The Cheltenham Examiner of January 1874 reflected on a theft of holly that had taken place before Christmas, one of the very many in which the local population helped themselves to these symbols of Christmas celebrations.  The newspaper remarked that ‘two girls, Elizabeth Loveridge and Sophia Scarrott, were summoned for … Continue reading →

Scenteraina was baptised at Church Gresley in Derbyshire at the end of November 1901, the daughter of Thomas Holland and his wife, Violet Annie, formerly Haywood.  Her parents had married in Burton on Trent, Staffordshire in 1896 and can be found in the 1911 census in Derbyshire, with children Thomas … Continue reading →

Siberetta, the wife of Charles Brinkley, had been named after her grandmother. Formerly a Welch, she was born in Suffolk in 1852, and registered as a Celeretta Welch, in the June quarter of that year, in the district of Risbridge. Siberetta was the daughter of James Welch, tinker, and his … Continue reading →

In the Bible Aquilla was a maker of tents and it was a Biblical name which, perhaps somewhat ironically, found favour amongst Romanies and Travellers for both sons and daughters. In the parish of St. Paul’s Walden, Hertfordshire, on 13th October 1816, James and Sarah Smith baptised their daughter Aquilla. … Continue reading →

The village of Noke, in Oxfordshire, was a favoured location for the Jeffs family of William and Mary, and three of their daughters were married there in the early nineteenth century.  In 1803 Mary Jeffs married Joseph Bland and in 1819, a younger sister, Rose/Rosanna Jeffs, wed Joseph’s brother, John, … Continue reading →