Broad Street
Wrington Website
Schmoose Page 2019

The Schmoose page has run since the website began. See on Page 1 how the idea came about. Let us know where you are,  what you're doing, what you remember of your time in Wrington, and so on. Just e-mail copy to web@wrington.info It's the website's normal policy not to publish e-mail addresses of correspondents for security reasons.
If you wish to make contact, e-mail the website, and it will be passed on.
The most recent items appear first

Malcolm Brean - Wrington - 14th October, 2019

I was born here
Janet Winkelman - Skaneateles, NY, United States, 18th September

My great grandmother lived at the Rectory between 190?-1907ish. I am looking for information. Was the Rectory a school for young women or was it a place they worked?
I just started going through my mother's pictures etc... her grandmother lived at the Rectory in Wrington (I'm not sure if it was a school for young women or a place they worked) however, I have found several mentions of the name Perry. It seems one of her very good friend married a Perry. I've attached a few items you may or may not find interesting.

Please let me know as our great grandmothers may have been best friends! How small the world has become.
If anyone has any information about these pictures/postcards please let me know. My great-grandmother, Kate Rose Hawkins lived at the Rectory about 1905-1907ish. P.S. please include my email address with the post. <winkelman.janet7@gmail.com> Thank you


Reply from Ed:

Janet's fascinating photographs are on a separate page at: <https://wrington.net/archive/2019/schmoosepagephotographs/>

You can see many contemporary photographs of the Old Rectory - as it's called now - on this website, the most recent being at . During the 1939-45 war it housed young people from Bristol, who moved there to avoid the bombing. After the war there was a fire in the top floor which destroyed it. The Church of England decided it would be sensible to sell it without rebuilding the top floor. You'll see it now has only 2 stories. When your great-grandmother lived there when it was still the Rectory, the home of the parish priest, there would have been a number of cooks, maids, et al living there. It was never a school. The similar looking 2 storey building is the Somerset School of Housewifery in Street (a town near Glastonbury, Somerset) which may have been what misled you about the function of Wrington's Rectory

Lionel Martin - Malvern, Worcestershire, 7th August

I picked up a note on your website from Claire Sharpe (5th January 2019) [see below] regarding her great great grandfather Charles Viner and also John Sullivan. This ties in with my family tree.

I understand my grandfather, Hartley Viner Martin worked for his “Uncle Charles” in the bakery business in Bath (?).
My grandfather went on to run his own bakery business in Birmingham. I have various family tree information (needs sorting out!), and I also have a copy of the Wrington Bakery film and other family films which include John Sullivan etc.

If Claire would like to get in touch, please feel free to pass on my e mail address to her. [duly sent - Ed]

Kind regards
Garry Cox - Clevedon, North Somerset, 23rd May

My nan and grandad lived in Wrington for many years until they moved to Perth, Australia, around 1989.

They lived in the house between the snooker room and the fire station.They had 2 sons Maurice and Bob.
Do you or anyone remember them?

Jim was born in Wrington. Sadly Jim, Margaret and Maurice (my father) have all past away.

Hope to hear from you.
From: Editor, Wrington Village Website, 1 April

Tom, thank you for your email. It's particularly interesting for me for several reasons. I knew nothing about Wrington until my wife and I came to live here in 1967, but I did my National Service in the RAF, 1955-57, spending part of my time being trained to fly at RCAF Red Deer, Alberta.
When I started the website in 1999, one of the first people to contact me was Tony Loach, a man born in Wrington and moved to live in Vancouver ! You can follow his correspondence with the website, and with Trevor Wedlake, who went to Wrington School with him. Just go through the years' pages, and you could check list of contributors, and the Family Tree research pages at the top of the page
For example,on the 2013 Schmoose page there these 2 entries - at the bottom - which suggest there may be quite a few leads for you follow up on this website:
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Keith Amor - 7th January

Edgar Amor was my uncle who died in the First World War. I heard my father Arthur Amor mention Charlie Viner but I have no other knowledge of him. I also remember Mr.Sullivan who ran the Bakery at the end of Broad Street. Sorry I cant be of more help.
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Claire Sharpe - Cardiff, 5th January

Found the website through researching my family history, as I am trying to find out about my great great grandfather Charles Viner (baker in Wrington, early 20th century) and his family, and Edgar Amor and John Sullivan, who married my great-great aunts Edie and May. Excellent website, full of so much information!
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I'll try emailing them - and others - but they may no longer be contactable [but see above !]

Richard Thorn,
Editor
Tom Burdge, Harrison Street, Victoria. BC. Canada, 31st March
Hello,

My name is Tom Burdge, & I was brought up in Yatton by my parents Oliver Ernest Burdge & My mother Margaret Louise Burdge.

My father married a Nell Viner in 1909, I think, & they immigrated to Berry Creek Alberta Canada that same year.

Unfortunately Nell was badly injured in a haymaking accident in about July that same year, and died of her injuries in December.

When my father immigrated from Yatton, he was accompanied by two brothers, one, Edward Burdge, who had married a Mabel Viner,and their five children - all settling in Berry Creek. AB.

I have recently been asked by some of Edward's descendants if I knew of any of the Viner family. I don't have any info about any more of the Viners, except that when we were quite young, and before WW2, every autumn, Dad would take our whole family from Yatton by bus to Cleeve, and then we would walk up through (?) Coombe over to Wrington, going past Hangman's tree enroute. we were heading for Sullivan's bakery, as, although we children did not realise it at that time, Dad was vsiting his sister in law May Sullivan. May 's maiden name was Viner, but I have no idea if they had any other family - would you know ?

During WW2 I trained as a pilot in the RAF, and after the war returned to dairy farming at The Grange in Yatton until 1958, when with my little family ( Wife and daughter & son) came back to Canada to live.

I would be glad of any information that you can give me - I am now 96 years old.

Thanking you in advance,
Thomas (Tom) Burdge,