Back to the south

I'm running a bit behind with the blog posts since we had difficulty with wifi for five days in Rochester.  The Premier Inn had their own wifi with only 30 minutes per day free, otherwise wifi would only work outside in the cold and wet.

Jenny, Trevor and Margaret enjoying lunch

So I start with leaving Manchester which was nearly two weeks ago now.  It was a bit of a rush to get to Stratford-upon-Avon by 1pm.  We had been invited to lunch by Jenny and Trevor Jordan who are secretary and magazine editor of the Moxon Society.  Jenny is Chris Moxon’s oldest sister (see our most recent blog from Manchester.  It was a delight to meet them in person – as with Chris, we felt we knew them quite well through emails and the Moxon Magazine.

The Avon River at Stratford

After lunch at the Pen & Parchment pub we walked around Stratford – part of a great crowd enjoying a wonderfully sunny Saturday.  We also looked at the Shakespearean theatre which included a couple of exhibitions upstairs.  One of the exhibitions showed props – such as rubber hands cut off.  Each prop was in a tray, and when that tray was appropriately placed on a centre table, it triggered a video describing how that prop was made.  Quite unusual I thought.

Trish, Margaret and her second cousin Ray in Banbury

After a couple of hours, Jenny and Trevor had to leave and it was time for us to check into our hotel in Banbury, about 45 minutes away.  I always go to Banbury on my UK travels since my second cousin Ray and his wife Trish and their daughter Tracey live there and we are great friends. 

Margaret at Balliol College, Oxford

We met them for lunch the next day, and then on Monday Trish came with us on the bus to Oxford.  The bus went round lots of villages off the beaten track – many of them were very pretty villages.

In Oxford we were particularly keen to see Balliol College since my birth grandfather – the scandalous Nevill Forbes – was a Fellow at that college.  He was there from 1903 when he was studying Russian and Balkan languages and history, and right up to 1929 – he was the second Professor of Russian Languages and wrote histories of the Balkans and Russian grammars.

T

Nevill Forbes was my birth grandfather

he College was right at the bus stop, and was open to visitors.  When I mentioned my interest, the gatekeeper said Wait a minute, and went off to find the Register of Balliol College, and found Nevill’s short biography of his time at the College.

Premier Inn - a favourite hotel chain

After three nights at Banbury, a pretty town with a canal through the middle, we set off back to the Southampton area, booking into a Premier Inn at Eastleigh, just east of Southampton.   Eastleigh is where the Spitfire was designed and built, and was a big railway centre. 

Coming to the rescue

We had to get a puncture in John’s wheelchair fixed and were directed to Halford’s, a sort of Bunnings which also had a bike centre.  So the puncture was fixed in no time by a very nice young man.  The next day we took it a bit easy – we were so tired, but walked up to the shopping centre after lunch.  There was a Mobility shop up there so John asked the owner to look at his footplates which were slipping and catching on the body of the chair.  Voila – fixed.

A great night with Linda, Paul, Ange and Peter

We had also invited Ange and Paul from Southampton (Ange is my 4^th cousin) and Linda and Paul from Angmering near Worthing (Linda is my 2^nd cousin) to have dinner with us at our hotel.  What a great night we had.  I had introduced the two couples to each other a couple of years ago – they had been hearing about each other for about four years before that.

HMS Victory at Portsmouth

The next day we decided to go to Portsmouth.  We find we can’t do everything – we just run out of time and energy, but did go up the Spinnaker – opened in 2005 – and spent nearly three hours at the Mary Rose Museum.

Checking out of the Premier Inn at Eastleigh, we were due to head to Rochester – not our original choice - we had difficulty finding a hotel with a wet room.  We hadn’t intended to go so close to London.  

John on Brighton Pier

But on the way, we detoured to Brighton, a place we’ve always heard of but neither of us had visited.  We spent about three hours there – not a place we’d choose to live or even go for a holiday but there were lots of photo opportunities.  It is very run down, and we won’t go into what we think of English beaches.

