Leighton Buzzard

With thundery rain forecast we decided to stay put in Leighton Buzzard today.
We woke to the news that my best friend, Emma in Australia had become a Great Aunt overnight. Photos of Nellie and Steve with their new baby girl were flying through the air from hemisphere to hemisphere, all are doing well, no mention of a name as yet.

What to do on a wet day in Leighton Buzzard? Mick wanted to get some new waterproofs so we went into town to see what we could find. A branch of Millets came up trumps with a new bright blue (lined in red) coat and some considerably more sober black over trousers. I’ll make sure I warn you before I post a photograph as the coat is very bright! Sadly they didn’t have a new coat for me, I don’t do pink and pockets closed with buttons don’t make sense to me. A more practical coat is required.

Next we walked up to find Lake Street.

Yesterday Mick had decided to see if he could find out where his Grandfather had been born. His family are pretty good with family history and he knew that Phillip had been born in Leighton Buzzard, but where exactly? Last night he’d signed up to ancestry.co.uk and got hold of a copy of the 1871 census which listed his Great Grandfather William Henry Chignell a year before Phillip was born.

The family is listed as living on Lake Street. No house number is shown, just a schedule number. Half of Lake Street has been redeveloped over the years, so it may be that the actual building no longer stands, but it was worth a try. Lake Street is also where the library is, so we went in to see if they could help.

The two ladies sat at the desk did their best to be helpful. House numbers should have been listed by that time, but no more information was found. Mick was signed up with a library card so that he could use the library’s Ancestry account for free. Here he searched through all sorts of records sadly to no avail. I on the other hand wandered around looking at a knitted display and reminiscing of my days when I worked as a book seller.

A couple of suggestions have been made to try looking at Family Search and to ask at the library to see if they have any Victorian trade/people directories that his father may be listed in. Thank you Kath and Kay. William and his family moved around quite a lot, in the census he is listed as being a professor of music, an organist, elsewhere he is listed as a travelling salesman. A birth certificate for Phillip might give us more, but as we’re just passing through more local detailed searching may have to wait until next time we’re in Leighton Buzzard.

Dark clouds accompanied us back to the boat, maybe the really bad weather was about to hit. Tilly complained that she wasn’t allowed out. Jewsons has easy canal towpath access for cats and they constantly seem to be using forklifts, so Tilly had to wait until they closed for the day, but this still gave her a few hours of exploration.

Late afternoon we received our second lot of baby news for the day. Ruth, Mick’s niece has had a baby girl, Penelope, a couple of days ago. All are doing well and Anne, Micks sister is on hand for Granny duties. So the next generation are increasing in number, wonder how they will trace us all in the future, all on line I suspect.

As we waited for the deluge to arrive I packed up my socks ready to be dispatched tomorrow. They have turned out rather well I think, I’m glad as they have taken a lot of patience firstly in finding the yarn, then getting it and thirdly knitting it up. I’ve actually knitted three socks to get two. Out of interest the other day I looked to see if there was any tracking information about the two orders that didn’t arrive. The second parcel arrived in Rode Heath 10 days after I got a refund! Glad we didn’t wait for it to arrive unlike today’s almost none existent rain.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 short showers, 0 deligue, 0 house number, 1 library card, 1 new set of waterproofs, 1 security tag, 1 square headed bit in a set for £31! 21 days for 24hr delivery, 2 new babies!