FENLAND
FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

LOOKING INTO BYGONE DAYS
A peep into the past

The October meeting was sponsered by the Lincs C.C. Fens Food & Flower Festival who gave our Society a grant to purchase display screens.

These will be used, as they were at the meeting, to display our work as a society & also used as teaching aids & for displays at all our meetings & outside visits.

The hall was transformed with demonstrations showing many of the older crafts as patchwork, painting, decoupage, quilting, tapestry & crochet.

Our editor showed his skill at rag rug making & the ladies of the Lavender Lace Makers, in their smart lavender coloured tops, displayed exguisite samples of lace. It was fascinating to watch their nimble fingers at work & we were able to 'have a go'. Jean showed the art of spinning & we watched the artistry of the weavers.

Our member Ann showed her delicate touch when egg decorating.

The Cambridge Community Archives had leaflets showing people how to put their old photos, stories & anecdotes onto a web site.

Hetty from the Wisbech Museum had a table with curious objects which we were asked to identify.

Alison, who demonstrates for the National Trust, was kept busy giving tasty samples of old fenland recipes such as sausage clanger, fourses cake, & gooseberry& custard tart with written recipes available.

Our own Book Stall was on display as were tables showing oil lamps & candleholders with a history of lighting through the ages & a table full of memorabilia such as old carpentry tools, clothes, medicine bottles, kitchen tools, toy engines & much more.

Judy's family history was shown as a scroll at least four yards long!

Members & visitors were able to play games such as hoopla, braintease (solitaire), shove h'penny & halam - a game played with marbles.

Books were available on the Victoran Way of Life. WW2 & fashion for members to peruse.

Barbara Bullen did stirling work keeping every one supplied with tea & coffee as well as manning her own table of hand made cards.

It was an extremely interesting evening & pleasing to hear people talking about their own memories.

I wonder how many times the words 'Oh I remember when...' & Do you remember...' were quoted during the evening?

A PEEK INTO THE PAST

The September AGM meeting was followed by refreshments, and a presentation of a collection of photographs on screen & a talk on their acquisition.

Andrew Ingram, well known to our society for his extensive knowledge of local history, enthralled his audience with a new talk of history, anecdotes and a show of photographs of our local environment, some of which had been rescued from local tips & others given to Andrew. It was interesting to hear that many pictures were taken from glass slides that hadn’t been seen for many years.

We looked at photos of trains, buildings, the Wisbech canal, well-known local people, sports days, & of royal visits, from Peterborough to our local villages, from London to abroad. We saw images of the River Jordan, Bethlehem & Jerusalem, taken by his relatives when abroad. Andrew, as ever full of information told us that the water from the River Jordan was always used for our Royal Family baptisms.

He showed how dates could be given to pictures by looking at costumes, vehicles & shop fronts, & demonstrated that by detective work he was able to date precisely, a photo, from an unclear poster in a named shop window advertising the local ‘Mart Fair’ that only took place on a particular Wednesday in September. He used the local Kelly’s trade directory to establish the year the shop was in business & by using a rotating yearly calendar came up with the precise date.

We saw old familiar constructions like the old ‘Wisbech Gasometer’ & Octagon Church, now no longer in existence, but remembered by the photos taken.

There were many memories recalled by the audience after this talk, which was very well received.

WALPOLE ST. PETER CHURCH

Our July meeting saw members and guests from the King’s Lynn Family History Society enjoy a pleasant & very warm evening at Walpole St Peter at the church that Prince Charles & his guests visit.

After strolling around this large church the rector gave us a brief history of the building.

There has been a church on this site since 1021 & the present tower was built in 1300. A sea flood destroyed everything in 1337, except the tower. The rebuilding was set back in 1348 by the appearance of the disease known as the Black Death. A change from local agriculture to sheep farming provided much of the finance required to complete the work. As much wool as could be produced was exported to Belgium.

The present nave, which was divided by a rood - screen was the nave & chancel until 1425. It was at this time that the rood screen was moved to the east wall, the wall removed and the present chancel added with a magnificent stained glass east window. Although there is only the lower half of the rood screen remaining, the original paintings can still be identified.

The church has many windows letting more light in than was usual & today there is an ongoing programme of restoration work on the plain & stained glass windows.

There is an unusual western screen spanning virtually the width of the church behind the pews. This was thought to be either a ‘draught excluder ‘ or to keep the animals in one place when they were brought to church to pay tithes or for sale.

There is a very large table that was thought to be used by the congregation to sit at to eat their meals when they had had to walk a long way to church.

The rector took us on a tour demonstrating the use of the unusually deep font, which is covered by ornate wooden swing doors showing mermen, their origins & meaning unknown. We saw a poor box dated 1630 & a metal lined low rocking cradle, which we thought might have been used by the babies awaiting their baptism.

We then went to the chancel where the altar is about 7ft 6 ins above the church floor & was reached by several steps. The reason for this was that when the time came to build the altar it was found to encroach on a right of way, so a tunnel was formed & the altar built on top. This tunnel was known as the bolt hole & on going outside & walking through it we could see the iron rings in the wall where the horses were tethered & the dent in the ground which legend has is the spot where the Giant Hickathrift threw a cannon ball to frighten away the devil.

