Salisbury and some interesting Wyndham family history

Bonjour!

I've just been sifting through the photos from our big UK round trip, so many of them, so many great memories. I've picked a few favourites from along the way....

We stayed in Salisbury in the south of England, an area I've heard referred to as the garden of England, makes sense to me. We stayed there because I knew the Wyndham name ( Jane's maiden name) was prominent there. The name appears in many places in Salisbury, here are a couple of examples...

A pub just up the road from this street which we stopped in for a refreshment..

 

The famous 13th century Salisbury Cathedral has Britain's tallest spire at 123 metres. You can see it here in the middle of the following photo which I took one evening from a few kms away, just near the B&B we stayed at for two nights ....

 

 

 

Almost in the centre of the Salisbury Cathedral there are a row of plaques, showing where the bodies of a number of Wyndhams's lie ...  

Here is a photo of one of those plaques, that of the well known at the time, Wadham Wyndham........

Below, also in the cathedral is the tomb of Thomas Lord Wyndham, who was Baron Wyndham of Finglafs in the Kingdom of Ireland in the first half of the 18th century.

Interestingly the lady in the statue above Thomas's tomb has her ring figure cut off. This, as we confirmed with one of the guides at the cathedral, is a symbolic referral to the famous Wyndham family "buried alive" story about Florence Wyndham. I found the following on Wikipedia..........

"Florence Wyndham (died 1596) was the daughter of Sir John Wadham of Merifield and sister of Nicholas Wadham founder of Wadham College, Oxford."......

Buried alive

Her fame rests on a remarkable escape from a horrific death and her singular importance to the survival of the Wyndham family.
In 1556 she married Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham and a year later was taken ill and thought to have died. She was buried in the Wyndham family vault in St Decuman’s church at Watchet, Somerset and that same night a covetous sexton opened her coffin in order to remove her rings and cut one of her fingers in the process. She had in fact fallen into some sort of cataleptic trance, and was now awakened by the pain and rose from her coffin. The sexton fled leaving his lantern behind him; and with its aid she made her way home across the fields to her astounded family.
Soon afterwards she gave birth to her only son, Sir John Wyndham, from whom every member of the Wyndham family is descended (apart from a branch of the family in the United States whose progenitor is Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Wyndham, Henry VIII's distinguished naval commander).
Her remarkable survival and importance is celebrated in the family by successive generations naming the eldest son Wadham Wyndham, most especially by the Salisbury branch of St Edmund's College founded by Sir Wadham Wyndham."

Jane's father, Philip's, middle name was Wadham, so the tradition continues,.. Philip was the oldest out of three boys.

With the help of Jane's brother, Ben, we were able to find Philipps House, formerly Dinton House, in Dinton,  about 20kms outside of  Salisbury. This place was impressive, your classic country manor house. Four generations of Wyndhams (a different line to Jane's family) lived at this spot, the last of which included George Wyndham who went out to Australia and set up the well known Wyndham Wine Estate. The house is now owned by the National Trust and we just happened to be there on one of two days of the week it was open to the public.  I took this photo from along the very long drive way....
 

A closer shot with Sophie and Connor enjoying the lawns..

Went into the library room of this grand house and a lovely guy called Ivor gave as some great colour on the history of the family there. Here he is keeping the two kids amused with an old collapsible ladder.

In the local town of Dinton, there was ofcourse another Wyndham hotel, you can see the family coat of arms at the top....

We had a great time in Salisbury. I'm sure the kids will come back here one day to delve into all this Wyndham family history. Connor certainly enjoyed himself this time around, see below....a photo taken at the gates to the "The Close" or the old part of town around the cathedral.

Next we headed to Brighton, "London by the sea", I'll save that for the next blog.

A bientôt

Jane, Sophie, Connor et moi.

 

Back in The Lot

Bonjour all

Well we're back in The Lot after an amazing four week tour of the UK. We saw so many great things, caught up with some friends and family, and met so many lovely people. We stayed at 14 different  places including one night on the ferry from France to Ireland, mostly B&Bs and small hotels. We were able to track down some family roots, including my Irish ancestors in Cork, Galway and Mullingar and visiting Salisbury, England was of great interest to us in that the rich history of Wyndham name is everywhere there. On the way back through France we visited the grave of my great x2 uncle, Robert Victor Henry Scott, who was killed in the Somme back in 1916. That was also very special.

Last time I blogged we were in County Clare, Ireland the day after we visited the Aran Islands where our bus driver gave us a splendid rendition of Danny Boy. From County Clare we drove to Mullingar on route to Dublin. I knew my great grandparents, Charles Henry and Margaret Glasson, were married at the All Saints Church there in 1905. Here we are in front of that church...

I knew that Charles' son, another Charles, my grandfather, was born in the Renmore Barracks in Galway, so it was very likely Charles senior was stationed as a soldier at the Colomb Barracks in Mullingar. With the help of a local historian I was able to find a book in the local library with this picture...

