SeaCity at Southampton

Linda and Peter, Ange and Paul - dear friends and cousins

This morning, Linda and Peter drove me down to Totton near the New Forest, where I am once again staying with Ange and Paul.

After a welcome cup of coffee, it was time to say goodbye till who knows when to Linda and Peter.  They'd love to come out to see me and Australia, but it's a bit of a worry in Europe right now.  But we'll definitely see each other again.  I love them heaps.

The old court house converted

As soon as they left to drive back to Sussex, Ange, Paul and I drove into Southampton to visit the SeaCity Museum.  This is a brand new museum which has replaced two older museums - the Maritime Museum and the God's House Museum.  This year is the anniversary - as if we didn't know - of the Titanic Disaster, and this museum is dedicated to just that, but is much more as well.  It has a history of the different groups of people who moved through Southampton on their way to somewhere else - soldiers off to war, Basque children coming temporarily in 1937, Russian emigrants arriving overland to travel to far off places, ten pound Poms on their way to Australia....

Replica of a 2nd class cabin on the Titanic

We had a very happy three hours wandering through the museum and all agreed that it would take two or three visits to see it all and maybe more to absorb it.

The vast majority of the crew of the Titanic - employees of the White Star Line - were residents of Southampton, and less than a third survived.  The dots show where these crew members who lost their lives lived.

As we came away, it started sprinkling, and now the rain is once more setting in, and the forecast is for it to keep up until at least I leave England - less than a week now.

In eight days time I will be home.

In just a couple of hours, Parramatta Computer Pals for Seniors will be holding their June monthly meeting, the second that I have missed.  I will be thinking of you all!

The Tucker girls

Margaret, Linda and Sarah - all Tuckers, all related

When I started tracing my father's ancestors in 2006, I put the family tree on Genes Reunited, and within 12 months I had found Linda (Tucker) in Sussex - my second cousin - and Sarah (Tucker) in Surrey.  Sarah is Linda and my fourth cousin once removed.

We all share an ancestor William Tucker, born in Hamptworth near Downton, Wiltshire in 1764.  Linda and I also share great grandparents, George William Tucker and Agnes Mary Hardy, born in Southampton.

I first met Linda and her husband Peter when John and I came to England in 2008.  However, although Sarah and I have been Facebook friends since about the same time, we have never managed to meet.

So tonight we did it!  I'm currently staying at Linda and Peter's in Angmering, Sussex, so we arranged to meet about half way between there and Sarah's place at Hindhead, Surrey.  Sarah suggested the Keeper's Arms at Trotten, three miles the other side of Midhurst, Sussex.  Sarah's neice Thais, who also works at the Keeper's Arms on Sundays joined us, and we had great service from her Romanian friend Ali who works there full time.

You can tell we had a hoot of a time.  You'd think we'd known each other for years.  We have at least one trait in common.  We all talk nineteen to the dozen.  Poor Peter.  But he bore it with fortitude, and even looked like he was enjoying himself.

Now we just need to persuade Linda to join us on Facebook.  I think this time we might succeed.





If you want to know more about our ancestors, check out my other blog:
http://tuckersinsouthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/george-tucker-1802-1886-man-with-no.html  Tuckers of Southampton, Bramshaw and Downton.

Kent with Alex and Viv - more cousins!

Alex and Viv Palmer

Well, I left cold, windy and wet Barnsley on Saturday, and three trains later, arrived at Banbury  where my cousins Tracey and Trish (Pat) picked me up at the station, and we had a quiet night in with Ray who whilst recovering well from his heart operation, had had a bad couple of days.  He'd been out trimming his privet hedge, not an ideal task for an asthmatic.

They'd been expecting rain, but it didn't eventuate.  A  brief reprieve, since it's been raining ever since!  Our newly discovered mutual cousin Alex and his wife Viv arrived mid morning on Sunday, were introduced and Ray filled them in on much of our family history.  Ray was the only other cousin who'd grown up in England, since the rest of the aunts and cousins were spread around the world.

