A liitle more information about William Armitstead 1786-1815

 What a surprise I had the other day. As my traveller card with 44 pounds stirling left on it is about to expire in June this year and the  prospect of travelling overeas getting less probable by the day I decided to use the money to collect more English birth, marriage, and death certificates. My first order of UK certificates arrived and I was expecting the death date, address and cause of death but Ellen Armitstead's certificate from 1853 in Kendal provided an interesting extra.   Unceremoniously it declared she died of old age at age 71 in Longpool Kendal. It listed that she was the widow of William Armitstead, cordwainer. I did not expect to find William's occupation or anything about him seeing he had been dead since 1815.

In 1841 Ellen was listed in Wildman St Kendal as a knitter. I was Googling Wildman St Kendal to see what I could find and here is what came up  Cordwainer building for sale  Well I can't be sure it was William's but it is in the same street where Ellen lived in 1841. I checked the census enumerator's collection path and it looks like she lived further up the street and not in  the current 3A Wildman St that is for sale. Still it was interesting to see Wildman Street on Google Street view.

Now you may ask what was a cordwainer? According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer   a cordwainer is a shoemaker who makes shoes with new leather as opposed to a cobbler who mends shoes or makes shoes from old leather. Cordwainer is an archaic term and is only used in the name of trade guilds or associations now.

I love shoes so perhaps William passed down his love of shoes to me.

Jack Armitstead - UK travels

 Well what a time I've had over Easter. Sometime ago in the Facebook Lancashire Genealogy Group someone posted a photo  and asked if anyone knew where it was. One of the members suggested that they put it in the  Unidentified photographs of the British Isles Facebook private group.

Grandfather Jack Armitstead had 3 photo albums that Dad had very carefully kept. Unfortunately Jack did not name, date or place any of the photos. He also mixed the photos on the page so there might be an Australian one with an American one and as well as a British one.

These photos have intrigued me for quite a while so when this Facebook group was mentioned I ventured to post my first photo on April 3. I had a reply within the hour with a corresponding view of it to prove it. I have now added 20 and only 1 remains to be solved.

From the scattered photos it looked like Jack had travelled with 2 friends. So where did Jack and his friends travel? As Jack was listed in the 1901 census as a trainee chemist living in Ripon, Yorkshire and he left Liverpool for Australia in 1910 after having married in Liverpool. It looks like he did his travelling in the UK between about 1902 and 1910.

After getting the identifications of the photos I have tried to piece together where these adventurous fellows went.

UK places mentioned below

The Eastham locks are the beginning of their journey from Lancashire to Scotland. I assume that there were  3 of them. Jack is in this photo on board the boat with one other but in other photos it appears he is the photorapher and a fellow in a boater hat joins the other one with the cap. 

Eastham Docks Mersey River

 On board Jack is the one on the right.

The SS Setter plies between Liverpool and Glasgow so their voyage has begun,

SS Setter

If you are travelling up the west coast of England what will you see? You may see a steam coaster or collier and, of course, you would have to see the island Ailsa Craig.

Steam coaster or collier

Ailsa Craig

The Steam coasters were used for shifting cargo before land transport was in common use. Ailsa Craig provides the rock for making curling stones and  Mauchline on the mainland has the only curling stone factory left in the world. This information was supplied by members of the group

Now that they have reached Scotland they are off to the highlands. There is no indication as to the itinerary of the trip so I'm guessing they travelled by train from Glasgow.

Places in the Scottish Highlands

We have them at Taymouth Castle in Perthshire having probably travelled  on the train. They visited  Kenmore to see Taymouth Castle

The 2 travelling companions outside Taymouth Castle near Kenmore.

They also visited the village of  Killin  that is at the other end of Loch  Tay and here are his 2 mates again.

Lyon Road, Killin

They have to go to Edinburgh as it wouldn't be a visit to Scotland without Edinburgh or Edinburgh Castle. They were a bit early for the Edinburgh MilitaryTattoo as it didn't  officially start until  1950. So they were about 45 years too early.

Edinburgh places

Outside Edinburgh Castle

Outside Edinburgh Castle

Now they head off to visit Holyrood Abbey, John Knox House in the Royal Mile and then Calton Hill

John Knox House, Edinburgh

Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh

Calton Hill, Edinburgh

As we have no dates on the photos we have no way of knowing how long he was away from home. To get home did he go by train or coach? Probably didn't swim!!!

However he has travelled again and remains dedicatd to photography.

Look at the pubs and flint church in East Anglia.

Norfolk places

The Kings Head pub was identified in 7 minutes from when I put it up-amazing. The church one had been languishing waiting to be identified. As there were a lot of Scottish photos going up one fellow said he dared to suggest East Anglia for the church as it was a flint church and there are no flint churches in Scotland. Once the pub was identified as King's Head in Heathersett Norfolk I asked if the church could be there too. It took a little while for a suitable reference photo to be found but there it was St Remigius in Heathersett, Norfolk.

The Kings Head, Hethersett, Norfolk

Lychgate St Remigius Church, Hethersett, Norfolk

Then another photo that I didn't think  had enough identifiable features. Guess what? Again this only took minutes to be identified as  Queens Head pub in Hethersett, Norfolk.

Queens Head Pub on L, Norwich Rd Hethersett.

 He definitley liked the pubs in Hethersett.

