UK Holiday May 2005

In May 2005 Val and I set off on a holiday trip to the UK. We didn’t blog about it as we went along, because we did not always have internet access, so this is written after the event. One post that we did have at the time was this one on Ancestral Places.

Most of the family bits in in our family history blog, and some of the parts where we visited friends are in our other blogs, but each post is linked to the next so anyone interested in following them in order can do so. This page lists them all, so people interested in a particular place or people can go straight to what they are looking for.

Because of our interest in family history, we visited relations, some of whom we had never met before, and also some of the places our ancestors had come from. We visited old friends, some of wwhom we hadn’t seen for many years.

Wastwater, Cumbria, 10 May 2005

Val had visited the UK in 1971, and I had gone there for postgraduate study at St Chad’s College, Durham, from 1966-1968. It was over 30 years since either of us had been there, so there were many changes, some expected, and some not.

Here, then are the links to the posts.

• 1 May 2005: Easter. Leaving on a jet plane.
• 2 May 2005: Heathrow to Bath, visiting Richard & Cathy Wood at Itchen Abbas on the way.
• 3 May 2005: Hayes family in Somerset, cousins Jane Conway and Josephine Tsegaye
• 4 May 2005: Somerset, Devon and Cornwall; visiting places associated with the Hayes and Stooke families
• 5 May 2005: Cornwall, Growdon & Greenaway families and a medieval wedding
• 6 May 2005: Cornwall to Morgannawg, and more Hayes counsins in South Wales
• 7 May 2005: South Wales to North Wales, and Ellwood cousins
• 8 May 2005: Davies family at Gobowen; John and Shirley Davies & family
• 9 May 2005: Gobowen to Whitehaven, home of the Pearson and Ellwood families
• 10 May 2005: Whitehaven to Girvan; the highest mountain, the deepest lake, the smallest church and the biggest liar (but he’s dead).
• 11 May 2005 Girvan to Edinburgh. Hannan, Ellwood and Pearson families.
• 12 May 2005 Edinburgh to Stockton-on-Tees, via Holy Island and Durham
• 13 May 2005 Stockton-on-Tees to Cambridge: Hayes family, Vause family, and Orthodoxy in Britain
• 14 May 2005 Cathedral and Monastery: Cambridgeshire and Essex. Talking to Fr Michael Harper about theological education, and visit to monastery at Tolleshunt Knights.
• 15 May 2005. St John the Baptist Monastery and Essex girls.
• 16 May 2005. From Brightlingsea to Twickenham, seeing old friends Laureen Morrow and Frank Cranmer
• 17 May 2005 In London: old newspapers and bookshops
• 18 May 2005 A day in Oxford
• 19 May 2005 London: bowler hats and loos (the absence thereof)
• 20 May 2005 London: St Paul’s Cathedral and the surveillance society. Flight to Ekurhuleni.

The time was all too short, but we were able to visit relations we had never met

Hayes cousins in Bath, 3 May 2005

and some that we had met but rarely see

Pearson/Ellwood cousins in Edinburgh, 11 May 2005

old friends that we hadn’t seen for a long time

Davies family at Gobowen, 8 May 2005

And places new and old

Oxford, 18 May 2005