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"Out of the Long Ago" by Maud Milgate |
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Woodbridge
The following autumn Adelaide and I had a week in Woodbridge. She had gone a short coach tour on her own in the summer, but had another week left to go with me. We really wanted to stay in Felixstowe as this would be pleasant for Adelaide while I did a search at Ipswich Records Office which was my reason for going to that area. However we could not find suitable accommodation there, the town had run out of Guides, so upon somebody suggesting Woodbridge as a nice place we settled for that. In the train we talked to a lady who it transpired had stayed at the Station Hotel 10 years before and she said we should like it also told us of an old type "tea shop" peculiar to East Anglia where we could obtain good lunches. The Station Hotel was quite comfortable, one part being very old, and a modern addition housing the Public Bars. In the ancient part the proprietress did bed and breakfast for visitors, she had neither the time nor the accommodation for other meals. We could use our rooms as much as we liked and used to fetch a drink and biscuits from the bar each night before going to bed. Apart from ourselves there were several American Air Force families there, the husbands stationed at a nearby camp. They had several small children and one baby and when its young mother apologized profusely the next morning for fear it had kept us awake I replied I had not heard a sound she could hardly believe it. Adelaide was fond of children and I never heard them, so they looked upon us with great favour. The young husbands were due to go to Vietnam and I could not help wondering what would happen to them all.
The next day I went to do a search at Ipswich Records Office as this covered all the Suffolk parishes of my search. Ipswich was several miles from
Woodbridge and of course it was all strange ground to me. My usual practice was to thoroughly study the bus time table and find the routes on the street maps of the town guides and work out the nearest route to take, and where the Records Offices were situated. I had previously written seeking an appointment and saying what I wished to see and also mentioning Mr. Onyons of Eve. I wrote twice before I got a reply and finally an appointment and I think 1 can see why now. The "Records" was in with other offices in a big red brick building in the old part of Ipswich. There was no proper search room and I had to work in with the clerks, which must have been inconvenient for them, but I was armed with a good deal of information and they did not or could not refuse my requests. The Library was in another part of the town and not in the same building as at Norwich, and they suggested I go to the Library where some of my information was while they got out what else I wanted to see. I managed to find the Library without much trouble and here I went through Boyd’s Marriage Register, also Philimores Records and found various Shardelows but not the one I sought. I looked up Venn again and his Cambridge Counterpart and a number of books baring upon the subject. By then lunch time was going by and I went outside to find a cafe. I found I was in a very busy part of the town, with a wide street and a great deal of traffic. I did not want to cross the road or go far afield in case I got lost, so looking near at hand I saw next to the Library a small cafe on a corner called the "Mikado". I went in and Sat down then saw it was full of black people. I think they were just as horrified to see me. The proprietor looked at me dubiously but took my order for egg and tomato omelette. It was quite good, it was near the Library and served my purpose. I soon went back to my books and on leaving I found the bus stopped outside the door which took me back to Adelaide who had been sitting in the sun all day by Woodbridge’s famous old mill. The next day I went back to the Records office in Ipswich and did a search. I went through the Bishops Transcripts for Brome, Oakley Wingfield, without finding anything I wanted. As this ancestry search is on the female side it constantly changes name. My grandmother Adelaide Castle, had been born Adelaide Bilham in 1831 and her Mother was Dinah Pilgrim born 1 790 and her Mother was Margaret Shardelawe as her name is on Dinah’s birth certificate. I had therefore given up looking for Bilhams and Pilgrims and was now looking for Shardelowes. I wanted Margaret’s marriage to John Pilgrim and better still her birth because I wanted to know who her parents were and because a Rev. Shardelow was supposed to have married a Cornwallis, I was following the Cornwallis pedigree as well I became very interested in a place called Wingfield. Some Cornwallis are buried in the Nave and a John Cornwallis lived there somewhere about the date I wanted. from indexes in Ipswich Records Office. I saw he had drawn up an agreement over some land and they possessed this actual document. I asked to see it and they got it for me. There was nothing on it but his signature. No place of residence, no information whatever. I was none the wiser for seeing that. Lunch time at the Records Office was little better than the day before at the Library. I was rather late leaving and was determined not to go too far away, it took up too much time. The first place was heaving full of people so I went a little further down the road to the "Hawaiian Cafe" several people were on the point of leaving and I was soon the only one there. It was a creepy sort of place and the one waitress looked decidedly mad. She hovered over me and I ordered a simple meal, a chop I think, and some tea. After a very long wait I finally got a very large oval plate with everything I had not ordered. It consisted of a cold salad of all sorts of things in separate compartments and in the centre a pork chop. I never did get the tea. I soon ate what I wanted and went back to my record. These offices were in the dock area and I had never seen so many little general shops in all my life and there was quite a large black population. At the time Ipswich was building a new town centre and this was to include a new Library and Records Office so if I ever go again I may find things very much improved. Charles my cousin was still living in Ipswich met me at 4 p.m. and after picking up Adelaide he took us for a ride round the main streets and we saw the White Horse Inn of Dickens fame, before going to tea with him and Ann. They took us back to Woodbridge and over a drink in the bar they approved our accommodation Ann saying I could "still pick them."
The next day the sun shone so brilliantly I could not resist it and gave up the idea of any more search and went with Adelaide to Oxford and Aldeburgh.
The following day we had arranged to make the long bus journey to see Katie who was now installed in her cottage on Scole Common. The bus from Ipswich put us down opposite Scole Inn so we decided to have lunch there. This old coaching Inn is lovely and has a long history and one could imagine stage coaches emptying their passengers there as well as the gentry in their travelling coaches. The stairs were lovely but I believe I have heard the original staircase is now in a museum. We had gammon steak and pineapple and later when Mrs. Coleman met us she said she would get me the recipe as she knew the cook. She did this, the gammon was cooked in beer. Mrs. Coleman took us a lovely ride round the countryside before taking us to Katie’s for tea. I had to arrange this with Mrs. Coleman before hand as I could not walk the distance to Katie’s. We went in Hoxne church and they were preparing for Harvest Festival the next day. We got talking to the Vicar and he suggested searching the Diocesan Register, for the Rev. Shardelawe and said he had seen a memorial tablet to a Shardelawe (he thought a clergyman) in some church he was preaching in -- he thought it might be Stradbrook. Mrs. Coleman and I on another occasion looked there but found nothing. We all had tea with Katie then Mrs. Coleman took us to catch the bus back to Ipswich.
The next day being Sunday we went to visit Felixstowe which we liked, but we got back in time to go to Woodbridge church. This living had once been offered to our cousin Charles, but for some reason I cannot remember now, lie did not accept it. The church had an unusual entrance on the side of a hill and was a nice church, but not a very wonderful service.
| Owner of original | Maud Milgate via Gerry Langford |
| File name | shard/myfolio_02/11_chapter.html |
| File Size | 9.75 KB |
| Media ID | 1361 |
| Dimensions | n/a |
| Folio version | v13.0.0.22 (28 Mar 2021) |
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