Walking in Florence's Footsteps |
In May of 2015, my Mom (Shari), Aunt (Carol), cousin (Lori) and I traveled to England. Our destinations were London and the Forest of Dean--our goal to visit the places our ancestors (including our dear Aunt Flo) lived and worked.
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In London, we stayed in the Highgate area, just a few blocks from Oakshott Avenue and the Holly Lodge Mansions, where Aunt Flo lived her last ten years in London. After a period of decline and disrepair, the Holly Lodge Mansions and the properties on neighboring Langbourne and Makepeace Avenues have been renovated into highly desirable flats and townhomes. The neighborhood was lovely and as we walked around our common refrain was, "That would have been here when Aunt Flo was!"
We toured London on the double decker Big Bus. Despite the heavy bombing that London suffered in WWII, so many historic architectural gems were preserved and would have been part of Florence's world. No wonder she always talked about London with such nostalgia!
Aside from the major tourist attractions, we loved seeing the County Hall building on the south bank of the River Thames, where Aunt Flo worked for a brief time. (The huge building now houses an upscale hotel and multiple shops and restaurants.) One highlight was a visit to The London Hospital, now all steel and glass, with the old (abandoned) brick structure where Aunt Flo trained still standing nearby. We also visited the Hospital Archives where we met sweet Sarah, who started this odyssey when she purchased Aunt Flo's war medals.
As timeless as old London is, I'm sure Florence would find the changes to London in the past 70 years remarkable. I wonder what she would have thought of these new visual landmarks on the Thames?
We took the train from Paddington Station to the Forest of Dean and stayed in a renovated pumphouse on Lydney Park Estate, about 12 miles from English Bicknor. We hired a car to take us around the Forest each day. Our drivers, Gill and Brian Jenkins, thought our choice of daily destinations--churches, graveyards and country lanes--quite curious, but we couldn't have asked for better guides. Our first full day in the Forest, Mother's Day, we had tea at the Lydney Park Estate. The property was extraordinary, with magnificent old trees, Roman ruins overlooking the River Severn, and stunning gardens abloom with giant rhododendrons and azaleas.
Another day we drove down the narrow, winding road on Worrall Hill in Upper Lydbrook, where Florence's father grew up and where Florence returned to live with her parents after the war. We visited the Lydbrook Church where Richard Yemm and Esther Cooper were married. We drove by Carterspiece, the hamlet where Florence and all her siblings were born and raised. We took a wonderful hike across the English countryside, enjoying bucolic vistas of rolling hills and sheep grazing with their newborn lambs. We even spotted a baby owl! A local, Jeff Carrick, gave us a lovely tour of the 400-year-old church at English Bicknor and helped us find the graves of Florence's parents, brother George, and Cooper grandparents. Amazingly, Florence's 2nd great grandparents, Stephen Yemm and Sybil Evans, were married at this church in 1782!
We discovered Tintern Abbey, made famous in a poem by William Wordsworth, just across the River Wye, in Wales. Surely our ancestors would have known of the Abbey. Did they ever visit? Back across the River in Gloucestershire, we visited the ancient All Saints Church in Newland where Florence's grandparents, Joseph Cooper and Esther Elliss, were married and her great-grandmother, Hester Jenkins, is buried. From there it was on to Symonds Yat, a famous overlook high above the River Wye. We took another hike through the woods, on a sculpture trail that wound past the Speech House, a Forest icon since the 17th century.
On our last full day in the Forest, we took a trip into the city of Gloucester, a spot with special sentiment to Aunt Flo. Although it wasn't initially on our radar (even though many people had mentioned it), we visited the Gloucester Cathedral. We were awed and amazed, and feel quite sure that this was a place Aunt Flo stepped inside many times. We enjoyed two local museums and the charming vibe of this port town. On our trip home, Gill surprised us with a detour through Blackpool, where the bluebells were in full bloom and carpeted the forest floor as far as the eye could see.
We felt our ancestors’ blessings with the uncharacteristically sunny skies and travelers’ serendipity that graced each day of our visit. Our England trip was magical, every step of the way!