Service with a smile Gathering of the hunt at the Duke of Wellington 01-11-2014
Coming up …
More details in church gazette and separate wel-e-bulletins
Thu 20 Nov WI AGM and supper & social evening, 7.30 pm Village Hall
Wed 26 Nov Christmas Papercraft Evening, 7.30 pm The Croft (Treen Gaudie)
Fri 28 Nov Christmas Fair, joint event 6.30 – 8.30 pm at East Rounton Village Hall
Sun 30 Nov family service 10.30 am St Leonard’s
Sun 30 Nov Children’s Christmas party, 2 – 4 pm Village Hall
Wed 3 Dec Christmas Papercraft Evening, 7.30 pm The Croft (Treen Gaudie)
Sun 7 Dec WI Carol Service St Leonards & refreshments at Village Hall
Sat 13 Dec Talk (booking only) on Cade’s Road, 2.00 pm Thornton-le-Street VH
Sun 14 Dec Nine Lessons & Carols 6 pm St Leonard’s
Wed 17 Dec Carol Singing round the village, meet 6.30 pm Duke of Wellington
Pat Wade …
After suffering back pain for some weeks, Pat was suddenly taken seriously ill and rushed to James Cook hospital on Saturday 1st November. She was kept in a coma in intensive care for a week and later transferred to the Friarage hospital where she is thankfully recovering well at last, though it looks like being a long job.
Quiz of the month …
Tallest tree? Which is Welbury’s tallest tree?
Let us know any likely candidates so we can measure an estimated height to find the winner.
What about the tallest of a species –
oak, ash, and so on? And maybe the nicest or favourite tree?
Answers from last month (as far as we know; tell us if you know better).
Roman Road? Welbury’s Roman road runs along the parish boundary with Deighton, along part of Long Lane, across fields, and along Blind Lane past Summerfield. It is road 80a in the Margary classification, and known
as Cade’s Road, after the 18th Century Durham antiquarian John Cade.
Snippets …
See bulletins and church gazette for more
Evening sun across Loch Torridon to Beinn Alligin
Picture from Dave Willey 09-10- 2014
(while collecting more Munros)
Superfast Broadband: Superfast North Yorkshire confirmed in October that Welbury B(i.e. the cabinet by the level crossing) “is currently in the programme for phase 2 to upgrade this cabinet but as yet we don’t have a date of when this will be started / completed”. Phase 2 build “starts mid-2015 with completion by the end of 2016”. They will let us know when they have dates.
Footpaths: Since some of the local footpaths have deteriorated, the Parish Council reminds land owners of their duty to maintain them. The council is monitoring the state of them to report to the County Council.
Weather: Owing to family illness, Rod’s report is held over to next issue, but it seems October was exceptionally mild.
Fat in drains: After a blockage in Spring Hill, residents are advised to avoid putting fat down drains.
Dog returned: Following a wel-e-bulletin appeal, lost dog Max was found as far away as Picton and promptly returned to relieved owners the Hodgsons in the village.
Speeding: The police are working with the Parish Council to identify speeding drivers in the village after complaints were received. Not all residents seem to understand that it’s polite as well as safe to SLOW DOWN!
Book of the month …
Tree Surgery for Beginners
by
Patrick Gale
I must admit to some reservations about reading this novel but, since I have enjoyed (and reviewed) Gale’s work in the past, I decided to persevere! I was slightly dubious because of the grim subject matter – a man accused of beating his wife and even under suspicion of being a murderer of both the wife and
his young daughter.
Lawrence Frost is the man in question – a long-time misfit who finds it hard to integrate and
engage with other people.
His problems started in childhood and he continues to find
difficulties as an adult. He takes solace in his work as a tree surgeon – hence the title. However, he would be the last person to be suspected of being a killer…… wouldn’t he? Gale handles the collapse of Frost’s life in a masterly manner. The reader is totally absorbed in the plot as this very credible character finds himself embroiled in an incredible situation. Gale has an erudite but accessible style and we feel that we are party to the innermost workings of his characters.
