Kenninghall
The following year Adelaide was able to have a holiday with me so we went to DisS with the idea of making a thorough search
of the registers at Kenninghall I now had all the information cousin Florence had given me to help me in the search and a definite place to search in.
I rang the Vicar on the evening of our arrival and made an appointment to see the registers the next afternoon. He said he could
not meet us there owing to previous engagements but he remembered me speaking to him the previous year just prior to his
induction, so he was quite agreeable to leaving the registers in the Vestry for me to see. We set off next afternoon in Mrs.
Coleman s car, going through Lopham where we saw two of the eight wonders of Lapham on the way. One was three gates
on one central post. Very ingenious. The other was a door into a chimney. I do not know what the other six were. We got to the
church in dry weather, but a terrible thunderstorm blew up and I was very pleased I had Adelaide and Mrs. Coleman for
company. It was very eerie in the church and I should not have liked being there alone. There were a lot of registers, all in good
condition and we all called it a day, left the Vicar a contribution to his funds and returned to our hotel in pouring rain. Later that
evening I phoned the Vicar my thanks. I felt I had now got enough evidence to show I was on the right track. The next day I took
Adelaide to Scole by bus to meet Katie Reeve. She was a lot better in health than when Florence was home, and was so
pleased to see me again and talk to me. She was a very trim little figure in a black pleated skirt and very crisp white nylon blouse
. She had a long memory and was very pleased to talk of the past. I told her of my find at Kenninghall and she said she well
remembered when she was a young woman taking Florence when only a small child to visit an old lady a Mrs. Pilgrim who lived
there and who she thought was some sort of relative but she could not remember what. I asked her if she knew anything of the
story of the Cornwallises connection "Yes dear" she replied "I remember hearing your great uncles John and William Bilham
talking about it but you know I was only a very young woman at the time and I did not pay a lot of attention, hut I do remember
hearing them say Brome Hall and Hoxme Hall should have been theirs but the evidence was lost at see "I don’t know what they
meant by that" she added. I asked her if she thought the story of the Cornwallis connection was true. "Well", she replied "If you
had known your great Aunt Sarah Harper and her daughter Harriet as I knew them you would think there was something in it.
They were different, they were gentlewomen to their fingertips. Yes I know anybody can be a lady but very few can be
gentlewomen and they were." With this I had to be satisfied. Mrs. Coleman collected us from "The Greyhound" and we had a
little ride round the countryside and tried to find the ruins of Hoxne Hall, but could not. We passed by a very desolate looking field
which according to Mrs. Coleman some scientists had said was one of the oldest places in the world. The following morning we went for our usual little trip to the Broads.
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Owner of original
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Maud Milgate via Gerry Langford
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shard/myfolio_02/09_chapter.html
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File Size
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3.83 KB
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Media ID
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1361
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Dimensions
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n/a
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Folio version
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v13.0.0.22 (28 Mar 2021)
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