Off To Dorchester Town Via London Liverpool St and London Waterloo Stations

We're off to Dorchester via London Liverpool St and London Waterloo stations so we have quite the train ride. The challenge will be to get from Liverpool St station to Waterloo station via the Underground in time to catch a train to Dorchester.  This will involve taking the Circle Line from Liverpool St over to Embankment, then getting over to the Northern line but taking it south to Waterloo train station. 

I was down to the Sheringham train station with lots of time to catch the 8:25 to Norwich.  Stepping off the train at 925, it was a short trip across the platform to catch the 9:30 train to London Liverpool St train station.  Off the train, down the platform, through the gates, down to the Underground, onto the eastbound platform for the Circle Line, and I was on my way to London Waterloo train station. 

Off the Underground at Embankment, down the stairs and the elevators to the southbound Northern Line platform and onto the Underground train.  Off at the next stop, Waterloo, waayyy up the escalators and into the Waterloo train station hall for 12:15.  Which train to Dorchester?  Have I missed it? (The next train is in 2 hours?).  Get into the ticket line up, ask the attendant.  Next train stopping at Dorchester is the 12:35 to Weymouth.  Which platform?  Hasn’t yet been assigned. 

Back out into the station hall looking at the electronic departure boards trying to find “Weymouth”.  Aha, there it is.  Platform 8.  It’s now 12:27.  Walk over to platform 8, through the gate (didn’t work!), and onto the train.  Made it!!  Fifteen minutes after we leave the tea trolley comes along.  Time for a cup of tea!

It seemed to be a quick train ride down to Dorchester, arriving at 3:30.  I remembered my way down the back lane alongside the train tracks, up to the top of the street and over to Dawn’s house.  Some warm welcomes as it was in August of 2008 that Sharon, Sira and I had last seen Dawn.

A cup of tea, deciding on our itinerary for the next few days, introductions to Anna, a student from Spain, catching up on the news from both sides of the pond, and to sit back and relax after a 6 hour train journey.  

Here's my opportunity to share with you my recent find in Letheringsett a week ago - a little story on my great-uncle, Robert Moore the Coachman.

Robert Moore - The Coachman

In 1957, Basil Cozens-Hardy published a book on "The History of Letheringsett In The County of Norfolk (with extracts from the Diary of Mary Hardy (1773 to 1809))".  There are several extracts in the book including a diary note on the death of Stephen Moore (01 November 1804), the residences of the farm workers (including some of the Moores) and a reference to Robert Moore, the coachman.  Robert Moore, baptized March 19, 1826, was the 4th child born to Matthew Moore and Elizabeth Barber Gidney. From a very early age he was the coachman to the Cozens-Hardy family.  Page 136 of the book recounts a cricket match played in 1905 that Robert Moore played in. Basil Cozens-Hardy recounts....

"Early this century, I used to run a side in August which we called the Holiday Hittites with headquarters on the Old School House ground at Holt. In the merriness of our batting we tried to be true to our name and the ground was small and an easy one to score upon. In 1905 I arranged a match against Letheringsett and the scores are worth recording:

Letheringsett		Holiday Hittites
R. Moore b B.Cozens-Hardy	36	C.P. Evers b G.A. Scott	34
A. Simpson b Chadwick	20	R.M. Chadwich b G.A. Scott	28
C.T. Scott b Chadwick	55	Dr j.B. Gillam b G.A. Scott	0
G.A.Scott c C.P. Evers b B. Cozens-Hardy	1	R.W. Evers b Smith	60
A. High st Wrigley b Chadwick	10	H.L. Evers b C.T. Scott	1
E.. Boyce c H.L. KEvers b. Cozens-Hardy	6	B. Cozens-Hardy not out	93
G. Beeston b Chadwich	0	C.J. Gardner b Smith	0
F. Smith not out	0	P.T. Wrigley b Smith	0
W. Loynes c Gardner b Chadwick	2	G.T. Shaw b Smith	0
J. Reynolds run out	1	S. Cozens-Hardy not out	1
H. Chapman b B. Cozens-Hardy	0	S.N. Cozens-Hardy b Loynes	3
Extras	15	Extras	40
	146		260

But perhaps the most interesting feature of the game was what appeared in the following paragraph in the Eastern Daily Press:

An Aged Cricketer's Advice

Robert Moore, the coachman at Letheringsett Hall, who is now in his 79th year, has played cricket at Letheringsett for more than 60 years.   Last Saturday while playing for Letheringsett against the Holiday Hittites at Holt, he went in first and kept up his wicket for over an hour and a half making 36, which consisted of seven 4s and four 2s.  His motto, he says, is "Keep your wicket up, the runs are sure to come".