This book is a challenging read but is well worth the effort, as it is both revealing and questioning of the ways in which we can learn about ourselves through our experiences and our subsequent reactions to them. Not a light read but highly recommended.
Sarah Hoiles
WI Monthly Report (October)
From Dervor Hanson
A table full of innumerable pretty bits and pieces was the start of Alison Scurrah’s card making workshop. After a demonstration we were absorbed in making pretty gift tags which will come in very handy for future parcel wrapping. The competition for a pet picture was won by Joanne and her dogs. Next month our AGM will be followed by a supper and entertainment on a “Green” theme.
Mend of the month …
Here’s the 82 cm rotor blade off a sit-on mower. It has two wing tips which create an air flow to lift grass into the box. The lower one in the picture has sheared off. The upper one is shown with the nuts and bolts which held it. The nuts, on the down side of the blade, were worn down at an angle to about half their height. I am told this is normal wear on high-speed blades.
The hard steel nuts and bolts were too hard to drill out. Holding the nuts in a vice, the bolt heads were very slowly turned by hammering a cold chisel at a slight angle.
Since the mower is used without collecting the grass, it works with just the rotor alone without new wing tips. If needed, wing tips can be found online.
Welbury in the Wars
Stories of those serving in World War 2 … Part 2
Last month’s article reported four from Station Cottages who served in WW2. Now we cross the tracks, and the road, to Lockton Cottage where Henry Sedman lived.
The picture left is a cutting from the Welbury School photo of 1929 from page 160 of the Welbury book.
Upper: Vivienne Wilson, Thelma Fenwick, Anne Aconley Lower: Les Wade, Henry Sedman, May Aconley
During the war, Thelma served in the ATS and Henry and May both in the RAF. Les Wade was an active radio ham and folklore has it that he played a secret part in military intelligence from his shed (Welbury’s own Bletchley Park).
Anne Aconley was May’s older sister. Ron Wade recalls that Anne married Bill Prest from Northallerton. So most of these children became involved in the war ten years later.
Henry Sedman is one villager who died in service, but not in the war. From his letters to the Entertainments Committee, Henry served at RNAS Arbroath in 1942 and as an RAF Corporal in 1944 on HMS Goshawk, an onshore Royal Naval Air Station in Trinidad. Henry was still in the RAF when he died on 23 September 1947, aged 25, according to the War Graves Commission website. He is buried at Finstock Holy Trinity Church in Oxfordshire.
Family memories of Henry’s childhood are passed on from his niece Barbara Boyes through her daughter Ann Stainthorpe. Henry was the illegitimate son (father unknown) of Annie Jane Sedman, the second of five children of Francis and Sarah Ellen Sedman of Station Cottages and, from 1935, of Lockton Cottage. Henry’s mum Annie was a younger sister of Mary Ellen Sedman (later Mrs Boyes). Annie went off to live in Hartlepool and Seaton Carew, later marrying a William Johnson and having several children, including a Henry Johnson, while Henry Sedman was brought up by his grannie in Welbury.
Henry had married Norma, a southerner, and they were expecting their first child Margaret. Henry tried to get leave for the birth by faking illness, but this resulted in a medical which discovered a serious real illness, some sort of bug, and he died very soon afterwards. It is not known if he ever saw his daughter. Periodically afterwards, Norma would bring Margaret to see Grannie Sedman (Margaret’s great grandma) in Welbury. Ann Stainthorpe remembers seeing Margaret on visits. We are trying to contact any surviving relatives in Oxfordshire.
Moving now into the village centre, Lawrie Norman, second son of postmaster Bill Norman, was born in 1901 and was in the navy by 1921. Before WW2 he received his long service medal in 1937, as records provided by Lorraine Norman of Halifax show. But he went on in the thick of it during the war, serving on HMS Sheffield and HMS Warspite in 1944.