The wording on the page states that the men on the right hand side were in the Connaught Rangers, a famous Irish Regiment in the British Army. They were known as the Devil's Own. I knew Charles senior was a Connaught Ranger. So of course we had to go and see the Colomb Barracks in Mullingar. They had recently been closed, but by chance they were setting up for a, believe or not, strong man competition on the following weekend. I chatted to a guy at the entrance and told him I wanted to enter the competition, ......no just jokes, I told him I was tracking down my Irish roots and sure enough he let me in. Below is one of the photos I took, you can see the same church on the right hand side of the black and white photo above. It was an exciting day.

We then drove onto to Dublin for three nights, party town. We stayed just near Temple Bar, at the Central Hotel, pictured below, which is basically right in the middle of Dublin's night life district. It was pretty noisy at night, but after spending so much time in the country over the last four months we were up for it, in fact we loved the buzz of it all, ... and Jane loved the shops :)

We had fun in Dublin, it's a beautiful city with so much interesting history. A highlight was  going to see Dublin take on Cork in the Gaelic Football in a semi final at Croke Park, as shown below, it was a big game.

And a shot of the playing field... great to watch, a lot like Aussie Rules...

 

Going to the old library at Trinity College and listening to a Sunday session of Irish music at one of the locals were highlights too, oh and then of course there was the Guinness Factory......

From Dublin we took a car ferry to Wales, which was a real surprise for me, a real hidden gem of a country.  We had lunch at this gorgeous little Welsh sea side village, New Quay, as per below.

 

 We stayed with Jane's good family friends Paul and Judith pictured below with Jane and the kids.

 

Paul and Judith were awesome hosts, we felt like we were staying with family really. It was also nice to have some time to regather and get to know Wales from a locals point of view. Where they live was amazing, right on the edge of a national park where the "Preseli Hills" are. This was the view from the front gate......

At the top of the that mountain you can see, known as Foeldrygarn, there is an ancient hill fort, ( see the old photo below from a book Paul owned), I walked to the top of it twice, magical spot.

Ironically looking out from the top of Foeldrygarn, across a ridge was another near by mountain ( see the photo below,.... just right of the pine tree forest), the very spot were the "blue stones" at Stonehenge came from, Stonehenge is about 240 kms away!

We had already planned to see Stone Henge after visiting Paul and Judith's, and we didn't know of this connection between the two sites before our visit, now that's ironic right?

A few kms away was this incredible 3,500 BC stone structure, "Pentre Ifan", part of an ancient burial chamber. How it has been standing like this for over five thousand years is beyond me. I must admit I was slightly hesitant when standing below this huge suspended stone which they estimate to weigh 16 tonnes! You can see the very narrow contact points with the standing stones below.

Here is a photo of an old sketch of two 19th century antiquarians on horseback having a good look at Pentre Ifan......

Here is Paul and Judith flying a kite with the kids at the back of their house...

Here is Judith and I enjoying one of her home brews, lovely!

Thanks again Paul and Judith for your generous hospitality and all those great memories.

We then headed to Hay-on-Wye just next to the Welsh English border.  A local said that they pay taxes to the Welsh government but their addresses are English, go figure. This place is known as the "town of books". There are about 24 book stores there, I was in heaven! Here is a photo of the Jane and the kids in front of the Hay-on-Wye castle and some markets.

I saw some people taking photos of something along one of the streets in this town of books, had a look, and just had to take a photo myself, this obviously means a lot to a place like Hay-on-Wye.

Back on the road trip...when the kids gets a bit hard to handle, usually late in the day Jane sometimes jumps in the back, the kids love it when she does...

So we arrived at Stonehenge, a place I've wanted to visit for many years. Knowing that the blue stones came all the way from the Preseli Hills of Wales, just down the road from Paul and Judith's home made it even more awe inspiring. They were somehow transported there around 2,500 BC! The largest stones, the sarsens, came from north Wilshire about 30km away. The blue stones are smaller but still, not a bad effort.

I might take a break for now and follow this up soon with a second blog on our UK trip. Hope you are well.

Best wishes from us lot in The Lot,

Jane, Sophie, Connor and moi! 

Hi from County Clare, Ireland

Hi there, hope you are well.

It's been a while since I've done a blog. That's really because we've been on the road for near two weeks now and it gets a bit tricky with the kids and internet access. We're about half way through our UK round trip which takes in Ireland, Wales, the south of England, and parts of France on the way up and back, all over about four weeks. We're having a ball and have certainly covered a bit of ground. Right now we're at a B&B in County Clare, just under an hour south of Galway Bay. Today is a bit of a rest day, boy we need it.

Yesterday was a huge day, with a trip out to the Aran Islands and then the Cliffs of Moher, very impressive. It rained just about the whole time we were out on the islands but we had a great day anyway. As soon as we landed, this local guy, Marteen ( Irish for Martin) loaded a bunch of us onto a bus and drove around the island. He not only gave a us a real insight into the island, but cracked some very funny jokes, and sang a number of nice old Irish songs. I requested Danny Boy and sure enough he sang it to the whole bus. The rain stopped for the Cliffs of Moher later in the day and wow they did not disappoint, by far the best cliffs I've ever seen.