There was no better figure in the parish half a century ago than Robert Moore.  I can see him sitting erect, reins and whip in Hand on the box of the Hall victoria.  Punctual, exact and obliging he was all that a coachman should be. He lived in Glaven Cottage, south of the bridge both before and after it was rebuilt in 1870.  He was a devotee of the national game.  He used almost every morning to drive to Holt in a dog-cart for the groceries, etc.  If there was any cricket bieng played on the Old Schoolhouse ground there was generally pressing business to be done in Holt that afternoon as well.

Quite an interesting story about my great-uncle, Robert Moore, eh!?  But it gets even better.  I always wondered what Robert Moore looked like.  A week ago Sunday, May 31st, I knocked on the door of a David Maynes to get some information on the residences where the Moores resided.  David used to be the gardener on the Hardy estate before he retired a few years ago.  It just happened that David had a photo of Robert Moore.  Here's what he looked like around 1890 (or earlier).

Kind of neat, eh!?

We're off to visit with my 1st cousin-once-removed tomorrow in Ringwood in the middle of the New Forest (which is quite old as it was established in 1066 AD.

Letheringsett - A Pilgrimage to Stephen Moore's Pit Hole

It had rained heavily all night long but by morning, while the sky was overcast with clouds, the rain had stopped with a cool breeze blowing off the coast - an ideal day for a long walk into Letheringsett.  I was up to the NNR station for 9:30 to catch the 9:45 train to Holt Station.  The train had been pulled in by 0-6-0 #65462 which uncoupled from the train.  At the other end, Class 31 diesel #31207 was coupling onto the passenger cars to haul us up to Holt.

At the top end, #31207 did a run-around and was joined by another diesel to make its way back down to Sheringham.

I continued the 2.5 miles from Holt Station through Holt, down Letheringsett Hill and into the eastern edge of the village where I veered off down Garden Lane to make my way up Wall's Lane.  At the bottom of Garden Lane, I paused to take a look at the site of the brick mill that Lord Cozens-Hardy set up in 1804 to make bricks for his new mansion.

The clay for these bricks probably came from the clay pits up the hill on Wall's Lane, including the one located alongside Wall's Lane, later to be named Stephen Moore's pit hole, and Strawberry pit hole located 400' to the east. These pits are located just a short distance up Wall's Lane and would have been an easy downhill trip with a load of marl.

 The climb up Wall's Lane to Stephen Moore's pit hole, however, was anything but easy.  I figured it was a 15%-20% grade as I put one foot in front of the other and climbed up the hill. A scan at the contour lines on the map indicated a good increase in elevation.  It's surprising how little has changed in the 150+ years between the ordinance map I had and the satellite images from Google maps.  You can almost pick out the different fields and the tree lines between the map and the satellite images.

Lest you think that Stephen Moore's pit hole is something spectacular, it really isn't.  Due to its close proximity to the road, the pit has been filled in over the centuries with garbage, coarse excavated material, and other detruitous material.  An excavation at the north end of the pit gives you an idea of what type of material was being dug out of the pit back in 1804. 

To get an idea of how large and how deep the pit hole was, I walked the 300' across the field to Strawberry pit hole.  While it is much overgrown with trees and brush, it occupies about 2 acres and is about 20'-25' deep.  A fair sized excavation when you consider that this was all dug by hand!

As I walked back down the hill to Letheringsett village, I could visualize that November 1st day in 1804 as the body of my great-great-great grandfather was being carried down the hill to his grieving widow and 6 children.  Their life would be changed forever.

