Self-indulgent Saturday-Sunday #3

This third episode covers around 12 years between 1955 & 1967, following my leaving Bridlington High School (previous posts are at #1 and #2 ).

 Posing! c.1955

I coulda stayed in school for two more years, coulda then gone to university or teacher training college - coulda but didn't wanna. I wanted to earn money, see life, learn from experience, get away from regimentation, exploit my independence.

A youthful dream was to be a newspaper reporter, but living where we did, that was a forlorn hope. Second choice, and one with more chance of success: work in a library aiming to become a fully fledged librarian. I was interviewed at our County Library in Beverley, some 14 miles from home, but was unsuccessful, mainly due to my lack of work experience - my GCE academic exam qualifications well exceeded what was required. That interview did lead to another opening, and one almost tailor made for me at that time : general assistant to the County Archivist, in the County Record Office, also in Beverley. It turned out to be a fascinating job which I grew to love.

I travelled to Beverley from home by train, 5 and a half days a week. I'd been learning to type and trying to learn shorthand in evening classes and spare time for a few months. My new job wasn't simply as a typist though, that was a side-requirement. The County Archivist, Mr H. had established the County Record Office a few years earlier and was still deep in process of persuading local gentry and minor aristocracy, of which there was a goodly number in East Yorkshire, to deposit their family archives in the Record Office for safe keeping, and to be catalogued and used for research by historians and genealogists.

Mr H. was a delightful guy, I wish I had a photograph of him to share, but any I owned were lost in what I call the Great Fire of 1996. I can find no photo of him online, but did unearth a list of reference numbers to archive documents since transferred from the Beverley Record Office to the History Centre of Hull University. I noticed, with glee, that all those in second half of the list - those with prefix double D ("DD..") were those I helped to sort, catalogue, index etc. so many years ago. (See here).

Mr H's powers of persuasion worked well, our three large strongrooms soon filled with lots of valuable materials - stuff crying out for investigation and interpretation. The documents, on receipt, were often absolutely filthy, having been stored in dusty attics, or dank, musty cellars, for centuries. Our first job was to clean and sort, then Mr H. would draft entries for detailed catalogues which I would type, then stamp and number the documents, store them carefully in specially-made labelled boxes, then index and cross-index a large card index system (steam version of Google!) After the first year or so I was allowed to actually catalogue many of the later documents myself.

We had visitors to the office daily, asking to see particular documents, some were staff from County Hall - we stored all the County Council's ancient and modern records too, relating to education, highways and bridges, council meeting minutes, court records, etc etc etc. Quite frequent also were visits from out of town students, historians, and the occasional person looking for family history clues. It was part of my job to locate required documents and either log them out (modern council records) or pass them over to the researcher who would study them in an outer office.

In preparing this post I searched online for a photograph of the Record Office building, which stood next door to County Hall. To my dismay I find it has been demosished and a fancy new "Treasure House" replaces it. The old building was a single story affair, with pillared doorway (looked a bit Grecian). A corner of it can be seen on the far left in the photo of County Hall below.

The new structure is shown in an article HERE, A Diamond Anniversary for the East Riding Archives and Local Studies Service which also tells that:

There is a display in the Treasure House featuring photographs of some of the buildings the archives have been stored in and some of the staff who have helped build the service up over the years.

I doubt my photograph was there, don't recall ever having had photograph taken at work, maybe I was named as one of the early staff, there were so few of us: Mr H + one general assistant; I was that one for two separate periods of 3 years: 1955-8 and 1967-70.

After 3 happy years in the County Record Office, in 1958 my itchy feet began to tingle. I loved and respected Mr H, he'd taught me such a lot, not only about history and local history, but about poetry and politics and ....well life in general beyond what I'd experienced in my own family circle. Even so, East Yorkshire was somewhat isolated, I wanted more, began to feel trapped. Once those itchy feet began to tingle something had to give.

