My Eliza turns 18!

Eliza my middle child, turned eighteen! We now have five adult children!!! Eliza is a kind, thoughtful, helpful, and a beautiful and smart daughter. She was my easy child. I love her so much. We had a nice day having a Jane Austen photo shoot (1800’s dress), eating Indian food, going on a walk and Caroline (our missionary) was able to call Eliza on her special day.

The Birth Place of Shakespeare-Stratford at Avon

We visited the birth home of William Shakespeare and saw his wife’s, Anne Hathaway, home too. We enjoyed looking at the shops and seeing the boat locks. 

Luke even got to help a man and lady open and close the locks to let their house boat through. It was so fun talking with this couple, hearing a bit about their life and watching them use and teach us to use the water locks. Here is a video of Luke helping with the locks:

The lady said she and her husband lived in the house boat, which had a shower and washing  machine. She also said when she gets tired of the boat, she has a flat in London. She explained the boats could dock up for free along the canal ways and today she was just going four locks down the canal for a change of scenery.

This is a video of the Locks:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRnMpbSG/

Sutton-in-Ashfield: Where the Stringfellow’s Came From

Justin was super excited to come to Sutton-in-Ashfield, England, where his Stringfellow ancestors came from. We spent a few hours touring the town and looking at grave stones in the local church grounds. We have been looking online at Familysearch.org and have had so much fun reading stories of our ancestors and trying to put missing pieces together within a part of Justin’s Stringfellow line. It is so incredible to think about the lives our ancestors led before us. Their happy times and sad times and everything in between. It is fun to read about the lives of those who we are related to. Justin and I both wish we had journals of our ancestors and love when we come across a story, newspaper article or journal entry that was saved in familysearch.org.

Castles

We are convinced we could spend months going to every castle and grand home in England and still not finish. Today we went to two near us. One was Harkwick Hall, built in the 1500’s, and is the Malfoy’s home in Harry Potter. It was so interesting to walk around this beautiful home inside and in the gardens. I loved seeing the servants kitchen and eating area too. This manor was built by Bess Harkwick and is an Elizabethan country house.

We also went to the Bolsover Castle. This castle has built in 1613. It didn’t have the house furnishing in it as Harkwick Hall did, but it did have a very nice Wall Walk around the garden area.

Today I learned about the English death tax. The heirs of those who die must pay a 40% tax on all land, property and possessions they inherit. The Harkwich descendants eventually lost this manor/home in the 1950’s when two duke relatives died and the family gave this manor to the government to pay their death taxes. Interesting!

Cliffs and Robyn Hood’s Cave

We have been enjoying the landscape of Southern and Western England. We love the rolling green hills with rock walls or hedges between fields and the fields of sheep. The drive to Stanage Edge in the Peak District was beautiful.  The landscape changed a bit and we saw our first glimpse of English Moors. They were beautiful too. Church and Sherwood Forest

Sherwood Forest

Sherwood Forest was a wonderful place to visit. We saw a tree, called the Major Oak. It was a tree over 1000 years old! I also learned that any tree over 400 years old is called an Ancient Oak. We walked a pathway a saw about 20 different Ancient Oaks with huge trunks. It was really amazing.

Chatsworth