Making my way back to Letheringsett, I stopped into the King's Head for lunch and then made my way down the road to the hamlet of Little Thornage.  It was in some of these residences that the Moore family resided at various times.  The houses were built by Lord Cozens-Hardy as part of his Glaven Farm.

 I traversed the footbridge at the ford across the River Glaven, back down to the road to Holt and traced my footsteps back to Holt Station and the North Norfolk Railway.  By this time, my feet were quite tired so I paused at Holt and Weybourne before returning to Sheringham.

Tomorrow, we're off to Dorchester via London to visit with our good friend Dawn deG and to visit with my 1st cousin-once-removed (or however it works), Ann H.

The "Mixed Gala" - How To Stuff 9 Locomotives Onto 5.25 Miles Of Track

Each month on preservation railways in England has its "special event" weekend.  The most popular are the "1940s Weekends" where everyone dresses up in World War II outfits, costumes, and uniforms and takes the steam train up the line.  Whether it's kids' weekends (next weekend on the North Norfolk) or simply extra steam locomotives on the line, the galas bring out the crowds of visitors.

This weekend on the North Norfolk was one of those gala weekends - the "Mixed Gala" where steam was running alongside diesel.  Where the diesel pulled the train up to the end of the line and the steam loco pulled it back.  Or where a diesel pulled the train down, did its runaround to couple back up to the train and was then double-headed back up the line with another diesel.  Or it was simply a freight being pulled up and down the line.  Every permutation and combination of motive power you could think of you were bound to see this weekend:

• 3 steam locomotives
• 3 diesel locomotives
• 2 self-propelled diesel coaches
• 20 Mark I passenger cars
• 4 1894 Quad Art cars
• 4 goods wagons
• 2 brake vans

Stuff all of the above into 5.25 miles of single line track.  Add two stations with runaround tracks (Sheringham and Holt) at each end of the line.  Put one station with a passing siding halfway up the line (Weybourne).  Add a couple of thousand visitors and you have the makings of a "Mixed Gala".

Arriving at Sheringham station for 9:45, I caught the Class 25 diesel-powered train that was supposed to stop at Weybourne but kept on going to the end of the line at Holt.  Holidayers were lineside with their cameras and camcorders shooting the scene as the train went by.  At Holt, the diesel uncoupled but stayed in place.  At the other end of the platform, 4-6-0 Black 5 moved out of the siding to couple onto the other end and back down we went to Weybourne where I got off to go to the shops.  As we were pulling in, another train was coming up from Sheringham pulled by a Class 37 diesel.  Just behind that was the 0-6-0 steam locomotive #65462.  Down at Sheringham 0-6-2T #69621 was coupling on to the 1894 Quad Art set of four carriages.

I ambled into the shops to find that André and the guys were re-arranging the locomotives on different tracks.  This went on all day so, in between doing some work, I stood and watched the action, talking to Phil, Noel and the rest on different loco matters.  I got down to doing some work, starting off by stringing out some power cord to the container flat.  I then put a grinding disc on the 4 1/2" angle grinder and proceeded to grind the heads off of some rivets that needed to be removed.  After grinding the heads off, I took a 2lb hammer and a steel punch and whacked the beejeeezuz out of them until they popped out.  In 25C heat, it was a sweaty ordeal.  This required lots of breaks watching the shop switcher going in and out of the shops with various and sundry locos and wheeled parts.

Around 3:30 I started to clean up, had a shower, and walked up to the station platform to watch a few trains go by.  The steam locomotives were finishing their runs and had steamed back up to the locomotive sheds at Weybourne.  With the locomotives being shunted around all day, I could get some clear shots of the locos dropping their fires.  Of course, only 10 minutes before I happened to be right alongside them. 

 One of the lads pulled in on the head of the Class 37 diesel so I hitched a ride in the cab back down to Sheringham.  You get a different perspective of the line when you're in the cab.  The top of the rails were quite shiny with all of that traffic. 

 The walk back up Cliff Road to Camberley House was a bit slower than usual.  The Mixed Gala continues tomorrow but we're off tomorrow on our pilgrimage to Stephen Moore's pit hole in Letheringsett.