I don't recall what propelled me into the life of a live-in hotel receptionist, I really don't. Looking back, it seemed an unlikely next step. Perhaps, at age 19, it was the only way I could find to leave home but still have a place to live and be fed. I found an advert in some publication for a job in a North Yorkshire hotel office, was interviewed, and to my surprise was successful. The hotel was a lovely old coaching inn in a picturesque area close to the border of North Yorkshire and County Durham. From what I can glean online that hotel is now quite different in atmosphere from the Morritt Arms I knew back in the late 1950s. I guess it has been 21st-centurised, maybe now owned by an offshoot of some hotel corporation or other. There's a piece mentioning it HERE.

 As was

I spent the summer there, fell in love, for the very first time, but after a few months the object of my affection disappeared one night without any warning to me, or to the hotel owners or other staff members. A mystery! Owen was his name, he was working as general hotel dogsbody and hall porter, but really didn't seem to fit that role. He befriended me immediately, we "clicked" right away. His disappearance haunted me for years. Later on I learned, from his sister, that at the time he disappeared he had been AWOL from the RAF and had either been apprehended by the authorities, or had gone "on the run". I did, eventually, meet him again, just once - that'll likely be mentioned in #4.

 Married 1962, his pic gone.  With my  parents

The years following were filled with seasonal work in the offices of 10 different hotels around the UK - north, south, east and west. Checking around the internet for photographs of said hotels told me that all have changed almost beyond recognition. One has been taken over by Best Western, others have been tarted up to the eyeballs, extended, modernised. Inevitable, I guess. There were intervals, too, as cashier in a city restaurant, secretarial work in a Rolls Royce Gas Turbine factory, assistant in the Devonshire public transport accounts offices.

In 1960/1 I met first husband, married in 1962, separated in 1963. Tried again a little later - still didn't work. I ought not to speak ill of the dead (if he is ). I'll say only that it was because of him I got to experience Rome, twice, for several weeks; for that, and perhaps for introducing me to Sinatra's genius I have to thank him. He, Val, was Italian, sometime head waiter, sometime ordinary waiter, sometime gambler, philanderer....Enough said, for now. He was removed from the wedding photo (right) it came from my mother's collection, any photos of Val I had in my own collection were destroyed in the Great Fire.

Life as a hotel receptionist, more accurately in those days described as book-keeper/receptionist, because we had to keep "the books" - detailed account ledgers as well as the usual booking records. The luxury of computers to do much of the work for us was non-existent back then. It was from learning how to keep a ledger that I taught myself, through constant practice, to add very long columns of figures (L-S-D: pounds, shillings and pence) without the aid of a calculator. I can still do that, amazingly! We answered correspondence, phone enquiries, typed menus, and in some hotels I was also responsible for making up wage packets for the staff, and dealing with related tax and National Insurance issues. We worked in shifts, very early morning to mid afternoon, or mid-afternoon to late night. We were expected to wear black - navy blue might be tolerated, though not always. I could usually eat in the hotels' dining rooms, choosing from the full menu, or sometimes from a limited list. It was politic, of course, to always cultivate a pleasant relationship with the hotels' chefs - and waiters! Occasionally office staff would be asked to do a shift in one of the bars, or assist at a wedding or banquet - that was fun! Live-in staff were sometimes allocated a room in the hotel itself - top floor or at the back; occasionally there'd be a designated staff house nearby.


Before meeting first husband there had been some boyfriends. Two of the longer lasting ones were Douglas in Devon, who loved big cars (his Jaguar in photo) and dreamed great plans for the future - I hope they transpired; and Ronnie in Lancashire who loved his pint of beer and a game of soccer. Neither ticked all my boxes, but both were good friends. Dang - but I was picky, falling in love again was not easy! There were lots of short term friendships with hotel staff members. Pam, a fellow receptionist in a Lancashire hotel, who was also training as a fashion model, comes to mind. I have her to thank for teaching me how to put on makeup properly, and how to style my hair. Pam was another friend with a birthday close to mine; it's odd how that kept happening.