From there, it was a two and a half hour run to Rochester, getting caught up in Friday night peak hour traffic on the M25, but not as bad as the F3 to Gosford on a Friday night.

Rochester is a great place and deserves a posting of its own.  We were here for five nights.

Magnificent Manchester

An interesting Manchester pub

Saying goodbye to the friendly staff at the Barnsley Central Premier Inn, they insisted we take two of their pillows with them.  I'd mentioned that we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express next, and although their food was good, their pillows were lousy!  So now we are sleeping in comfort!

Clydey Pops and me - a Palmer connection

I

A vibrant place - playing pan-pipes

t was a short drive from Barnsley to Manchester on the M62 but we stopped near Batley to catch up with our Facebook friend Claire whom I'd already met but John hadn't.  She has a great sense of humour and is very well-read as well as being very interested in family history.  We have a cousin in common, living in Kent but are not related ourselves.  We simply "clicked" on GenesReunited and Facebook, despite our age gap.

We'd been warned by the Yorkshire people that "it always rains in Manchester".  But it didn't!  In fact we had perfect weather, even warm at night.

A quirky sign

Manchester is a vibrant city, the second biggest after London I'm told.  It has a mixture of old buildings and new.  The many 19th century buildings are grand, Manchester having been a very rich place at the time, the centre of the industrial revolution with many people moving north to work in the cotton factories and in trade.  Many came from Scotland and Ireland too.

Margaret & Chris in earnest conversation

Our main reason for visiting Manchester was to meet Chris Moxon (no relation), the recently retired but now hard-working membership secretary of The Moxon Society.  Chris worked in theatre management in London for a number of decades, but was glad to leave and come north.

A magnificent building from the 19th century - Town Hall

After spending an hour or so looking around Manchester on our own on Thursday, Chris met us at the hotel the following morning and had planned a flexible itinerary for us.  We started at the Town Hall and were able to view the murals outlining the history of Manchester upstairs.  We then went to see the Albert Memorial - thereby hangs a tale.

Manchester's Albert Memorial

The various family groups descended from Joshua Middleton Moxon had all heard the story about Joshua working on the Albert Memorial, and naturally assumed that it was the large one in Kensington Palace Gardens in London, where Joshua and Louisa had married in 1865.

Did Joshua Moxon work on this in 1861?

However, we were most surprised when we heard that Manchester also had a Prince Albert Memorial. You see, Joshua Moxon was listed in the 1861 census as lodging in Manchester and working there as a stone mason.  The statue of Albert was give to the people of Manchester by the Mayor of 1861-62 and the plinth (base) which was also ornately carved was completed in 1865.  The family folklore was that Joshua had broken the nose off the prince and had merely stuck it back on, was found out and strongly encouraged to migrate (as he did in 1867).  We may never know the truth.  It was certainly a surprise to us that it may have been Manchester rather than London.  More newspaper searching coming up methinks.

After we went back to the hotel, Chris went to the Manchester City Archives and tried to find out something about the Memorial, but no luck.  Thanks for trying Chris.

We then went to the People's History Museum which is located at the Pump House on Bridge Street.  The Museum tells the story of the history of democracy in Britain, and grew out of collections of the Trade Union, Labour and Co-operative Society.  We could have spent hours and hours there, it was so interesting.

Philip and Chris

But we had a full day planned, since Chris and his partner Philip had invited us to dinner and the theatre that evening.  Philip is the building and events manager at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, and generously provided us with tickets to a very enjoyable play called The Last Days of Troy by Simon Armitage, better known as a poet. The actors were very good and the so was the writing - understandable from a poet.

My dinner at the Royal Exchange Theatre

Chris Moxon and John

One of the actors was Lily Cole, a super-model and well-known for her activism, who is just starting out as an actor.  There were far better actors in this play, but she wasn't half bad as Helen of Troy.  

