Yorkshire

Yorkshire the family history connection

Since leaving Oxford we have been travelling around Yorkshire.  We went visiting the villages that had some family connections for each of our families; yes even Dorothy has some Yorkshire roots…somewhere.

 We have been visiting the places where Great (great, great even great) grandparents were lived and were christened, married or were buried in the village church and graveyard.

Two photos of the inside of the Holy Trinity church in Hull, the colourful ceiling is quite striking in this large church.

The stained glass window at the Holy Trinity church Hull.  Photo 3309d & 3304

 Reading the headstones can be quite difficult but we were looking just on the chance that a family name maybe resting there somewhere.   Many of the church grounds are over- run with long grass and no easy access to wander around.  

This photo was taken from the church yard at Laxton, East Riding of Yorkshire. It shows in the distance a line of hay stacks in the neighbouring field.    Photo 3266d

 In sharp contrast we have come across three churches that are well organised for any visiting family history buffs (like ourselves).  Inside each of these churches there is a large plan of the graveyard showing the layout of the graves.  Then to accompany the plan is a booklet listing the surnames and their grave number.  For family history buffs it is seventh heaven to find this sort of information.

Photo of Headstone with family history buff looking on! Photo 1389

Using the information in one of the churches we found the headstone for Gary’s great great, great grandparents. The headstone was in quite good condition for being one hundred and thirty years old. Luckily for us this graveyard had just been cleaned up and the growth removed.

Isle of Wight, Oxford and York

After leaving Cornwall, we travelled to the Isle of Wight by ferry from the south coast of England. It was only a 35 minute car ferry ride on a lovely summer’s day.  There were two attractions to see; ‘Osborne House’ and the tourist steam railway. 

Osborne house was built as the family home for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  Here they could live as a family with their 9 children for 3 months of the year. At Osborne House the family could be away from the palace routine and resume a more normal family life.  On display are plenty of family paintings and the original furnishings are still in the house. Including the bed in which Queen Victoria died in while staying at Osborne House.  In the nursery are a collection of family trees for each child.  The tree shows how Queen Victoria arranged the marriages of her children they were all married off to various heads of European Royal families.  Today in many of Europe’s noble or royal families are great great grandchildren of Queen Victoria including Prince Phillip and Queen Elizabeth II.

Photo 3135 Osborne House

The beaches along the Isle of Wight have beach huts for hire as this sign explains

Photo 3152d

Isle of Wight Railways

There were quite a number of railway lines at the height of the railway age on the Isle of Wight. All that is left is one electrified passenger line along the coast and an adjoining steam tourist line.

Photo `1246 Isle of Wight Steam Railway
The Isle of Wight steam railway runs one or two train sets along a branch line that junctions to the electrified passenger line at Smalltown junction.

The “suburban” electrified line uses ex London Transport underground trains that have been pensioned off into the sunshine above ground. This is an extreme example of re-cycling!

Island Line train Photo 1268

  Oxford

 From the Isle of Wight we travelled back to the mainland and then on to Oxford.
One of the first things we noticed on our visit to Oxford was the hundreds of students and their push bikes. We decided the best way to see Oxford was on a 90 minute walking tour. The walk took us into 3 colleges; New College, Exeter and Lincoln, each of these colleges have their own church (chapel), dining room and library

Photo 1282 Inside quadrangel of an Oxford college
Our guide explained college life and tradition as well as showing us the tree filmed in the 4^th Harry Potter film. We also visited the college that was the setting where Inspector Morse (of the BBC TV series) had his fatal heart attack in the final episode. 

Photo 3215d  This photo shows the entrance to the Bodelain library.

It is here on graduation day that around 200 students walk from the library to the next building which is the theatre were they receive their honours.  We were not able to see the library as the public can only see the library on a library run tour and they were all full for the day. Overall the town of Oxford is best seen by walking around.

  We visit a ‘Cold War’ Bunker in the suburbs of York

Between 1961 and 1991 England built many bunkers across the country. This was as a reaction to the tense relationship between Communist Russia (USSR), the USA and the rest of the Western World referred to as the ‘Cold War’ period. The one we visited had been built in the suburbs of York.

Photo 3223
The bunkers were staffed by trained volunteer observer personal. The purpose of the bunkers was to monitor the effect of the blast and fallout of radiation if (when) a nuclear bomb was dropped on England. The information gathered would be forwarded onto the authorities. The bunker had a communication, and a decontamination room designed to seal off the bunker on or after any devastation from the outside world. All of this was sitting in the backyard of many English suburbs, it did look out of place and from a bygone era.