So now I was off on a new adventure, with yet another second cousin.  Alex is a descendant of the youngest Reed sister Jessie.  In 1910, she married a Hampshire and ultimate English test cricketer, Alexander Stuart Kennedy, and a daughter Mary (Mollie) Stuart Kennedy was born in our great grandfather's house in London Rd, Southampton.  She was my dad's first cousin.

My dad, being cricket mad, had always remembered that his aunt had married a professional cricketer.

Alex Kennedy 1891-1959

In the early 1920s, with Alex Kennedy coaching and playing test cricket for England in South Africa, the family moved to Cape Town.  My dad saw his Aunt Jessie and cousin Mollie and new cousin Jean, a baby in Cape Town on his way to Australia by ship in 1925.  At that stage, Jessie and Alex's marriage was breaking up, and Mollie was later taken back to England by her father, and had nothing to do with the family back in South Africa.

Mollie marries John Palmer

Mollie later married, and young Alex and his brother were born after the second world war.  In 1962, Mollie died suddenly, having told Alex nothing about her life.  Or the boys didn't remember!  There were very few photos.

Meanwhile, Jessie had remarried in Cape Town, had three more children besides young Jean (who had been given into the custody of her father Alex Kennedy, but remained with Jessie).  They moved to Zimbabwe at some point, and their descendants are now scattered over at least three continents - Australia, Africa and Britain. 

Before I left Australia, I had sent Alex some photos that my "South African" second cousins had sent me.  One was of his mother with young Jean, obviously taken not long before she came back to England.

He was very touched by this, and we agreed to meet.  He later suggested that I come and stay with them for a couple of nights in Kent, hence his drive up to Banbury, and our drive back to Kent, where I had a wonderful time.

The Chaser Inn at Shpbourne (pronounced Chivan)

Alex and Viv live in a very small village near Sevenoaks, just 2-3 miles from Ightham where my mother's birth mother was born.

The Golding Hop at Plaxtol, Kent

We stopped on the way home at the Chaser Inn near Ightham for a very pleasant dinner, and then called in at Alex's local pub, The Golding Hop, which has one of the few remaining licences to brew their own cider.

Eddie the publican was able to tell us where the Bewley Farm was - his pub was just around the corner from Bewley Lane.

The reason I was interested in this was that Bewley Farm Ightham was the very place my great grandmother Annie Ashby, the daughter of Cornelius Palmer and Elizabeth Ashby was born.

This is really strange because my ancestor Kate Elizabeth Palmer (my birth grandmother) and Alex shared the same surname!  But no relation, since Alex's Palmer family comes from Southampton.

The Bewley farm was obviously a big piece of land, because there is a Bewley Farmhouse, a Bewley Lane and a Bewley Lane house.  No doubt, my ancestor was born in a long lost hovel on the farm.  They were poor agricultural labourers.

The following day - Monday - we set off after an early lunch for sightseeing in the rain.  But that didn't matter much because the countryside is beautiful and we saw some magnificent buildings. 

St Peters church, Ightham Kent

First we went to St Peters Church, Ightham where my Palmer and Ashby ancestors were baptised, married (if they bothered) and buried.

Nut Tree House

We stopped at Nut Tree House at Ightham.

We then had a look at Soar Manor, a remarkably well preserved knight's house from 1290.

Ightham Mote

But the highlight of our local tour was a visit to Ightham Mote, which I had thought was just a moat with some green fields.  No such thing.  It is "gobsmackingly magnificent" as I told the first guide I saw.  It is managed by the National Trust.  Here it is.

The Mote itself.

Viv and Margaret at Ightham Mote.

Those Roses in the courtyard smelt just wonderful.

We were able to see right through the house.  It was built and restored over many centuries, and was owned by an American who loved all things English.  He had never married and left the house to the nation.  It has been extensively restored and is one of the few historic houses that pays its own way through entrance fees.