In the January 1942 letter provided by Bill Norman’s grand-daughter Jennifer Curzon, Lawrie writes poignantly “May 1944 bring this dreadful war to an end, with peace”. Lorraine Norman has found that Lawrie married late in life, in February 1953 to a widow Norah Kathleen Goldup, née Woodards, and settled down in Chatham, Kent. He died 29th May 1965 at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Rochester. His will mentions no children.
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Warspite bombarding defensive positions off
Normandy, 6 June 1944 (Wikipedia)
People …
The curious tale of the Ann Mawer
It was the second weekend before Halloween, a quiet and dull day as volunteers went about tidying the churchyard. Eerily, at the same time and unknown to them, Anna Chapman from London and her aunt Elisa and grandmother Margaret from Worcestershire were making their way towards Welbury to explore family history at the graveyard. The volunteers were almost done when the visitors arrived, and were still excited after unearthing two hidden gravestones, one of them not seen in living memory.
Anna was looking for any grave of her Mawer ancestors since they had strong roots in Welbury back in the 1700s. It was a long shot as any sign of a grave could have been lost long ago. The list of gravestones made in 1999 for the Welbury book had no Mawers. But as one of the newly discovered stones was cleaned up, it began to reveal its roughly carved inscription. It was for an Ann Ma— who died in 1746! On closer inspection, despite a strange letter ‘w’, all the details seemed to match with Anna’s records.
What a coincidence! Or was it some sort of providence? A miracle, perhaps? If this were Italy, might Welbury develop a tourist industry around it?
Right: Magnus Gaudie discovers the hidden headstone
Pic: Joanne Hughes 18-10-2014
Anna Chapman writes: “I have now trawled through the records and confirmed my suspicion: this is Ann (nee Morland or Mawlome) who married my ancestor William Mawer at St Leonard’s in 1732 and died in 1746. William was my 6x great grandfather (!) – Ann was his first wife (I am descended from his second wife, Dorothy). Ann is a little mysterious – she is the only lady I’ve ever seen referenced in a register as having an alias (Ann Morland alias
Mawlome) – I’m not sure whether she genuinely used 2 different surnames, or if she had been previously married, and these are her married and maiden names. Sadly, although she and William appear to have had 6 children, 4 lived only a few days and 1 only survived just over a year. Only one son, William, survived to adulthood.
“As best we can read, the headstone says: Here Lieth the Body of Ann The Wife of William Mawe(r) Who Dparted Aperil 13 aged 38 An(n)o 1746. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to find such an old headstone – and so well preserved – from such a very long way back up our tree. “Ann’s husband William is reported as being a yeoman at the time of her death, but he has become a butcher in the baptismal records of his younger children (and grandson Matthew is also a
butcher in the 19th century, suggesting a family trade).”
Left: The old headstone revealed (both pics: Joanne Hughes 18-10-2014)
Below right: Magnus & Dougal Gaudie cleaning the second gravestone
The other lost gravestone revealed in the clean up does appear in the 1999 list in the Welbury book, so it wasn’t lost for long. It is for William Norman, died 1887 aged 71, and his wife Elizabeth, died 1892 aged 62. It lies next to a much more eroded upright stone for William’s younger brother Samuel Norman at the front of the churchyard near the road.
This William was the grandfather of Bill Norman the Welbury postmaster in the first half of the 20th Century, whose stone also survives.
Gallery
Dave Willey’s been bagging more Munros
Torridon area NW Scotland photo DW
05-10-2014
They’re off hunt leaves the Duke
01-11-2014
Ron Wade counted 63 horses in the procession
Bonfire party photo Steph Race
07-11-2014
There must have been about 50 people at the bonfire including a dozen or more small children who particularly enjoyed rolling about on a large mound of mud!
Bonfire Party keeping warm
07-11-2014