Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest

After yesterday, it is only fair that hubby takes part in the festival.

It was just after 4pm as I few a minutes late, as is the bride’s prerogative! In this photo he is listening to the registrar who is giving the reading as he carries out the ceremony. I wonder what he was thinking. Possibly that it was too late to run!

The choir remained for the ceremony and they wore typical African vibrant colours. You can just see the flowers above hubby’s head. His corsage is made of Frangipani’s. The same flower appears, amongst others in my bouquet.

After the ceremony we were taken into the gardens for the official photographs. I recall we paid the photograph extra to have the negatives of the photos, money well spent given the distance we were from the photographer.

I am not alone in having to make the downsize decision as I notice that hubby still has the suit in the wardrobe and the tie which he still wears every now and again, and has the affection name of the “Kenyan tie”

Today’s photograph is of yours truly! This was me on my Wedding day in July 1994.

I became engaged in October 1993, I was swept off my feet! I can not recall when I originally went shopping for my wedding dress, I guess it was November or so. I do recall that I jumped on the train at Sutton where I was living at the time and headed home to Guildford to Pronuptia, which was a well known wedding dress shop.

This dress was actually the first I saw. There was a huge amount of dresses all hung up, but this one was hanging sideways, as if someone had moved it to admire from a distance.

It caught my eye and I tried it on. I then looked at a few others, but I knew that this one was the one.  I then progressed to veil and head piece and of course shoes.

You can just just make out the floral detail on the dress which I thought when I bought it was a peach colour. It was only when I took a friend to look at the dress that she said to me it was pink, so we had to have a hastily head dress colour change!

We approached the vicar of the parish in Guildford where I, my Mum and my Grandmother were all christened. Furthermore, my Grandfather’s sisters had all married at the church. I was then surprised and fairly upset that the vicar refused to marry us, because I no longer lived in the parish. No amount of coaxing would change his mind.

My future in laws suggested marrying in Scotland, but that did not console me. Whilst it may seem fairly trivial to some, it was not to me and we looked at options. Meanwhile, we were looking at honeymoon destinations, but obviously could not progress further until we had a date and venue to have the ceremony!

The end result was we got married in Kenya. We had a lovely and magical 3 weeks there and in October we had our marriage blessed in the church where we were living. The vicar at Guildford even refused to grant us a blessing.

I kept the original dress that I had seen, I had a minor adjustment made to the length and then it was packed up in the sales box to make the journey to Kenya. The dress survived the journey and hubby did not look at the dress prior to the ceremony. I took with me my Grandmother’s 22 caret wedding ring as my something old, my Mum lent me a hanky and a friend gave me a garter in the traditional blue.

We married under an arch made of traditional reeds and grasses in the grounds of the hotel. I watched the local women make the archway during the morning. Our wedding was at 4pm and as I walked up from our room I could hear the local choir singing in Swahili.

Now, almost 20 years later, as we approach downsizing, I am pondering what I should do. I still have my wedding dress, head piece and veil in the box that made the long journey. I still have the receipt and the boxes our wedding rings were in. Sad to say I may have to make a hard decision, but perhaps I will delay that one for a while longer!

Periodically I have mentioned my Great Aunt Rose, who was the sister of my Grandfather. This is her. Born Rose Butcher to Charles Butcher and Annie Prudence nee Harris in April 1900 at Wanborough. Rose was the eldest of the siblings and for the whole of her life she was the stable influence in the family.

She married in 1931 to Ernest Marshall, who was her first cousin a fact that she vehemently denied, but we all knew! She grew up in an envionment where her mother looked after her mother and likewise, Aunt looked after her mother.

Aunt was an amazing woman. She worked tirelessly. She raised 3 children and worked at the farm where the family farmed in Wanborough. After 1930 the family moved to Manor Farm Onslow Village Guildford, which was where the University of Surrey now sits. Aunt carried on working on the farm and at the Manor House.

Before her married she was in service at Wanborough Manor, although I have not explored this as yet.

Aunt lived in her own home right up until she was around 90 years old. Insisting that she would manage with assistance. She went into a nursing home where she lived for about 4 years. She passed away in August 1994 and left an amazing hole in the family.  In her adult years she was a true linchpin of the family.

As a child I always visited her, into my teenage years and then adulthood I continued. We spent many, many hours together, her chatting about the old days and me writing furiously gathering the facts. She was such an amazing woman and even though we spent so much time together there are many questions that I wished I asked.

So it seemed very fitting that she take part in this photo festival, after all this is where it all started.

This is a photograph of my Great Great Grandparents, Henry and Caroline Harris nee Ellis. Taken on the occassion of their 60th Wedding Anniversary. Like the photograph from yesterday this was given to me by my Grandfather’s first Cousin Ivy.

Quite a few years ago Ivy accompanied me to see my Great Aunt Rose, the oldest of my Grandfather’s sisters. We were also joined us was his youngest sister, Doll.

Whilst I was in the kitchen getting the tea done as instructed, I could hear the three of them chatting away. It was truly wonderful and if I could turn back the clock and relive a moment this would be that moment.

We had the tea and cake and I had been making notes furiously. The chatter was free flowing and not in a very logical order. To give my arm a rest I pulled out this photo, which I knew would get them chatting again.

I asked, that I wondered who took the photo. I was not really expecting an answer, until my Great Aunt Rose said that she had and named the occasion, their 60th Wedding Anniversary in December 1924 at the family home at Manor Farm Wanborough.

The talk that day steered round to Caroline and her fierceness and Henry being a really gentle Grandpa. They spoke of Caroline giving the boys, my Aunt’s brothers a smack for taking apples of the trees and as I watched my Aunts and their cousin I could see that they had all cast their minds back to a previous, more carefree time.

It was a truly special day.

Today’s photo is the only known photo of the early life of my Great Grandmother, who was my Grandmother’s mum. I have talked about her on both day 4 and day 7. In this photograph she is just aged 18 years old. I really should try and do something with the photograph and see if I can make an improvement.

Map courtesy of  the Parish Council of Liphook & Bramshott

Readers, may recall an earlier post in which I mentioned that the Elstone’s were papermakers and that there was a small hamlet in Devon, along the banks of the River Exe called Elstone.

Well, the coincidence increases. The Pim family had again been in the Sussex and Hampshire border areas were involved with paper making. Exeter has instances of a Pim and Elstone family involved in the region with paper making.

Coincidence? It is possible the the families migrated across the south west of England into the south east region. There is healthy research into the paper making  facilities across the UK and in particular the South of England, so when I get a few minutes (make that hours and possibly longer!) I will research this more fully. Over the years I have looked at the data, but I do need to devote more time to it.

I have no idea as to whether or not Mary Elizabeth knew of her paper making connections. The family were labourers in the passfields area of Bramshott and later moved across to Burpham at Guildford not far from the Merrow area where she met her husband John Matthews.