We settle down for a week in Polruan, Cornwall

We were lucky to be invited to share a cottage in Cornwall by a long time work friend of Gary.

Photo of Polruan from top of hill photo 2910

This cottage is in the idyllic village of Polruan on the deep water Fowey River in Cornwall. The views from the first floor lounge room windows over the river towards Fowey are very pleasant, especially as some of the days have been sunny and charming. 

Photo  3025 d

This village was a fishing and boat building port, now very much into tourism. 

Photo of quay area 1041g

The one downside of this idyllic village is that as the houses are built on the side of the hill sloping down to the river, car parking is very problematic. The car park is a pay and display one on the top of a hill on a Second World War bomb site (thank you Herr Hitler) and ten minutes of hard walking up hill from the cottage.

Photo of St Ives beach 1135

We have used Polruan as a base and visited other parts of Cornwall such as St Austell, Penzance, Lands’ End and St Ives.  They are all within easy reach of Polruan for a day out. For St ives we parked in a Park and Ride car park and caught the local train into St Ives station. The town was buzzing with lots of tourists, not all speaking English!

Photo of young Australian tourist standing at Lands End 1144g

Lands’ end was cold and windy as expected and everything closed up at 5pm, not very tourist friendly when it is still daylight until after 9pm.

Gary’s friend works as volunteer at a nearby preserved standard gauge steam railway, so we have also visited the Bodmin and Wenford railway. The weather on that day was the usual British summer conditions, overcast with intermittent showers and drizzle but not cold!

Photo of ex-GWR preserved loco and  train at Bodmin Central 1032g

Just across the river from Polruan and accessible by separate foot and car ferries is the better known town of Fowey.

Photo of Fowey 2868d

There are also some lovely villages found along the lanes on the way to other places in Cornwall.

Photo of Lerryn Photo  1043g

One such village is Lerryn on the upper reaches of the Fowey River. There is a sign in the car park warning that in very high tides the car park floods! Luckily it is a free car park.  Or the church at Lanteglos where author Daphne du Maurier married, she also wrote many of her novels while she lived in the Cornwall area.

We bid a sad farewell to Polruan and headed to the Isle of Wight, that is our next blog.

Trip toBonny Scotland - the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

Since leaving the excitement of London and waving farewell to Wimbledon we have driven up to the wilds of Scotland (an area known as the Highlands & Islands) to meet a distant male second cousin of Gary’s on his father’s side.

We travelled via Chester, Hexham, Glasgow, Applecrosss  and Oban.

View over Applecross, Scotland Photo 2766

Having seen a BBC TV series on Applecross, it was exicting to be able to see the place.  Driving there was a challenge it was on a single lane road (goat track) with signs stating the road was not suitable for caravans and closed during winter.  Any on-coming traffic could only be passed at the passing points, spaced every half a mile.  Adding to that was the fog so  visablity was poor especially when naviagating the hair pin bends.  The views of Applecross as we came down the hills were magnificant.  Especially as there was no fog over that side of the mountain.  It is a small village with one long road that runs along the beach front with small houses and a couple of shops. 

Further on we stopped off at Oban for lunch

Photo of Oban town, photo 938  Oban is a beautiful fishing town now taken over by tourism.

Eventually we arrived in Badcaul.  Gary has corresponded with the cousin’s wife for a number of years about family history but has never met either of them. Gary and his second cousins wife have been in deep discussions for a couple of days over the family tree in Yorkshire and exchanging family photos. 

Photo looking over Loch Broom from front of the Gary's cousins house 977 g

The house in which they live and we stayed overlooks a lovely sea Loch - Little Loch Broom on the west coast of Scotland. It has been in glorious sunshine and a high temperature of 18 (a bit too warm for the locals).

With Gary’s relatives and their dog, we visited three of the local attractions in the highlands and islands region of Scotland.

Photo of tall ship in Ullapool Photo no 998 g

Ullapool is the nearest civilisation or town of any size.  It was Tall Ships weekend in Ullapool, heralded by a bagpipes parade with a craft market of local products. some of the tall sailing ships that were racing from Glasgow to the Shetland islands put into Ullapool for the weekend.

For lunch we all had lovely fresh fish (black pudding –Gary) and chips from the local shop on the dockside.

Photo of salmon leaping Falls of Shin 2774 d

The other local attraction we visited was the Falls of Shin. Here you can see the salmon swimming upstream.  The salmon leap up high out of the water in an effort to get over the falls, it is a sight to see. Although we were at the falls well before the high season, we still saw 6 to 10 salmon in a period of 15 to 20 minutes. It is of course quite easy to see them leap but not so easy to snap on the digital camera. Dorothy did a good job as shown here.

