Winchester Days - Loud Cheers for Jenni Lane and Andante

Saturday 10 May

Cricketers Inn, Easton. My room is over the bar, and Friday evening was worryingly noisy, but it is very comfortable, light & large. Nice old building.
 

Today is another departure from the genealogy theme, as I have booked to do a one-day course on osteo-archaeology. It has been organised by Andante Travels, with whom I went to Pompeii some years ago. They have started doing courses on various archaeology/history related themes, and this was one happening while I was in the country, and in a place I love and have research in, so was a complete no-brainer!

                                                                Dr Katie Tucker

Dr Katie Tucker of the University of Winchester led the day. She did her PhD thesis on “the osteology and archaeology of human decapitation” – sounds fascinating. She has also been involved in the hunt for the remains of King Alfred, and was in the news in January announcing that they may have found part of his remains. Lloyd sent me the link - http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/national/news/10945624.Museum_bones__are_Alfred_the_Great_/

 

Katie is a friendly, informal and very knowledgeable speaker. 

There were twelve people on the course, the maximum number they allowed for. Jenni, the Andante organiser, whose original idea this was, said she had a hard job convincing the rest of the team that anyone would be interested! She organised for the one-day course to run twice, and both days sold out, so she was obviously spot on in her thinking!

We started with an introduction to the subject, and Katie had some great slides to illustrate her talk. She discussed the reasons for the preservation or otherwise of bones – soil type, wet or dry, hot or cold (hot and dry conditions mean fragile and brittle bones, wet and cold give much better preservation), container type (if it is a sealed container, the skeleton will lie in its own decomposition liquids, so lower parts of the bones will begin to disintegrate while the upper can be well preserved)  and what we can learn from them with careful study, including age, sex and pathology, and often how they died, or some contributing causes. Then we walked around the corner to the Museum Stores, where three long tables were set out, just like you see on Time Team. Four of us gathered around each table, and the curator (Helen?) brought out three boxes for each group. 

 

... the ankle bone connects to the ...

Then came the fun part, we had to carefully unpack the bags of bones and assemble them on the table in the right order. It helped that the bags mostly had labels with basic information, like ‘right hand’. There was a plastic skeleton on wheels that we were able to bring over to compare ours with, so Audrey and I used him to great advantage while re-assembling a hand. Gudrun (Jenni’s assistant) found it hilarious that I was holding hands with the plastic man so lovingly while I figured out how the bones went together, and took several photos. Jenni was also very helpful in the placing if we got it wrong – turned out that she did a year of osteo-archaeology as part of her own degree a few years ago.

                                               ... intimately holding hands with a skeleton

We were lucky in that the man  in our foursome (whose name I forget) worked with and had experience of cutting up animals, so was familiar with basic anatomy. He got busy putting the back-bone together, and his wife did the long arm and leg bones, and the other hand. 

                                             'Alfie' complete, with Jenni admiring our work

Katie had left several example sheets on each table to help us to figure the sex, age and height of our remains. We were fairly sure ours was a male, he looked very sturdy, and the good old pelvic girdle V, that Margaret always shows us on Time Team, did look quite narrow. 

Next we measured one of the long bones, and our ‘token male’ got out a notebook and attempted the arithmetic, with a resulting height of about 5’ 4”

To calculate his age we looked  closely at the wear on the teeth, alongside the examples, and decided perhaps he came into the 36-45 range. (Ages are guestimated as: up to 18, 19-25, 26-35, 36-45, 45+.) Next the ends of the pelvis were compared, and this part was not at all easy. To lay people, the differences in the examples were minute, and we were really not sure, but felt the same age range was a possibility. 

When Katie came by, we told her what we thought, and she looked pensively at him for a moment, and then said decidedly 'taller and younger'! She measured two bone lengths and added them together, then did the calculation on a smart-phone, and came up with 5’9”. Next she discussed why she thought he was in the 26-35 age bracket – possible near the top end, which made us feel a little better. I asked where he was found, and it turned out to be a Saxon graveyard here in Winchester.  So I have been intimately fondling the hand of a Saxon gentleman (approximately 450 – 1066 AD). For someone over 1000 years old, he is in remarkable good condition!

We enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch, and I hope no-one minded the planned dessert being changed from cheesecake to chocolate tart, after I filled in the space on the application form for dietary requirements with ‘chocolate’. Jenni certainly does aim to please her customers. Almost the best part was being able to sit down – not many of us are used to standing for long stretches. Sitting at lunch with Audrey, John & Fiona, and it turns out the latter couple are genealogists, so the conversation went with a swing <g>

Back at the stores, we gathered around Katie while she showed us some samples of bones with diseases and injuries. Leprosy eats away the bone, often the middle sides of small toes and fingers, so you are left with a bar-bell type of shape. Tuberculosis chews through the bones fairly indiscriminately, and arthritis – you could feel the heightened interest here - leaves pock marks and smooth, shiny surfaces where it wears away against the bone next to it. Malnutrition in the young puts sideways lines across the teeth enamel while it is forming. 

