Wandering through Rutland

Wandering through Rutland

Jo and her dog Luke in front of her house

We've had a lovely day wandering through the County of Rutland today - Josephine and her dog Luke and myself.

We started locally by taking Luke for a walk up to the local windmill at Whissendine which is just behind Jo's house

Whissendine Windmill

Then we took off in the car to see some local villages with family connections, and I think we ended up going back nearly 6 generations and seeing where these people, my ancestors, actually lived.

One of the first villages we passed through was Exton with a lovely village green and thatched cottages

Exton thatched cottages

Exton Green

Next we moved onto the village of Morcott, where we moved back a few more generations.

So far I have talked about my great grandmother, Ellen Hunt who was married to TB Hunt. Her parents were Richard Taylor (1832-1874) and Sarah Davis (Davies?) (1822-1898). Her grandparents were Francis Davis (?Davies) (1775-1845) and Rebecca Fox (1784-1861)
Apparently the Davies and Davis name were interchangeable.

This Francis Davis came from the town of Morcott and we saw similar houses to where he may have lived...

Morcott main street

Morcott cottages - possibly where Francis lived..

Morcott Church

Our next stop was Rutland Water which is a man made dam that partly submerged  a couple of towns when it was constructed. You can just see the top half of the submerged Church on the edge of the Dam.

Rutland Waters - Normanton Church half submerged

Rutland Waters

It was soooooo cold there... the wind was just biting. Haven't been that cold for ages. Don't let those blue skies deceive you! Had the beanie and the gloves on and couldn't wait to get back into the car.

On the way to somewhere we went past a former railway station that is now a junk yard...

So here's a pic for my rail mad family..

Former Seaton Station

Former Seaton Station

Former Seaton Station

Quite close to this station was a view of the Harringworth Viaduct, which once again has a link to our family history.

As mentioned above, Richard Taylor was the father of my great grandmother, which makes him my great great grandfather.
He was employed as a labourer on this Harringworth Viaduct and developed cholera and died as a result....

Harringworth Viaduct

Harringworth Viaduct

Harringworth Viaduct

Our next stop was the Pilton Church where we found the headstone of Francis (died 1848) and Rebecca Davies (died 1861) They were the parents of Sarah Davies who married Richard Taylor.

We also found the headstone of  James Taylor who was the father of Richard Taylor

So.... we're going back about 5 generations without really trying....

It was doing my head in a bit, trying to workout who was related to who... JO has it all in her head, but I need to keep looking at my ancestry.com site to see who is related to who.

But Pilton Church was the centre of the area that had lots of connections to many of my ancestors. Once again it was truly amazing to just walk around the village where my people would have lived and walked..
We even got to look at the entries in the Church registry for birth deaths and marriages...

Baptism of Richard Taylor on Aug 8 1832

Baptism of Ellen Taylor Probably July 19 1857

Death of Richard Taylor August 6 1874

Death of James Taylor 1882

Our last stop was Riddlington which once again had family links where we think the Davies family owned or managed this pub.

The Old Noel Arms pub... it was in the family at onc stage

The Old Noel Arms pub... it was in the family at onc stage

Typical cottage where our family may well have lived..

One last thing to finish off the day...

Early in the day, Jo pulled in rather quickly off the road and says "There's a pheasant"  to which I replied :Whatever..."

But what she had spotted was a road kill pheasant which she grabbed and put in a plastic bag in the car and travelled around us with us all day, and as she said "That's tea tomorrow!" (Have to admit I would be wary of eating it!)

I was a little bewildered by all this, but Jo said the rule was that if you killed it you were not allowed to take it because that would be poaching, but if you come along afterwards, you are quite entitled to pick it up and take it home...

So she brought it home and has put it in the garage and she will pluck it and prepare it and eat it later in the week...

Jo and pheasant

Jo and pheasant

Pheasant

So this traveling thing is full of learning opportunities... there are little surprises around every corner...

Tomorrow I'm back on the road again and hopefully heading for York via Melton Mowbray - one final family connection for England...

On the road again....