The majority of the church registers were stolen in the 1960s when the safe was removed from the church. The rest of the evening was spent looking at the few documents they have left with some replicas. People then strolled around the church themselves with a guide book which could be purchased, asked questions, look at paintings & carvings and enjoyed light refreshments served by the rector.

A VISIT TO LEVERINGTON CHURCH

Mr. Nightingale the churchwarden welcomed about 40 members to the Swaine Chapel within Leverington Church so called because most of the elaborate memorials on the walls & floor belonged to generations of the wealthy Swaine family of Leverington.

He explained that the Danes raided the area in about 678AD & landed on the then seashore about 400 metres from the village & that the name Leverington derives from that event. The word ‘ing’ means a family, ‘ton’ means a settlement, & lever derives from ‘Leof Here’ meaning ‘happy landing party’.

In about 850 the settlement had become Christian & a small wooden church was built, this in time was destroyed & there are parts of the church in stone that date back to 1250. The present church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries.

We were told how in the past the chancel of the church was used by the church dignitaries & was screened from the nave by a three tiered rood screen, & the nave being used not only for church services but for meetings, buying & selling, with animals roaming around & as a social centre. We were all amazed to hear that the altar rail as we know it was not used as a place to take communion but placed there to keep the dogs away from the altar!

The informative talk continued with a tour of the church. We heard how the font, which is centuries old is in a sad state as the salts in the stone are extruding & urgent repair work by experts must be carried out before the font crumbles completely.

We saw a very uncommon wooden lectern, which in its time was thought to be too gaudy for the church when it was painted green so it was abandoned to the coal hole, & on renovation the original gilt decoration was uncovered

The Jesse Window was pointed out to us which shows the lineage of Christ.

We were then free to tour the church ourselves & look at the registers & the altar silver.

Guidebooks were available, as were refreshments. Members spent another hour taking photos & asking questions & others spent their time researching the registers.

‘THE SURPRISE FIND’

Our February meeting was organised by the men of our Society. Their task was to display their own surprise finds & discuss them with members and guests.

Martin showed that by investigating other than close relatives, especially when using the web, much information might be obtained. In Martin’s case a web site showed the working life on the railways in Birmingham of his Gt Gt Grandmother’s brother, Richard Bore, who from Ag. Lab. background rose to be the Carriage Superintendent responsible for the design, construction & performance of all passenger rolling stock, including Queen Victoria’s Saloon. Documents showed how he gave evidence after a rail accident in 1873 & another document - 15 pages long - that was a copy of the complete Minutes of Evidence to the Royal Commission of Rail Accidents in February 1875. From all this information Martin was able to find out that Richard also worked in America and on the continent. These documents represent a great find & surprise & his advice is ‘ not to ignore your ancestors‘ siblings’.

Ron was at Kew to get a copy of his Grandfather’s naval records. Whilst searching the film he was surprised & delighted to come across his Gt Uncle’s naval records. Previously only knowing that Gt Uncle was interred in Norway during the war the surprise find of his naval record’s showed details of his naval career & his date of repatriation. Further research on Gt. Uncle showed, on leaving the navy he worked as an attendant at one of three swimming baths in Bedford. Grandfather went to the Balloon Sheds in Cardington working on the R101 & had pictures of the balloon on its 2nd day out of the sheds.

After this he worked on the railway. Both sets of Naval Records were on display, together with artefacts and photos.

Mr. Horsepole was able to show copies of several letters from Florence Nightingale to his relative, a medical attendant at Scutari, of whom she thought most highly. Her letters always showed great consideration for the man & his family. A letter showed Florence offering a post at the London Hospital when the man had to leave Scutari.

Paul used a computer generated programme & photos to show his Grandfather who was a Postmaster & Grocer who also bred pigs, ended up buying a bacon factory and manufactured pork pies & sausages.

Hayden had a grand display of carefully labelled family portraits & photos showing several generations.

He also ran a competition –trying to name the place in an old photo, which showed gardens, & a commercial greenhouse in Wisbech, in the mid 1800s.

There were help desks & fiche readers for research and light refreshments were served all evening.

PUBS & INNS OF WISBECH - ANDREW KETLEY

Our January meeting provided the first ever audience for Andrew Ketley, a local man. A friend who had done several sketches of the drinking establishments in Wisbech gave them to Andrew and this encouraged Andrew to further research into archives, maps, and papers.

We were told that the meanings of words like inn, tavern, public house, hotel, beer/ale house all differed slightly in their regard to the location of the establishment and the services they offered. With the aid of computer displayed pictures we were taken on a tour of the local environs and shown the position of named pubs in Wisbech in the 1800’s with the sketches. It was common for pubs to change their name when new owners took over. Andrew’s diligent research uncovered many gruesome stories attached to some pubs, such as murders, attacks, drownings of the pubs inhabitants & suicide. Coroners inquests were often held in the pubs with the corpse taken to the pub in the coffin, so that the jury could see the body & ‘confirm the cause of death’!

