Cousin Colin and the family villages...

Monday, 23rd and Tuesday 24th - (Catch-up)

We rang Colin about 10.00am and went over to see him and sat chatting for a couple of hours. I had my digital voice recorder with me, and forgot all about it, and so a lot of what we talked about is memory.

Colin had suggested we go out for lunch to a place called the Gumstool Inn, which he had known from previous visits. It was a lovely place and quiet, and on the way back, he took us past and through Horton and Chipping Sodbury, pointing out places he knew and had worked, and his brother's house, where Maurice and his wife lived.

As we'd had such a large lunch, we opted to have a couple of starters (entrees) for dinner, and then shared a cheese platter, and that made for a really nice meal, and not too much.

On the Tuesday, we had decided to try and see as many of the villages and places relating to the Bezer family that we could find.

small part of Wapley Common

First we went into Yate, and found where William Bezer and Hannah Turner were married in 1730. As with many churchyards, the stones were very old and unreadable, and many graves had no stones at all, so the frustrating bit about not actually finding anything continues. After Yate, we went all the way along the lane that runs by Colin's house, and found Wapley Common, and yet another area of allotment gardens, which we hadn't known of last trip. Wapley Common is huge and so peaceful. We are still in awe of just how much land is still "countryside", especially when you think of the population of this country. It includes Wapley Bushes (wildlife area), and was quite different from Westerleigh Common where Colin had driven us through yesterday, which had lots of roaming cattle, contained by cattle grids at either end.

There was also a grand gateway to a large property, which had no name on the gate, but we might be able to identify it from the lovely hand-drawn map Colin gave us last trip.
Further up the hill we took this photo of the Old School House, which belongs to Colin's cousin Shirley.

The Old School House

Colin had told us that great-great granmother Hannah Bennett had worked at Codrington Court
before she was married, and her initials are carved in the lintel, and that Codrington Court was opposite the Codrington Arms, which we found opposite the gates of the estate, and is now called The Wishing Well Hotel.

Part 2 next time