Northamptonshire

Another collage I'm afraid! We did so many different things and took so many shots that one just doesn't do it.

We stayed 2 nights with my Dad's cousin's widow B and she took us on a tour of the family gravestones on the Friday. In the morning we visited Thrapston where my great grandfather and his 2 sons (one was my grandfather on my father's side) had a florists and fruiterers shop in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The produce came from their market garden in the town. The bottom 3 photos are from here; on the right my great grandparents' grave, on the left my great aunt who died in 1904 age 25 (she was 2 years younger than my gradfather - I was 11 when he passed away). In the middle is the rather nice building in the middle of the cemetery. We also looked at the graveyard in the church but all the stones have been tidied to the sides and most are illegible with ivy growing over them - an official form of vandalism.

We then went to the library and pored over local history information - I found records of the business in copies of Kelly's Directory.

In the afternoon we went to Rushton (where the Bamford family came from originally) and found many potential family gravestones in the churchyard there. The beautiful old church is top left. We've photographed all the stones and now we are home can compare them to the tree which we have online (well over 10,000 people on this so far!).

On both Thursday and Friday evenings we met up with B's son A and his wife L - all of them were so friendly and hospitable. The last photo, top right is A and his Mum B in the local oub where we took them for a meal. Thank you!