The h c swi yr ao sN o it all, Norfolk Ancestor hota H pri this Victo of r, ack phe ba e gr ho n thot OP ? d yn ba a DigArtist so e, Volume Six Part Two Albl e Tr JUNE 2009 " y b g Di m a Willi The Journal of the Norfolk Family History Society formerly Norfolk &Norwich Genealogical Society e b y e h t d ul o C 9. 9 8 y 1 b uly ge. Dig ck Jr pa dith ae u ry Cls lett J Maor' me dit E nae e th hn o is tph o otra hg pa s ar n'p ae mh woe t e e S th? k of mily ca af br n the of you d. Oers gby eb Di nnammem Ann u y s ar o i M ot h p s n' a m e h T NORFOLK FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY A private company limited by guarantee Registered in England, Company No. 3194731 Registered as a Charity - Registration No. 1055410 Registered Office address: Kirby Hall, 70 St. Giles Street, ______________________________________________________________________________ HEADQUARTERS and LIBRARY Kirby Hall, 70 St Giles Street, Norwich NR2 1LS Tel: (01603) 763718 Email address: [email protected] NFHS Web pages:<http://www.norfolkfhs.org.uk BOARD OF TRUSTEES Malcolm Cole-Wilkin (P.R. Transcripts) Denagh Hacon (Editor, Ancestor) Brenda Leedell (West Norfolk Branch) Pat Mason (Company Secretary) Mary Mitchell (Monumental Inscriptions) Edmund Perry (Projects Coordinator) Colin Skipper (Chairman) Jean Stangroom (Membership Secretary) Carole Taylor (Treasurer) Patricia Wills-Jones (East Norfolk Branch, Strays) EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Denagh Hacon (Editor) Edmund Perry (Assistant Editor) Julie Hansell (Copy Typist) Current Rates for Membership: UK Membership: £10.00 per year. Overseas Airmail £12.00 per year Joint Membership: £15.00 per year. Joint Overseas Airmail £18.00 per year UK Single Life Membership: £165. UK Joint Life Membership: £250 Overseas Single Life Membership: £200 Overseas Joint Life Membership: £300 ISBN 0141 4505 © Copyright 2009 NFHS and Contributors The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 6 7 June 2009 CONTENTS June 2009 Page Front cover This page Notices 69 Editorial Denagh Hacon 70 Inside front cover 70 Look-Ups 71 Norwich Branch 71 Michael Tuffs 71 Letters to the Editor 72 Diary of Events 74 Advance Notice 75 Notes from the Bookstall Christine Abery 76 Book Review Susan Roberts 77 Publications Christine Abery 78 Projects Edmund Perry 81 Family Tree Appeal Pam Bridge 82 Branch Reports 84 Norfolk Record Office Dr. John Alban 91 New Members Jean Stangroom 95 Members Interests Jean Stangroom 101 An Unremarkable Man Sandra Trenor 107 The Thetford Rovers Stacey Owen 112 Letters from a British Prisoner of the Napoleonic War Rob Milson 114 William Guyton David Guyton 117 Serendipity June Curtis 121 Did You Know? 122 The Amys Family in the Doldrums Peter Mayes 123 Notes and Queries 128 FRONT COVER The picture of the Reredos in Earsham Parish Church is reproduced from the Norfolk Churches website – www.norfolkchurches.co.uk – which has excellent photographs of 774 Norfolk Churches. There is also a sister site – www.suffolkchurches.co.uk. Both sites are the work of Simon Knott. The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 6 8 June 2009 NOTICES KIRBY HALL LIBRARY OPENING TIMES Tuesday 10 a.m - 1 p.m. Wednesday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Thursday 10 a.m - 1 p.m. Sunday 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. All CORRESPONDENCE to an Officer of the Society should be addressed to KIRBY HALL which is the registered address of the NFHS - please quote your MEMBERSHIP NUMBER. The Norfolk Ancestor is a quarterly Journal published in March, June, September and December. Opinions expressed in this journal are those of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of either the Editor or the NFHS, which cannot take responsibility for the accuracy of facts in the articles submitted. All advertisements are commercial and their inclusion does not indicate endorsement by the Society, which accepts no responsibility for any loss suffered directly or indirectly by any reader or purchaser as a result of any advertisement or notice published in this Journal. No part of this Journal may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the Society. GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS Articles for future editions always required - submit and see! But please note, the Editor cannot guarantee the issue in which your article will appear. Every effort will be made to reproduce articles as presented but the Editor reserves the right to edit as necessary. The Editor will assume that all necessary authorisation for attachments or photographs has been obtained and the NFHS will not be held liable in the case of a subsequent query. Articles should be preferably typed in a 10pt font for an A5 page with a 1.4cm border = about 550 words per page without photos. Please keep