September, I'll remember

Part of the lyrics from Paul Simon's

'April, comes she will'

Waddow

17th-century manor house set in 178 acres of beautiful Lancashire 

countryside along the banks of the River Ribble.

 The memories are vague, as it is so long ago, but I have been in and across Waddow's grounds. In, with the Brownies (probably) and across taking a short cut thro' the grounds.

  © Copyright Jon Royle and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence



 For a long time now, it has been a centre for the Girl Guides Association. In these modern times, it has also become a Conference Centre.

It's even part of Lancashire Folk Lore in the tale of Peg O'Nell and her well.

In 1841, it was known as

Waddow, Mitton, Clitheroe, Yorkshire, England

The Lancashire market town of Clitheroe is on one side of the Ribble with the village of Waddington and Waddow Hall on the opposite side. For centuries, as is common in England, the river formed the county border.

1841 census

Thomas Isherwood 40 1801 Gamekeeper Ann Isherwood 25 1816 Wife Elizabeth Isherwood 5 1836 Daughter Edward Isherwood 4 1837 Son, Yorks
Jeremiah Garnett 30 born 1811

  James Garnett

Hartismere Redlingfield and Cracknell

Copinger - The Manors of Suffolk

Redlingfield in the Hundred of Hartismere

THIS Hundred - bounded on the east by that of Hoxne, on the west by that of Blackbourn ; on the north by the River Waveney, which divides it from Norfolk, and on the south by the Hundreds of Bosmere and Claydon and Stow.

Copinger, Walter Arthur, 1847-1910. The Manors of Suffolk : notes on their history and devolution (Kindle Locations 6173-6174). London : Unwin. 

 The CRACKNELL family lived in the village of Redlingfield, in the Hundred of Hartismere. 

Manor of Redlingfield
In the year 1120 Manasses de Gratia, Earl of Ghisness (or Guisnes) and Emma his wife, daughter of William de Arras, built here, upon a lordship belonging to the said William, a Benedictine nunnery, which was endowed with portions of the churches of Milton, Walpole, Levington, Redlingfield and Rishangles, with the manors of the last two named places, and lands and tithes in about 30 other parishes.

Copinger, Walter Arthur, 1847-1910. The Manors of Suffolk : notes on their history and devolution (Kindle Locations 8503-8505). London : Unwin.  

 The village of Eye had a Benedictine monastery.

How did I come across all this? 

By continuing to follow up on branches  of my family tree. 

I'm finding it fascinating, especially as my searches are leading me away from the North of England. I wrote family tree, but it ought to be trees as it's so convoluted. I must admit to searching hither and thither around the lists of names and into the places where they lived and occupations.

Cotton, calico, wool and timber, spinning, weaving, and printing for one north of England branch.
The Cracknells  worked in agriculture, similar to family in the north, in Chipping. 

1851 Redlingfield Hall, Redlingfield, Hartismere, Suffolk

Mary Ann

Cracknell

Head

Widow

57

1794

Farmer 102 Acres 3 Men 1 Boy

Dennington, Suffolk,

 

Comms

It is so easy to forget in this age of mass communications how different it used to be.

This image recently posted on social media, brought some memories to the fore.

In the days of analogue communications long before the advent of cell phones, this was a public phone, found on many High Streets. Whilst phones were commonplace in shops and offices, most homes were without them.

Memory

G.C.S.E. Ordinary Level English (1960s)

Question to 'get one's teeth into' and one never to be forgotten.
Presented with an image similar to the one above and asked to give clear instructions on -
How to use the instrument
How to make a successful phone-call
What to do in the event the call failed to connect.

I have no idea how many marks were available; it was probably in the days before question papers gave such information. What I do remember is the feeling 'I can do this' and writing my explanation / instructions telling how and when to use button 'A' or button 'B'. My memory still tells me about inserting coins in old pennies.

Today, that self-same phone-box has a different usage. Now it houses a defibrillator.

Rowarth

This small village / hamlet in the Peak District is where some of my ancestors used to live.

Rowarth

 Would you believe it, is so isolated you cannot access images using Street Map. 

"The village dates essentially from the 1780s, when at least six watermills were constructed along the stream which runs through here. The mills span cotton or made candlewick and some operated until the early 20th century. Their legacy is some pretty stone-built workers' cottages in the centre of the village, plus Atherton House (dated 1787), which was a mill-owner's house, and the Little Mill Inn, a former mill which is now a pub."

Coincidence?
From the other side of my family tree round about the same time, other ancestors lived in Chipping, Yorkshire where the tiny village had a fast-flowing stream along which were built some six watermills.

In 1930, the village of Rowarth was all but destroyed by a cloudburst. The River Sett overwhelmed its banks flooding the village.

Real geography...