I have especially nice memories of a pair of travelling representatives for tobacco firms who used to co-ordinate their visits to a North Devon hotel where I worked for one summer and an autumn in the mid-1960s. These two, Tony and Bill, were great buddies, witty, easy-going, well-read, and amazingly they befriended yours truly whenever they were in town. I loved 'em - quite innocently, like brothers I guess...they were both happily married. I often wonder if I was always looking for the brother(s) I never had. Another visitor, to the same hotel, a relief bank manager, Mr S. asked me out regularly for a meal during the time he was seconded to the area. He was a sweetie, middle-aged bachelor, rather old fashioned. I could've, probably should've....but I didn't. When he left, after a month or so, he sent me a huge bunch of wonderful long stemmed bronze chrysanthemums (because I'd told him how I loved the scent).

Mid 1960s, with Mum and Grandparents

It had all been a big adventure for me, hotel life became addictive for a time, even though in retrospect this period of my life was a chaotic patchwork of good, bad and indifferent experiences, lots of movement, not much real progress. Eventually the novelty and addiction wore off, it became tiresome, I began to long for stability.

By 1967, working in a non-hotel environment in Devon, living in a tiny rented apartment, I received a letter one January day, from Mr H, the County Archivist in East Yorkshire, my first boss. Mr H. and I had kept in touch by letter occasionally all through this chaotic patchwork time of my life. He told me that my successor, his assistant, was leaving, would I like to go back to my old job? I decided to take him up on his offer, it was a damp and cold January in Devon, I was lonely, and my feet had stopped itching.

To be continued....

Turning Down the Empty Glass #4

Click on the numbers for the 3 earlier parts of this 4-part series, those relating to paternal ancestors are #1 and #2.
#1......#2.... #3


My maternal grandmother and her ancestors are last, but certainly not least in the four posts about my family history.

My grandmother May Bracegirdle married Sidney Bulpitt (see #3) in or about 1915. Their elder daughter, my mother Mary, was born in late September 1915. May and Sid would have a second daughter, Lillian some 7 years later.

 Sidney and May Bulpitt with elder daughter Mary, my mother.

 3 generations: May, Mary and Ann (me looking coy)

The back of the photograph (above) was inscribed by Lillian (my Aunt Lil)  : "Mum & sister Mary & Ann. This picture went through the 1939 war pinned on many gun site walls"

May, my grandmother, was born on 19 May 1894, daughter of Sarah (formerly Petch) and John Bracegirdle. May had borne a son out of wedlock (father unknown) in 1910. Her son, John, was raised by May's mother, Sarah.

Sarah and John Bracegirdle, my great-grandparents

Who was John Bracegirdle, my great grandfather? Where was he born? This has proved to be one of the most stubborn of brick walls in my family history. I know from census returns that he was a groom and servant at a picturesque and historic stately home in East Yorkshire: Burton Agnes Hall, shown here.

His place of birth on census return for 1891 was given as "Fulford", a village not far from York. I have been able to find no records of any Bracegirdle families in that area, nor have any helpers on genealogy message boards I've approached for assistance.

Bracegirdle is an unusual surname. It derives from an occupation:

This most interesting and unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a metonymic occupational name for a maker of breech-girdles, that is a maker of belts for holding up breeches, from the Olde English pre 7th Century, Middle English "brec" (Old French "braie"), breeches, with the Olde English "gyrdel", a girdle, belt. The surname is particularly widespread in the county of Lancashire (and Cheshire)...... The first recorded namebearer appears in London in the late 13th Century............(See here).

I was close to my grandma, May, having spent some years of my childhood during World War 2, living with her and grandad. I used to ask her about her father. He had died young, she said, when she was around 4 years old, her memories were hazy. His death certificate is recorded in 1898, his age then noted as 37, which might be an approximation, as on his marriage certificate in 1890 he was listed as age 27. My grandmother told me, when asked where her father came from, that he was "a foreigner". "Foreigner" in those days probably meant someone not from the surrounding area, rather than someone from another country. She would usually add that he "liked his drink", something that might have led to his early death. One of her clearest memories of her father was of him coming home one Christmas-time, drunk and carrying a pig under his arm! I believe I'd have rather liked my great grandfather! No such tale was a helpful lead to John Bracegirdle's origins though.

