Fenny Compton, Warwickshire

Happy Childhood

I lived with my grandma Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bignell at No 10 Ten Cottages from 1943 to around 1948. The houses were Estate owned (and still are) and my grandad Robert Bignell worked at the manor house first as a shepherd and then in his later years as a gardener. My mother was "in service" at a large house in the village... [more]

Happy childhood

I was just reading the memory by Geoff Taylor and thought how weird it was that his grandad Robert Bignell was a shepherd at the Manor House and I Patricia Bignell am currently employed at the Manor house as housekeeper. Could there maybe be some uncanny connection? It is probably sheer coincidence that we have the same surname. I commute from... [more]

My Banbury gran's village.

My grandmother's name was Amelia Gough and she lived in the second cottage on the right at the bottom of the green on the road to Mollington, water was collected by bucket over the road from a tap in the vicarage wall.  She had two children Arthur and Mary, my mother.  We lived in Oxford and visited every two weeks arriving... [more]

Wilkins of Priors Hardwick

If anyone has knowledge of the Wilkins family of Priors Hardwick who lived at Church End in the 1800s, I'd love to hear from you. My husband's ancestor Mary Wilkins was born there in 1820 and bore a daughter (Eliza) out of wedlock in 1840. The child lived with her grandparents in the village, while Mary went on to marry Michael... [more]

The Southam Family

My great-grandfather William Southam was born in 1829 in Catesby in Northamptonshire. He married Eliza Green, born Wormleighton, Warks. They lived in Ladbroke, Warks, in a cottage next to the School House that still exists but is now a private house. They had children: William 1857, Elizabeth 1860, Mary Matilda 1863, Albert 1870 and George 1870 (Ttwins), and Frederick 1873. Any... [more]

Aunt Tilly

Aunt Tilly, Sussex Cottage, Harbury. Born Mary Matilda, Southam 1863, Ladbroke Warks. She married a William Wells, born 1871 Harbury, Warks 1899. Any information on the Southam or Wells Families would be much appreciated. Regards, Patricia Ann

Aunt Tilly, Sussex Cottage, Harbury, Warks

As a child I would visit Aunt Tilly and stay during my school holidays, I remember she had a well in the garden, it was near All Saints' Church. I only remember Aunt Tilly being on her own. She was my grandfather's sister, born Mary Matilda Southam in 1863 in Ladbroke, Warks. Later she was a domestic servant in Long Ittchington... [more]