Back At The Shops - Needle Gunning, Wire Wheeling & Tea Breaks

After 3 days of intense brain work at the Norfolk Archives in Norwich, it was time to head back up to the shops at Weybourne Station today.  It was a bright sunny day with a cool breeze as 4-6-0 Black Five "George Stephenson" was ready to pull the 10:30 train up to Holt.

While waiting for departure, I listened in on the conversation between the engine driver for that shift and one of the owners of Black Five on how they had re-tubed the boiler and installed new stay bolts in the firebox.  We both then hopped on the train and stood in the vestibule all the way up to Weybourne Station.  I had a chance to ask the owner how he used oxy-acetylene torches to collapse the boiler tubes from inside the firebox without blowing steel off of the backhead, then how he used a tractor to pull each tube out through the front plate in the smokebox, then how each tube was installed, swaged, and then rounded. A very educational conversation it was (at least for me it was).  

It was clean-up time as I pushed a vac down the rails in the back of the C&W shop sucking up sawdust and crud. Around 11:00 I took a quick trip out to the yard with Nigel to look at the container flat.  Fifteen minutes later we were stringing out air hoses from the shop down to the con-flat and I was needle-gunning the rust and crud off of the steel.  After lunch I went back at it again, finishing off with a twisted wire-wheel on a 4 1/2" Delta angle grinder to get it down to bare steel.  I managed to only get about 6' of the outside steel done which wasn't too bad as it took some time to get the air hoses and extension cords strung out, locate the needle gun, angle grinder and wire wheel and to get started.  I finished off the day with a coat of rust inhibitor.  This stuff is fantastic as it contains an acid that gets rid of any remaining rust.

At 3 o'clock it was tea time which made for a very refreshing break.  As I mentioned to the lads, I've drunk more tea in the last 4 weeks than I have in the previous 40 years. 

 As I was finishing up, Black Five came into the yard after finishing her runs for the day.  As soon as she had cleared the switches, the Quad Arts were moved onto the main line and taken down to Sheringham for their trips in tomorrow's "Mixed Gala". 

I had a quick shower at the shops to get rid of the grit and grime.  Then it was time to head back to Sheringham.  On my way out, I saw that Ivor (is it pronounced "Eye-vor" or is it "Eee-vor"?) the Engine had arrived so I took a couple of photos.  Wouldn't it be nice to have that engine in your back yard?  Ivor and his friend, Jones the Steam, will be featured next weekend.  This will be quite popular with the younger set as they will be able to get up real close to the engines.  They're almost as popular as Thomas the Tank Engine.  Phil, Allistair, André and their chum were talking so I joined in the conversation for a bit and took their photo.  These lads had been working on their diesels all week installing turbo-chargers, adding a 3rd coat of paint, or fixing up cab doors. 

On getting back to Sheringham, I was going to have some lobster but then remembered I should do some laundry as I'm off to Dorchester next Monday and I'm out of fresh clothes.  So, it was up the hill to Camberley House, down the hill to the launderette, then back up the hill to Camberley.  It wasn't the hill so much but those last 3 flights of stairs up to my room.  I had changed my T-shirt at the launderette but it was soaked when I got back up to my room from all that hill climbing.

We're back to the shops tomorrow and then to Letheringsett if it's nice on Sunday for a pilgrimage to Stephen Moore's pit hole.

Back To The Archives Once Again - Trying To Find Stephen, Sarah, and Benjamin

I was up bright and early, down to breakfast for 7:45, out of the door by 8:15 and up to the station for 8:30 to catch the 8:45 train to Norwich.  It was going to be a good day in trying to find the baptismal records of my great-great-grandparents, Stephen Moore of pit hole fame, and his wife Sarah Page.  Only problem was the train had left at 8:25 and the next train wasn't until 9:45.  So much for reading timetables, eh!?