Many pubs & hotels are still here today & several more have changed their use & frontage and others have disappeared altogether & it is with the maps that we see where they had been. At one time there had been about 168 drinking places in Wisbech & one could wonder how they all made a living.

After the extremely interesting & well - researched talk Andrew was kept busy answering questions and showing members & guests the books & papers he had with him.

NONCONFORMISTS

The Reverend Wym Zwalf was our speaker for our November meeting. His talk told us how the church ‘fell out’ in 1054 over mans interpretation of the words in the Bible quoting the Creed, leading to the division of the church of the Catholic Church on the one hand & the Non Conformists on the other. Over time the non-conformists then ‘divided’ again giving us the Independents in 1550. Congregationalists, a primitive church ruled by elders & ministers. The Presbyterians - strictly Calvinistic, who similarly agreed to a hierarchy of a governing body. The Baptists in 1609 who decreed that children could not be baptised because they could not speak for themselves, & that adults were to be baptised by full immersion in water. The Methodists instigated by John Wesley in 1738 after he had attended a church meeting &‘felt his heart strengthen’. Methodists were given to serious study & commitment & their doctrines were the same as the Church of England but they were not welcomed so that their meetings were often held outdoors & drew in the working people. The Methodists were the first to introduce hymns into religious services, before this only psalms & passages from the Bible were chanted.

The Corporation Act of 1661 was designed to restrict public office to members of the Church of England ie those who were prepared to take Holy Sacrament according to the Rites of the Church of England. In 1673 the same Act was applied to Roman Catholics & Protestant dissenters. In 1820 both Acts were repealed by parliament.

There was much more fascinating information & Wym was kept busy answering members questions during the social evening that followed with refreshments provided by the members .

The very enjoyable evening ended with a speaker from designated groups of people telling their own family history anecdotes & exchanging ideas on family research.

TALKING JUNK
By RICHARD BARNWELL

Those who did not get to our October meeting missed a very entertaining night. Richard, a member of the Society, displayed & spoke about some of his large collection of memorabilia or junk as he called it. As an avid collector Richard told us how he got started with his ‘hobby’ & how it has virtually taken over his life & office space, even though he holds selling auctions. Books from the 1800s were passed around for closer inspection & items of great value to pieces that were worth practically nothing were shown. Audience participation was encouraged & Richard was impressed by the knowledge we had in identifying the more obscure pieces.

Richard spoke of clearing houses & being told the owners had thrown out ‘the junk’ because nobody wanted it & himself retrieving ‘the junk’ which was probably more valuable than the furniture that had been ‘saved’.

On being asked about his favourite ‘item’, Richard said that his wife, also interested in his collection, was his favourite closely followed by his childhood teddy bear & that amongst his collection many items were his favourites.

The meeting ended when Richard read a poem about Wisbech called ‘The Gem’ by John Hartford of Wisbech St.Mary.

Books, cookery items, farm implements & much more was on display and at the end of the meeting we were able to examine ‘the junk’ & Richard was kept busy answering questions & examining items brought in by the audience.

BOOT AND SHOE MAKERS

Our September meeting began with the AGM and was followed immediately by a fascinating talk on the manufacture of boots and shoes given by Geoff Lee. The talk was well illustrated by slides of shoes and fashion changes through the ages.

We saw a diagram of the 13 parts needed to make a hand made leather Oxford mans shoe.

There is evidence from wall paintings that the Egyptians wore sandals. Plain style for the common folk and elaborate sandals with curled toe sections for the elite.

The Romans were the first to have an industry for making footware. They tanned leather and made strong sandals that had riveted soles through an insole. Second century invaders made a turn shoe that was made inside out for easier construction & then turned and made waterproof.

Originally shoes were made with no left or right fittings, one wore the shoes & they moulded themselves the persons own foot shape.

In our family trees we often see the word cordwainer to describe a boot & shoe maker which is in fact a misnomer, for a cordwainer was a man who handled & provided the skins of mouflon sheep & goats skin to the shoe maker who worked from his home. We heard that to call a shoemaker a cobbler was an insult.

Every village would have several boot makers, often father & son plying their own businesses & in the cities there would be hundreds.

We saw slides of the very uncomfortable looking shoes worn by Henry V111, & shoes & boots, some in remarkable condition found aboard Henry’s ship ‘Mary Rose’.

In 1650 woman wore peculiar high heeled shoes called clap shoes - this because of the sound of a loose part of the extended shoe sole hitting the heel as they walked- a fashion statement no doubt.

In 17C silk mules with shaped heels, were worn by gentleman.

In 1750 it became fashionable for men to show their wealth by wearing silver buckles on their shoes.

In 1800 ladies often made their own shoes from fabric and added elaborate embroidery, & we saw the tools they used.

In 17C apprentices were trained to become shoemakers, going on to become journeymen & then setting up their own business.

