to the Isle of Man. He certainly went somewhere by boat as I have a berthing card.

The brass trivet was made when he was an engineering  machinist at ICI. And somewhere around is his locker key for ICI (large paint manufacturer then based in Stowmarket, Mum worked in the testing lab there after leaving school which I suppose is how they met). I also have a set of parallel rulers of his that would have been used by a navigator in a plane.

I often wonder how different life might have been had he lived. 

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Commonwealth War Graves

 Something I don't think I've mentioned before is that many Suffolk Churches that I visit have signs on their fences or gates telling everyone there are Commonwealth War  Graves there. The grave stones are always the same design and most date from WWII. Airmen were often buried in the villages where their planes crashed or where they were based rather than going back to their home country, city, town or village.

At Ringshall, with it's proximity to Wattisham Airfield there are many military graves. This row below are all from WWII , and it's always sad to see how young the men were, and how far they came to fly here during the war.

There are also a long line of more recent military graves from after the war, with well tended garden.

There must be more of a story for this one below as it says A. A. Bushell was a senior aircraftman -which means ground crew -  but was only 17 when he died in February 1961. 

There are no plane crashes or on site accidents listed for early 1961 so it's a mystery. 
But while looking online I found an horrific list of accidents and fatal crashes of Wattisham aircraft during the early 1950's. Including two pilots  who were killed when they were rehearsing for the Queens Coronation Flypast in 1953.

Ringshall was also the village where my Grandad and the Grandma I never knew had their small farm before the war ( I believe they lost some land to the airfield). It was the place my Dad grew up , but there are no family burials in the churchyard.

This photo has been on the blog before but it shows my Grandparents - on the binder and holding the horse. With my step dad, real dad and aunt on horseback on the Ringshall farm. About 1930.

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Last of the Old Photos (For Now Anyway!)

Just to fill another blog post here are a few more of the old photos.

First is me and my Grandma - on Dad's side. Sadly she died before I was a year old. She had a heart attack and was found laying by the pond on their farm. I would have loved to have known her, she was a practical person, living on a farm, making butter and cheese etc.

As a bridesmaid aged 7 - on the right. The wedding was one of Dad's cousins.

 I didn't know I had this photo below among a bundle of loose photos - it's a bit random. On the back it says 'Michael Hailes wedding Horringer'. Michael Hailes was one of the younger blokes who worked in Dad's building business for many years. This must be about 1968 ish.

There's me, Mum and Sister in front and Mrs Kerry, Mr Kerry and Dad at the back heading into church I guess. Mr Kerry was the Carpenter who worked for Dad for as long as I can remember. He smoked a pipe all the time, his teeth were pipe-shaped! - a true London family who had come to Suffolk after the war. As well as always having the pipe on the go he also whistled through his teeth and pipe- tunelessly!

After Mum died in 1999 and with Dad being totally lost after being a carer for Mum for 10 years my sister took him round churches and family looking for family history. They had some help from someone who put lots of family photos onto a computer CD. Later Eldest daughter had the CD and printed off these two photos below, which along with a photo of my grandma (the one above) as a young woman, she put into a frame for a present.

Definitely family, but I have no idea who they are or where the CD is now.

That's the end of the old photos for now.

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How many Grandads?

 I'm short of ideas for blog posts so thought I'd share a few more old photos. Most of the photos I have come from my Dad's side of the family, they were all country people - farm workers and then farm owners.

First is my Grandad F. My Dad's Father. Photo is probably sometime in the 1960s. He died when I was about 18 so I do remember him, although Mum wasn't a fan so I'm not sure he visited often and even less after he remarried someone Mum also didn't like. 

My Grandad's Father in Law, wish I knew more about this picture

Below is Grandad's father, he died in 1955 the same year as I was born. 

And the grave of my Grandad's Grandfather over the road in the churchyard 

In comparison there are hardly any photos of Grandad W. on my Mum's side of the family. Always living in town, working in factories, totally different to Dad's family.

Just this one, where he is far right on this photo at my Mum's wedding. I just about remember him, he died when I was in my early teens after being very unwell for several years. The results of working in a dusty factory, smoking un tipped cigarettes and being in the fire brigade during the war.