Injuries included broken legs and arms that had bonded well (or not so well), sword marks, including a decapitation that had needed several tries, and various other things, and then we were sent back to our tables to see what we could find. ‘Alfie’ as I had privately nick-named him, (after the local Saxon, King Alfred obviously), turned out to have a bit of arthritis, which he was fortunately saved from the worst effects of by having his head chopped off! (Remember what I said Katie’s thesis was on?!) 

        Reminds me of Gilbert & Sullivan - except I don't remember if this was his 'cervical vertebrae'

Helen was nearby, and remembered that Alfie had been found with his hands behind his back, so my ‘gentleman’ was very likely a criminal being executed. It looked like a clean cut, so hopefully he didn’t suffer too much. 

At the other tables they had a Roman man, who was not very well preserved, and a dainty mediaeval lady, but I don’t remember if their teams discovered the cause of death. One of them did have leprosy, I think the woman. 

After a final question & answer session over coffee back at the Lecture Theatre foyer, John & Fiona very kindly offered to drop me home, as the weather was definitely not conducive to standing around at bus-stops.  We hurriedly introduced ourselves in the car, having forgotten that courtesy at lunchtime, so I didn’t have to tell Lloyd I accepted a lift with two strangers ...

Reading: Mary Rose Museum: the story continues – a good update of the building of the new museum

Sunday 11 May

A nice quiet day in my room

Monday 12 May

Hampshire Archives -not really in the mood for anything, so looked up a couple of wills on fiche, paid for a 10-print Xerox card ($10) as opposed to a camera licence for $25.00. That might be worth it if I saved everything for one day, but only being here for the one, it is too expensive.  Printed them off  as there is no facility to scan to pc & save to flash-drive - the NZSG is so far ahead of so many of the English places. 

Looked at the Prisoners indexes and then looked up the Quarter Sessions books for the WHEATLAND and OSGOOD people I found. As these are new ancestral names for me, I collected all of them in case they fit in to my ROSSEY line later on. Mostly they were in jail for 3-6 months hard labour for various thefts – it is nice to know that Thomas & William TITHERIDGE weren’t the only members of Mum’s family to have spent time in the Winchester jail <g>

Left early. It is almost unheard of for me to a) not be at a record office until they kick me out or b) not to visit Winchester Cathedral, one of my favourites.  I really am getting tired. Next trip I will definitely stay in fewer places for longer.

                                                             View from Easton Lane

After strolling back to Easton down my picturesque country lane I felt too guilty to not even look at the local church, so detoured up the side road until I found it. Built in the mid twelfth century on the site of an even earlier Saxon church, it was of course extensively ‘restored’ by the Victorians. However there are still some really nice early features – the Norman south door is stunning, and the apse is original, as is the piscina. In the end I was pleased I had made the effort to see it.

St Mary's

Reading: Frost at Christmas by RD Wingfield

Portsmouth - Family Research and the Mary Rose

Tuesday 6 May

Room instructions say that although the hotel (actually just a pub with rooms above) does not serve breakfast there is a cafe close by which does. They omitted to mention which way to turn, or what time it opened. So I had a nice stroll in the wrong direction, then found it eventually about 7.50, still closed, and no sign to say what time they open. However it turned out to be right opposite St Thomas's Cathedral, so after a leisurely stroll around the outside I walked back and found that it had finally opened. Nice cooked breakfast, but slow, so I won't be making a habit of eating there. The corner shop on the way back had fresh food, so I may just grab something from there in future.

The map the hotel gave me is not a great one, but I found my way to the Dockyard, after about 15 minutes walk. At the ticket office I ended up getting a season pass to everything, as that worked out cheaper than separate tickets for the Mary Rose (MR) and the Naval Museum (NM). 

Did our gunner ancestor have all these virtues, I wonder

As the NM came first, I stopped there. Looked at their book section and found some general info on the ship Pelorus. Some background for you on this search - Francis ROSSEY, our Italian ancestor (whose daughter Eliza married James TITHERIDGE & came to NZ) was a gunner in the Royal Navy. In order to find his naval records, you need to know at least one of the ships he was on. These records not only tell you about him on his current ship, but say which ones he came from and went to, so it is possible to trace the entire career of a Navy man.The baptism of daughter Mary Jane in 1836 at Portsmouth shows him on the Pelorus at that time. However on a previous visit to England I checked the records for the Pelorus at Kew, and for the year covering the date I knew he was there, the records are missing. I checked a year either side, and went through every list, but found nothing. On the following trip to England I checked them again, just in case, but still came up with nothing. So it is one of my current 'brick walls' and I was hoping that the Naval Museum and attached Library might be able to help. A nice volunteer checked their database, without any success, and then gave me the email address for the researcher at the library, who is evidently extremely knowledgeable. The library is now only open part-time, thanks to budget restrictions, and today wasn't the day. They are also currently short-staffed due to the prevalence of flu going around. [I emailed her that night, and had a reply later in the week saying they had nothing there that might help, but making a couple of suggestions that I will follow up on after I get home.]