Boot and shoemakers joined the armed services to provide boots & shoes to the troops in the field.

It is known that a farmer employing Ag. Labs had to provide the men with boots for the first year.

In industry shoes were hand made by many processes before a shoe was complete. Each man had his own tools & never changed his particular process.

Progress brought machines to do the work and the need for workers diminished until today when leather is not often used & the whole process is virtually automated.

The talk finished with Geoff showing his family history of cordwainers. .

WISBECH GENERAL CEMETERY

We were taken round the cemetery at our August meeting by Sue Beale & Sarah Ledger who belong to the Friends of the Leverington Road Cemetery Society.

The grave - yard at St Peter & St Paul Church in Wisbech was full & the area became a source of infection. As a consequence a three - acre parcel of land was purchased in 1836 from the non-conformist Mr Joshua Bland, primarily for the burial of non-conformists. A company was formed & shares sold although the burial ground never showed a profit. The ground was set out as a formal garden with trees & shrubs & a chapel was built within the grounds. A photograph of the chapel taken by Samuel Smith was shown. Several prominent Wisbech people, including Samuel Smith were buried there. There have been 6,500 burials in the grounds over 100 years. Long closed the cemetery fell into decay & became very overgrown. It became the property of the Cambridgeshire County Council.

In 1992 a group of volunteers joined with the Fenland District Council, The National Trust & the Wisbech Tourism Group, amongst others to formulate a plan of restoration & long term management.

This has produced areas of clearance, replanting of young trees & plants, restoration of some of the memorials stones to create a pocket park for tourism, educational purposes, studies & to give access to wildlife. Ongoing are ecological studies & an updating of the history of the site.

We were shown the elevated area of the cemetery where the rich & well known people were buried - proven by the very elaborate & large memorial stones.

The chapel is in a dangerous state of collapse & the area has now been cordoned off whilst a decision on what should happen to the chapel is reached. The friends continue to maintain the pathways & some memorials. Several benches have been placed in the cemetery allowing one to sit & contemplate, & relax in this peaceful pocket park.

The tourist office has a register of burials & the volunteers are pleased to help & advise anyone researching this area for the burial of family within the cemetery.

We visited in the evening & the light was not the best for viewing, but we were encouraged to visit again during the brighter daylight to appreciate this peaceful area.

We left full of admiration & appreciation for so much work done by volunteers, which it would appear will go on ad infinitum.

UPWELL ST. PETERS CHURCH & VILLAGE

Our meeting on July 28th took place at St. Peters Church Upwell. A group of about 50 members & guests were taken first to the west gallery, which gave us a splendid view of the church & especially the east window. Mr Keith Bradley, a member of the church then gave a short talk on the history of Upwell village & the church. Upwell was a very important waterway & port. Sea going ships came from Ely & Peterborough via the rivers Nene & Ouse through Upwell & Outwell to Wisbech & then on to the Wash.

The 7th century saw the founding of a Benedictine priory at Upwell by Etheldreda the founder of Ely cathedral. It was built close to the river & probably suffered attacks from the Vikings. In about AD 969 a further priory was built much farther away from the river.

In the 13th century a new church was built on the site of an earlier Saxon one. This was built with a red brick & iron bound conglomerate which can be seen today. The stone was brought by barge & unloaded at the quayside.

Inside the church we saw the north gallery. This was built in the 1830s to accommodate an expanding congregation. Parishioners were brought to church from surrounding villages by horse drawn barge known as Mr. Townleys Packet. On the front of the gallery we saw the magnificent coat of arms belonging to the Townley family. On the back of the gallery could be seen 2 very long heavy poles with large iron hooks, these were attached to horses to help pull burning thatch from houses.

We then toured the church & Mr Bradley showed us the wall plaque commemorating a crusader’s burial, & several monumental inscriptions on the walls. He pointed out the brass Asiatic cholera memorial, a time when 67 people died from the disease. At the chancel steps we saw the lectern, which is made of the yellow alloy known as latten, & the pulpit to the right of the centre aisle, which is unusual, because this positioning is usually only found in a cathedral. On looking up we could see the beautiful angel roof.

There was time to wander around the church after partaking of splendid refreshments supplied by the ladies of the church. We were able to look at the altar silverware & learned that this was kept in pristine condition by using only hot soapy water & a soft cloth. Registers of births, deaths & marriages were on display & people were able to look at them & discover some of their own family connections.

Several people took the opportunity to visit the graveyard & look at the cholera graves & the area of the Quaker burials. The Roman pavement (tesserae) found when digging in the graveyard is now set in the ground outside the west door.

A splendid evening came to a close with the presentation to Mr Bradley of a CD of the Monumental Inscriptions from the graveyard & those inside the church. This was produced by members of the society.

We would like to thank Mr. Bradley, & the ladies who supplied refreshments for a most enjoyable evening, & also Rev. Jesson for allowing the group to visit this fascinating church. There is an information booklet available in church which would help people enjoy their first or return visit to this great building.