No photo's of anyone further back on this side of the family, I don't think any exist.

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Sue

Old Photos of an Old House

 It's not surprising that my Grandma was horrified when her daughter and new husband bought this cottage in  1952 for £500.

Front of the cottage, with my Grandad - centre- but even with a magnifier I can't tell who it is sitting on the step

Side of the cottage with the pump for water

After renovation to the side, and the pump still stood for many years, long enough for me to remember it.

The cottage came with nearly one acre of land, a separate vegetable garden - just along the lane but it had these condemned cottages below out the back.

My dad (real Dad) and his brother (later my Step Dad) had just started a builders business and the land at the back was ideal for their new business. Room for sheds and heaps of bricks.

What a shock to everyone when my real dad was killed in a motorbike accident a couple of years later.

The lean-to kitchen out the back

The old lean-to kitchen was replaced with this kitchen on the left and bathroom to the right. It must have been wonderful for my Mum after a few years with an outside bucket and chuck it privie and a tin bath in the kitchen.

I was surprised to have a closer look at this photo of 7 month old me below, about a year after my Dad was killed and to find the old condemned cottages were still there.

Years later you can imagine the 'treasure' we dug up in the land behind the house, after those cottages had been cleared. With six families burying their rubbish - before rubbish collection was invented. There were bits of clay pipes and broken pottery, old bottles and if we were lucky the marbles from Codswallop bottles. 

( just a PS edited in to say thank you for all the comments about doing the washing yesterday, apologies for not replying. Seems no one likes those scent boosters - so I wonder who is buying them?)

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Sue

Family History

 I wrote about living - totally  by coincidence - in the same village as my Great, Great, Grandparents   HERE.

A couple of weeks ago on the local Next Door or Facebook website, a local man was asking if anyone with my maiden surname was still in the village as someone from the North of England had traced ancestors back to the 1750s when they all lived in the village and she had contacted him for help. He put me in touch with the lady - Wendy - who lives in Chester - and after emails back and forth it turns out she is descended from the line of the older Sister of my Great, Great, Grandfather  buried here.

She is a very enthusiastic amateur genealogist and had gone into the history of the family and turned up a bit of social history from the 18C that I was completely unaware of.

It's the story of the Home Migration Scheme This was set up between 1835 - 1837 under the auspices of the Poor Law Commissioners after the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. The scheme involved sending 5,000 people from the poorest farming areas of southern and eastern England up to the manufacturing districts of Derbyshire and Lancashire to work in the cotton mills. 

My Great, Great, Grandfather George was born in 1830 the 5th child for Thomas and Eliza who had married in 1822 - also in the village. Thomas was a farm worker earning about 10 shillings a week (and nothing if the weather was too bad for working) and the family qualified for Poor Relief from the Parish coffers.

In 1836 the family- by then there were 8 children -  were among 2,000 people taken (probably no choice given) from Suffolk by horse and cart to London and then travelling up to Derbyshire by canal boat.

In Derbyshire the family worked for a Horace Mason who leased the Lumford cotton mill in Bakewell from the Arkwright family. They were there on a three year contract and Thomas and 4 of the children (aged 14, 12, 11 and 10) worked in the Mill as cotton spinners. (Younger children also worked in the mills at the time- working under the spinning and weaving machines - clearing up the waste). Together they would have earned about 24 shillings a week. - A lot more than his wages in Suffolk.

The family were still in Derbyshire in the 1841 census and by then there were 11 children in the family and they had moved to another mill at Darley Abbey Mill Village.

By 1843 they were back in my village and four more children were born. 

So Great, Great Grandfather George was one of 15 children - he was born in my village, moving to Derbyshire and then back again, working like his father as a farm labourer and dying in the village in 1900.

Wendy wondered why the family would have come back to Suffolk after their time in Derbyshire but I said it was probably because Suffolk was their home and when you are born here and raised here it's always home and the only place they would have felt settled. .......like me.

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Sue

ITFC, Old Photos and Back to Daily Posting?

