Thursday, September 28, 2006
Dormansland and the Ancestors.
DORMANSLAND......
For all my life Dormansland has been a hazy notion.
When I was a child I would scramble off the bus outside The White Hart in Crawley and might see the 434 bus waiting there to proceed on its journey. The destination shown by the number was Dormansland. I didn't know anybody who had ever been there and yet there was a special bus to go there. I didn't know where it was and it sounded strangely foreign.
Little did I know that much later in life I would find strong links with the place.
The first time I discovered those links they were still very hazy.
Long before I attempted some more serious genealogy there had been some interest in the ancestors. I remember asking Bill's Father about his childhood and his aunts and uncles.
It was the first time I had heard of Bill's Great Aunt Jane.
All Dad could tell me was that Aunt Jane had married a Mr. Chapman and gone to live in Dormansland. He would have seen her very rarely, but he could recall that she came to visit the family back in Charlwood sometimes. She pedalled over on her bike, a distance of 15 miles or so. By the time she arrived back in Charlwood she might have been a little intoxicated having paused on her journey to refresh herself from the hip flask she carried.
I sensed that Dad found her strangely fascinating.
When I began the genealogy project we had very early on a magical moment when, through the wonders of the internet, I found myself in correspondence with Joyce in Canada - Jane's grand daughter. It was wonderful and Joyce filled in many details about Bill's Great Aunt.
Gradually I learned how to find more information.
I discovered that Bill's grandmother (Jane's sister in law) came from the next village, Lingfield.
In 1881 she, Louisa, was a 3 year old living in Quaker's Platt.
Later I was working on Bill's mother's side of the family and I found George and Annie Brand, Bill's great grandparents living in Quaker's Platt.
It seemed amazing that these 2 branches of the family who were not living close together in the late 1930s when Bill's parents met and married had been living in the same street in 1881.
And even more amazing was the fact that we discovered that Quaker's Platt was not actually in Lingfield, but in Dormansland!
Today we have actually been to explore this great centre of Bill's family life just a little. I think we shall need to go back.
The village of Dormansland has almost lost its identity in recent years because it is now a settlement for people who work in businesses elsewhere. There are few rural pursuits anymore. And yet it is still a village, separate from the much bigger, bustling East Grinstead and a community spirit of a different kind has evolved.
When the the ancestors were there in 1881 there was very little development. Quakers Platt was open heath land on the side of a hill and I would guess the housing there was mainly shabby wooden constructions. There was little else to be seen.
The church had not yet been built, but followed during the 1880s, along with a school and other amenities.
Development followed quite rapidly as the railway made it possible, even then for Dormansland to be a commuter town. There was a station.
Today, it is very different. The area known as Quaker's Platt exists and there are the normal range of houses there, built mostly since the second world war, with a few older cottages dotted between.
First, we stopped at the parish Church of St. John.
Walking through the wooden lych gate we saw the war memorial.
We already had evidence from Joyce in Canada that a family name would be there.
Great Aunt Jane's first born, William died in 1918.
We see here that he died of a sickness.
We know he left a young widow, Florence.
We spent a while wandering amongst the grave stones, which are always interesting.
Suddenly we found a stone for Great Aunt Jane's last born son, Cecil.
He died in the 1960s. His wife, Doris survived him for another 10 years or so.
We don't know who Jack Skelton is - but Doris's maiden name was Skelton and so he is clearly connected in some way.
We then moved away from glimpses into the Chapman past and on to Quaker's Platt. The road into this part is just now known as The Platt.
Now we were stepping back into the lives of Bill's grandmother and the Godfrey family and also Bill's great grandparents George and Annie Brand.
I wonder if either of those families noticed the arrival of the young couple Jane and William Chapman, though we don't know exactly which part they were living in at that time.
I have included this lovely cottage, because it is one of the few that remain from earlier times.
I doubt whether any of the ancestors lived in a cottage as large as this. But Louisa, George and Annie would have passed this cottage many a time.
This is an example of a more modern house. I have included it because we are sure it is where Joyce, from Canada, stayed when she visited in the 1970s.
So, I imagine at that time a Chapman was living along the Platt.
The Old House at Home - a lovely name for an old pub.
I think we can be sure that many of the ancestors would have known about this building.
We stopped and talked for quite a while with a local resident who was out in her garden. She felt she had been in Dormansland for a long time - 44 years, but she had no knowledge of any Chapmans.
We called in at the post office to ask a few question.
Nobody knew of a Cowden Lodge, which we believed was Jane's home at the end of her life. It was suggested that we went to Cowden to ask - which we did, but that's another story.
And a relevant story because we know that Louisa, Bill's grandmother was
born in Cowden.
Pronounced please COW _ DENNE.
We stayed quite a while in the post office. The lady there was keen to talk and customers who came in joined the conversation and added all sorts of bits and pieces. One man was almost sure that the bearded lady who ran the pub on the way to Balls Cross was still there. She only ever served wine and light ale, and if you were very hungry she would find you a bit of bread and cheese.
