Babcary Ancestoral Village

A Memory of Babcary.

Babcary is a tiny village located near to Keinton Mandeville, Somerset. My grandmother was born there and most of my ancestors on her side of the family (Dyers and Collins) lived the majority of their lives there and also in nearby Charlton Mackerell and Charlton Adam, employed at one time or another on most of the village farms. Her parents Samuel Dyer and Rosa nee Collins lived at a tiny cottage opposite Babcary church, their grave can be found in the churchyard facing this cottage. Near to the main door of the church are the graves of their direct ancestors (Collins family) stretching back to 1700's. Samuel Dyer was a gamekeeper in 1900's. They previously lived in the cottage adjacent to the village ford. Samuel later became blind in the 1930's. Other Dyer family members lived at Bush farm and Henry was in charge of the hunt. Another Dyer lived until recently at Cedar Lodge Babcry and up to the 1970's Cyril Dyer owned Tout Farm (now rebuilt) by the now enlarged quarry at Charlton Adam. Many of the family had never left the villages in the 19c. during their entire lifetimes. My grandmother Edith Dyer left Babcary in about 1900 to live in Bristol to work in service where our family (Marchant) still live today.