articles to 4 pages maximum. E-mail or CD versions are most helpful. All material from regular contributors for inclusion in the Sept issue should be sent to the Editor at Kirby Hall no later than 20th July 2009. Our thanks in advance to all those who submit material for publication. The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 6 9 June 2009 From the Editor June 2009 Dear Members Many thanks for all your letters and emails with queries and articles, which have resulted in the large Notes and Queries section in this issue. You responded to the Did You Know item about Mousehold Aerodrome and also to the article on the Napoleonic P.O.Ws. The author, Patricia Wills- Jones, was delighted with the response and will provide a follow up in a later issue. You will see in the business items on the following page that the Look-Ups service will be continuing, but that the Family Tree/Pedigrees service will not. In fact we are always in need of volunteers for any number of tasks, so if you have an hour or two to spare each week and would like to get involved with the Society, please contact our Secretary, Pat Mason. You will also see that there have been changes to the organisation of the Norwich Branch. Renewals May I remind any of you who have not yet renewed your membership that this could be the last issue you receive!! I know that these once a year payments are easily overlooked, but if you do not renew your membership you will not receive future issues as your name will be removed from our database. Denagh Hacon MN2671 Inside Front Cover These two photographs were found together at a jumble sale, in a very dilapidated folder. Presumably the people are related in some way. The photo of the woman has the name Mary Clack and the date July 1899 on the back. There is no name or date on the man’s photo. If you think they might be related to you please let us know. The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 7 0 June 2009 Look-ups Service and Family Trees/Pedigrees We are pleased to report that Alan Bullard has agreed to take on the Look-ups Service following the retirement of Pauline Westgate, so this service will continue for members. However, we still have no one to do the Family Trees/Pedigrees service, following the retirement of Janet Hawksley. If anyone is prepared to take on this task, please contact the Secretary. Norwich Branch Barbara Walker has decided to retire as organiser of the Norwich Branch. She held this role for over 14 years; having joined the Society in 1989 she worked at first as a library volunteer. Barbara had suffered health problems for several months, but members who attended the April meeting were pleased to see her looking well, after a short stay in hospital. Full retirement is, however, not on the cards, as Barbara has now joined Neil Storey on a project being run at the Holt Steam Railway Museum, telling children about her childhood in WW2. Many thanks, Barbara, for all those years of hard work, and we look forward to seeing you at Branch Meetings. The organisation of the Branch will now be taken over by Mr and Mrs Jim Barwick and Mr and Mrs Roger Peck. Michael Tuffs, MN2036 We are sad to report that Michael Tuffs, a long term member of the NFHS and regular attender at Kirby Hall, died on 9th April aged 83, and was buried at Catton, Norwich. He told us that he always enjoyed coming to Kirby Hall to work on his family tree and census records. We send our condolences to his family and friends. The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 7 1 June 2009 Letters to the Editor Contacting other members I noticed two letters bemoaning the lack of replies to contacts regarding surname interests in The Norfolk Ancestor recently. One of the issues I have is the fact that most contacts will be from existing members to new members. Hence we are being asked to supply a sae (I usually enclose a stamp and an address label) when most likely we are offering information rather than requesting it. In any case, since many people now have internet access, why not give email addresses as well as postal addresses? Then the majority of contacts would be quick and free (or at least very inexpensive). Brian Sugden MN8141, [email protected] There has been some response to the Did You Know item on Mousehold Aerodrome. In the 1930 (or thereabouts) round Britain air race my father, who then worked for the Regent Oil Company based at Thorpe Station, took 2 gall tins of petrol to the airfield to refuel the planes as they came in. When my parents married in September 1935, they had a day trip from the same aerodrome to Ramsgate in Kent. This was advertised as a trip in a modern airliner (actually an 8-seater De Haviland) with free-standing basketwork seats, run by a company called CRILLY AIRWAYS. My father (Stephen Ford) was at that time a lorry driver