There was quite a lot of snow falling
last night when we went to bed.
The Man looked out the window before
climbing in beside me and said that the road outside was totally
white.
The Horseshoes is a quiet little
country inn well within driving distance of those names relevant to
my Harvey family tree.
There's a windmill very close by and we
had a walk around it when we came back from our exploring today.
There are no 'sails' on it, just the
criss-cross arms. Hmm The Man was wondering just how those sails
might have been attached 'cos the arms are pretty high off the
ground. Hopefully good old google might have an answer.
So what did we do today.
Well first off it was a full English
brekky to fuel our day, then kitted up for the cold and after The Man
knocked all the snow off he windows of the car we set off.
I love snow
With the destination entered into our
trusty nav-man we set off. for Athelington. This is where the sister
of my three times great grandfather lived. Its just a small cluster
of houses surrounded by large rolling fields.
In fact the whole area is very
obviously agricultural. Huge ploughed fields the furrows tipped with
snow. It made me wonder what the average agricultural labourer did in
the winter. My ancestors were 'ag-labs'.
They were here until at least the 1841
census, but by the next one in 1851 many show up in urban areas. What
a shock it must have been for those strapping men and their families
who left the clean country air and the ability to grow at least some
of their own food, to work in the city factories.
Such is the price of progress I guess.
Just to add to the potential difficulty
of genealogy I have discovered not one but at least three churches
all very close together and all called Saint Mary's. Hmmm.
Apart form the pleasure in putting my
feet on the same ground as some of my ancestors we both really
appreciate the openness of the county and being able to let the eye
wander freely for miles and miles not something we get to do very
often in the city.
When we drove through some of these
little country towns I said to The man that before we came over her
to England that I had thought we night have lived and worked in one
of these small towns.
Driving past eat another old church,
The Man said to me 'Do you want to stop and look in there?'
I very nearly said no. It may well have
been a good thing too because there in among the gravestones were
Harvey graves. Recent graves, and the first names on them are not
familiar, but you just never know, do you?
Walking about in the snow gave us quite
an appetite so we stopped in a little café in Diss for lunch.
Fed and watered we had a wander around
the streets of this little town and discovered a pretty little lake
where a small cluster of fishermen were braving the weather. Brrrrr
refreshed by the brisk air it was nice
to get back to the shelter of the car.
I set the nav man to take us back to
The Horseshoes, and that walk to the windmill
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