I hope this is of some help.

Many thanks for any help you can give
________________________________
[Reply from Ed]
As in my reply to Jez (below) I have to say people do change their email addresses from time to time. Perhaps someone will see your posting and be able to help.
Meanwhile, I do have some of the 19C parish rate books, and from the 1840s to the 1860s there's an entry for a Jeremiah Clark (sometimes with an 'e') renting a house and land in Wrington from Lord Powlett/the Duke of Cleveland. In 1850 there's also a Thomas Clark renting land from Sarah Cox in Udley. In 1860 an Arthur Clark (I think it's 'Arthur' - the handwriting isn't all that clear - was renting a house and garden in Lye from William Thatcher. None of these need be relatives of yours, but if their names crop up on any genealogy or census you come across, that may give you a link.

I was delighted to discover the 'Schmoose' pages on the Wrington website. We have recently moved into the Boot Shop, and I read Colin Foster's post from February about staying with the Millard family at the Boot Shop in the Fifties, and hope that he might be able to remember what the shop was like. Does anyone else have any recollections as well? We'd love to find out more about its history and if there are any photos of the shop and this side of Broad Street as well.
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[Reply from Ed ]

In the late 1980s, before I started the website in 1999, I videoed interviews with shopkeepers who were about to close down, see <http://www.wringtonsomerset.org.uk/archive/1987/1987index.html> including Mrs Millard and the Temples next shop down.

I was recently given by Alan Baker a 28min 8mm B&W film (which I've digitised) made by his great uncle, John Sullivan in the early 1930s <http://www.wrington.net/archive/2014/sullivansbakery/> all about his bakery which was the last building in Broad Street, corner of Station Road. Towards the end of that you'll see their quite imposing shop. The rest of the bakery was behind in what was the bakery yard.

Similarly, I was sent some photographs by the Corfield family <http://www.wrington.net/archive/2014/corfieldfamily/> whose father and mother ran a fish & chip shop in Broad Street. When my wife and I came in 1967, the chippie was the last of The Cottages on the left down Station Road !

I'll let you know if I hear from Colin - one does find from time to time, inevitably, people have changed email address.
[and his email has, in fact, bounced !]

Miss. Milton managed the shop for, as we called it, Amor the draper! She lived at Lower Stock farm with the Browns. She drove an Austin A30 !!

Tringhams shop was later operated by Constance Moore. (in Broad street)

The Maidments used to show lantern slides at the “bottom” chapel depicting the work of Methodist missionaries in the Islands of the South Pacific. They would be happy to know that the people of Samoa (in particular) are still very religious and that Samoa is one of the few places left where Sunday is still very much Sunday!

Oh, and Derek, I saw my first working television at Bill Ridley’s also. And I remember you singing “I leave my heart in an English garden” in the local talent show.

I’d forgotten Miss. Tinklin. A shame THE DRING is no longer the Dring. One of the few Saxon words left in the English language.

Does anyone remember the name of the man who grew anemones in the field at the top of Iwood Lane? (I don’t)

Kia ora

Joycelyn Lewis (née Edwards) - Plymouth, 28th July         [see Bill Crook - Hamilton, New Zealand, 23rd July first - Ed]

I am writing this on behalf of my Mum, Lillian Edwards (née Schroeder) who still lives in Wrington – I put these ‘quiz’ questions to her over the phone and we had a wonderfully nostalgic chat! Thanks Bill. Mum scored 18 possibly 19!

So, to work down the list....

Miss Gunning, as Derek said, was a teacher in Wrington but was also the lady who taught Mum to play the piano; she is remembered well and warmly.

Miss Milton - Mum recalls, towards the end of WWII, how the ladies of the village ran, coupons in hand, when word got around that there were new dresses in the shop!! I also remember the shop well (including the brass measure in the counter!) I loved to walk around the shop looking at the many items for sale; buttons, ribbons, baby clothes, socks etc. Still one of my favourite shops/departments to visit.

Jack Ridley - is remembered as a large man who rode a bike and Mum wonders if he worked at a market garden that became the mushroom farm?

Mr Calder - the dentist is also remembered, but not from the dentist’s chair, which is probably just as well as, according to Derek’s memory, as ‘health and safety, was not much to the fore’!

Lorna Bathgate - is remembered as a lovely and talented lady who lived with her father in a bungalow at West Hay, in the lane leading up to the mushroom farm, before moving to a bungalow not far from the centre of the village. My abiding memory of this lady is of a very decorative royal iced basket (pastel pink, white and blue) made for an aunt to give to me and my sisters, possibly for Easter!

Walter Cook - as a child Mum remembers that Mr Cook always had a cigarette hanging from his lips, from which the ash would often fall into a large wooden crate of sugar – ooops! Grace, the midwife, was the wife of his son, Howard. Cook’s was always the shop for the family food though.

Mr Hebditch -- is also remembered well but Mum wonders if anyone also recalls PC Cooper who was on the beat during WWII?

Mr Catermaull - was helped by Mum’s brother, Ken Schroeder; he used to help with the lifting of heavy equipment for him. The Schroeder family lived opposite the Memorial Hall, at that time, in Webbsbrook Cottage.

Bridie Sherbourne - the name only sounds familiar to Mum – could she have lived on Jones farm past the ‘Rec’, near the waterfall?

Mr Tringham - no recollection at all! Could someone shed light on the whereabouts of the shop in the village, please?

Mr and Mrs Maidment - Mum says they were a lovely couple (indeed I remember the name, if not the couple. so well) and still has in her possession a letter, sent by Mrs Maidment, congratulating Mum and Dad on the birth of their third daughter, Penelope. Chapelgoers attended Harvest Services and Sunday School Anniversaries not only in the Wrington chapels but at Langford chapel as well – a good walk away!

