Ancestral Places

A low dam on the River Bain, near the location of theTumby Navigational Lock on the defunct Horncastle Canal. According to the Tumby Parish 1871 Census clip below, the Navigation Lock House is where William Dennis & Elizabeth, Jane and her son John William lived. The lock and lock house no longer exist.

[This is my family even though the last name has been spelled Porter by the enumerator.]

(Image received from the Illustrations Indexer, Lincoln Central Library, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. It is a scan from a 1900s lantern slide taken by Canon Hunt. The descriiption is: "View looking across the Bain near Tumby looks to be a weir or lock with a footbridge across.")

I'm not entirely sure any land was owned by my ancestors. At least I haven't found any vidence supporting it. My ancestors were farm labourers. A few may have married into a family of means, but not as a rule. It seems as though they could have worked for the "Manor" or hired out as labourers.

With this in mind, I am searching for pictures and taking pictures of the places in England once occupied by my ancestors. This will also include images of villages when available.

Some of the pictures on this page are of the area, villages, or approximate spots associated with my ancestors' lives in Lincolnshire, England.

B

"Miss Vamplews" place where John wrote from about his family's impending voyage to America 1870. This is the Tumby Allotment house. This brick, mud & stud cottage was the one where James and Anne [Rouse] Vamplew lived almost their entire married life. It no longer exists. There is a new brick house on the original foundation (below).
(The above picture was contributed by Maurice Major, a Vamplew descendent still living near Tumby Woodside. There is no identification of the girls in front, or of the year taken.)

The stucco and front brick part of the house is the original cottage of Mary Ann's sister Georgiana who married William Ogden Bell. This house is located near the corner of Sandy Bank Road and Tumby Woodside Lane. My cousins who still live not far from this house, call it "Aunt Bell's."

Map of Coningsby (south of "C"), (RAF airfield), and Tumby Woodside.

A = Georgiana Bell Cottage
B = Tumby Allotment Cottage
C = Tumby Navigation Lockhouse

Tumby Lock is circled. This is located between the villages of Tumby and Coningsby (bottom, not shown). The green line shows the River Bain; the yellow line shows the Horcastle Canal.

Mareham le Fen is just 5 miles north of Tumby Woodside. William Dennis and Elizabeth and a few of my other ancestors, lived in and around this village which also would include the Tumby area.

This is one of the photos currently on the "Pre-1950s" link in the Mareham le Fen site.

The Royal Oak Pub. It is the last pub in the village. I understand this is also one of few "mud and stud," thatched buildings left in the area. I can but imagine one of my ancestors frequenting this pub for a pint or a good meal long ago. I can assure you this pub has not changed much since this picture was taken by Mr Peacock the local photographer in the first half of the 1900s.

This is the inside of a barn belonging to the B&B we stayed at near Tumby Woodside. The barn is one of the oldest mud and stud structures in Lincolnshire. I was told it dates back to the early 1600s. You can see some of the very, very old thatching which is being preserved by a tin roof. It is a "listed" historic building with the National Trust and can not be torn down.

LINCOLNSHIRE'S TRUE MUD & STUD The traditional materials were those readily available in the area. The "mud" was made of dirt (some say cow dung was also used), straw, water. The "stud" was from rough timbers. These buildings were generally thatched. Here the metal sheeting is protecting some of the original or very early thatching. Thatching is special straw or reeds that are packed tightly enough to not allow the weather to penetrate. A properly thatched roof will have its life over 20 years with periodical maintenance.

Other areas of England have their own style of mud and stud buildings, from "clam and staff" in Cumbria, "wattle and daub" in the Midlands to "cob" buildings of Devon...but according to Rodney Cousins author of Lincolnshire Buildings in the Mud and Stud Tradition "... for true mud and stud you must come to Lincolnshire."