We love Ireland, the people are great, so helpful and friendly, and the country is beautiful. We've had good weather right up until yesterday really. Our first night on our big trip was in the Loire Valley where we stayed at a classic old mansion, and on the second night we stayed on the famous Mont St Michel, ... that I'd say will be one of the highlights of our whole time away from Australia. From there we took the overnight ferry from France to Ireland, two nights in historic Kilkenny, and then four nights at a B&B in beautiful Kenmare just near the Ring of Kerry in the South West.

On the way to Kenmare we visited Cobh in County Cork and visited the graves of my great, great grandparents, Joseph and Mary Glasson and where they used to live on Wolf Tone Street, chatted to a few of the locals there too which was really nice. From there we headed north to County Clare to arrive at this current B&B.

The day before yesterday we visited Galway Bay. They have the annual racing carnival on so the town was buzzing. We loved Galway Bay with its old Latin Quarter and all the water canals, and we visited the Renmore Barracks where my grandfather was born, very special.

I'll show you some of the pictures taken along the way starting from the most recent.....

Here we are yesterday on the way back from the Aran Islands feeling very relaxed. I had a Guinness just before we jumped on the boat, it's daily doses of the stuff these days, as they say....when in Rome..

Another photo on the boat, as you can see I've bought myself an Irish footy jersey,..... love this place!

Below is a photo looking along the cliffs on the Aran Islands...

At around this point I decided to test my fear of heights and take a photo with my iphone looking straight down, that's the tip of my shoe you can see in the corner of the photo........I made sure there wasn't any strange looking people nearby, in full control don't worry

 

 

 

Here's Connor and I in front of the Renmore Barracks just outside of Galway city. This was where my grandfather was born. As you can see from the signs, and the look on the entrance guard I chatted to, I wasn't going  to venture too much further....

Here we are on a car ferry crossing the Shannon on the way from Kenmare to our current place near Galway Bay......

This was an amazing spot, on the Connor Pass travelling over the mountains from Dingle. The scenery we have seen on our trip in Ireland has been amazing. This includes the Ring of Kerry which is about as far as you can go west in Ireland. By the way, that's a sheep hanging off the side of that really, really steep mountain slope. Why they just don't fall off every so often, it's got me stumped, ... they probably do!  

 

Below was the view from the B&B we stayed at in Kenmare. We'll have great memories of this little town and the lovely owners of this B&B. The brother of Anne, the owner, ....Billy was his name, invited us to his place which was right down on the river. It was an absolute mansion. The day before we came across this same house and Jane was wondering whether it was Bono's holiday house. Billy is self made, that was his holiday house and he lived in New York, he was a great guy, really friendly and down to earth.    

 

 

 

And here is a picture of Billy, the kids and I down at his place on the river..

 

 

 

 

Below is the kids and I at the graves of my great, great grandparents, Joseph and Mary Glasson in the Old Church Cemetery on the outskirts of Cobh. Mary died when she was just 25 years old. Very proud to have these Irish roots and it's great to be able to pay our respects while over here. A big thank you to Christine Henry, my mum's cousin, for her help in finding these places.

 



 

 

Below is a photo of the kids playing outside the house (the green one) on Wolf Tone Street in Cobh where Joseph and Mary lived. That's the harbor you can see from down the end of the street. Cobh reminded me of Sydney with it sitting on the edge of a beautiful big harbor. It was actually where the Titanic had its last stop before heading on that fatal journey across the Atlantic.

 

 

Below was taken in the very first pub we visited in Ireland. It was in Kilkenney, and that's me tasting my first beer, of course it had to be a Kilkenney. It was an important and memorable moment, a moment I have looked forward to for years.  

 

 

Here is Sophie at the bar in the same pub, not a practice I will be encouraging at all, but as I was saying, a special day.

 

Here are the kids walking by the side of Kilkenney Castle. There are castles everywhere in this country, much more than France I'd say.

Now for Mont St Michel, on the way up through France. Again, wow, this place is amazing. It was a fortified abbey and at one stage during the wars the English had conquered all of the north and west of France except this little island just off the coast of Normandy. Here is a photo on an approaching road, across some fields from I'd say about 15kms away.  

 

 



Here we are much closer...

 

 

We stayed on the island for the night, which very special. Below is us at dinner, during which a big storm hit with a few of the patrons and us concerned that the windows were going to blow in, a memorable dinner.  

 

 

Below was the view from one of our windows on Mont St Michel, looking out over the mud flats towards the main land. When the tide comes in it's a sight to see, it comes in real quick. They have police there telling people (including me on this day) to get off the surrounding mud flats just before the tide comes in as it can be very dangerous. I walked around the island when the tide was out, something I've dreamt about doing for years.

 

 

 

 

 

This is where we stayed in the Loire Valley. That window in the top left hand side was our room. The Loire Valley has this certain class about it, lovely area, grand buildings and vineyards everywhere. I really have to pinch myself when we stay in a place like this, I keep reminding myself, ...... treasure each day!

 

 





Heading to Dublin tomorrow, should a be a big weekend.  

 

Bye for now and best wishes, cheers (with a pint of Guinness in my right hand),

Jane, Sophie, Connor and me!