There is a review of the play at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10833731/The-Last-Days-of-Troy-Manchester-Royal-Exchange-review-Lily-Cole-keeps-you-fascinated.html

The play finished at 10.30pm, hours past our bedtime and I was a bit worried about walking back to the hotel at that time on a Friday night.  But Chris walked back with us.  We were so pleased to meet him after all the time spent emailing backwards and forwards about Society membership issues and the 50 or so Moxon family trees the Society is trying to get right.

The next morning, it was off to Banbury via lunch at Stratford upon Avon, where we were due to meet Chris Moxon's "big" sister who is also actively involved in the Society.

Hertfordshire to Yorkshire

John and I have just had the BEST couple of days with a surprise meeting yesterday by one of John’s second cousins and his wife, who we had presumed were hard at work in Orange, NSW.  But first we’d better catch up with our travels since London.

After taking delivery of the Fiat Doblo (petrol manual wheelchair accessible van), we drove to Hoddesdon which is a mere 20 miles north of London, but could easily be another world.  Some of John’s ancestors lived there between 1700s and 1860s.  There was no suitable accommodation there, so we had booked another Holiday Inn Express at Harlow, a British “new town” built in the 50s and 60s for the large numbers of households who were forced out of London during the Blitz.  Harlow is a very different town from Hoddesdon, the latter being a very old town.

Hailey Hall School, formerly a large farm

Just out of Hoddesdon is a property called Hailey Hall, now a state boarding school for boys who have emotional behaviour challenges.  It was once in the hands of John’s 3 x grandfather George Cheffins and later one of his bachelor sons, one Peter Cheffins.  John’s great grandmother Louisa Mary Wilkinson was living there with her uncle and other relations in 1861 when she was 16 years old.  Peter Cheffins gave up the tenancy in 1862 and died the following year in Hoddesdon.  It is a beautiful property, but sadly the old building which was formerly the Manor was replaced by other buildings about 100 years ago.

The school staff were very helpful and provided John with photocopies and digital images of the original Hailey Hall, which goes back a few centuries.

Carole and Margaret at Coventry

After two nights at Harlow, we travelled on to Coventry where we stayed at the Premier Inn, caught up for dinner with my long time friend Carole and her family. Carole and I were friends in Sydney in 1972 prior to her returning to Coventry later that year.  A Coventry Moxon connection tracked her down for me in 2008.

Three generations of Coventry girls and us

We had a delightful time.  Young granddaughter Eve is an enthusiastic soccer player, the only girl in the under 14 school soccer team, and the goalie for a weekend team.  The next day we heard the weekend team won the final.  We were so pleased for her, a tiny but obviously talented 12 year old.

Carole’s daughter was also able to find a launderette for us – badly needed after not being able to do any washing since Southampton.

Then it was on to Barnsley via the M1 – by this time it was Saturday.  We are currently staying five nights at the Premier Inn and leave tomorrow for Manchester. 

A wonderful museum at Barnsley

The hotel is high above the town and has a very friendly atmosphere. We are very close to the Barnsley Archives which are located at the Civic Centre within a stunning new Museum which has only been open for a few months.

On Sunday we walked down town to the shops – all the usual like Marks & Spencers, but many one pound shops as well.  Barnsley has a lot of character, but is very depressed even now that the worst of the GFC is over. 

Dodworth Green

We then drove out to Dodworth, two miles from Barnsley where many of the Moxons lived from the 1790s prior to moving into the main town.

The Moxons had been well to do farmers, but by the 19^th century they became masons, joiners and builders, and one notably became an architect and built a number of churches in the town.  Some of course, including John’s 2x great-grandfather were very poor and in 1841 his family was living with extended family members in Barnsley itself.

On Monday we explored the Museum which had a wonderful temporary exhibition about the Miners’ Strike of 1984, including the women’s perspective.  There are also very well done permanent displays.  We also chatted to archivists about our research needs. 

