General Chat

We've just returned from a weekend away to visit some villages where my ancestors lived. There were mainly three I wanted to visit to get a feel of the place where they all lived, loved, worked and died.

The first village - great. Very Olde Worlde, lots of really old houses and cottages, shops that you could imagine people using 150-200 years ago.

The second village - even better. Very big, old church, lots of old houses, shops etc. Lots of history to be seen.

These two villages were lived in by Gt. x 3 uncles/aunts etc. so the next village was going to be the best. That's where my Gt. Grandfather and four generations before him all lived and died. Loads of history I thought.

So, off we go, turn off the main road, down a small country lane surrounded by old, old trees. Fields either side where my rellies probably worked (they were all Ag. Labs.) and then the sign for the village. Great, I think. Then - devastated. All the houses were no more than about 40 years old. There were any about 50 houses and ALL new. Where has all the history gone? All my rellies lived here. How can there be no trace of the life they led? I'm so gutted, I'm going to google it to see if it suffered somewhere in the past 100 years or so.

Hi Beverley, I understand how you feel, so disappointing isn't it.
I went a few years ago to see where mine came from and the same story. Where some of the houses used to be was wasteland, others had new builds.

Hi Kjay

I can't understand why I'm so disappointed. I know there has to be progress but it seems such a high price to pay. I could have understood it if the village had been bombed during the war or something - that would add to the history not detract from it but I can't find anything that says that.

So many of my rellies lived in that village for so many generations and it's as if they didn't exist.

Oh I had this when we visited my ancestors' village up in Norfolk the other year. The pub is still there, and the church - and I found several gravestones etc but the houses have all gone and they are all bungalows!!!! I was really disappointed.

But hey, that's progress and maybe the houses they lived in then were only fit to be condemned.

But, sad.

Jill

Hi Mrs Grumpy

I had thought maybe the houses were condemned as it's possible they were mostly Ag. Labs cottages etc. and not built to last but it still seems sad that with so much history in England, that small village didn't appear to have any. I've tried Googling it and nothing much has happened in the past few years to explain the total wipeout.

I think if it had been a large town it would have been more understandable but you still see some history even in cities.

Stil - have to move on I suppose.

I know Bev but it is sad isn't it? I was expecting to see some of the older places but nah! Diddley squit. It's odd because before I went there I felt that I knew a lot about the place - from censuses and an old book that I'd read about someone born and brought up there. So sad.

Thank heavens the church and graveyard were the same. It was lovely being in the church where my ancestors had been baptised, married and buried. That was good.

Jill

I'm grateful that the other two villages had so much to offer history-wise. I could imagine people and rellies there walking to the church, living in the houses, shopping in the shops, travelling through with their horse and carts etc. Everything just came alive in those two villages and I had such high hopes for the third. It bought me back to the 21st Century a bit quicker than I wanted to arrive.