Not all plain sailing

Some of you have been wondering, via Facebook, why our posts are not appearing so regularly in the past month.  Three reasons really: the first probably a result of the third.

We are starting to get a little jaded and actually voicing our desire to be home.  It's like travelling via car on a country or interstate trip, where the last three or four days are rushed, just wanting to get home.  Does anyone else do that, or is it just us?

Secondly, our equipment is stating to fail.  So far, my kindle and laptop both have smashed screens - the latter is on its way home from the UK via sea with a whole lot of other luggage we can do without.  And for 48 hours I thought I'd seen the last of my iPad, but luckily it came to life, thanks to tips from my Facebook friends.  And last week, John's laptop gave up.  Dead.  So I'm writing this on my iPad.

And now, the handles on both our suitcases have broken, probably because of the weight of John's stainless steel commode which I can dismantle into about 10 pieces and distribute between the cases.  Now both are heavy instead of just one - we learned the hard way when I had to repack to ensure one was under 50 lbs.

Both cameras are still working, but we have no way to transfer files and upload them.  So photos will have to wait.

But over-riding all this, both of us have had reoccurring chest infections - the Cunard cough - picked up initially on the Queen Victoria; this time for the past fortnight; meanwhile John is struggling with bouts of the runs, with both leaving him very weak, and without enthusiasm or energy.  He will feel OK one day, then unwell for two. So we've had to slow down considerably, changing or aborting plans.  I was too unwell to do anything in Chicago, remaining in bed, whilst John lacked the confidence to journey too far on his own.  He was very unwell in Glacier National Park but that passed, but on our latest cruise - to Alaska - his chest infection was quite debilitating, so apart from two short excursions and another on my own at Juneau, I spent the time reading whilst John concentrated on getting his energy back, sleeping or gazing at the ocean, which fortunately he enjoys.  

I do sound horribly negative, don't I?

But don't think for a minute that we shouldn't have done it:  we've more than survived.  There has been nothing we haven't confronted before - taxis that don't turn up, bedroom furniture that needs rearranging or raised or lowered, bathrooms that are impossible to use, forgotten PINs.  The joys of travel are never ending.  Meeting old friends and new; wonderful scenery; discovering new things about our ancestors; exploring London; putting faces to names - yeh, the Moxon Society.

We've just returned from a week on board the Celebrity Solstice, exploring Alaska's inside passage.  Marvellous scenery as one would expect, waterfalls, lots of left over snow, mountains reaching the sea.  But I have to say Milford sound is more majestic in my opinion.  That seems so long ago now.

I enjoyed cruising via Cunard, less so John, he found it far too class conscious and the culture old-fashioned.  I tended to put that to one side since I delighted in not having to pack and unpack.  But after the Queen Victoria, neither of us liked the Queen Mary.  For one, the configuration of the cabin created more difficulties for us and the staff didn't seem to be as happy.

However, we were both impressed with the Celebrity Solstice.  More practical and modern decor, staff friendly and seemingly more balanced.  On Cunard we thought the cabin staff had far too much to do and the wait staff too little (over-servicing).  We did disagree about the food though, john preferred Celebrity's food, I preferred Cunards.  Better desserts!

But the cabin on the Celebrity Solstice was the icing on the cake.  An excellent bathroom, plenty of circulation space and an automatic door opener.  And a full wall of glass opening onto a very nice balcony.  Nothing to obstruct the view.  The cabin was at least twice the size of our own bedroom.  

Bliss.

Cunard's tour staff were better at following through on our particular access needs; whereas Celebrity didn't bother.  Maybe we could have persisted if we'd had more energy.

Anyway, John has changed his mind about cruising - said he'd be happy to do another Celebrity cruise.  There, it's in writing.

But would we do another 18 week trip given our health problems and lack of energy?  Sadly I think not, although it would be nice to plan an itinerary... 

But it's all theoretical anyway - nothing left in the kitty.

Those of you who are not Facebook users would not have seen our photos of Niagara Falls, New York or Glacier National Park.  I need to write up posts about those places too, and not forgetting Boston.  Marvellous places - we especially enjoyed Glacier, despite our difficulties there for the first couple of days.

Off to Canada (Vancouver) yet again tomorrow, when we say goodbye to the USA for the last time.

Moxons in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Margaret meeting Penny and Len Moxon of Halifax

On Thursday 11^th June, our 8^th/28^th wedding anniversary coincided with our visit to Halifax – our only port visit on our transatlantic voyage on Queen Mary 2.