After this Alex and Viv had arranged for the whole family - their son Simon, daughter Sarah and her two young sons - sports crazy Thomas (11) and William (9) to meet me over tea at the St Julian's Club at Sevenoaks.  Another very pleasant evening indeed.

This morning I slept in till 10 am!  Alex and Viv had offered to drive me down to Angmering in Sussex where I was once again staying with Linda and Peter.  (Linda is my cousin on my dad's side, and we share our maiden names.)  So after a quiet morning and a good lunch, I said goodbye to beautiful Kent and we made our way south to Sussex.

I'm sure I'll see Alex and Viv again one day - I certainly hope so.  A lovely couple.  And between us, we identified quite a few photos of Alex's mother Mollie.  

Here is one that is very precious.  The message from her mother is very poignant:  

"Be good sweet Maid
And let who will be clever,
Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long
"Mum"
With heaps of love from Mum and baby.
26-3-26."

After this, mother, baby (Jean) and sweet maid (Mollie) were separated - forever.

Ray Bayford told us the other day that Jessie, Mollie's mother visited his grandmother Alice in London sometime before her death in 1955 and he was introduced as a young boy.  Whether she saw Mollie again, we'll never know.

And now I'm able to catch up with my blog!

Chasing John's ancestral villages and streets in Yorkshire

Margaret & Claire - Facebook friends

When I mentioned on Facebook that I was going to Barnsley in Yorkshire to take some photos for John and see what records I could find, my friend Claire who lives near Leeds offered to drive me around for the day.

Claire and I met on Genes Reunited about 2008 when I was tracking down an English test cricketer, Alexander Stuart Kennedy, who is connected to both our families.  We are not related, but found each other's information interesting and later became friends on Facebook.  Both of us are sociable beings, you might say.  Claire also likes investigating her family history.

I am staying at the Premier Inn, and it appears to be built on the top of a cliff in Barnsley - a considerable drop from the ground floor on one side.  Nice place, very friendly and feel quite comfortable on my own.  The rooms are very similar to our three or four star motel rooms in Australia.  VERY different from my hotel room in London, which was old and poky.

We started by driving to Dodworth (pronounced "Doddeth") just two miles out of Barnsley - a village which is now a commuter suburb.  However Dodworth Green, where John's gg grandfather was born to Joshua and Mary Moakson in 1790 is still very much a small community and very pretty.

The cottages opposite are from the 1700s.

The church was built in 1844, which is well after the Moakson family lived there.

We had a great yarn to a resident who was working in his garden, and he told us which houses and other buildings were there in the 1700s and which were built later.

The Enclosures Act affected the villages around Dodworth in the late 1700s - earlier than other counties.  The land was owned by the Osborne family, the Dukes of Leeds. Common folk were excluded from using the land, some became tenant farmers, others became agricultural labourers on farms or day labourers.  Of course coal mining became a big industry in the early 19th century, as did the linen weaving factories.  The land is now mainly agricultural.

We then drove on through Silkstone which is a big village where John and I visited in 2008.  It contains the church - All Saints Silkstone with Stainborough where Isaac Moxon of Dodworth Green was baptised.

Hoylandswaine is just another couple of miles further towards Penistone - we had lunch there.

We found a very nice pub with good fish and chips (for me) and icecream - of course.

Hunshelf, where Sarah Middleton, later Moxon (John's gg grandmother) said she was born.  This is a very bleak farming community - not even a village.

Poor Sarah - she didn't marry well, since Isaac Moxon was everything from a "publican" - probably inflated job title - to a gentleman's servant (on Sarah's death certificate) and she ended up a "pauper - laundress" on the 1851 and 1861 census.

She lived in Wortley Street, Barnsley as a widow.  The street is still there, and looks as ugly as it probably always was.

