Last week I took some time off to look round a few graveyards in exciting places such as Northamptonshire. I was a little disappointed initially to find that this and a few villages near Peterborough is where most of my ancestors seem to have come from. I was hoping for something a little more exotic – Scotland at the very least, possibly Ireland.  The picture is of my son and grandson, off down the line. I was looking in the other direction.

Most of my direct ancestors to the middle of the 19th century (much more checking to be done) seem to come from Yaxley, just outside Peterborough. A number of assorted Lentons feature in the cemetery, but none of them very easy to pin down.  I suspect most of them are cousins, or descendants of cousins, of my grandfather, Charles Frederick Lenton, and his father, Henry Lenton.

Both of them were actually born at Norman Cross, a mile or two down the road from Yaxley. Not much of it remains – it seems to have been obliterated by the A1(M) , which is admittedly a nice bit of road. No church that I could find.  At the time of the 1901 census Charles, the youngest son of Henry and born in 1879, was living at 24 Russell Street, Yaxley,  and working as a railway lampman. His older brother Albert Henry (b 1873), a railway worker, was head of the household. His mother also lived with them, and she was a widow – Henry having died at some time since 1881. Her name was Jane (nee Archer). More of the Archer family later.

Also living at 24 Russell Street was Charles’ sister Caroline Elizabeth (b 1878) who is described as a harness butcher. Not sure what that is. No longer (if ever) at Russell street were an eldest brother, Archer William (b 1871),  and Leonard Thomas (b 1875). Everyone living at 24 Russell Street in 1901 was single. Albert, Leonard and Caroline were born at Folksworth, another mile or two beyond Norman Cross, and Archer at Stilton, a couple of miles off to one side. They moved about a bit, but not very far. A circle five miles in diameter would cover the lot.

I have not yet traced exactly how my grandfather got from Yaxley to Norwich, but it was by way of Mansfield, following his marriage to Rosa Dorothy Booth. How they met is a bit of a mystery, because she was born in Sheffield – at 91 Washington Road in Ecclesall Bierlow, to be precise.  Her father was Charles Booth, a dyer’s traveller, and her mother was Ann (nee Duckenfield). Her date of birth was October 2, 1880, and she always claimed to be a relation of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. I haven’t been able to trace any connection yet.

Before her marriage Rosa had moved to London and was working as a wardmaid at The Grove Hospital in Tooting. As this was a hospital for infectious diseases, it is possible that Charles was ill and was sent there, but this is pure conjecture. At all events they ended up in Mansfield – for how long I don’t know – and eventually decided to move to Norwich, where they settled permanently.

My own father was David William, their fourth son, born in Norwich in 1913.  He died in Coventry in 1956.  My mother was Phyllis Maud Brown, whose parents Frederick and Rose were living in Eaton, a village on the outskirts of Norwich when she was born in 1911, but who I believe came from Horsford, a much larger village further out, on the Holt road. My father started out as a committee clerk and ended as assistant education officer in Coventry, where he was in charge of special schools. My mother was a teacher.

There are many more recent details which I hope to fill in later, such as my two brothers, my wife  Dorothy Frances Cousens (from North Walsham but born in Glasgow) and son David, and his children.

But back to Yaxley.  In 1881 my great-grandfather Henry was still alive and head of the household at New Inn, York Road, Yaxley. He was a bootmaker.  He had been born in 1839 and had married Jane Archer, who was born in 1835 at Northampton, according to the census return. Her family in fact came from Harlestone and East Haddon, north-west of Northampton. I visited both these delightful villages, which were a very pleasant surprise – Harlestone especially in rolling hilly country, unspoiled in the autumn sun.