I walked across the street to the newstand, and picked up "The Independent" to do the Sudoku puzzles (they have 3 of them in each issue!) and to catch up on the news.  In all the time I've been here, I haven't watched a single minute of television.  Just grabbed a newspaper, turned to the Sudoku puzzles, and scanned the pages.  Not to say that I haven't been keeping up with what's been happening.  It's just that I now get most of my news online.

The train arrived right on schedule and we immediately started off for Norwich.  I find it incredible the number of rabbits you can see in the fields as the train travels the countryside!  There are literally thousands of them and most of them stand looking at the train as it whizzes by.  You can see the mother rabbit with half a dozen small ones around her munching on the grass and the farmers' crops!  They have to be thicker than mice.  Here's a shot of just two of them in a field of about a hundred.  And are they ever nice and fat ready for the pot!

Why my pre-occupation with the bunny rabbits?  When I was 8 years old, I got my first pet - a bunny rabbit called, of course, "Bunny Boy".  I built a cage out of two wooden orange crates complete with two doors, kept him outside in a cage in the Spring, Summer and Fall, and inside in the cellar with the dirt floor in the winter.  One Fall day "Bunny Boy" escaped from his cage but only for a few hours.  Just before Christmas I found out that "Bunny Boy" was really "Bunny Girl" with a litter of about 6 rabbits.  Anyhoo..... That was my first lesson about the birds-and-the-bees...................

Arriving at the Norfolk Archives for 11:15, I started cruising through the microfilm and microfiche trying to find baptismal records for Stephen Moore and Sarah Page between 1755 and 1765 but no luck.  The negatives (white writing on black background) are really poor on both the Parish Records and the Archdeacon copies. 

I had previously had a conversation with a professional researcher who gave me some tips on what other records I might search.  In between looking at the microfilm and microfiche, I looked at the indexes to the Poor Laws (persons receiving charity) records.  It was interesting to note that scarlet fever had hit Letheringsett in 1825 and again in 1835.  As I was cruising the burial records, it was evident that this was so. 

Michael and Susan Whelan were there when I arrived.  We all went to lunch in the Norfolk County employees cafeteria and had a good chat. 

Michael and I are related through our great-great-grandparents, Matthew Moore and Elizabeth Gidney. My great-grandfather, Edmund Moore, and his great-grandmother, Hannah Moore, were brother and sister.  

They were going to do some sight seeing in the afternoon so I went back to the Archives to continue my search. 

The above marriage record is an example of how things can get complicated in trying to locate records.  The baptism of Hannah Moore was easy to find as she was born in Letheringsett, the Parish Records that I was scanning.  But I couldn't find her marriage or subsequent death.  In an entirely different direction, Michael had found her marriage but in the parish of Hindringham, about 5 miles down the road from Letheringsett.  My on-line searches of the Freereg.org.uk databases (with a few "wild-cards" thrown in) didn't yield any results in my search for the baptism of Stephen Moore and Sarah Page.  This will probably be one of those "needle-in-the-haystack" problems.

Leaving the Norfolk Archives at 5:05, I caught the 5:45 train back to Sheringham.  Right in the middle of the station was parked a Network Rail track inspection train. This was simply two "Sprinter" cars loaded with the equipment to check the rails, sleepers, and roadbed so that the track maintenance crews can fix any problems.

Approaching the 4th-to-last stop in the middle of the countryside, a young lad asked me in halting English if he was on the correct train.  I couldn't understand him as he was speaking with an accent.  Out of the blue I said "Parlez-vous francais?" to which he replied "Oui"!  So we ended up speaking French for the last 20 minutes into Sheringham.  How's that, eh!?  Have to travel 3,000 miles across the pond just to speak French.  I helped him find a taxi and then I went on to the Lobster for dinner and to take a look at my e-mail. 

I'm off to the shops at Weybourne today.  I want to go back to Letheringsett on Saturday or Sunday to cruise around, take a trip up to Stephen Moore's pit hole, and talk to the couple who know a lot about Letheringsett.

Back At The Archives Trying To Solve A Mystery - No Luck!