Miss Tinklin - (what a very apt name for an harmonium player?) lived in The Dring, lodging with Mrs Stride. Mr Hostler (?), a Methodist minister, also lodged there and Mum says she never saw him without his bible tucked under his arm. A lovely man she says.

Bert Clark - is remembered as being the landlord of The Plough, before moving into the Golden Lion. His daughter, Molly (Mollie?) was a good friend of Mums and she married and lived at Richard’s garage in Wrington. I well remember Molly and her husband from when I was a child – their Christmas window was a true delight each year and when I now see a Christmas card with a picture of a window, filled with gifts and toys, the picture of Molly’s window is the one that I see in my mind!

From the list of things Bill remembers seeing and doing, it’s only the bike races at the quarry which doesn’t ring a bell (pardon the pun!) – maybe it was a boy’s thing?

Thanks again Bill and Derek! Smile

Bert Clark 3 Not sure but I think he was the landlord of The Golden Lion. After the war, when Smiths crisps became available (complete with screw of salt in blue paper) he would sell some via the off-license which was a separate, concealed counter inside the pub. First come, first served as he kept some for his drinking customers.

Bill Crook, are you Paul's brother or were you the family living in 1, Lawrence Road, which was built when I lived in the stone cottage on the corner of Lawrence Road and Hannah More close

Derek D

I remember:-

Seeing the Bristol Brabazon flying over the village.
Seeing the last steam roller working on the roads.
Seeing the last passenger train going to Burrington.
When Blackcurrants were grown at Gatcombe.
When Lettuces and tomatoes were grown opposite the White Hart.
When the “Cookoo’s Workshop” was on Gatcombe Lane.
Seeing stooks of wheat and Barley in the fields.
Watching the Threshing machine working at Marshall’s farm.
Watching the bike races at the quarry.
Having school lunches at the “British Restaurant”
Having Fish and Chips at Corfields restaurant.
Catching Sticklebacks under the bridge on Havyatt road.
Watching Clar Lane shoeing horses at his Silver street smithy.

                                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Do you remember the following? What did they do?

Miss. Gunning.                1
Miss. Milton.                    2
Jack Ridley.                     2
Mr. Calder.                      1
Lorna Bathgate.              1
Walter Cook.                   2
Mr. Hebditch.                  1
Mr. Catermaull.               1
Bonnie Sherbourne.       2
Mr. Tringham.                  1
Mr. and Mrs. Maidment. 3
Bert Clark 3

Any one score 20 points??

My late father's Great-Aunt Gus (Augusta) ran the Post Office in Wrington for many years. She was born Cora Augusta Bartlett, in the old post office in Silver Street and lived there until 1885 when she moved to Broad Street. She married Jim Milford. It would appear that she succeeded her uncle, Mr J Bartlett in the post office. Cora Milford died on 15th August 1935, age 61 and is buried in Wrington Churchyard. She was obviously called Gus in the family.

In Wrington Churchyard, the graves of Ellen and William Bartlett and James and Cora Milford are part of our family and, so, part of Augusta's family. I have found an old post card of Broad Street, by Whitby's, Bridgwater. I assume someone else will have a copy, but if it is a rare find, then let me know.

Margaret Walker - Havant, Hants - 1st March

Thank you so much for sending the message from Ruth Taylor with her information on the Parker family. I am delighted to read of her ancestor James Parker, who was a brother of my ancestor Mary Jane and who also settled in Newport.

I am looking forward to contacting her directly so we can exchange notes. I am delighted to have found your brilliant website and I really appreciate the work you put in to help us with our research.

Regards

Ruth Taylor - Bath - 26th February

[A follow up to a piece this time last year from Margaret Walker - Havant, Hants (formerly of Newport, Mon) 5th February - Ed]

George and Charlotte Parker were my great great great grandparents. I am descended from Mary Jane Parker's brother James who was born in Burrington near Wrington in 1841. I believe James was the second of eight children. It would seem to me that some members of the family moved to Newport to get work.

Economic migrancy was not unusual at that time. James married Annie Maria Pope in 1870 at St Saviour's Church in Bath but his place of residence is stated as Newport Monmouthshire and his occupation was 'Fitter'. Annie was a sawyer's daughter from Frome, and was resident at 5 Grosvenor Place, Bath.

I am assuming she was in service there as it is rather a grand Georgian terraced house. James and Annie lived in the St Woolos area of Newport and had at least 7 children. Their eldest daughter Minnie married William Henry Watkins. They had a son Bertram Frederick, whose eldest son Wilfred Bertram George Watkins was my father. Dad was born at 21 Constance Street, Newport, the home of his mother Eva White's parents. According to the census and various birth/death records, James had a variety of occupations: Marine engineer, Stationary Engine driver, Crane driver. He died in 1891. The 1901 census records Minnie as an 'abandoned wife' living in the Newport Workhouse. Her son Bertram was living with his widowed grandmother.

It took me a long time to discover the story. Minnie died at the age of 46 in Newport Borough Asylum. She had had epilepsy more many years and I imagine there would have been no drugs to alleviate the condition in those days. My father's parents moved to the midlands when he was a year old and I never realised my Somerset roots until researching the family tree after my father died.

Strangely enough dad worked for the admiralty in Bath from 1963-1968 when I was a small child. I have lived many places during my life and moved back to Bath a couple of months ago. I knew the names of George and Charlotte Parker's parents, but that is as far back as I have got. I'll carry on the research though.

My Grandmother, mother, auntie and uncles were all Millards and owned the Boot shop in Broad Street. I used to stay for several months of the year in the fiftes.

Have used [the website] regularly for years. I lived in Wrington for 22 years. Left in 1995.