..The Stanburys of Crockernwell..

[ian Stanbury]

..This will probably bore everyone but since the middles of the 18th century my family has lived in a place called Crockernwell which is near Okehampton in sunny Devon.

Not only did the Stanburys live there but they were also wheelwrights.

Wheelwrights used to make carts and wood wheels but my Grandfather failed to see that the future was carts with an engine up front as opposed to a horse!!

Sadly when my Grandfather (far left) died in 1939, so did his business, but the Stanbury seat is still in the family and last week I was down there clearing out an old shed for my 114 year old Aunt.

When anything was offered to them, the family would take it and put it in the shed for use at a later date..

And so for over 40 years (or most of my life), most of the stuff has been sitting there, rotting away!!

However on a shelf at the back of the shed I came across some logs that were used as the hubs for the wood wheels and you can see some very faint chalk dates on them - one says 1928 and another 1939 etc

So they have been sitting there for 80 years, so should be well seasoned by now?

I am determined not to disturb them and hope to see them there for another 20 years - their 100th year!!

And did you notice the man with one leg? Thats Uncle Mark and he lost the other while on duty on the Somme!!

Amazing hey?

 

[malcolm]

Family history is interesting. So that's where Ian came from! Oddly enough I have some wheel troubles at the moment - I'm looking for a single R4 wheel from the early days that will take a hubcap. You might just be the man, though it would best not be made from wood (or pumpkins).

For me my father's side of my family was involved in the manufacture of hammers in Sheffield. My grandmother still has a hammer with my name on it.

My mother's side is full of war heroes. I inherited a medal from my great grandfather from WW1. Though I don't know much about him. My grandfather often spoke about his days as a legendary Spitfire pilot. (he was really a photographer in the RAF but he also had an excellent sense of humour).

 

[iancr900]

Is that like having a bullit with your name on it?Did you upset someone?

 

[malcolm]

No - that would be a hammer with a name metaphorically written on it. Mine is clearly stamped as the manufacturer's mark. Though you've reminded me that it's been a couple of months since I last visited my grandmother so I'm probably in trouble. :eek:

 

[beagle]

That's interesting Ian, my uncle has just been on a wheel wrights course. It's amazing the level of craftmanship wheel wrights use. Would be such a shame if these skills were lost.
There aren't any old tools for sale by chance? In paticular a "boxing engine", a device with a stange name for cutting holes in the centre of hubs?

 

[Bluebell]

Family history is interesting.
For me my father's side of my family was involved in the manufacture of hammers in Sheffield. My grandmother still has a hammer with my name on it.
My mother's side is full of war heroes. I inherited a medal from my great grandfather from WW1. Though I don't know much about him. My grandfather often spoke about his days as a legendary Spitfire pilot. (he was really a photographer in the RAF but he also had an excellent sense of humour).

I've just remembered an ancester of mine was George Williams who started the YMCA. Also my great grandfather owned the pub at the Angel Islington. When young I was always told that Monopoly was invented there one night but actually it was already popular in America. It seems that the MD of Waddingtons and his secretary simply partook of refreshment there when they were looking for names for the UK edition.

 

[rastroud66]

Stanburys of Crockernwell

Ian, I have sent you a PM. Direct descendent from Stanburys of Crockernwell. Fantastic story and pictures. Richard

 

[pepper]

Ancestry is pretty cool, here's one of mine

http://www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/william-penny-brookes/index.shtml

 

[reggie]

Ancestry

You were lucky, We lived in a cardboard box at the side of the old A1, We have no ancestry, at all ever,
Reg

 

[ian Stanbury]

..Cardboard box Reggie, You were lucky..

.As I expect your cardboard box had a lid.

The paper bag that I lived in in the middle lane of the A30 at Tedburn St Mary until the age of 14 was one of the ones you used to get in Woolworths for your 10 ounces of Nuttals Mintos and a Sherbert Lemon fountain.

After 2 minutes the rain poured in and ruined all the sherbert lemon and made a real sticky mess in the bottom of the bag - My Dad would then turn the bag upside down and push Licorice stick through the upper bits of the bag and we would perch on the licorice stick till morning when we get up, thawed ourselves out, get dressed and walk 17 miles to school with only a traditional Devon Birch Bark sandwich to eat all day.

Sometimes during stormy weather we would not even get to school as by the time we got there, it would already be time to go home.

During the day my Dad would have busied himself going to Woolworths in Exeter to get us another bag of sweets so we would have some protection for next night and so it went on until Saturday the 16 April 1965, my Dad won £8 million pound on the Littlewood Football Pools and the rest is history

Sometimes nowerdays I just sits and thinks of the old days and sometimes I just thinks about my life and how much more fun it was living in a paper bag...

 

[reggie]

Ancestry

Oh dear, this could run and run, no lid no bottom, you were lucky.
Reg

 

[Bertl]

Funny thing, ancestry. I once said I was interested in doing a family tree, and my father took up the challenge. The amount of time he's investing is simply amazing - he's retired so he HAS the time ...
Anyway, our family was living in a small Bavarian village near the lake Ammersee for nearly 300 years, and they were landlords in a pub until the 1910's.
The pub still exists, and my father took us all for a nice lunch there, and then we went to the church. The graveyard was relocated in 1872, and when they exhumed the bodies, they wrote the names on all the skulls they were able to identify and put them on a shelf behind the high altar ...
So on that picture you can see my daughters and my father holding my great-great-something-grandfather's skull who died in 1730. He seemed strangely indifferent to a visit from his relatives. That's old age for you.

Robert

P.S. Ian ... I distinctly remember someone saying they were coming to the Oktoberfest ... any news?

 

[ian Stanbury]

..Wow Robert that is really spookey..

..and is all very interesting - Ammersee looks beautiful and it will be a 'must' when ever I get my Nissan Micra into gear and heading Germany way!

Great minds think alike Robert and I was recently thinking about Octoberfest...and you of course...and beer of course..and that wonderful 'beer in the rain afternoon' in Kent of course but I suspect it wont be this time as I have 'much to do about nothing' over the next few months but I will pass your door at some stage as promised.

Now your recollection of the Oktoberfest reminds me of the old addage that 'Germans and Elephants never forget'!!

A fine Bavarian evening to you and your family

Oh...these are my friends Chad and Dad