 First of all have to say WELL DONE to Ipswich Town Football Club , automatically promoted to the Premiership - the top tier of English Football. It's 22 Years since they were last there. This time last year they were promoted from the third tier to the second so it's an amazing turn around in two seasons after some very dismal years. Being in the Premiership brings many bonuses - mainly money and recognition. Ipswich really needs this as I've mentioned before about how sad the town is looking. This might herald a turn around for our County Town.

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My photo sorting is providing lots of old pictures to share to local Facebook village and town history groups.

The hamlet of  14 homes where I lived for my first 20 years - Although I wasn't there when this photo was taken! definitely before my time! The 'busy' road was actually the A45 which has become the A14 main road from Felixstowe to the Midlands so thank heavens the hamlet was bypassed in the early 70's. Our house was the one just left of centre and facing forward. Behind it you can just see the roofs of a row of 6 cottages that were condemned and unfit to live in when Mum and Dad bought everything in about 1951.

A Suffolk village school photo from 1913 with my grandmother in the centre - someone in the past put an inked circle round her head and the boy in front who is someone I've not heard of - perhaps a friend.

My grandparents (on the binder and holding the horse) and their children, my Aunt, her twin brother = my Real Dad and Step Dad on their farm in Mid Suffolk around 1930ish

Outing to the beach - Sunday School probably or perhaps Cub Scouts. That's Colin in the front and his brother on the far left.

My Mum was a Cub Scout Leader In Stowmarket - in the years just after the war, she's on the left. Her younger brother - my Uncle is the  third boy from Mum.

Colin's  Primary School photo, same school that our two eldest children went to for a few years before we moved to the coast and the same school which two of my Grandchildren now attend.

My primary school had no school photos while I was there which is disappointing.

Still lots more recent photos to remove from old albums...........It's taking a while! especially after posting the very old photos on Facebook Groups as I then have to go back and answer the questions asked.

Blogging..........I might go back to 6 days a week posting, it depends where I go and what I do to write about. If I don't appear some days it will be because there's nothing to mention. So instead of saying 'Back Tomorrow' I'll say 'Back Soon'!

So................

Back Soon (although I will be back tomorrow as I have some church visits in drafts)

Sue

The House Where I Was Born

 69 years ago today I was born in this house belonging to my Grandma and Grandad, in Stowmarket in Mid Suffolk..

My Mum was staying with her Mum and Dad for my birth. My dad had been killed in a motorbike accident a few months earlier and the house they had bought to renovate wasn't yet in any condition for a new-born baby.

After that I don't know how or where we lived, but our house was finished for me and Mum, even though there was no bathroom and only an outside toilet  for a few years- which I can just about remember - thank goodness the bathroom was built after a while.

As for Grandma and Grandad's house,  they lived there until  she died in 1988, Grandad died many years earlier. The family moved there in the 1930's (Mum was one of six) when the tiny house they were living in not far away was condemned. These houses in Stowmarket were council houses built between the wars. They were built with a scullery for washing up off the kitchen and there was a built in brick boiler thing in one corner to heat water for washing - heated by a coal fire underneath, the bath stood beside it - with only a cold tap. The indoor toilet was on a half landing and there were steps down to a cellar for coal storage. 

There were two other rooms downstairs although one was never used, and I only remember it because of the pictures on the wall - one was a huge print of J.F Millet The Gleaners -  how and why? The only heating was a coal fire in the main living room.

When the houses were modernised in the late 1960's they turned the 'best' room into a proper fitted kitchen and the scullery into a bathroom.

Mum visited her parents every Thursday............ we were the nearest grandchildren, going on the bus to Stowmarket with me and then me and my sister  when we weren't at school. We would get off the bus, walk down to Grandmas for coffee and then walk 'up the town' for shopping so although we never stayed or visited any other time  I remember the house well. Occasionally we would go into town first and then walk back to Grandmas picking up Fish and Chips for lunch on the way.

 There was a honeysuckle arch over the front door for all the years I remember visiting. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Old Wedding Photos

 I've got a box full of old photos as well as 8 photo albums. Rarely looked at  and I guess after I've gone they will all be chucked out. Which is understandable but sad. I'll share some on here then they'll be around for ever  -or until the internet is succeeded by the next technology!