Photo of Fort George entrance drawbridge with tourist on the phone photo 982 g

Near Inverness and quite next door to the golf course that staged this year’s Scottish Open is a British military fort. Following the 1746 defeat at Culloden of Bonnie Prince Charlie, George II created the ultimate defence against further Jacobite unrest. The result, Fort George, is the mightiest artillery fortification in Britain, if not Europe. It is the only ancient momument in Scotland still serving its intended pupose,a working millitary barracks. It is still in use by the military so security is tighter than at normal tourism places but the fort is well worth the visit.

Photo of Fort George Chapel photo 986 g

It is a perfectly kept example of Georgian military construction.   There is not a blade of grass out of place.  On display are various examples of the life of the military soldier, from the 1760s through to WW1.  There was little noticeable change over that period for the Scottish foot soldier. 

Some detail in the text above was  sourced from the Historic Scotland - Fort George web site (as they expalin the history much better!)

Gary did not go to Wimbledon

Whilst Dorothy was enjoying London and the Wimbledon tennis, Gary went visiting relatives and chasing preserved steam trains. Much more fun that watching all those ladies run around in short skirts!

 After spending two days in London, Gary set out on a train from London to Chester which is in the midlands of England.  After some train delays and missed connections, eventually Gary got to Chester and met his third cousin. Gary had been corresponding with this lady for some time after they met through another third cousin ont he  Ancestry web site on the internet.

Photo of one of the gates in the ancient walls of Chester. Photo 642

Chester is a lovely city and well worth a visit without the family connection. Gary his cousin and  her husband walked all the way around the walls of the ancient city of Chester.

Gary then used Chester as a base to visit the preserved steam railways of North Wales

Photo of Snowdon Mountain Railway steam train,  photo 660

The first was the Snowdon Mountain railway. This is a rack railway up the side of a mountain. Gary did not ride on it as the only trains with empty seats for the afternoon were diesel and despite how the photo looks, weather was closing in, not uncommon for Snowdonia.

Welsh Highland Railway at Caernarfon with castle in background Photo 696

One of Gary’s hopes for this trip was to visit the newly opened section of the Welsh Highland Railway. This railway runs from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. It is on the track bed of a line closed in the 1920s and recently reopened using ex South African Garratt steam locos. Gary was invited into the cab by the friendly crew.

Photo of WLLR Photo 717 at intermediate station, will not try and pronunce the name!

Next was the Welshpool and Llanfair railway. One of Gary’s acquaintances in Melbourne worked on this railway when he lived in the UK, always talking about how good it was!.

Photo of Double Fairlie locomotive in  Blaenau station, photo 722 

Next on the agenda was the Ffestiniog Railway. The top end of the Ffestiniog railway at Blaenau Ffestiniog is not all that far from Chester. As usual at Blaenau Ffestiniog it was an overcast and grey day, making photography difficult. The whole town has slate coloured buildigs, they are not very attractive on a grey day.

On Thursdays in Summer the FR put on a train of  heritage carriages, seen here at Porthmadog station just before departure. Photo 727

Next on the agenda was the Vale of Rheidol railway, one that Gary had photographed in the past but not ridden on. Again the crew were quite friendly, unusually they are all paid staff on this railway.

Train awaiting departure at Devil's Bridge station  Photo 758

Then it was back to London to see Dorothy, Oh and also the Kew Bridge beamsteam  engines.

Photo of Kew Bridge, top of 90 inch beam engine Photo 769

Once a month the Kew Bridge stem museum in London steams the beam pumping engines that date from the 1840s. The 90 inch engine is very impressive, the cylinder is 90 inches in diameter compared to a typical steam railway engine that may have an 18 inch diameter cylinder. These and other engines on the site pumped water out of the Thames for the London water supply from the 1820s onwards.

Next on the agenda was the Leighton Buzzard Narrow gauge railway, just outside London. Gary was a working volunteer  member in the 1970’s on this railway.

Buzrail train crossing road in the suburbs of Leighton Buzzard Photo 777 .

Then it was the turn of the Bluebell railway in East Sussex. This line is particularly difficult to photograph as it runs across fields and not anywhere near roads.

Photo of train approaching ped crossing, just before tunnel Photo 795.

Then it was up to the Severn Valley Railway running from Kidderminster town.

 GWR loco on train at Arley

Next visit was to the 10 museums in the Severn Gorge. This area based aroun 'Ironbridge' was the basis for the industrial age in Britain and thus the rest of the World. It could be a blog initself!

Thats probably enough for the non-railfans amoungst the bloggers!