Norfolk North Coast

We spent 2 nights at a 'Manor House' Bed nd Breakfast just outside Castle Acres, without taking up the option of bringing our horse with us.

 

Castle Acres is just south of the Sandringham estate; a favourite of HM. Just north again is Hunstanton Beach, clearly very popular with many. The top 2 photos show some of the hundreds of beach huts and behind them, some of the numerous caravans. On the north east corner of Norfolk is the seaside town of Cromer, known for its crabs. Again clearly popular with many English holiday makers. [Bottom photo.]

We have been sampling a range of British Pub food on this trip. This one is roast duck leg on hay! Served at the Ostrich in Castle Acres, also serving Ostrich lager.

The "Manor House" is home to a number of jumpers who the owners enter in steeple chase events between December and May, and many very friendly whippets.

Lancaster

We visited Lancaster Castle on 24 October 2016, and joined a small group tour. The Castle contains an operating criminal court and until closed in March 2011 it held Europe’s longest-serving prison. The site has been fortified since Roman times with the current castle dating from Norman times. It is not on the very highest point of the hill; St Mary's has that honour so we can assume that a "church/priory" predates the Norman conquest.

Edward and Elizabeth Moors were convicted at the Lancaster Lent Assize in 1818; see the Family History section of this Blog.

Although talking photos in an operating court is usually not allowed, I was invited to be photographed in the dock where Edward and Elizabeth would have stood.

The dock has an interesting relic of this age, namely the branding iron which consists of a metal holdfast designed to immobilise the wrist and fingers, whilst a red hot branding iron embossed with the letter M was applied to the brawn of the thumb. This identified the convicted person as a 'malefactor' or 'evil-doer.'

The Branding Iron was last used in 1811. It was the practice of the gaoler to raise the convicted person's hand to show the Judge that, as it was said, a fair mark had been made. It became the rule that before a prisoner was tried he was required to raise his hand so that it could be seen whether he bore the brand mark and was therefore a previous offender.

A group of us on the tour were also briefly closed in one of the holding cells under the court; not even a slit of light enters.

In the early 1800s, convicts were not locked up in prisons and for the guilty punishment was dispersed quickly. The options were immediate hanging, public shaming (placed in stocks and similar public displays) or transportation. Those sentenced to transport in Lancaster had 16 days to walk to London; women (and children?) were in carts, probably pulled by the men. In London they were placed in hulks and usually had to work each day until their ship sailed.

Postscript:

Edward was one of 250 male convicts on the General Stewart that sailed from Portsmouth, England on 19 July 1818 arriving in Sydney on 31 December 1818. It must have been a good trip with only 4 convicts dying on the voyage.

Elizabeth with their 2 children arrived on the Lord Wellington on Wednesday 19th January 1820 with 87 (English and Irish) female prisoners and 45 children; the twenty four women who had young children with them on the voyage were sent immediately to the (old) Factory at Parramatta, located over the jail. Due to much controversy including speeches in parliament this voyage was almost a luxury passage by convict ship standards; well provisioned, lightly loaded with a lengthy stop over in Rio de Janeiro, and no lives lost.

 

Manchester Ancestry

20 October 2016:

All Saints at Newton Heath and the Manchester Cathedral have a long ecclesiastical connection in addition to the physical connection of being joined by a Roman road. They are linked in a reference in the Doomsday Book (1085 AD).

We travelled to Newton Heath by light rail from Piccadilly; very straightforward! Newton Heath's golden era has long gone; like Manchester's era, it was the second half of the 19th century. The large railway workshops are now a maintenance depot, Manchester United has long since moved to Old Trafford, and the once dominant cotton, silk, linen and heavy engineering industries have moved to other countries.The High Street has a couple of barbers, beauty salons, fast food and generic 'dollar shops' run by immigrants. When we arrived at All Saints church the children from the adjacent All Saints school were in the play ground and the Thursday flower arranger followed us into the church yard. We were made to feel most welcome as the church was unlocked and we were ushered in for an impromptu tour with tea and coffee at the conclusion.

As we started looking though the historical collection the minister who was equally obliging, arrived. He presented us with 2 volumes of the baptisms and burials for the 1700s and 1800s, plus a published church history. (I did make a donation to their restoration fund.)

 

We headed back into the city by light rail. The Cathedral has a much smaller congregation area compared to All Saints, and is partially closed for the installation of a new pipe organ.

A very helpful volunteer soon had us in tow, opening doors to show us the closed sections.

The bottom line: Rebecca Moors was buried at All Saints as I had previously understood to be the case. The close and often redefined relationship between Manchester Cathedral and All Saints makes it easy to be mislead in interpreting their historical records, but I believe it has now been clarified. Joseph and Rebecca were married in Manchester Cathedral, only a 3.5 or 4 mile walk down the Roman Road from Failsworth/Newton Heath and Joseph was also buried there in an unmarked grave; there are no headstones at the Cathedral and the area has been overbuilt and "over buried" many times over the millennium.

The burial area at All Saints was expanded with the purchase of additional land in the early 1800s, to cater for the increased number of pauper burials. This is where Rebecca was lain to rest. A selection of headstones have been laid at the front of the church; the church burial area has been overbuilt and "over buried" many times over the past 200 years.