FAMILY HISTORY DAY

June 18th 2005 was our 2nd family history all day event. A hot sunny day brought a steady stream of members & visitors to St Peter’s Church Hall. The morning & afternoon saw all the usual facilities available to help people with their family history research & we heard of successes & progress made.

A display board showed the on going work projects of the Fenland Family History Society with general information & photos.

The bookstall was set up & Martyn Thompson was able to display the latest Monumental Inscriptions recorded now in CD form.

Light refreshments were available all day, the kitchen being manned by Barbara Bullen & her helpers.

The first talk by Brian Jones, who stepped in at the last minute due to the illness of the original speaker, was on the arrival of CHRISTIANITY IN THE FENS.

He spoke of the establishment of the abbeys in fenland, mentioning especially the one at Thorney. He also spoke of the arrival of the Huguenots who came from Holland to escape catholic persecution. They brought different & beneficial skills to fenland & integrated well in to the area. Their descendants are around today although the spellings of their names may have changed due to the difficulty in the pronunciation of ‘foreign names’ by the local fen men. Brian’s talk was illustrated by slides & at the end of his talk there was much discussion & a question & answer session, there being several people present with possible Huguenot connections.

Brian’s talk was about OPEN SPACES

Brian took us from the times of & what was meant by common lands, to the time when people were allocated strips of land in various parts of their locality, through to the Act of Parliament which established enclosure of lands & the strips of land being sold to make larger areas of land until most were eventually owned by two or three people only. Again illustrated by slides it made the explanations easy to understand.

After lunch Lyn Hopwood gave us a marvellous display of VICTORIAN CLOTHES.

An avid collector, Lyn was able to give us the history of the clothes she displayed, how she obtained them & how they were preserved for the future (& what was to happen to the collection on her demise). One very slim young lady was chosen to be dressed, very bravely for it was a very hot afternoon, as a Victorian lady, from the unmentionables below to her morning dress. Lynn also had members of the audience dress in various capes, hats & accessories to show the clothes of the different classes of people of the time. After wearing the clothes for the afternoon we then saw the young lady disrobed, much to her relief, of her dress, petticoats & corsets. Yes she did stop at the unmentionables!

At the end of her talk Lyn let the audience examine & handle the clothes. We were able to see the beadwork & fine stitching on some of the gowns, & Lyn was kept very busy answering questions for quite some time.

The very enjoyable day ended with a question & answer session with Brian Jones in his usual light- hearted manner & he was thanked by the chairman, especially for stepping in at the last moment for the first speaker.

THE JEWELS OF KEW

Sue & Jonathan Farmer were the speakers at our May meeting. Sue began the talk by taking us on a 97 miles informative tour of the National Archives. This is the amount of space required to house all the records safely. She told us what could & could not be found at Kew & the Family Record Centre in Islington & the best way to do our searches. The documents held at Kew are many & varied, from records of central government to maps & tithes and records for armed forces to legal documents & taxes. The list was endless. Sue spoke about the library & explained that if you asked for a particular item with as much information as possible, the helpful staff would find if for you or at least knew where to send you. She amused us by recounting the story of a lady who asked for 'the gold book' & with this very limited information the correct book was acquired.

We were told of the facilities for photocopying records when we found them & that our own digital cameras could also be used, providing they were checked in on entrance.

Advice was given on how to equip ourselves with as much information as possible about our own research needs, before a trip the National Archives, firstly to save time when we got there & secondly to help the staff to help us when we had queries.

Jonathan continued the talk on how he became involved with the work at Kew. He then illustrated with slides & explained the information leaflets available at Kew that would ease our research tasks. He told us what was available at Kew on computer & on line at home. He again stressed the need to go 'fully equipped with information' when visiting The National Archives & the talk ended with Sue & Jonathan answering questions. An evening, which we hope, encouraged all to visit the National Archives at Kew.

DATING VICTORIAN PHOTOGRAPHY

BA small group of members listened to the well known speaker Tom Doig as he took us through the progress of photography from the days of cave dwelling paintings & the true ‘photo’ when hands were placed on cave walls & drawn around –a true likeness then as photos are today. He reminded us of our school experiments with photographic paper, leaves & sunlight. Tom spoke of the work of people like Josiah Wedgewood & Humphrey Davy & their attempts to put pictures on plates using soot & silver salts, the 12 hour exposure times needed & the lack of success in keeping the ‘photos’ for more than a few minutes in the light.

We heard how the first photos in negative form were put onto glass & then backed by black mastic. This, by optical illusion turned the photograph to a positive.

Tom showed several slides of photos taken during the years 1840 –1900. He described the poses & the equipment such as neck braces & tables used to keep the subject still during the exposure time, which would be for several minutes, & how from what we could see the date could be worked out.

In later years the backs of photographs were used to advertise the photographer’s patronage, his address, the negative number etc, all of which changed gradually with time. We heard descriptions of various photo frames & how they were made up with such items as silver fillets & various shaped board frames sprayed gold, the tooling of the surrounding leather & the impressed hinged covers made by rolling through a mangle, a mixture of coal dust, milk & sulphuric acid which was then left to harden in the sun. We were able to see such a cover on an old album brought in by a member. The frames they were set in, as well as the style of photo & sometimes the dress of the people could also help to assess the dates of photos.

