NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

All Saints, Harpole has an interesting old font (pics later) - this corbel survivor(s) am high up on the tower - heads or tails or just good friands ?

SUFFOLK

Holy Trinity church, Long Melford - one of the the "Great Wool Churches" of Suffolk - we also visited SS Peter & Paul in Lavenham

Lavenham High

Cathedral of St Mary, Bury St Edmonds - one of the supporting angels for the magnificent painted hammer beam roof

NORFOLK

The graves of 2xgrt, 3xgrt, 4xgrt, 5xgrt and 6xgrt grandparents Aldous, Poole and Whiting revealed at St Margaret's Starston and St Mary's Redenhall - plus several wills .....

6xgrt - Abigail Whiting ( ? ) (? - 1752 (?)) (Starston)

5xgrt - John* (1725-1771 (46)) and Mary Whiting ( ? ) (c1733-1758 (25)) (Starston)

4xgrt James* (1757-1810 (53)) and Martha (1754 - 1824 (70)) Aldous (Whiting) (Starston); Sarah Poole (Strutt) (1758-1836 (78) (Redenhall)

3xgrt - James* (1785-1859 (74)) and Harriette Aldous (Poole) (1783-1866 (83)) (Redenhall)

2xgrt - Alexander James Aldous (1815-1879 (64)) (Redenhall)

* we have their wills .... AND with the help of the NRO we also obtained the wills of Abigail's husband Yeoman John Whiting, his father Yeoman James Whiting, and wills and inventories for both James' father Yeoman William and his mother Elizabeth.

St Margaret, Starston - the vault tomb belongs to James Aldous (1757 - 1810 (53)) and his wife Martha (Whiting) (1754 - 1824 (70)).

Martha's parents John and Mary Whiting are buried in the graves under the bush, whilst John's mother Abigail is in a grave hidden by the Aldous Vault. 

James the Harleston Grocer left a £12,000 will (1810 £s).

This recently cleared group of graves at St Mary, Redenhall, belongs to the next James Aldous (1785-1859 (74))

and his wife Harriette (Poole) (1783 - 1866 (83)), his sister and several children including Adrian's gggrandfather Alexander James Aldous (1815-1879 (64)).  Also Harriette's mum Sarah Poole and a sister and brother Poole.

All the gravestones and their inscriptions will appear in ciaofamiglia.

Link showing how the Aldouses and Whitings fit in to the family tree.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE

The church of St Mary & St Andrew at Whittlesford, just south of Cambridge.  Sheela & Dongle tower motif above and medieval archer graffiti on an internal column below.

HAMPSHIRE

The c1150 Tournai Marble Font  in the church of All Saints, East Meon (Hampshire) - a complete Adam & Eve cycle.

YORKSHIRE

St Mary Kirkburn, St Mary Cowlam, St Nicholas North Grimston and St Peter Langtoft

These village (in one case farm) churches of East Yorkshire contain the survivors of what were once around

50 Norman fonts in East Yorkshire, all carved by the same school of artists.  

Adam, Eve and a Serpent in St Peter Langtoft (originally Cottam) (East Yorkshire) - all the font sculptures will be loaded into Paradoxplace later.

York and Scarborough

Robert Procter (1794 - 1842 (48)), Walmgate Chemyst who lived in the slums near Fishergate Bar, and who was the 3xgrtr grandfather of Adrian, was buried in a shared public grave in the very early days of York Cemetery.  A gravestone recording him and various deceased children was erected later (by living son Joseph).  His remarried wife Elizabeth Kettlewell (Ashton / Procter) (1801 - 1873 (72)) lived latterly and was buried in Haxby.

Robert himself had been born and christened in Barnard Castle (and is also remembered on his mother's gravestone there) whilst Elizabeth, the daughter of coachman John Ashton (whose mother was originally from Bubwith), was christened in St Olave - one of York's oldest and loveliest churches. 

Font and Nave of the church of St Olave, York,  just down the road from York Minster and where Elizabeth Ashton was christened on 6 September 1801.

The wood canopy came later - what were they thinking ?

Angels support the hammer-beam chancel roof of All Saints, York where Robert Procter married Elizabeth Ashton on 24 Jan 1819

Robert and Elizabeth were married in All Saints (North Street, York) (above) on the 24 January 1819.

Robert's eldest son Joseph married a Scarborough girl (Elizabeth Dobson) and they set up a very successful main street draper in Westborough, Scarborough.  Their gravestone is in Manor Road Cemetery, Scarborough, as is the grave of 2xgrt grandparents John and Maria Fletcher.  Elizabeth's mother, another Elizabeth Dobson, was buried in next door Dean Road Cemetery, but there is no knowing what happened to her seafarer hubbie Matthew Dobson.  They had been married in the beautiful old parish church of St Mary (below) on 27 December 1827, and daughter Elizabeth was christened there on 11 July 1832.  After that everyone went to the Wesleyan Methodist "Chapel" which does not compare architecturally.

All the gravestones were tracked down (in sunshine) and will appear in ciaofamiglia.

Link showing how the Procters and Fletchers fit in to the family tree.

The beautiful old parish church of St Mary has been there in various forms since at least the early 1100s.  In 1189, shortly after Richard I acceded to the throne, it is said that whilst he was hangin out in Dover waiting to take off on the Third Crusade, he granted the revenues of St Mary's to the Abbot of (Cistercian) Citeaux.  A big aisle building campaign in the early 1200s was a bit of an on again / off again thing because of Innocent III excommunicating King John and trying to financially ruin the Cistercians etc, but it was finished post John (and Innocent) in 1225.  The aisles were further augmented with a transept just before the 1348 Black Death reduced England's population by two thirds or so. 

This did not seem to slow the Scarborough masons who eventually went for the jackpot by doubling the length of the church with a Quire - all completed by 1450 and in use for nearly 200 years until, in 1645, one of O Cromwell's artillery men sneaked two canons into the church at night, and at daybreak opened fire on the (royalist held) castle.  The castle returned fire enthusiastically and the when the smoke cleared the castle keep was ruined as was the "new" choir and much else in the church.  When things settled down again there was not enough money to rescue the east end or the western towers but the rest of the church was lovingly rebuilt.  In the mid 1800s there was a Victorian clean out and all the medieval galleries, box pews etc were removed.  What was left is a most beautifully proportioned space, a lovely place to just sit and be!

The bestest feeling church space of this trip ?

LINCOLNSHIRE

On the way to Yorkshire, a seductive stare from high up on the tower of the "Angel Church" of St Peter, Lenton (Lincolnshire)

START 2011