Stalled

I'm away at a conference for the next few days so I won't be responding to any emails. This timing means it's very unlikely I'll have the milling page finished for the October update either.

I see there has been no taker for the £30 copy of Wing As It Was on Ebay. Anyone tempted?

Millers

The next industry to be profiled on the Wing One Place Study website will be milling. I've been working on this page for a while and have spent some time this month trying to get it finished off - hopefully it will be ready for 1 October as I don't have a plan B for the October update. I have however ordered a couple of documents from the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies that should help me tidy up some details of the earlier mills and millers, so keep your fingers crossed that these wing their way to me quickly.

If you are a descendent of HOWSE, HARRIS, HELEY or PAGE and have any information or insights about their milling work, please email me.

Wing As It Was - copy on Ebay

If anyone has a spare 30 quid burning a hole in their pocket, there is a copy of the book Wing As It Was volume 1 currently on Ebay (Buy It Now option only). This has many postcards and photographs of Wing and its residents from the late 1800s/early 1900s. I have an index of the individuals either pictured or mentioned in the text of the book here: http://www.wing-ops.org.uk/waiw.html

The book listing can be found here (I have no association with the seller).

September update

An assortment of small snippets this month. First up is a will extract for Mark HOWCUTT from 1898 and and a link to the Howcutt website where Francis will be pleased to hear from you if you have Howcutt ancestors. Next up is a runaway BURROWS wife, previously mentioned on this blog and now transferred to The Miscellany. New criminals this month are poachers CANCOTT, SHERROCK and SAUNDERS. A new Methodist, John FLEMONS, has also been identified.

WW2 Women's Land Army

Back in January this year, I wrote about being contacted by the husband of a former Land Girl based at Linslade. I'm currently reading "They Fought In The Fields: The Women's Land Army" by Nicola Tyrer, and learning more about the WLA, the tasks the girls performed and the conditions they worked in. These girls were apparently the last group of agricultural workers to learn "traditional" techniques of working the fields, before the level of mechanisation we are accustomed to today took over.

Of particular interest are the individual stories from the young women - the jobs they left, their reasons for joining and hopes for their new roles, the day-to-day life and experiences they found. Once I've finished reading the book, I'll be heading over to BBC - WW2 People's War to see what memories they have there.

If you, or other family members, were Land Girls, please share your memories - post a comment or send me an email, especially if you spent any time working in the Buckinghamshire or Bedfordshire area.

From Wing To Eternity

This post is an article for the 16th edition of the Smile For the Camera blog carnival on the topic of "Bling, ancestor Bling"

Family mementos are a bit thin on the ground from my Wing ancestors. I do have one piece that has a Wing connection though.

My great-grandfather Bill Williams, born in Wing Buckinghamshire in 1901, gave my great-grandmother a diamond cluster ring as a 40th wedding anniversary present. She hadn't fancied rubies, the traditional 40th anniversary gift, but apparently she didn't particularly fancy the oversized diamond ring she ended up with either! When this was inherited by my Nana she had it reset into a number of different pieces of jewellery. One of these was a six-stone diamond eternity ring which I, in turn, inherited when Nana died.

One day I'll continue the tradition and have this reset into a more modern style, but for now I wear the ring as is - stones given by a man from Wing and worn daily by his great-granddaughter.


What bling did your own ancestors from Wing have? Do you have any cameos, pocket watches, medals, or other personal items inherited from your Wing families, or any photos of them wearing these treasures? I'd love to see them.

August update

This month, take a trip back to the 17th century when the government was raising funds for the disturbances in Ireland. Contributors from Wing in 1642 have been extracted from the Buckinghamshire Record Society publication (with their permission) and resorted alphabetically so you can locate your ancestors easily. There are even some women listed, including Annis FOWLER and "another maid".