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I am related to the Moxon family of Meldreth & have traced a lot of the family tree. I am very interested in any direct descendants of the Moxons, also Pepper, Mead & Hinkins. I grew up in Melbourn & never realised that I had so many relatives nearby.
Ernest Hale is my Great Grandfather. His sons George (my Grandfather) and Bernard also worked on the railways.
My great great grandfather is George Eustace Charles Hale (Sutton) and i would like some more information (and hopefully photos!) of his family and the family, I have facebook twitter and instagram if anyone would be kind enough to contact me.
I am currently doing the family tree so all and info will help!
Stephen Schiavo, my husband and I have lived in the cottage since it was restored after the 2010 fire. It is now called Apple Tree Cottage but the apple tree in the front yard had been removed before we came to live in the cottage. It is much more ‘modern’ now than you remember it; the back has been extended to accommodate a modern kitchen and a third bedroom and en suite bathroom upstairs. Please come and visit to see for yourself when you are next in England.
Brian was a fun person to be around. We shared many a laugh concerning the frustrations of dealing with large companies on the telephone such as BT and British Gas! He had many funny stories about his time at Royston Bowls Club, but most of all he loved talking about his early life in Meldreth.It was a privilege to have known Brian.
I can’t help with any information about Daisy’s wedding to Robert Fish but can only say that without them, my grandparents Edward Pepper (Daisy’s brother) and Annie Spiller would never have met! This is what my Aunty Iris wrote about it in her autobiography:
”My parents met in London, each on the rebound after an unhappy love affair. My mother was working as a tea packer and had been in love with a ‘sharp’ young Cockney boy who had fallen in love with someone else and jilted her. She used to go to a mission and assist in voluntary work and she found a friend there in the Minister’s wife. The Minister was a young Scot and they were working at the Mission prior to an assignment to go to New Zealand and become missionaries to the Maori people. The Minister’s wife was my father’s older sister Daisy and he came to London to visit her before she left and to recover from the fact that his girlfriend, a gentle country girl, had married another. My mother and he were attracted, they shared a love of music, an interest in the church and helping others and after two years of correspondence and occasional visiting, my mother left London to start a new life in the country as a farmer’s wife”
My grandmother Annie lived in Southwark so I presume that the Mission mentioned was local to her. I would love to know where it was and more about that in general.
Hi Jo. You don’t have a photo of Edwin do you by any chance?
I am researching my Howard relatives. James Howard was a churchwarden of Meldreth parish in 1680 when he purchased a Register for the Parish. Several generations of Howard farmers lived in Meldreth. Another James Howard (1748-1816) was deacon of the Independent Chapel at Melbourn. Many generations later my great grandfather Henry Howard (1841-1926) chose Meldreth as the name for his house in Coley Avenue, Woking. It retains the name today. My aunt Barbara Howard (1919-2008) emigrated to New Zealand and chose Meldreth as the name for her farm in Fairlie on the Canterbury Plains. My grandfather Sir Henry Howard (1874-1943) was senior bursar of St John’s College Cambridge.
Sadly I do not have any details of where they lived in Meldreth or whether any distant Howard relatives still live there.
Sunday 2nd March 1958, I was in a house down here watching Buddy Holly on TV at the London Palladium.
I remember Sergeant Brookbank and the local bobbies. They were all good and would stop and talk to you. But, I wonder if the Sergeant remembered coming to Dolphin Lane on the occasion of our Polish lodger having a gun and causing trouble? I would have been around 12 yrs old so this would have been 1958. The lodger was taken away and never seen again.
We have received some information about the “train” depicted in the picture which Bernard O’Connor identified as a Ransomes and Rapier engine:
“The locomotive would appear to be a modified portable engine, a very primitive contraption. Rail adapted traction engines enjoyed a limited success, but this machine is in a class of its own. It does not resemble any of the locomotives listed in the book Ransomes and Rapier Locomotives by Chris Fisher and Keith Halton, published by The Narrow Gauge Railway Society”. We do not know if it was modified by the manufacturer or locally.
Had my photo taken sitting in the stocks, late 1950s.
I would love to see my old family home as I’m a Croxall
Lovely cottage, and it could well be about 300 years old as my ancestor John Wayment married Hannah Fordham in Meldreth on 5/10/1740.
Remember my Dad (Fred) visiting this pub many times, and on one occasion falling from his bicycle breaking his arm on the way home to Melbourn. Can’t begin to think how that could have happened!
My Grandad Andrew Howard owned this farm, probably just before this.
David Here lived in a caravan at the Flint Cross when my husband John and I lived in the other caravan. It was soon after we got married in 1960. Doris also lived there with him. But I heard he had a wife and children at Melbourn.
John Newton, author of Amazing Grace, stayed with Mary Palmer on a couple of his journeys through Cambridgeshire in 1791 and 1794. Local people he mentions in his journal are Mr Campkin, Mr Carver, Mrs Cooper, Mr Fitch and Miss Wells. He preached in Meldreth and Melbourn churches. University students came especially to hear him and to ask his advice. Writing to William Wilberforce from Meldreth, Newton commended the villagers: ‘They have learnt to taste the goodness of the Lord in their brown bread.’ You can read Newton’s ‘Travelling notes’ online.
Marylynn Rouse, http://www.johnnewton.org
There is a benchmark at the end of the garden wall of 63 high street. Near the lamppost.
A fascinating read. Thank you. My father, John, the eldest grandson of ‘Sid’, has recently passed away and this was an article he would have loved. Thankfully, Mum forwarded it to me. I must plan a visit to your area soon. There are many photographs I have seen growing up and tales of Meldreth.
Thanks again
Used to love this old cottage it had a second staircase in the back room. It was tiny – very narrow. I sometimes wonder if it’s still there after the renovations. Gus Harper was my great granddad and I inherited it in the early 90s at a young age from Gus Harper’s son Cyril. It only had one cold water tap and an outside toilet at the time and the barn was full of Gus’s tools ??
Robert Harrison Lee, I’m sure Daisy had a child in NZ – would have to look at my family tree to be sure. If you message my mother Monica Morris (she is on Facebook) she may be able to tell you more about our family in Meldreth. Hope this helps.
On December 10th 1925 Meldreth Parish Council carried unanimously a proposal to send a resolution be sent to the Postmaster General, “That the Parish Council of Meldreth ask the Postmaster General to consider the desirability of making the Post Office a full office owing to the number of Licenses issued, and the inconvenience caused to the inhabitants having to go to Melbourn or elsewhere to do their business.”
Unfortunately the Post Master General refused the application (reported March 24th 1926) stating: “after due consideration of the amount of business likely to be done at the Meldreth Post Office, he did not feel justified in acceding to the Council’s request”.
Beautifully written Colin – lovely to see all the photos again and to have everything written down for posterity! Thanks for the mention too! 🙂
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