The letter below, dated 13 Dec. 1896, was treasured by my grandma, as a memory of her father. He is writing to his mother and father(presumably his in-laws for this to have remained in my grandma's possession) for an invitation to visit them at Christmas-time. Whether this was the Christmas when John arrived the worse for wear, and bearing a pig, isn't known!

John Bracegirdle appears in the 1891 census return as age 28, married, "groom/domestic servant in Burton Agnes, born "Fulford".

I obtained a copy of the marriage certificate of John Bracegirdle and Sarah in the hope of finding helpful clues. It certifies that the pair were married in Nafferton on 26 November 1890, when he was 27, she 23. His occupation is noted as "Groom", place of residence: Burton Agnes, his father's name is given as another John Bracegirdle, occupation "Labourer". Sarah is listed as "spinster", residence at time of marriage: Nafferton, her father William Petch, "Labourer". Witnesses were George Wilkinson and Mary Petch, Mary A. Staveley, all relatives or neighbours of Sarah.

If John Bracegirdle truly did come from Fulford, I doubt he'd have been thought of as "a foreigner" by my grandmother. As there's no sign of any Bracegirdle families in that area, I suspect that either the census taker misheard or misinterpreted the place name - or that my great grandfather had tried to cover his tracks for some reason. I suppose there is always the chance that he was son of a pair of travelling agricultural servant/labourers who spent a shortish time in Fulford and gave birth to a son, between census times - a 10-year gap. I suspect, though, that John Bracegirdle could have moved to Yorkshire from rural Cheshire, where there are to be found numerous Bracegirdle families. I tracked down any likely John Bracegirdles there, also in Lancashire, and came up with one I consider a likely "favourite": John Bracegirdle born in Knutsford (Knutsford.....Fulford.....ripe for misinterpretation?) who was 17 and a groom/domestic servant to a veterinary surgeon in the census for 1881. I've been unable to pin him down in an 1871 census at age 7 so far though, if his father's name really was John, but there are several other John Bracegirdles aged 7 listed with fathers of different first names.

John Bracegirdle's true origins will remain a mystery for ever, I fear. Sarah, John's wife and my great grandmother, remained a widow for some years after John's death.

 Sarah Bracegirdle, my great-grandmother

She married Henry Earnest Waites in 1910. Sarah and her second husband brought up my grandmother's son, John and eventually they ran a small farm in Gembling, East Yorkshire. Sarah worked at one point, my grandmother told me, as caterer looking after workers on a larger farm. She was always remembered by relatives as a "wonderful cook", a title my grandmother and my aunt inherited, though my mother and I missed out - at least on the "wonderful" part! I met my great grandmother several times, remember her as a tall, slender - almost gaunt - lady, but no more detailed memories remain.

Sarah's parents were William Petch of Nafferton and Martha (formerly Wilkinson, of Brigham). William, born in Hutton Cranswick, worked in the Nafferton flour mill, is listed in the census of 1901, then aged 54 as "weighman miller in flour mill", Nafferton, East Yorkshire.

William Petch , his wife Martha below

His wife, Martha is noted as aged 53. Also listed as living (or visiting) at 70 Station Street with William and Martha are some grandchildren:
Florence (11), Fred (4), Mary (6) (should be May) and Alice (2), along with "visitors", Sarah Bracegirdle (widow, 32), John Petch (28), Mary Petch (24), Thomas Tomlinson(30), Hannah Marson (17) and Thomas Sawdon (21). The three male "visitors" all farm servants.

Quite a house-full! I wonder if that census was taken close to some holiday time, or maybe near the date of a  wedding when family members gathered together. Sarah and May are the only pair present I fully recognise as mother and daughter - my grandmother and great grandmother. The family tree of the rest of the Petch family has always been a huge mystery to everyone; my mother, her sister and I have giggled over it more than once. I knew Florence and Alice as older "aunties", but neither was my grandmother's sister - maybe they were her cousins, but even she, and they, seemed hazy on that score.

William Petch was born about 1848, his father John Petch born 1815/18, Hutton Cranswick , married Sarah Jefferson (1816-1851). John Petch's father was another John Petch (1791/2)born in either Hutton Cranswick or Louth, Lincolnshire, who married Mary (possibly Mary Wallis). Both Johns were agricultural labourers.