When geography was taught up until the 1980s onward; it was often referred to a 'Capes and Bays'. People gleaned information from actual places and 'social geography' was but a gleam in some mathematician's eye.

Nottingham was known for lace and for silk.
Yorkshire specialized in working with wool of all kinds including the finest.
Lancashire had 'King Cotton'.
The Derbyshire Peak District used cotton and in particular, calico.

One of my Antipodean friends has been delving into her family history on and off. Today, her searches had led her to Nottingham.

English, being the ever adaptable language that it is has been modified by users as need arose. My friend was in a pickle as they'd say in Northern England; she'd found one of her ancestors had an odd-sounding job. Not only did it seem odd, but rude in Australian English.

Jacking-off - the ancestor was a jacker-off.

When young lads began work in the lace industry, they were often employed as jackers-off. The term being peculiar to the lace industry in Nottinghamshire.

My friend's query set me off searching to find a better answer.

I came across the Sawley & District Historical Society. That particular Sawley is in Derbyshire and the page tells the story of one John Clifford, born in Sawley but moved to Beeston, Notts. to work in the lace industry.

"The Clifford family moved to Beeston when John was only four years old. At 11 years of age John started work as a jacker-off in the lace industry, splicing the cotton on the bobbins in order to maintain an unbroken thread."

According to the O.E.D. the definition is
Jacker-off (lace); takes off from bobbins, waste lengths of unused threads, and winds them on to large wooden bobbins, using a small winding machine.

 Now my friend has a different and not all all rude meaning for her ancestor's occupation in the 19th century. 

Earlier, I mentioned Sawley, this is where English place-name geography comes to the fore. I now know of two places called Sawley, one in the West Riding of Yorkshire and another in Nottinghamshire.

When places were

more important than today.

Carrying on with family history / genealogy searches, all is not easy even when people remain within a small area.

Difficulties arise due to the historical importance of settlements.

Looking back thro' the ages, Great Hamlet and Little Hamlet were important places. The former had an independent chapelry. Where were they? They were in the Hundred of the High Peak.

When looking at local records, there are a number of surrounding hamlets :-
Phoside
Rowarth
Beard
Thornsett
Kinder

This is when research becomes more complex. People are registered as being in the Great Hamlet, when in fact they are in one of the surrounding villages. The National register always names the great Hamlet but local registers refer to a series of hamlets, making it difficult to find an exact place.

Former mill now Des-res apartments

American Civil War and Liverpool, England

I love reading 'local' papers in preference to the nationals. 
August is the time of year when editors tend to ask reporters to dig up something interesting. The Liverpool Echo has taken to doing that in abundance. Today, they published images of the hidden history of Liverpool.

Some of the images were well-known to me such as the brass Maltese cross let into the pavement on Church Street and the site of Liverpool Castle (demolished by order of Charles II). The former marks the site of St. Peter's Church altar. One of two parish churches of Liverpool. The other, St. Nicholas is still in evidence. 

But, Liverpool having a connection with the Confederacy, now that was a surprise.

19 Abercromby Square was built in 1864, later than other houses nearby. It was the home of a cotton trader by the name of Charles Kuhn Prioleau, naturalised Englishman from South Carolina. ,

If you follow the link, it ought to take you to images of the grand interior of 19 Abercromby Square.

Abercromby Square as the name suggests was built in the shape of a square. The houses surround a railed in area that used to be the park. Entrance was by key-holders only and was where the nannies used to promenade with their charges (children) of the wealthy bankers and merchants.

The cotton trading company was Fraser Trenholm & Co. Liverpool and Prioleau was the senior partner. There was a sister company, Charles Fraser, Charleston, South Carolina.
James Dunwoody Bulloch  arrived in Liverpool, charged with acquiring by whatever means with obtaining / building ships for the Confederacy. 

Details of the business conducted by Bulloch can be found here.

The offices of Fraser, Trenholm & Co. were in Rumford Place (nos 6.8 & 10). Plaques name the buildings Alabama House, Bulloch House and Charleston House to mark their connection with George Trenholm, John Dunwoody Bulloch and Charles K. Prioleau.

A tale of two counties

Today is apparently 'Yorkshire Day'!

 If you were to do a search - you would find that

The date chosen for Yorkshire Day is August 1st  and that it is

'a modern celebration - started in 1975'

So much for the 'history' of Yorks. Day! 

Let's cross over the border of the Pennine chain which is also called the 'backbone of England'.

"Lancashire Day commemorates the day in 1295 when Lancashire sent its first representatives to Parliament by  King Edward I of England to attend what later became known as The Model Parliament".

It would seem that the Yorks. lot are some 670 years late in adopting the idea.

Lancashire's observance of their day is a lot older and has a ceremony attached.