Parish accounts from Hunshelf

We were particularly interested in finding out more about Sarah Middleton who married Isaac Moakson/Moxon (John’s gg grandparents).  She was a bit of a mystery woman.

So on Tuesday (yesterday) we walked into the Archives, and John thought, gee that guy looks like my cousin John Moxon from Orange.  And I saw a woman I thought was the archivist and said to John – doesn’t she look like Heather Moxon!  And it was! 

Two John Moxons and their wives

We had no idea they were overseas.  They had been tracking us, and intended to ring the hotel that day.  So we spent the best part of two days together and had a great time. We clicked with that couple the first time we met them only three years ago, and have seen them a few times since then.

Heather and John Moxon using the microfiche

We had lunch and dinner together yesterday, and this morning met them at Silkstone where we spent a very interesting morning looking at the church and meeting members of the Silkstone Heritage group which meets monthly at the church. 

Silkstone Heritage group with John & Heather

And what an interesting and talented group of (mostly) seniors they were, educated obviously and very friendly and hospitable.  They were very pleased to meet us too, both Johns being descended from a long line of Moaksons who were baptised, married and buried at that church.

After lunch at the Silkstone Pottery nearby

Lunch at the Pottery at Silkstone

we went our separate ways, with John and Heather heading south – and able to be flexible about where they stay, unlike us - and John and I keen to visit Hoylandswaine (a nearby village where Moaksons were tenant farmers) and St Mary’s Church, Ecclesfield (north of Sheffield) where Joshua Middleton Moxon was baptised in 1840.

St Mary's, Ecclesfield

John and I had returned to the Archives yesterday afternoon, and we think we’ve cracked a brick wall with Sarah Middleton. She stated on the census records that she was born at Hunshelf which is between Wortley and Penistone and largely owned by the Wortley family.  There is a large family of Middletons with many baptisms on the Wortley parish church records.  I found the record for a Sarah Midleton, daughter of William Midleton, labourer 24/10/1805, a sibling Ann born to same man in 1803, also a George in 1809. 

Hard to read, but here is Sarah "Midleton"

And then, I found a Mary (1813), James (1815) and Amelia (1819) children of William Middleton and his wife Mary, a shepherd of Wharmscliffe Lodge.  Further investigations showed that the Lodge, owned by the Wortley family was 3.4 miles from Hunshelf in one direction and 3.4 miles from Grenoside in the other direction.  Sarah and Isaac later lived in Grenoside where the latter was described as an innkeeper on Joshua’s birth certificate.

Now we cannot prove that this is our Sarah Middleton, but there is a good chance it is.  The dates and location seem right.

Whilst at Silkstone, John from Orange had a go at fixing John's wheelchair footplates and tightened all the bolts - a real handyman.

The two Johns

A week in London

Algate, London - not far from our hotel

We spent seven nights and six full days in London, and John managed to be bed-ridden for three of them.  And another day was half spent at the London General Hospital Whitechapel, located within walking distance.  He hadn’t been able to shake the infection he caught on the ship.  So we resigned ourselves to doing just as much as we could, which really wasn’t much.  I went out by myself for 2-3-4 hours but no longer.

On Thursday 1^st May, I walked to the Barbican to visit one of my tutors, Else Churchill who happens to be “The Genealogist” at the Society of Genealogists.  It was nice to meet first hand one of the eight or so tutors for the certificate course I finished in February.  I then checked out some of their resources.  It is the kind of place one could spend a week, similar to the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) in Sydney.

On Friday we walked to the hospital at Whitechapel, saw a triage doctor (not like Australian emergency centres where triage is done by nurses), waited an age (as expected) to see another doctor who ordered a chest x-ray.  This turned out to be good news – no lung damage; anti-biotics should do the trick said the doctor.  But Saturday and Tuesday were spent in bed.  John says yesterday (Thursday) was the first day he’s felt well.  He was very weak for a few days.