We had arranged some time ago – long before we left Sydney – to meet up with two members of the Moxon Society who migrated to Canada a long time ago for work opportunities for Len. He is a retired telecommunications engineer and his wife Penny is a retired early childhood and infants school teacher.  They'd worked in a number of Canadian cities, from Vancouver to Halifax over the decades but decided to retire in Halifax. We immediately established a rapport with them over coffee, finding them very interesting indeed. Like us, they have become very interested in community volunteer work in retirement.

Penny showing Margaret "her" Halifax

Len had really prepared for our visit – as much as he could since we did not know what accessible transport options there were for John in Halifax. There are “pink” buses which are “hop on hop off” with profits going to Breast Cancer but unfortunately the buses were very ancient and not at all wheelchair accessible. And the tour office on board the Queen Mary was not very helpful – they came back with a quote of $500 for three hours in an accessible cab. No way!

So in the end it was “shanks pony” for all of us and that worked out very well. Len and Penny met us before 10 am at the terminal and stayed with us till 4pm. We even walked up to the Citadel – quite a climb for me but John's new chair handled the steep hills with considerable ease.

Len and Penny were able to show us many historic and important buildings and explained much of the history. There are over 300 victims of the Titanic buried in Halifax – sadly the victims who could be found and not claimed by families to be buried elsewhere were transported to Halifax whilst the survivors were taken to New York.

Entrance to Museum with John and Len Moxon

We were particularly interested in viewing the Maritime Museum – not so much to see the Titanic exhibition, but rather to see an exhibition about the Halifax explosion of 6^th December , 1917.  

A dreadful tragedy

Well over 2000 people were killed and 9000 injured when the SS Mont-Blanc collided with the SS Imo, a Norwegian vessel and exploded in the bay. Nine of the deceased were named Moxon, all related. Len has researched and written a comprehensive article about the tragedy and the Moxon family in particular for the Moxon Magazine.

9-10 Moxons listed (one probably a duplicate)

The week before our visit, Len had arranged for the Museum to display the page listing the Moxon family and for the archivist to show us another extremely interesting exhibit relating to Richard Moxon – stored for nearly 60 years and now in the museum. Len's current project for the Moxon Society is to research and document the history of this exhibit. If you want to know more, you'll need to wait – I not going to steal Len's thunder.

After a picnic lunch – purchased at Pete's – on the waterfront, we visited the area which contained many old buildings.  This depiction of a hanging reminded us of the kind of punishment common in the 17th century.

After that, we decided to tackle the hill to the Citadel. The citadel, called Fort George after George 11 of England, established in 1749 as protection from the Indians and later the French. The British citizens of America were not considered a threat by the British at that stage. This was before the American Revolution of the 1770s.

Len, Penny and John contemplating climbing Citadel hill.

Len and Penny had visited plenty of times before, so they waited outside whilst John and I explored it. We did not go into the museum on site, but there was a lift to the top of the ramparts. Students dressed up as redcoats and period costume had been employed for the summer. One poor girl was being ordered to march all day by a young corporal.

It was all downhill back to the port to re-board the Queen Mary 2, thankfully. We had a wonderful day – Len and Penny certainly planned it well for us. I wonder if they had any influence on the weather, which was just beautiful as you can see from the photos.

Both of us got quite sunburnt, we hadn't worn our hats or sun screen.  Naughty us.

Trains and taxis

Amtrak hoist - does the job - manual wind

I'm trying to write this on Amtrak train No 64, on route from Niagara Falls to New York - returning the way we came on Thursday.  It's quite a pleasant journey although too long - we left at 10:18 am and won't be at Penn Station until 9:45 pm, assuming we are on time.  It's also very bumpy - like their "sidewalks", I don't think America maintains its rolling stock or train tracks as well as we do.  Maybe it has something to do with the Americans' reluctance to pay tax??

Meeting other Aussies at the train station

John's space in this carriage is much larger, and therefore more comfortable than on the journey up.  He can fully recline his chair without any problem.  I've also commandeered a forward facing seat with a tray - for the moment - hence my attempt to write a blog on John's laptop. (Did I tell you I managed to smash the screen on my own laptop on our last night in the UK?)

The Amtrak hot spot is working well.  On our return journey we remembered to bring our American power attachments in our hand luggage.

As I said, we boarded the train at 10:18 am at Niagara Falls (ON), and travelled across the river to Niagara Falls (USA) where we were stationery for two hours whilst customs came through the train.  Other passengers are usually asked to get off the train with their luggage and then reboard (they were on the journey up) but this time I think everyone stayed seated.  Neither Canadian nor American customs officers are people with whom to crack a joke!  Hopefully this delay was scheduled - probably was, since the journey back to NY is about an hour longer.