St George's church, Barnsley, demolished 1993

Isaac had died in 1850 and she was left to look after two small boys, Joshua and John. He was buried at St George's church, Barnsley.  It is very close to Wortley Street, but there is now a major road in between.




Joshua became a stone mason and came to Australia in 1867, the same year his mother died.  But he had already made a career for himself in London prior to migrating with his young family.

Claire and I had afternoon tea back at the Premier Inn, and then it was time to say goodbye.

I felt as though I'd known her for a long time, although this was the first time we'd met in person.  It was so nice of her to drive me around - something that would have been impossible on my own - or even in a motor home - John and I had driven through Barnsley on our last trip, and found nowhere to park.

Claire had never been to Barnsley before, so she was unfamiliar with this part of Yorkshire, but she had a trusty satnav which came in very handy.

First of three volumes I purchased today.

After she said goodbye, just before 4pm, I wandered down to the main shopping centre in search of a bookshop with local history books.  When I asked if there was a Waterstone's bookshop in town, even the locals were derisive!  In Barnsley!  Good grief!  I ended up finally at the Barnsley Chronicle, quite the other side of town.  And found the office locked!  And not open Saturdays!

I rapped the door, since it was not supposed to close until 5pm, and some very gracious cleaners opened up, and with the help of phone conversations with the office manager, I managed to pay cash for five books, and even got a 25% discount!  I said they should ask for double their salaries.

So to eat, and then to bed to download and edit the photos, and write this blog.

Tomorrow morning I will check out early and spend time in the library's Local History Archive which opens at 9.30 am.  My train to Banbury is not till sometime after mid-day.

Coventry with Carole and the girls

Carole and Margaret - friends since 1972

On Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Ange and Paul (temporarily anyway) and set off for Coventry in Warwickshire.  It was a two hour journey by train, with no changes necessary.  The only weird thing was that we travelled backwards to Reading, and forward from then on.

Ange had seen me off at Southampton Central, and Carole met me at Coventry station.  I had not seen her since 2008 when John and I met Carole and her husband Mike in town and they had shown me Coventry Cathedral (the ruins which are now a war memorial) and we then had a great pub lunch.

Carole and her girls

This time, I stayed over with Carole and her family.  I'd asked to meet her daughters, and what a delight they are - Sharn, CarolAnn and April.  I also met Sharn's daughter Eve (10) who was on half term holidays, and two young husbands, Anthony and Dave.  The girls had dinner with us and were most friendly and interesting and interested in my doings.

Eve with her grandad Mike

I had met Carole when I first moved out of home to live in a boarding house at Strathfield.  Carole was my room-mate.  I shared because I was saving hard to go back to England for a working holiday.  Carole was in Australia for a working holiday and went back to England in 1972.  I then stayed with her family in Coventry in 1973 or 4, and Carole came down to London for a weekend. Those were the days.

Eve, who is as bright as a button, with Frank (Bruno) the boxer

Now of course, Carole is a grandmother.  Who'd have thought!

Poole, Highcliffe and Lymington

Joseph R. Rose's wedding 1901 - wish we knew who the other people  were.

It's now Thursday evening and I am two days behind with my blog!  I'm currently in Barnsley, in a hotel room which reminds me of one of our good motels, the first such room I've had since I left Sydney.  But this blog is still about Hampshire - and Dorset.

I first met Hannah Mack on Ancestry.com, and we've since become friends on Facebook, even though I am older than her parents.  She has a History MA, which explains why a young person is so interested in family history.  She is also a distant cousin, being a descendant of my favourite ancestor's 17th child!  I am the descendant of his 2nd child, who is 27 years older than hers.

St Michael's church where John Rose is said to have taken refuge.

Her parents live just near Poole, and they were very interested to receive a copy of my story about John Rose, and I was interested to see the photo they had of him.  They also had a very good family photo of their ancestor Joseph R. Rose who built up a stevedoring company in Southampton with 5000 employees.  It was lovely to meet them and to swap family folk-lore.  We shall prove it all one day.  They had heard that John Rose had been a gambler, and used to take refuge in the church (probably St Michael's in Southampton) whilst trying to organise a settlement of his debts.  Sounds like something he'd do.