So that was our short visit to Dormansland. I feel sure that we will need to go back again to check more things out.
For all my life Dormansland has been a hazy notion.
When I was a child I would scramble off the bus outside The White Hart in Crawley and might see the 434 bus waiting there to proceed on its journey. The destination shown by the number was Dormansland. I didn't know anybody who had ever been there and yet there was a special bus to go there. I didn't know where it was and it sounded strangely foreign.
Little did I know that much later in life I would find strong links with the place.
The first time I discovered those links they were still very hazy.
Long before I attempted some more serious genealogy there had been some interest in the ancestors. I remember asking Bill's Father about his childhood and his aunts and uncles.
It was the first time I had heard of Bill's Great Aunt Jane.
All Dad could tell me was that Aunt Jane had married a Mr. Chapman and gone to live in Dormansland. He would have seen her very rarely, but he could recall that she came to visit the family back in Charlwood sometimes. She pedalled over on her bike, a distance of 15 miles or so. By the time she arrived back in Charlwood she might have been a little intoxicated having paused on her journey to refresh herself from the hip flask she carried.
I sensed that Dad found her strangely fascinating.
When I began the genealogy project we had very early on a magical moment when, through the wonders of the internet, I found myself in correspondence with Joyce in Canada - Jane's grand daughter. It was wonderful and Joyce filled in many details about Bill's Great Aunt.
Gradually I learned how to find more information.
I discovered that Bill's grandmother (Jane's sister in law) came from the next village, Lingfield.
In 1881 she, Louisa, was a 3 year old living in Quaker's Platt.
Later I was working on Bill's mother's side of the family and I found George and Annie Brand, Bill's great grandparents living in Quaker's Platt.
It seemed amazing that these 2 branches of the family who were not living close together in the late 1930s when Bill's parents met and married had been living in the same street in 1881.
And even more amazing was the fact that we discovered that Quaker's Platt was not actually in Lingfield, but in Dormansland!
Today we have actually been to explore this great centre of Bill's family life just a little. I think we shall need to go back.
The village of Dormansland has almost lost its identity in recent years because it is now a settlement for people who work in businesses elsewhere. There are few rural pursuits anymore. And yet it is still a village, separate from the much bigger, bustling East Grinstead and a community spirit of a different kind has evolved.
When the the ancestors were there in 1881 there was very little development. Quakers Platt was open heath land on the side of a hill and I would guess the housing there was mainly shabby wooden constructions. There was little else to be seen.
The church had not yet been built, but followed during the 1880s, along with a school and other amenities.
Development followed quite rapidly as the railway made it possible, even then for Dormansland to be a commuter town. There was a station.
Today, it is very different. The area known as Quaker's Platt exists and there are the normal range of houses there, built mostly since the second world war, with a few older cottages dotted between.
First, we stopped at the parish Church of St. John.Walking through the wooden lych gate we saw the war memorial.
We already had evidence from Joyce in Canada that a family name would be there.
Great Aunt Jane's first born, William died in 1918.
We see here that he died of a sickness.
We know he left a young widow, Florence.
We spent a while wandering amongst the grave stones, which are always interesting.
Suddenly we found a stone for Great Aunt Jane's last born son, Cecil.
He died in the 1960s. His wife, Doris survived him for another 10 years or so.
We don't know who Jack Skelton is - but Doris's maiden name was Skelton and so he is clearly connected in some way.
We then moved away from glimpses into the Chapman past and on to Quaker's Platt. The road into this part is just now known as The Platt.
Now we were stepping back into the lives of Bill's grandmother and the Godfrey family and also Bill's great grandparents George and Annie Brand.
I wonder if either of those families noticed the arrival of the young couple Jane and William Chapman, though we don't know exactly which part they were living in at that time.
I have included this lovely cottage, because it is one of the few that remain from earlier times.
I doubt whether any of the ancestors lived in a cottage as large as this. But Louisa, George and Annie would have passed this cottage many a time.
This is an example of a more modern house. I have included it because we are sure it is where Joyce, from Canada, stayed when she visited in the 1970s.
So, I imagine at that time a Chapman was living along the Platt.
The Old House at Home - a lovely name for an old pub.
I think we can be sure that many of the ancestors would have known about this building.
We stopped and talked for quite a while with a local resident who was out in her garden. She felt she had been in Dormansland for a long time - 44 years, but she had no knowledge of any Chapmans.
We called in at the post office to ask a few question.
Nobody knew of a Cowden Lodge, which we believed was Jane's home at the end of her life. It was suggested that we went to Cowden to ask - which we did, but that's another story.
And a relevant story because we know that Louisa, Bill's grandmother was
born in Cowden.
Pronounced please COW _ DENNE.
We stayed quite a while in the post office. The lady there was keen to talk and customers who came in joined the conversation and added all sorts of bits and pieces. One man was almost sure that the bearded lady who ran the pub on the way to Balls Cross was still there. She only ever served wine and light ale, and if you were very hungry she would find you a bit of bread and cheese.
So that was our short visit to Dormansland. I feel sure that we will need to go back again to check more things out.