The Lancashire Day proclamation is read out by town criers throughout the county on 27th November:

To the people of the city and County Palatine of Lancaster

Greetings!

Know ye that this day, November 27th in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Fifteen, 

the 64th year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Duke of Lancaster, is

Lancashire Day

Know ye also, and rejoice, that by virtue of Her Majesty's County Palatine of Lancaster, the citizens of the Hundreds of Lonsdale, North and South of the Sands, Amounderness, Leyland, Blackburn, Salford and West Derby are forever entitled to style themselves Lancastrians.

Throughout the County Palatine, from the Furness Fells to the River Mersey, from the Irish Sea to the Pennines, this day shall ever mark the people's pleasure in that excellent distinction - true Lancastrians, proud of the Red Rose and loyal to our Sovereign Duke.

GOD BLESS LANCASHIRE
AND GOD SAVE THE QUEEN,
DUKE OF LANCASTER.

Incompetence writ large

It has got to be a sign of my age that I grow more annoyed and frustrated by acts of incompetence.

Being tech savvy is fine, but what annoyed me the other day was civil servants hiding behind a computer answering mechanism. There were 3 phone numbers for the local Council that ought to have served my purposes. Try as I might, all I heard was the same automated message telling me people were 'busy'. Cynical me decided they could not all be so busy, more probably the answering system was taking the strain.

I turned to the Internet, found the webpages and the complaints page. I duly filled in the complaints form and submitted it. Next, I received an email with the complaint ID number, only to learn that it could take ten working days for a reply.

Later, I received a voicemail, someone from the Council relying to my complaint, yet unable / unwilling to give her name. She also proved that she had not read the complaint email properly.

What caused all this annoyance and frustration?

Hospitals send a patient home with ready-filled injections to be administered daily for 30 days. All well and good. Now try getting rid of the sharps box and its contaminated contents.

Do the hospitals take them? 
What about the G.P. surgery or the local pharmacy?

No!

Prescribing a series of injections is the easy part, disposing of them afterwards is the bug-bear.

Eventually, the G.P. surgery phone the 'collection team' and your name / address are added to their list. Weeks pass, no-one arrives. Neighbour mentions that she has sharps to be collected and tells the guy that next-door need a collection. 

What happens? Instead of collecting the sharps box, a new one is delivered! This happens again. The sharps box is still awaiting collection four months later.

Back to the female that left the voicemail message...

Thinking positively, she has said the sharps box is to be collected (today). Then spoils the good impression by saying a calendar of deliveries will also be delivered!

mf aka more follows

The dogs let on that someone had come to the door even tho' no-one had rung the doorbell. I raced to the door to find a letter pushed thro'. Noticing a white lorry, I rushed to get there before it left. Fortunately, I was in time and Tony left the diving seat and came round to find out the problem.

Cutting a long story short, he'd been tasked with delivering a letter / calendar of collections!

I explained the situation, we both looked at the letter and found a phone number. I said I'd ring up and tony said that guy's on holiday! He understood the problems we'd had. Then, he took away the full and empty boxes, promising not to call again! Even if 'they' add us to his round, he'll remember and not leave any empty sharps boxes here. He made another promise to see 'them in the office' and get them to take us off the list.

Phew!

non pc

As a former colleague would have called it, 'the whited sepulchre syndrome'.

Some are lucky enough to pass thro' the working side of life without much trauma. I'm not saying there's is a charmed working life; far from it. They experience trials and tribulations that rock the proverbial boat...but not to the same extent.

What's brought on the negativity? Article in a newspaper about a 10-year anniversary.

Ten years ago there was an horrific murder of a young Christian lad whose life had been full of promise. Youths from the same school decided to do what they'd call 'have a laugh, a bit of fun'. It ended with an axe embedded in A.W.'s skull. Today, ten years on, one of the murderers has applied to have his sentence reduced. Imagine the effect that has on the family of A.W.

The news report printed images of both of the murderers. 

It has brought back memories for the family and the friends...and schoolteachers. 

What about the non pc? Folk seldom realize these 'miscreants' spent time in school and some hapless folk came across them in the classroom for several years.

'Whited sepulchre' - a reference to staffroom discussion of the failings of several head teachers...one of whom earned the epithet...

'I see no ships...There are No Problems'.

endings and beginnings

Not for me, but for two friends. One I've known for a long time (since the 1970s) and another who's been part of my OU friends for not quite so long. 

Jock, won't mind me calling him that as it's how I knew him at first. Everyone called him Jock and that's how I was introduced to him. 

In the intervening years he qualified as a teacher, taught in various C of E schools and became Head of a Lancashire Junior school.

Teaching is one thing both friends have in common, and junior school teaching at that. Both retire from teaching this year and I wish them both the best of every good thing retirement can bring, 

Arrival