John at St Dunstan's church, Stepney

We were close to Stepney after leaving the hospital, so we walked to St Dunstan's church where John Bruce and Sarah Butler were married about 1790.  Their son James Bruce, sentenced to death in 1831 for burglary but transported to New South Wales instead was the head of a huge family which now numbers well over 3000, including spouses.  His wife and older sons joined him in Bathurst and he was granted a ticket of leave about 1840 and a full pardon in 1848.  He ended up doing quite well as a farmer near Bathurst.

On Saturday, I decided to catch the first bus that appeared, being the 100 which took me to Liverpool Station.  Not much to see there, so I caught an Underground service to Oxford Street which was VERY crowded, being a bank holiday weekend.  But for the first time, the sun was shining.  I found a very pleasant park called Soho Square park, full of young people sitting on the grass or lying trying to get a tan.  No chance – they need to go on a cruise for that!  Later I caught a bus to Picadilly Circus and walked via Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square where I caught a bus back to Tower Hill.  Everywhere in the city was crowded, with many French speakers.  Maybe all the English go to Paris for the weekend.  Makes sense.

Petticoat Lane - actually Middlesex Street no

On Sunday John felt well enough to go out, so we walked to Petticoat Lane – a lane that no longer exists because the Victorians were embarrassed by the name, so changed it to Middlesex Street.  The Sunday market covers about a mile, and is very crowded with locals and tourists – clothes were the highlight of this market.

We then walked back to Tower Bridge,

Tower Bridge

crossed it and found a Polish festival on the banks of the river opposite the Tower of London. We caught a bus to Trafalgar Square and found a very large Indian festival outside the Tate Gallery.  After watching this for a while, we caught a bus to Knightsbridge and just behind Harrods Department Store, we found the church where John’s great grandparents – Joshua (Middleton) Moxon and Louisa Mary Wilkinson were married in 1865.  Back home to Tower Bridge and soup for dinner.

Docklands Museum at West India Docks

The following day, we decided to explore the East End, starting with West India Docks and Canary Wharf, an area that has seen huge redevelopment and restoration in the last 10 years or so.  We visited the wonderful Docklands Museum which highlights the working history of the Thames, the sugar trade and slavery.  I visited in 2012 but it was just as good to see it again.  We were disappointed with the street access in the vicinity of Canary Wharf – it took a long circuitous route and many dead ends for John to find his way around.

Greenwich Naval College

From Canary Wharf, we caught the Docklands Light Rail to Greenwich and were well rewarded seeing the Greenwich Naval College, now the University of Greenwich and the Cutty Sark.

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The Docklands Light Rail, well patronised at the time of the London Olympics, is particularly accessible, although wheelchair users need to be careful not to turn their small wheels when alighting the train since there is a small gap between train and platform.

We caught a catamaran back to Tower Hill - it took only 30 minutes and was well worth it, with many interesting buildings on each side of the river.

Docklands Light Rail (DLR)

After two days solid sightseeing, it was no wonder John spent Tuesday in bed. He said he wasn’t feeling ill, just exhausted. 

I headed out in the afternoon to find the London Metropolitan Archives, but got lost.  By the time I realised I should have kept going in the previous direction just one more block, I had become disheartened and found myself at Ludgate Hill.  I could see St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance so made my way there, then caught a bus back to the hotel.

Fiat Doblo - manual with five gears - easy to strap John in

That was the end of our time in London.  The next morning our rental wheelchair accessible van (WAV) was due for arrival, and at 11.30am it appeared – on the back of a truck.  We squeezed all our luggage in and away we drove – stalling at the first corner!

We headed for Harlow, a British "New Town" established in the 50s and 60s to house the many people displaced by the destruction during the 1940s.  Harlow was the nearest place to Hoddesdon which had a wheelchair accessible hotel room.  It is less than 30 miles north of London.