My first stop after breakfast was at the library in Sheringham in time for the doors to open at 9:30.  I spent the next hour scanning the records I had printed at the Norfolk Archives the day before and printing off a fresh copy of my notes so that I could continue with my quest of finding baptismal records for Stephen Moore and Sarah Page, and Benjamin Moore who I suspected was a child of my great-great grandparents but who had died only months before.  Then it was up to the station, onto the train and down to Norwich to arrive at the Norfolk Archives for 12:15.

I had spent a lot of time on Sunday and Monday on the FreeReg website searching for records on Sarah Page who was born in 1760 and married Stephen Moore in 1787 when they were 27 and 29 respectively.  Likewise for Stephen Moore who was born in 1758.  How do I know these dates?  This is where a bit of sleuthing and cross-checking comes into play.  Stephen Moore's burial entry in the Letheringsett Parish Register shows him as being 46 when he died in November of 1804 which means he would have been born around 1758.  And Sarah Moore's (nee Page) show her age on the bural entry as being 75 when she died in 1836 which would make her birth date around 1761.

To add another calculation to the plot, that would make Sarah and Stephen 27 and 29 when they got married.  Relatively speaking, this would be quite an old age for the two of them as most marriages occurred when both spouses were either in their late teens or early twenties.  So, back and forth we went from microfilm to microfiche to the FreeReg website.  From one parish to the next adjoining parish and back again.  From the Parish Registers to the Archdeacons' registers to the Bishop's Registers - assuming they were born to Church of England parents. No luck as I went from parish to parish searching the birth and marriage registers.

Which is what makes all of this work akin to detective work or finding a needle in the haystack.

To say nothing of the fact that I'm looking at untouched negative images that can really draw the eyeballs out of the sockets!  Here's an example of what I mean.  Can you decipher the writing?

 And here's what it looks like after I've printed it, scanned it, and cleaned it up a bit in my graphics software.

The Archives closed at 5:00 and I was down to the station by 5:25 with plenty of time to catch the 5:45 back to Sheringham.  We're back to the Norfolk Archives again tomorrow to see if we can solve the mystery of when and where Stephen Moore and Sarah Page were born.

Norfolk Archives & A Long Lost Cousin

I tried to get up a bit earlier today as we were going to the Norfolk Archives in Norwich to meet a long lost "cousin" who I had only met on Sunday and to do some further research into the Moore family roots.  I missed the 8:45 train but caught the 9:45 train arriving in Norwich at 10:45 and into the Archvies for 11:40.  The walk is uphill all the way but I was striding right along without taking any stops (other than for 2 traffic lights). 

Michael and Susan Whelan were sitting down at the microfilm readers when I arrived.  Michael and I sat down to share the ton of notes that Michael has composed on the Moore family (ours), the Gidney family (ours), the Spooner family (his) and pretty much every family that ever lived in Letheringsett.  Quite a lot of work that they have done which has produced excellent results for his side of the famiy

My method has been to search for specific records on the direct lineage back into the past which means I make multiple passes on the same microfilm or fiche.  As I find information, I enter it directly into my laptop.  This makes a big difference as compared to writing it long-hand on paper and then transcribing it later on.  In the evening, I'm able to rearrange these notes into a "logical" order with notes to myself as to which areas to further investigate on the next difference.  I only wish I had direct Internet access to the ancestry.co.uk website so that I could look at the info on there to match it up with the info I'm looking at. 

It is quite something (at least it is for me) to come across records that were written over 213 years ago.  This is when Stephen Moore (my great-great-great grandfather) and Sarah Page (my great-great-great grandmother) were married.

To say nothing about the marriage of my great-great grandmother's parents, John Gidney and Ann Barber who I hadn't discovered until this trip, being married in 1791

 Michael and Susan left at 3:30 but I stayed to closing at 5:00.  While I managed to confirm only two new records (Jeremiah Moore and Benjamin Gidney), that was sufficient in itself as it is a very repetitive process looking at negatives of the two records you see above.  

I left the Norfolk Archives at 5:05 and arrived at the train station by 5:40 (downhill all the way and walking quickly) just in time to catch the 5:45 train to Sheringham and on to The Lobster.  I want to scan the records that I have printed so far and depending on how I do at the library timewise, I plan to return to Norwich to do some more research.