for the Eastern Roadways, based at Hall Road, Norwich. His Manager was the secretary of the Norwich Aero Club and was able to get my parents some discounted tickets for the flight at about £4 each instead of £5. All a long time ago! David Ford MN7608 My most vivid recollection is of attending an Empire Air Day display at the aerodrome in, I think, 1938. The aircraft were the Handley Page Harrow and the Fairey Battle – then one of the stars of the RAF. There was a fly-over during the afternoon of another type of aircraft, either a Defiant or a Spitfire. The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 7 2 June 2009 A glossy brochure was produced for the event, encouraging us to join the RAF, or ATC, but sadly I have lost my treasured copy. There was also an Air Defence League, which may have been the predecessor to the ATC. Perhaps some other member may still have a copy of the brochure. Tom Jump MN11548 I would like to confirm that The Flying Corps did take over the old cavalry training ground and turned it into Mousehold Heath Aerodrome. Boulton & Paul then used it to test their planes from 1915 until 1934. The Norfolk and Norwich Aero Club was formed there in about 1930 but later moved to Swanton Morley in the late 1950s. During the Second World War it was used as a ‘dummy’ airfield with decoy aircraft in an attempt to fool German aircraft attacking Norwich. There are also some useful web addresses: www.localhistory.scit.wiv.ac.uk/Museum/Transport/planes/boultonPaul.htm new.edp24.co.uk/content/PlaceinHistory/content/58BoultonPaul.aspx www.norfolk-airfields.co.uk forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php?t-54178.html Phil Innes MN2737 The article on the Napoleonic Prisoners of War also attracted attention (see two more letters on page 114) Thank you for the remarkable response to this article in the March Ancestor. Based on the response and further research a report will appear in a future issue. Patricia Wills-Jones MN6738 I very much enjoyed finding my ancestor, Richard BULLEY, in the transcribed list of British prisoners of war in Napoleonic France, a reference I doubt I would ever have found on my own. The transcript lists him among prisoners at "Longivy". However, a search on Google suggests that a place of that name does not exist. From the photographic plate of the original reproduced on the back cover of the magazine, it is clear that the name should have read "Longwy", a town in France only a few miles from the border with Belgium and Luxembourg and not so very far from some of the other places mentioned (e.g. Bitche and Verdun). Keith Bulley MN3724 The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 7 3 June 2009 DIARY of EVENTS June – Sept 2009 Date Title Speaker Branch June 2 A Gypsy Family History Hazel Marsh GY June 9 Fervour Frolic and Fornication Pip Wright Diss June 10 Censuses Brian Jones KL June 12 A Gypsy in the Family Geoff Lee Nch July 8 Tour of Trues Yard Fishing Museum Dr Paul Richards KL July 10 Work with the Society Experts Nch July 14 East Anglian Clerical Characters Roy Tricker Diss July 14 Branch visit to Kirby Hall 4 – 8 pm Edmund Perry / GY Inc demonstration of electronic registers Malcolm Cole Wilkins Aug 11 TBA Dr Simon Pawley Diss Aug 12 Members Evening KL Aug 14 Lucille Reeve, a Norfolk woman Edmund Perry Nch August Bank Holiday – Book Stall at West Acre Estate Sept 1 In the Clink – Prison life in the 19th Century Nick Aber GY Sept 8 TBA Ken Nockles Diss Sept 11 Your Ancestor’s Population and Birth Dr. Colin Chapman Nch Control Oct 3 Bookstall at the Suffolk Family History Fair, Debenham Oct 5 Victorian Farming Year Stephen Pope GY Oct 9 The Formation of the Colman Collection Dr. Clive Wilkins- Nch Jones Oct 13 The Second World War Neil Storey Diss Oct 17 Agricultural labourers – the movement Gill Blanchard London off the land Nov 3 All is not lost: tracking migration of paupers i Gill Blanchard GY Gt. Yarmouth Nov 10 The History of Family Homes Geoffrey Lee Diss Nov 13 Freemen of Norwich/Town Close Charity Mike Quinton Nch NB – In the last issue of the Ancestor an error was made to GY June entry. Please note that the speaker is as listed above, and Gill Blanchard will be the speaker in November. BRANCH MEETING VENUES Diss Diss Methodist Church, Victoria Road Diss (A1066) SOUTH NORFOLK (2nd Tuesday of each month, at 7.pm) GY Middlegate Hall, Christchurch, King Street, Great Yarmouth, EAST NORFOLK (1st Tuesday of every month at 7.30 pm) Nch Kirby Hall, 70 St. Giles Street, Norwich NORWICH (2nd Friday of each month, at 7.30 pm) KL Thoresby College, South Quay Entrance, Kings Lynn WEST NORFOLK (2nd Wednesday of each month at 7.30 pm) London Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Rd LONDON EC1M 7BA (approx, every six months, 2 – 4.30 pm) The Norfolk Ancestor, The Journal of the NFHS 7 4 June 2009