At the end of his talk Tom had a group of members & visitors at his table discussing their own photos.

SHORT TALKS BY THE COMMITTEE

Bad weather conditions & a long travelling distance caused our speaker to cancel his talk to the Society at our February meeting.

In spite of snow & the bitterly cold night about 35 people listened to talks given by Bridget our chairperson, & members of the committee who were ‘encouraged’ by Bridget to produce 10 minute talks at the last moment. Bridget started the evening off by recalling the misdemeanours of her family in the past & how Scottish Church law was applied to these wrongdoings, & how the wrongdoers evaded their penance. She also spoke of adoption & the way to find adoption papers. She then took us on a journey by an 8seater plane to North Ronaldsy in the Orkney Isles. It was fascinating to hear how she & Peter arrived on the island as strangers & how they left with most of the inhabitants, some found to be relatives, waving them off from the cow field which acted as the airport.

Barbara then gave a glimpse into the treatments of illnesses & accidents learned from her Grandmother whilst living with her. She read a recipe dated 1802 (from the newly acquired reference library book ‘Medicine in Wisbech & the Fens 1700 onwards’) for a poultice for sore legs, made with lots of natural herbs, flowers, leaves & oils. Barbara spoke of treatments, which could only have worked by the placebo effect & some medications, which were quite dangerous but ‘did the job’. She also mentioned today’s versions of some of the old treatments. Her talk was followed by the refreshment break & several members came & spoke to Barbara about their own recollections of grandma’s treatments.

Anita caused many laughs with her light - hearted talk on Murphy’s Law for genealogists, (akin to Sod’s law in every day life) examples of which most researchers have met up with. She spoke of the ink used in family bibles to record family events to be the only ink that fades beyond legibility –how the page you want to research on the web is smudged & unreadable when the pages on either side are crystal clear – how your favourite uncle never wrote anything down because he had a memory like a filing cabinet but unfortunately died the week before you were going to visit him to ask about family. How papers that would have answered that long researched question had been burned & how some records searched for were proved to be incorrect.

As most of us have come across such stumbling blocks we fully appreciated Anita’s talk & could be led to believe that some things are not to be known!

Peter then spoke of Witches in the Fens. There seemed to very few in Cambridgeshire, the last one known possibly being at Ramsey. The audience did not know of any witches but we suppose there were some ‘good & bad’.

WINDMILLS & MILL WRIGHTS

Brian Jones was our speaker for the January meeting. Brian opened his talk by telling us of the crusaders experience of windmills in Persia in the 3rd century BC, & that they later brought that knowledge to our shores coupled with their skill of building towers.

The millwright was looked upon as a skilled workman with a social standing just below the gentry. Despite this it was not uncommon for a millwright to become bankrupt two or three times during his working life as the last payment for the mill was not made until the mill had been working for some time.

Often a family business the wife was also involved especially when the windmill sails were covered with canvas, as it was she who would sew the canvas.

We heard that the millwright built the mill as well as repairing & maintaining it. A fact that many in the audience had not realised.

Apparently one way of telling if a man was a good millwright was to look at his hands, and if he had some fingers missing then this showed a skilled man. This came about from having to lubricate the moving parts of the mill with goose grease, and fingers getting trapped in cogs & wheels!

We heard that Norfolk & Lincolnshire had a large number of mills because of the steady flow of water in these areas & that Cambridgeshire had fewer because the water only oozed from the fen ground.

Brian spoke of the different types of mills that were built as time progressed, from post mills, round house, the smock mills with the tops able to rotate & tower mills that rotated & were self-steering.

From women grinding corn between two stones to windmills used for grinding, to water mills which gave way to mills driven by steam to lift water from one level to another.

All aspects of the millwright’s life were illustrated by slides.

The intricate machinery inside the mill was also explained to us and that the millwright was responsible for all.

A fascinating talk that was followed by many questions that Brian answered in his usual light hearted way.

TRAVELLERS & GYPSIES

Peter Edwards was the speaker for the well-attended October meeting. Being of Romany decent and having done his own family history research Peter gave us a fascinating description of Romany life.

The gypsies originated from Northern India hence, he explained the dark hair in ringlets & sallow complexion. Over the centuries they crossed Europe and arrived in Scotland in 1515 & were called ‘Egyptians’.

The Irish gypsies came over during the potato famine & are a different people entirely. The Irish & ‘Egyptians’ never mixing in normal circumstances, both having different ‘standards’ & ways of life.

Peter spoke of the family names such as Lee, the Scamps of Kent, and Lovell, Wood the celebrated family of Bala North Wales the Toogoods, Buckland, Smith & Jones & many more. There was an inclination to change ones name if the situation called for it, but surnames were often taken from the female line.

The first names were also very different some being Comfort, Crimea, Ishmael, Malachi, Samson & of course Delilah, Shandras, Uriah & again many more.

