Family History

Join us down Memory Lane

The Family History information passed onto us in recent weeks has been great:- We have now established that the lady in the photograph is Ethel Kate Sayer born 1879 at Thurton. Her parents were William and Emma Sayer who were market gardeners living at the Garden House which is now in the midst of The Meadows, Vale Road. Thanks to Sandra Whitmore for this information. (Message from the Editorial Team .... Sandra please get in touch with us again)

Thanks also go to Susan Tibbetts (Susan please get in touch again too) for telling us that her great grandmother Christiana Blake was born at Langley in 1867 but her parents Charles and Sarah Blake moved into one of the cottages in The Street looking up towards St Ethelbert's Church. Christiana Blake was married at Thurton. It is thought Christiana attended Thurton School and according to a family story she was a monitor there. We wonder if a search of Thurton Primary School records could confirm this for Susan please. Can anyone help? Let us know.

We have also solved the "Stumps Cross" mystery. Old maps of Thurton dated 1884 and 1951 (post war provisional edition of O.S.) show Stump's Cross as being towards Loddon on the south side of what is now the A146 just opposite The Thurton Lodges. The roadway passing there is now known as Nursery Road. We wonder when the name of Stumps Cross went out of use? Does anyone know if it is mentioned anywhere later than 1951? Let us know please.

And finally .... We think Mr Gooch was the name of The Baking Powder Man and lived (and probably carried on his business) in one of The Cottages in Cookes Road. Can anyone confirm this please?

Now here's a new mystery to puzzle over .... ever heard of St Catherine's Cross in relation to Thurton or Ashby St Mary? And .... or.... Stone Cross ... Boundary/Langley Cross situated at the conjunction of the four parish boundaries of Thurton, Chedgrave, Langley and Carleton? Are these separate crosses at separate locations or are they all one and the same thing? Email us....

If you have a story about Thurton to tell email us and we'll post it here.

"Dear Sir/Madam, I have a story to share regarding the village of Thurton. My Greatgrand-father William Gardiner and his wife Edith lived in High House Thurton in the 1920s and maybe into the 1930s,he being a cabinet maker and coach builder by trade.He worked for the Langley Estate on moving to Thurton as a coach builder. They moved to Norfolk from The Swindon area where he was employed by the Great Western Railway finishing the railway carriages. I do not know the exact year that they came to the area, but I do know that my grandfather was born in the Swindon District in 1899,this from the 1901 census. My father and his brothers and sisters would stay with them at High House on many an occasion, being from large families they tended to get "farmed" out. My father would be put on the bus in Kenninghall by his parents and shown to the connecting bus by the conductor at Norwich Bus Station [ I don't think they would get the same service today]and then met on their arrival. The bus did once drop my Aunt off quite some distance away from the regular stop, very daunting for a young girl in the twilight many miles from home. Her lasting memory is of riding on a pony and trap, the pony being called Gypsy and my great-grandfather saying Giddy-up-a ding dong. After Thurton I believe they moved to Sprowston. Is there still a Langley Estate? I would love to know, maybe they have records of past employees, I would love to know. Thank you for allowing me to share this on your page,"
Alan Gardiner, Wymondham.

"Dear Editor, Further to my contact earlier I have managed to obtain a photograph of my Great grandfather who lived at High House Thurton. The photograph was taken not at Thurton but on Kenninghall Fen about 1933/4. William and Edith being the older members on the photo with my Grandfther to the left and my father seated in front of Edith. I doubt that there is anyone still alive who has any memories of them or their the children they brought Swindon in the earlier 1900s, at a guess about 1915."
Regards, Alan.