The Mary Rose Museum

With business out of the way, it was on to the pleasure. Seeing the MR is one of the very few 'tourist' things I have included in my schedule. I know I have been twice before, but two things have happened since my last visit - she is in a whole new, purpose-built museum, and the spraying with PEG (I can't spell or even say the whole scientific name for this - it is basically a liquid glue that impregnates the wood very slowly and will hold the timbers together) has finished - they have sprayed her for about 15 years now. The next phase is to very slowly dry the timbers out, so she now has long grey tubes blowing slightly warmed air over her. 

The new museum is shaped like the rounded stern of a ship. It sits behind and to the side of the Victory, and they share a forecourt.  Inside there are three floors, and you are given a map of a suggested route, This is the most logical way to see everything, and also keeps the traffic flow going smoothly.

Mary Rose Museum behind the Victory

Each floor equates to one or two levels of the MR. On the right are viewing windows to watch the ship, and on the left are the equivalent decks, laid out as they would have been with the original equipment all in place. It is a brilliant way to get a feel for what it would have looked like, and where everything went. At each end are exhibitions of different things - some of the skeletons they found have had facial reconstructions done, and are dressed as they would have been, surrounded by more of the artefacts they would have used. There are displays and videos of many of the different areas and jobs associated with the ship, as well as a great diorama of the battle when she sank - before actually engaging with the French, as far as we know. 

I came out partway through the tour and sat in the sun with my lunch to rest my feet before I carried on. I could easily spend several days going over everything. Finally ejected into the shop (naturally), I purchased the obligatory bookmark, and two new books that have come out since I was last here.

Outside the Victory I swapped cameras with an American man and we took pictures of each other, then I trekked back past my hotel to the Museum where the Tourist Info now is looking for a Portsmouth bookmark (which they didn't have!!) and a decent map - which they did.

Wednesday 7 May

After a twenty minute walk to the city centre I found the library, which looks very run-down. However the local history section on the second floor is quite extensive, and the staff are helpful. Most holdings are still only in their card catalogue, although some are slowly being computerised. Parish Register indexes for the three local deaneries have been indexed, but they are currently missing the baptisms of two deaneries (Havant & Alverstoke) while they are being typed up. 

I went through what was there for ROSSEY and WOODBURN (another ROSSEY line), and the children's married names, and found some family at St Mary & some at All Saints. Then looked at maps of the streets & found where they are now – some have changed names, some were lost in the WW2 bombing, as Portsmouth was hit very hard. Marked them on my map, and found pictures of how two of them looked at various earlier times.

There are very few burial registers indexed, but I was lucky to find Francis ROSSEY in 1849 at Mile End Cemetery – although this cemetery is no longer there, as it has been buried under a carpark! Then his wife Fanny, who died in 1863, is buried at Kingston, which is still there, and the lovely librarians copied a map of the cemetery for me and marked the right section. 

The Guildhall across the square was the main record repository when it was bombed in WW2, and of course much was lost … still, I now know both cemeteries for this pair of third great-grandparents.

Reading: Dekok & Variations on Murder by A Baantjer (a series translated from Dutch, reminds me of Maigret)
 Evening: A Lust for Windowsills by Harry Mount (this is an architectural book in case anyone wonders!)

Thursday 8 May

Portsmouth St Mary's

Caught a bus to St Mary’s church as it was a damp and drizzly day, and was very disappointed to find that an over-enthusiastic vicar had the old building demolished in the 1880’s and replaced with a late Victorian church that is now considered ‘an excellent example of its time’, Grade II listed, and thought by some to be of national importance. Personally I was upset to find that the one my ancestors were baptised and married at no longer exists. They do have display boards with some old photos, as well as a reasonable history of the previous buildings which I was able to buy. There has been a church on this site since about 1170, and it is still the main parish church for Portsea.

Portsmouth St Mary's - Font

Further along St Mary’s road is Kingston cemetery where Frances is buried, but was a bit wet to spend much time there, and the approximate position of her grave as far as I could see did not have a headstone.

The approximate area where Frances ROSSEY is buried at Kingston Cemetery

After lunch I caught a bus to the northern suburb of Cosham, where the Hampshire Genealogy Society Library is housed. The volunteers were helpful although they did seem surprised that someone was coming to use their collections. They have an excellent collection of indexes, and lots of books which I would have loved to borrow. Using their indexes for the Parish CMBs I got back several generation’s on some lines.

Reading: Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen

Friday 9 May

Packed early, then to Cosham for another couple of hours at the Hampshire Society rooms. Peter & Ruth were very welcoming & helpful, & Peter even gave me his email address in case I want anything done after I go home.

 

Back to High St, & had a look around St Thomas’s Cathedral while I ate a sandwich I got from the corner store. Wasn’t enthusiastic about it, but didn’t stop to analyse why. Possibly just too many other things on my mind. 

St Thomas Cathedral, from Wikipedia

 

Train to Winchester, only a one hour trip. I had not found a B&B in Winchester itself unfortunately, so took a cab from the station to Easton, about 3 miles out of town. It is a shame, as I would have enjoyed a wander around my old haunts after tea. I also stocked up on food at the railway café as I presume the Inn will be too expensive to eat at. (Breakfast would have been an extra $20 per night to start with!)