This first is my Grandad and Grandma on their wedding day in 1924. This Gran died when I was just a baby - they had a small farm and she is one of those people I would have loved to have known.

And Grandad's son -  my real Dad - marrying Mum in 1951 at Stowmarket Church. The same steps used now for getting into the church and the Osier cafe - for the best cheese scones.

The bridesmaids were my Mum's younger sister, my Dad's twin sister and Mum's niece (her elder sister's daughter) - my cousin. Best Man was Dad's friend.

My Dad died in a road accident a few months before I was born. I would have liked to have known him too. The two Aunts, my Mum and my cousin all died from cancer well before old age and my Grandad - Mum's Dad on the right- from the nasty lung disease after working with asbestos and dust all his life - and from heavy smoking of un-tipped cigarettes. So much cancer in the family - quite frightening really.

I still have Mum's wedding dress - because I'm not sure what to do with it, seems wrong to throw it out yet that's what I'll have to do - it's gone a very strange colour.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Family History

 Is it because of getting older that I've got more interested in family history? 

Years ago when all elderly relatives were still around to question I never even thought about asking what they knew about their families.

 

After my Mum died in 1999 my sister and Dad spent months tracking down his family tree. It helped him to get through after being a carer for Mum for many years. I knew they went back a long way on his maternal side of the family and I'm the keeper of  the family bible with lots of details of that part of the family too but I'd not realised they'd gone back to the early 1800's on the paternal side as well.

 

 My maiden surname is a fairly unusual name and the first time I walked through the churchyard over the road I spotted some graves with the surname and knew they were some sort of relation.

 

How the graves looked last July, the grass was cut in the autumn

 I wrote about it HERE . The family have always been in Suffolk and tended to use the same forenames ...variations on George,  Edward, Edwin and Edgar but my sister was able to tell me they were our great, great, grandfather and grandmother. She brought over a copy of the family tree of that bit of our family.

 

My Grandad, also a George was born only a few months before this George died so wouldn't have known his Grandfather.

I wondered whereabouts in the village they'd lived so had a look on Ancestry website and from a census I found he was a farm labourer, living in a Tytes Lane, but there's no lane of that name in the village now. On the same page of the census is Hall Farm. It would seem likely that any farm cottages would have been somewhere in the region of the Hall. Which now looks like this........

 

 

 Hall Farm stands on it's own along a small road out of the village, no cottages anywhere around. I even looked on old Suffolk maps of the village, with no luck.

 

There is a lady in the village who goes to WI and over 60's and she's nearly 90 and has lived in the village all her life. Next time I see her I'll ask if she has any memories of a Tytes Lane. Tyte is also a local Suffolk surname so it's possible the lane was called that locally when a family of that name lived there and is now called something else.

What a happy co-incidence that I've come to live in the village where great, great grandparents lived so many years ago.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The Village Churchyard

 Not far from my home is a gate into the lower, newer part of the churchyard. I walked round with my camera (not yesterday, which was too HOT to go wandering anywhere!) Mostly it's overgrown with long grass.

The most recent burials

 

These two below mark the graves of two of my distant relatives from long ago. One, the same name as my grandad died in the year my Grandad was born  so two or three generations earlier?

 

A monument for a family called Hendry with names from 1922 right up to the 2000's

 

These 5 below are all from one family, with daughters dying in their teens and twenties. They  have a familiar surname but as far as we know not relations, as Col's Dad's family came from Yorkshire.

 

Below is a monument remembering the members of the 34th American Airmen stationed on the airfield not far away during the latter years of the WWII. This monument was once closer to the airfield but right beside a main road where no one could visit. It was moved across to the church sometime in the last few years

Around the end of the church to the other side and heap of old gravestones, piled in a corner and forgotten.

The area that was used for burials more recently

Below is the side of a gravestone only visible from the road. I waded through the long grass to look at the other side

 

and it turns out to be the grave of a Minister of the United Reformed Church who died in 2003.

 

And finally a 22 year old who died in the Military Hospital in Felixstowe in 1918

 Just when his light was brightest,

Just when his hopes were best

His country called, he answered

With God he's gone. To rest.

Back Tomorrow

Sue