Two photos took a bit longer to identify and they weren't in Scotland. It had been suggested to me a few years ago that this photo might be from the Lake District. Here he was off in a different direction this time to the Lake District in Cumbria near Kendal  where his father  was born. Shortly after the father's birth they left to live in Preston. Once his father married they moved to Radcliffe where Jack was born in 1880.

Waterhead, Ambleside Cumbria.

Cumbria place

The next one took much investigation. There were all sorts of suggestions but it turned out to be a skew viaduct and as you can imagine I didn't know what that meant. Because of that feature it narrowed the field down but it still couldn't be recognised until I looked for disused ones. Healey Dell 
viaduct is near Rochdale in Lancashire. So more or less, it was a local for grandfather not far from his family's home in Bury.  It is now a walking track.

Healey Dell viaduct Rochdale, Lancashire

The one yet to be identified is also of a viaduct with another bridge in the background. Watch this space to see if they are able to identify it.

So if you have unidentified photos from the British Isles then answer the joining questions for the Private Facebook group "Unidentified photographs of the British Isles."  Just remember they do not identify people.

They are so responsive and very helpful.

Now identified as the River Irwill near Prestwich with Railway bridge and the Manchester Bury Bolton canal aqueduct in the background.

The Hat Box

Now you might wonder why the hat box.  This box has been with me for many important parts of my life.

THE hat box

You can see by the rusty catches that it is getting on in age now. It was once a part of a set of suitcases that my mother insisted that I needed when I left home to go to University. Yes, I was the eldest, so I was the first to leave home and I guess that was a terrifying thought for Mum & Dad. Here was their eldest leaving home and they didn't know what might befall her in the wide world of the big city, but they needed her to be prepared for any social occasion that might present itself.
This started off with hats for church as any self-respecting woman in the 1960's had to wear a hat to church. They got discarded fairly quickly as fashions changed.
In the 1980's siblings were getting married and I was working with a lady whose mother made hats. For my sister's wedding I was bridesmaid so no hat. A brother was next to marry and when the lady saw the dress that I was making to wear she offered to lend me one of hers as it was the perfect colour for my dress.


So the hat box was getting lonely, no new hats yet. Well, things were about to change as the other brother was getting married. This time she did need to make a hat for me. and a lovely red hat matched the red in my dress perfectly.
                                               
Being in Sydney a couple of days before the wedding I went into Grace Bros at Chatswood and was greeted at the makeup counter by a fellow in a lovely salmon pink jacket who asked if I wanted a free makeup done. Of course, I did, and I told him I was going to a wedding on the Saturday. He wanted to know what colours I was wearing, and I explained navy with white and blue red (not an orange red). He did a great job and the free make up ending up costing me $85 as I then needed to buy the makeup to look the best for my brother's wedding. Off I went to the wedding feeling pretty good and one of my aunts and I were the only ones wearing hats. They were just coming back into fashion. Then a cousin came up and said, " oh it's you, I wondered who the good sort was?" So, the hat box wasn't lonely anymore. it had gained a lovely red hat.
Next I was getting married and as I was not a 20 year old anymore I didn't want a very expensive wedding. I asked my sister could I wear her wedding dress but make it a ballerina length. She very kindly agreed.
Then went to my milliner with the piece off the bottom of the dress and she made my wedding hat. This put another one in the hat box.

My cousin's son was getting married in Perth in Kings Park in the summer. It can be very hot in summer in Perth and yes it was. This time the hat had to survive being in a suitcase on the flight over. No, the hat box didn't travel as I was only allowed one piece of luggage. I was not in contact with the hat making lady anymore. This time the dress was  a clear red and I had scored a bargain at the thrift shop. When I visited a hat shop in the city the owner very carefully chose some for me to try on. They were very expensive, so I explained about having a second hand dress so he quickly guided me to ones on  a rack outside the shop. Yes, there was a white one and he could fit a red pleated removable band on it and it would survive being squashed. It still cost twice as much as the dress but more in line with my budget. The red hat now had a friend, so it was not lonely in the hat box.

Perth version

Spring Fair version

                                                                                             

East coast wedding one

Next, one of my nieces was getting married and as the wedding was on the east coast of Australia the red dress got worn again but it gained a new hat as the other one had by this time been spray painted green and had flowers added to wear to our retirement village Spring Fair. Again this hat was white and as the  red band from the Perth one matched the dress it was carefully attached to the new hat.

One July at the Jumpers and Jazz Festival in Warwick  I went to a fascinator making function. So I have kept the only hat I have ever made.

To get away from the dressy head gear let's look at some other great memory jogging caps. I was working on a Project in Burundi in the 1980's and the members of the project team at that time were given a cap each. This is a short manufacturing run so there are few in the world. I doubt that it will bring money of the Antiques Roadshow type, but it has brought back many memories of that time.

On a trip to South America how could I resist this ear warming beanie?

Now the piece de resistance- an elephant cap that one of my brothers gave me for Christmas one year. This is a bit difficult to store with my collection of elephants, but the hat box looks after it well.

Now what about the hats my mother had? Unfortunately, I don't have photos of many of her hats but her favourite one before she died was the one she wore to our wedding.  The three others have now joined the hat box. This hat box has very happy occupants now.

Mum at our wedding.

One worn to a wedding

Turban style hat

Lovely warm fluffy beret style

What started out as a hat box to set me up for my life at University has turned into a box full of stories from my life since then. The original hats have long gone but what followed has been a lovely journey for me and the hat box. It is not lonely anymore as it stores all these amazing hats and memories.