Family History

The plan was simple - head down to Sth England, walk up to places where Mary's grandparents had lived, and ask the current owners if we could look around. How hard could that be? 

In fact it was very easy. Total strangers welcomed Mary and introduced her to their families as if she was a long lost cousin. 

Why do this, and how did it all come together? 

Regarding the why, Mary's parents and grandparents all had a connection to the Southern Coast of England. When we were here in 2017 we tracked down the places where Mary's father, Pip, had spent part of his childhood. This time we were cheking out the history of Mary's mother, Meg.

Regarding the how, Mary's uncle Richard and cousin Fiona had provided some details and photos of where Mary's grandparents had lived in Southern England, some of which where places where Meg had also lived. Most importantly, it included the place near Lyme Regis where Pip first met Meg. 

First up, Piddletrenthide, in the heart of Piddle Valley. 

Stop sniggering....

Mary knocked on the door, explained her mission, and was immediately invited in for a tour of the house. I am not sure who was most surprised - Mary or the other occupants of the house!

Our last request was whether we could pose for a replay of the photo provided by Richard, a request also willingly granted.

Next, Cerne Abbas, featuring 3 pubs/restaurants, all sadly closed. To paraphrase an old Slim Dusty song: 

"There's nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear 

Than to stand in the streets of a town with no beer"

Sadly, also closed was the house of interest. 

The best Mary could do was talk to random strangers and neighbours, from which she gleaned that the current owners paint the windows a lot, and not much else. Having said that, the random strangers treated her as one of the community, so that feature of the day was continued. 

One of the random strangers was a kiwi, who was actively looking to return home. I  did wonder if the lack of operational pubs was a feature in their homesickness...

Yawl was the next stop, where Green Acres had been renamed Green Down. 

Down was the operative word. This was at the bottom of an extremely steep and narrow drive. It was easy to see how Pip got stuck, given that it was not fully paved at that stage.

To recap the story: Pip was in NZ in the mid-1950s and met some ex-pats, one of whom said he should look up her sister when next back in the UK, which Pip duly did. Unfortunately Pip had not called ahead, instead he just turned up when nobody was home. The drive was too tricky to reverse up so he had to first turn around. While trying to do so he got stuck on the lawn next to the drive, and the tow truck he called made an even greater mess.  Pip went back the next day with a large box of chocolates to apologise for that mess, and discovered the sister had a charming young daughter, Meg.  The rest, as they say, is history.

One postscript  - when Pip told me that story,  he laughed heartily and said that it all meant that he bought Meg with a box of chocloates. By contrast, when Meg told me that same story, she groaned and said she always got really upset when Pip told people that he bought her with a box of chocolates... 

The current owner, Adrian, did not have any daughters for sale, but he did continue the hospitality experience despite Mary arriving as unannounced as her father all those years ago. We were invited in for coffee, and Adrian pulled up a history  of the property on his iPad which included Mary's grandparents. Adrian proved to be as interested in Mary's history as Mary was in the house.

At that point it was clear that Mary really should have arranged a film crew for a 'Where did I come from?' reality TV show....

The final stop was Combpyne, which has clearly had a couple of upgrades over the years:

The only remarkable feature was that Mary was not invited in....

All in all, a very successful day capped off with a night in Lyme Regis, a very picturesque town, made all the more pleasant by the pubs all being open....