In Search of Our Ancestral History in England

Bob has done extensive research over the past number of years into the history of both of our families.  Ancestry.com has made this possible combined with archival material from a number of different sources.  With this knowledge in hand, we decided to visit a couple of sites relevant to my family’s ancestral history when we traveled to England.

Almost two weeks into our travels, we finally made our way to Barnsley where some of my ancestors had been born.  Barnsley is a market town and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire.  Our first stop was at St. Mary’s Church.  It was the first original church in the town, the mother church.  Permission was given to build the church after a royal charter was granted in 1249.

St. Mary’s Church in Barnsley is Grade 1 Listed.  This means that the structure has particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection.

St. Mary’s Church was the site of the baptism of my great-grandfather, ten generations back, in the 1600s.  The exterior of the church is quite blackened due to the years of exposure to coal dust, when the townspeople mined coal and burned it for fuel.

When Bob and I arrived, a service was in progress, High Anglican, so we sat through it but did not participate in the taking of Communion.

As it stands today, the only part of St. Mary’s Church that existed in the 1600s is the main tower in which is located the font used when baptisms take place.

It was quite moving to know that this same font was used in the baptism of my great-grandfather.

Inside the main door is a chart outlining all of the pastors right back to 1102.

According to the present pastor, when my great-grandfather was baptized, the church was actually just a square wooden building.

Upon walking the church grounds, Bob and I found no headstones with my ancestors’ family name Woodcock, but I did find an old, rusty skeleton key, which seemed special at the time.

Unfortunately, Barnsley’s library and archives were closed the day we visited, so we looked at books on the history of Barnsley in a local bookstore.  We found none regarding the history of the 1600s in Barnsley.

Next stop on in our hunt for ancestral history found us driving to Darfield in search of All Saints Anglican Church of England.  It, too, was the site of the baptism of one of my great-grandfathers 11 generations back. All Saints Anglican Church of England in Darfield is also that town’s mother church.

All Saints Anglican Church of England in Darfield was built in the 11th Century AD and is also Grade 1 Listed.  A listed building may not be demolished, extended, or altered without special permission from the local planning authority.

Bob and I got sidetracked en route because we stopped at the library and began some research into what bit of archival material was available.  It closed at 1 o’clock at which time we walked on down to the church.  It was there that we had our picnic in an adjoining field with a view of the church property.

Upon returning to the church, we discovered a tour in progress, conducted by the churchwarden, Aubrey.  Only for that, we would have been unable to see inside the church since it would normally be closed.  Bob and I were invited to join the tour, so we tagged along more as observers than participants.  Therein lies the coffin of a knight and his wife from the 1100s.

I was thrilled to learn that most of the original walls of the first structure still make up the present building, and the pews all date from the 1400s.

Similarly, the original font still stands in its initial spot, although that was not always the case.

The churchwarden informed everyone that the font had been stolen at one point in history and had remained lost to the Church for years.  Finally someone found it where it had laid undiscovered in a pond.  It was subsequently returned to the church.

Bob and I were invited to continue the tour with the Women’s Institute who were next going to the local museum up the street.  We jumped at the chance and quite enjoyed the experience.  The people, themselves, were so colourful; I felt like I was spending time with some of the characters from the movie, Calendar Girls.  These ladies were out on one of their “outings”, and they seemed to relish our own interest in their local history.  Each lady was a character unto herself with personality etched all over her face.  Elsie was one of the museum staff with many stories to share.

After being plied with tea and cakes, Bob and I returned to the library to photocopy some material, then proceeded north, out of town, towards Hadrian’s Wall.  I’m not sure how much information I expected to gather by just visiting the two churches, but I certainly came away feeling a deeper connection to the area from which some of my ancestors hailed.

Frame To Frame – Bob and Jean