Ange and Paul had driven me down to their village just outside Poole, so after a delightful visit with Hannah's family, we set off to have lunch at Highcliffe, which is on the south coast outside Bournemouth.  It was very wet, quite a miserable day for driving really.  But we had a delightful lunch, apart from Paul getting exceedingly wet when he found the accessible entrance to the restaurant locked.  He nearly ran over the waitress who opened the door - she did not realise she was in his way.

Lymington Harbour

The Ship Inn

Ange drove us back via Lymington, which is in the New Forest not far from Totten where they live.  It is a delightful town, famous for its sailing community.  Here are some views of the harbour and the cobbled streets.

The cobbles were no good for wheelchair users.  There was no one else around since the shops had just shut and it was very miserable with the rain.  A delightful small town though.

Exploring Southampton Old Town

Yesterday (Monday) the rain held off ALL DAY, which was lucky since we planned to explore the Old Town of Southampton, mostly but not all of it inside the ancient walls, which still stand in many places.

Southampton was badly bombed during World War II, particularly in 1940.  My Tucker great grand-father owned a musical instrument dealership in Upper Canal Walk, and although he had died in 1924 (predeceased by my grandfather in 1919), his much younger second wife was still running it when the war broke out.  It was completely destroyed in 1940, together with all the other shops in Canal Walk.

Additionally, most of East Street, a major commercial area adjacent to Canal Walk was badly bombed.  This is where my other great grandfather Robert Henry Reed had one of his bakeries prior to his death in 1915.  During the war, his widow and three of his daughters were running the tea room, which may have been in the East Street shop.  Yet to sort that one out.

But even worse, for the people of Southampton, many of the important buildings were badly damaged or completely destroyed.  These included the churches of Holyrood, St Johns and St Lawrence.  Many sections of the ancient walls were destroyed.  Overall 600 civilians and 900 buildings were destroyed in Southampton.

So even the old city is full of sixties style apartment blocks both Council built and owned and private, with many of the older ruins scattered in between, and luckily some of the ancient buildings which survived the bombing.  For instance, St Michael's Church seemed to have escaped entirely, unlike its sister churches.

My ancestors lived in Vyse Lane off French Street for over 20 years between 1849 and 1871, and the Lane is still there, but most of it is unrecognisable.

Wellington Hotel and Vyse Lane

The Duke of Wellington pub is still there, but all the cottages have disappeared, maybe well before 1940, because by the 1880s, the area was pitiful, with many houses overcrowded, unhygenic and almost falling down.




Most respectable families had moved Above Bar to the north of the town.  This included my Reed family - my grandmother was one of six daughters of the master baker who had three bakeries and a tea room by the 1890s.

Even John Rose moved a few streets away to Westgate, but still within the old town and nearer to the Town Pier.


He would have felt very comfortable there.  Unlike his sons, most of whom seemed to want to better themselves, John Rose preferred to remain anti-establishment, and seemed far more at home amongst the poor town labourers and in the beer houses.

We also visited the Tudor House Museum in Bugle Street.  This was built during the Tudor times in the 1500s, but has had many uses.  It has been a museum since 1911, but has recently been extensively renovated and brought into the 21st century with a great sound and light show in the banquet room.

Unfortunately the lift to the upper floors stuck, with Paul upstairs, and so we were given our entry fee back.  Almost worth it.  Anyway, they were very good at resolving the problem, and explaining to the staff how the lift worked.

Yes, that's me in the stocks.

And wearing a silly outfit.

Old and the new, with Paul.

Considering the damage, Southampton City Council has done a good job of redesigning the Old Town and minimising the traffic to mostly residents.  New buildings these days must be sympathetic to the remaining buildings.