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.