Our unreliable taxi - Central Taxis - do not recommend

We've had the usual dramas with taxis.  Amtrak's contract travel agent couldn't arrange transport from stations to our hotels, so John has taken on that role.  It fouled up on our first attempt at Niagara Falls (Ontario side).  He'd found a taxi company and booked it, but when we arrived, no sign of a wheelchair cab.  Other taxi drivers from that company were helpful and finally he turned up.  He didn't turn his meter on, and said it was a flat rate.  But we got there.

John booked through the same company for the return trip this morning and they scheduled the booking, but no show.  We'd left plenty of time for the journey (our wheelie friends will understand that!) so the hotel was able to find another company to do the job and Elite Cabs turned up very quickly, turned the meter on and charged much less. So if you are needing a wheelchair accessible cab in Niagara Falls, for peace of mind, don't bother with Central Taxis, go for Elite instead.  A third company didn't have any wheelchair accessible cabs.

I wonder what our experience with cabs will be in Boston, Chicago and Seattle?  Our Boston hotel is only a short distance so John can probably wheel himself there whilst I find a regular cab.

Queen Mary 2

Now I know our friends Hazel and Deb will be disappointed with us, but we didn't much like the Queen Mary 2.  I suppose that's to some extent because we had nearly 8 weeks on board the Queen Victoria and found it so much more friendly.  A better chance to meet and maintain contact with shipmates would be one reason.

However we weren't alone in thinking that way.  Lots of people could be heard saying they preferred the QVic.  Somehow the staff were happier, more efficient.  And the layout was much better.   The Wintergarden on the QM2 was very dark, and to get from Aft to Fwd was extremely difficult.

Nevertheless, we had a chance to relax after the driving around England, and read some books.  John was crook for over 48 hours, some infection or other, but recovered in time for our Halifax visit.

Luckily our local GP had prescribed antibiotics for him in case of such an eventuality.  Seemed to do the trick.  I was just happy to de-stress after all that driving - I never did get the feel for driving a five geared van.  But no scratches or bumps at least.

You are probably wondering why no photos in this post or the preceding one.  I have to own up that on our last night in the UK, I trod on my laptop screen and cracked it.  So it got sent home with all the extra stuff we could do without on the Amtrak leg of our trip.  I haven't yet had the time to sit down with John's Windows 8 laptop and figure it out.  This is being written on my iPad.

We made do with our 4 hour free allocation of Slow satellite internet on the ship, but I am now using the hotel's free wifi, and it's FAST!  Hallelujah.

What we've seen of New York so far is exciting.  The poverty amongst many of the citizens around the bus station on 8th Av and West 40 th street is on full display.  I'm looking forward to seeing the lights around the theatre district at night.  But we are currently experiencing a thunderstorm and John has gone to bed (6 pm).

We have a bit of rearranging the furniture in our room - had to get the bed lowered.  First attempt was useless, I sat on the bed and the mattress sank right through the bed frame.  So the men brought the bed base back and took away the frame - now manageable but now too low.  Will need to use the old pillow under the mattress trick to help John transfer.  Always something.  Never ever straightforward, however much planning goes into the design of a room and the fit out.  Mind you, the fit out and placement of furniture is usually done without considering wheelchair access.  I have a bedside table and reading lamp, but John doesn't.

I sent a chair away, it was too big to fit by the bed as a bedside table for John's CPAP machine and other odds and sods. However it was quickly replaced with another thinner chair.  Service is good, but the poor fellows were run off their feet fixing things for guests.

It's only at times like this, reorganising things, that we say " in some ways it would be good to be home", where everything is in the right place and we can go to bed and rise the next morning without drama.

Oh well, hopefully tomorrow our routines will be sorted, at least for 5 days and we can get on with exploring.

On board ship transatlantic

I won't be able to post anything more until we are in NY due to snail speed and Dreadfully expensive Internet on Board Queen Mary 2.  Enjoying it but can't help comparing it to Queen. Victoria which is inevitable since we got to know that ship very well over Eight weeks.

John I'll in bed today, but nothing to worry about.  Heavy seas for 36 hours.  Only one third of way at moment.  Looking forward to meeting Len and Penny Moxon, Society members in Halifax on Wednesday.

Had some marvellous times in Dorset with my Dear cousin Linda ( nee Tucker) and her husband Peter, and more happy and fun times in Southampton/ Brockenhurst with yet another John Moxon; and again with Paul and Ange (4th cousin) who always overwhelms us with practical help and love.  And fun times.

Back in touch when we have our USA Internet sorted out.

Thank you all for reading.

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.