Picturing our ancestors lives.

[jaybelnz]

Before the Ocean between us evaporates, maybe you'll get washed down south a bit, we'll get washed upwards and then our lands will be joined up again, be one country, one nation and then we will rule the world in Rugby, Cricket, Netball, etc etc  - and share all the glory! 👍👍👍

Kangaroos will mate with Kiwis, and we will have Kangiwis and Kiwiroos - what a force we would be!

[coombs]

Of course London was a lot smaller 150 years ago to now, places like Bow and Hackney were on the edges of London, and Bethnal Green was not far from the countryside. But my 2xgreat grandfather was born in south St pancras, near Oxford Street and just below Goodge Street, a good 3 or so miles from the countryside back then, now it is about 12 miles.

[pinefamily]

Coombs, that point about the countryside was made clear to me a few months ago when I re-read some of the Sherlock Holmes stories. There was mention about travelling through rural hamlets with names that I know are now part of London.

[jbml]

My father made this point to me in the late 1980s, by pointing to the names of the inner London railway stations as you travel out of Liverpool street:

Bethnal Green
London Fields
Hackney Downs

I came across a fascinating legal case, not so long ago, from the 1860s, which was all about the commoners' rights of grazing on the Lammas lands in Hackney ...

[coombs]

Also Lamb-eth, after lambs.
Soho was apparently an old hunting cry.
St Martin in The Fields.
Poplar after the poplar tree.

In 1856 my Soho and Shoreditch born 3xgreat grandparents married in St John Hackney, which was still a semi rural area, many of the nearby areas were brick fields or market gardens with streets springing up round them.

[pharmaT]

Same with Birmingham Yardley Fields, Glebe Farm, Acocks Green, kits Green etc.

[coombs]

Talking of Birmingham, my great grandad was at the Dudley Road hospital for 6 weeks in 1916 after shell shock from service in France. I can easily picture him there during those 6 weeks. A few ancestors siblings ended up in Birmingham.