Their occupations were many & varied, for without doubt if one did not work one did not eat! They were good & knowledgeable horse traders, dealers in scrap metal, a lucrative business apparently as one of Peter’s relatives, himself a scrap metal dealer, now owns many race horses. Hawking, land work, basket & peg making, knife sharpeners & so on. Fortune telling was left to the women folk. Peter showed us an anvil used by a relative who was a tinker who would repair your pots & pans. It would appear that there was no job a gypsy could not do. They were also antique dealers although the method of obtaining the antiques was dubious. They carried their wealth as gold earrings & rings on their fingers but had few other possessions.

In 1824 The Vagrancy Act was passed & begging was made illegal. Those caught were fined £5 or jailed just for being a gypsy in some cases. Peter recalled his grandfather, a great drinker, & all the troubles he got into. Although gypsies have a high moral standard especially when it comes to their children, they were not above’ breaking the law ‘& Peter told of his relatives who were apprehended for attempted murder, bigamy,’ furious’ driving of horses, counterfeiting & being drunk & disorderly especially on cider. The magistrates were kept busy with the misdeeds of the gypsies, seeing the same people on a regular basis. They travelled around following the work as dictated by the seasons often turning up at the same place at a certain time of year.

The diet was mentioned being mostly what could be found in the hedgerow like hedgehog, rabbit & fruits. Bread & milk was often obtained by begging from the farmers who provided work for the gypsies. Their health was good, many of Peter’s relatives living well into there 90’s. It is believed that hard work & an outdoor life although hard was tranquil.

The true Romany cares for nature, never leaving the site untidy or destroyed even to the point of cutting out turf to make a fire & then returning the turf when they leave. Peter showed us an original iron used for holding a kettle over a fire. Photographs and handouts were available & the meeting ended with many people asking questions.

At our September meeting & after the A.G.M, Keith Adamsom, Director of The Oddfellows gave an interesting talk about the origins of the Oddfellows & particularly of the Lodge in Wisbech & surrounding districts.

In the 12 century, Guilds were established for groups of people belonging to the professions. The Oddfellows were so called because their various occupations did not let them belong to the Guilds, so they banded together to form their own society. The reason for their existence was bound closely to the teachings of the Church in that they gave care, sustenance & friendship to those in need.

In 1700 the society was considered illegal because of the fact that to belong one had to take an oath, which some considered to be against the church’s teaching.

An Act of Parliament made the societies illegal & Henry 8th took their monies for the royal coffer. Elizabeth 1 sold back to them their Charter.

In 1834 the Tolpuddle Martyrs were deported for belonging to an illegal society. The society had to be kept secret so special passwords & handshake was instigated as a form of communication and despite their illegality the society grew.

In 1837 the Northern district established the Neptune Branch of Wisbech. The branch was still considered illegal, but continued to care for & befriend others as it does today.

In 1839 Surgeon Tubbs became a member. Members paid 1 shilling a week so that the doctor could give them medical care.

These societies were the fore runners of today’s Trade Unions

Keith then demonstrated the meaning of the symbols on their banner showing that the society still adheres to the teachings of the church.

He spoke of the social functions they arrange - how the young members receive vouchers at Christmas and trips to the pantomime.

He brought with him a large board showing the names of Grand Masters of the Wisbech branch from 1838. He also demonstrated the way that voting was carried out by putting one’s hand into a covered box & dropping a ball into the yes or no section of the box. Other regalia was on display. There were minute books from 1854 & 1873, which many people were able to examine at the end of the evening.

Geoffrey Lee illustrated his talk about writing family biographies at our February meeting with examples from his own and his wife's ancestors. "If you do not record an event that you have discovered about your ancestor," he said, "it may be lost forever". To that end, the majority of the talk described the various sources from which the material for family biographies can be collected. The normal sources for the barebones facts such as parish records, civil registration and the census were covered before concentrating on how to "put the flesh on the bones".

Geoffrey and his wife come from service families and there is a wealth of recorded information about any person who served in the forces. This can be found not only in the wide range of PRO records but also in regimental magazines, books and museums. Re-enactment associations are a more unusual source. From all of these, a full picture of the movements and conditions of life of an ancestor can be built up and, if they were involved in a major incident or battle, detailed descriptions of the event can be found in non-military sources.

The occupations of other ancestors will also provide material for some, such as the examples given of a shoemaker and a fireman, details of their career may be recorded. Where this is not the case, general background material can be found in books, museums and old photographs.

However, the majority of our ancestors, and this includes most of the women, will have left no trace beyond the barebones of birth, marriage and death but there is still flesh to be added. Old maps, old photographs, local history and rural life museums, local archives and books can provide details about where they lived, the church they used and the type of life they would have had. All this can be added to the family photographs, documents and artefacts. Geoffrey finished his talk by outlining the ways that this wealth of biographical information can be recorded and illustrated with these items as well as audio and video tape recordings. He closed by emphasising that we owe it to future generations to do this for our own lives if not for anyone else.