There's a muddle here, I'm not yet clear on it.

This photograph of a John Petch comes from ancestry.com, it appears in several different family trees which must be loosely linked to my own, if this is, indeed the same John Petch, grandfather of William (my great-great grandfather). I'm not happy with the "Louth, Lincolnshire" connection, but it could fit. In the census of 1871 a John Petch, aged 80, married to Mary, is noted as born in Hutton Cranswick. That is my John Petch. In earlier census returns a John Petch with a wife Mary (nee Wallis) was noted as born in Louth Lincolnshire - but resident in Hutton Cranswick.

The following links are not 100% certain due to the above confusion: Father of the senior John was another William Petch (1770-1847), his wife was Jane (nee Wise 1769-1823). William's father was yet another William Petch, married to another Jane (nee Green).

PETCH: The surname, Petch, is said to be of medieval French origin and derives from the Old French "pech(i)e", the Latin "peccatum", meaning sin. A curious nickname surname, it was probably used more often in jest than as a mark of censure, or even in the ironical sense, as in the case of Robert Pecce, the Bishop of Coventry in 1123! The following examples illustrate the name development from the earliest recording ... Haimund Peccatum, Hamo Pecce (1121 - 1160 Suffolk), Rotbert Pecceth (1123 Anglo Saxon Chronicle), William Pesche (1178 Pipe Rolls Yorkshire), Gilbert Pechie (1200, Pipe Rolls, Cambridgeshire), Geoffrey Pech (1191, Pipe Rolls London), Richard Pechee (1275 Hundred Rolls Norfolk). In the modern idiom the variant include Pe(t)chey, Peach(e), Peech, Petch(e).
From HERE.

(From Wikipedia)

Pipe Rolls were financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury. The earliest date from the 12th century, and the series extends, mostly complete, from then until 1833. They form the oldest continuous series of records kept by the English government, covering a span of about 700 years. The early medieval ones are especially useful for historical study, as they are some of the earliest financial records available from the Middle Ages.

Returning to my great grandmother's father, William Petch - his wife Martha Wilkinson's family can be traced back to early 18th century:

Martha's father was James Wilkinson (1828-1876 ) born in Skerne, married to Frances of Kirkburn (1829-1892).

James Wilkinson's father was George (1787-1876) born in Cherry Burton, married to Martha Jane (formerly Ness 1789-1834) of Nafferton, daughter of John Ness of Wansford and Martha(nee Marson 1761-1816) of Nafferton.

Martha's parents were Richard Marson (1722-1794)of Nafferton and Mary Haggard of North Frodingham (1722-1759).

Those place names seem scattered but all are close together in the same area of East Yorkshire.

My maternal great grandfather's origins remain a mystery, but female lines in this branch of my genealogy are strongly based in East Yorkshire.

Turning down an empty glass for my grandmother May, with all her, and my, ancestors, known and unknown.

And when Thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the guests star-scatter'd on the grass,
And in thy joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty glass!

Gathering the 4 family strands together: my traceable ancestor lines derive from East and North Yorkshire, Suffolk and Essex, Wiltshire and Hampshire, possibly Cheshire. Further back than documentary evidence allows, it's likely that a few elements in these lines had their deepest roots in France (Vasey, Petch) and in Scotland (Scott).

The "brick-walls" encountered so far are:
a)Who were my paternal grandfather's father and antecedents?
b)Was John Thomas Midgley the biological father of my paternal grandmother, or was she daughter of his wife Fanny(his second cousin) before they married?
c) Where did my maternal great-grandfather come from, who were his family?


A last photograph, small one but one I've always loved it, because it was taken some time after my father had suffered injuries in a motorcycle accident. A friend had encouraged him to try to drive the motorbike and Dad had managed to throw himself off it into the road and damaged his face quite badly. You can still see signs of some dressings I think. He had scars for the rest of his life. It could have been horrendously worse. I'm posting this, coincidentally, on my Dad's birthday, 8 February. This little pic of an ice cream party, with Dad, Mum, Grandma May and me carries a very happy memory.

 Happy Birthday, Dad!