Christine Morris, who works for the Family Tree Magazine at Ramsey, was welcomed to our May meeting to talk to us about Newspapers for Local and Family History. Christine gave us a short history of newspapers, information about the British Library's newspaper archive at Colindale and examples of how newspapers have helped in her own personal research.

Newspapers have a very long, but patchy, history in this country. The volume available at anyone time has depended on the availability of paper, licensing regulations and the level of censorship at each period. For many centuries newspapers had no illustrations although the earliest had engravings. Photographs started appearing in the late 19th century. Until relatively recently, local news was not seen to be important and local newspapers contained mainly out of date national news.

Old newspapers can be found at local libraries and record offices but the primary source in this country is at Colindale, North London. This repository hold 650,000 volumes on 15 miles of shelving and its holding are growing at 900 foot a year. British publishers are obliged to provide one copy of every item published to the British Library. Overseas material is also held.

Old newspapers are not easy to read but can reward you with much material for your family history research. They may be the only extant source of coroners' reports supplying details of the death on an ancestor. Obituaries can provide information about the whole life of an individual while lists of mourners and floral tributes included can provide details of relatives, including those who have moved away from the area, perhaps even overseas. Obituaries, as well as modern newspapers retrospective articles, may direct researchers to contemporary accounts of events in our ancestors' lives. Imagine the joy of finding that your ancestor has been interviewed by his local newspaper!

Finally, the Internet is always a valuable source. Many indexes to newspapers are published on the Web and Colindale has a good website including a search by area facility.

The Society enjoyed a talk by Jim Lees titled "An Introduction to Researching British Orders, Decorations and Medals."

Jim explained the history of medals and explained how they were awarded for galantry in action, length of service or for an event.

The talk was illustrated with medals and the history of both the medals and the lives of the individuals who were awarded those medals.

Jim also gave us details of were to find the military records of those who had served in the armed forces. He proved very knowledgeable and was able to help members with their queries on the items they had brought along to have identified.

Members of the Fenland Family History Society went back to school at our July meeting, which found us lined up in front of our teacher, reading aloud from copies 16th and 17th century documents. Elizabeth Stazicker, Cambridgeshire Head of Heritage and County Archivist gave us full marks for effort before we broke up for the summer. We worked from five documents ranging in date from 1571 to 1691 and from a parish register to a petition from the people of Manea. Elizabeth showed us how to use sample alphabets and words already deciphered as reference points as well as explaining how to cope with non-standardised spelling. In an incredibly short time we had began to read more fluidly and were told that it was like riding a bike - once you have mastered it, you will always be able to do it but you may be a little wobbly if you haven't done it for some time. I had been looking forward to this workshop for some time and it fully lived up to my expectations. Everyone appeared to have as good a time as I did and can look forward to a summer break deciphering those old documents that have previously seemed impenetrable. Let the weather do it worst!

At our October meeting members of the Fenland Family History Society were reminded by our speaker, Barry Williams, how the vast majority of our ancestors were humble agricultural labourers otherwise known as "ag. labs.". Barry is a teacher in Ramsey who has moonlighted, writing for the Family Tree Magazine. Despite all of us being familiar with ag. labs., they are not easy to define as each was a unique individual doing a range of different jobs. Most were multi-skilled. In 1851 1 in 9 were women. The average age at marriage for women, 28 years before Victorian times, came down to 21 or 22. The population grew but death rates were high - the life expectancy of an American slave was 4 years higher than an English ag. lab. Over the period of Victoria's reign, the conditions of the ag. lab. varied over time.

1830s to late 1840s

Until the 1830s, threshing provided winter work and the winter wages were essential to see the ag. labs. and their families through the summer until the next harvest. Then the threshing machine was introduced. Change, progress and things getting better are not synonymous and the discontent turned to riots. The riots, named for the mythical Captain Swing, took place throughout the South and East Anglian.

Until 1834, the Parish made up any shortfall income below the poverty line. The Poor Law Amendment Act of that year meant that, if you could not support yourself, you were sent to the Workhouse. The Workhouse conditions were worse than those in Jail.

Late 1840s to mid-1870s

Late 1870s to 1890s

1890s to WWI

Witches & Ghosts of Cambridgeshire

There was another large turn out to welcome the return of Mike Petty, former Librarian for the Cambridgeshire Collection, to the Society's March meeting. On this occasion, Mike entertained us with his talk on the Witches and Ghosts of Cambridgeshire starting by introducing his brand new book of a selection of 350 photographs of Cambridgeshire from the photographic survey by the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.

Starting with Naomi's story, Mike chilled us with ghost stories from throughout the county based on contemporary eyewitness accounts and backed up by facts from the usual family history sources - records of births, marriages and deaths, electoral rolls and newspapers. In between the ghost stories, we heard tales of witches from the time of Hereward the Wake up until 1915, grave robbing and hangings.

Although, as Mike said, "not a proper lecture" there was a strong lesson about how we can test and flesh out our own family history stories with solid research. Yet again, a very enjoyable and informative evening.