Tales of Tunstall, Norfolk

  I am still surprised to have ancestors who lived in such a remote area. They left it, because, in common with families all over England, the Inclosure Acts of Parliament stimulated a steady exodus from remote rural villages such as Tunstall. The practice of enclosing land, to make agriculture more efficient, maximise land rents and create areas for the 'recreations' of hunting and shooting, increased the flow of families, like mine, from the land to find employment in the cities.      I was having an email discussion with my co-researchers about the possible impact of enclosures on my Tunstall ancestors. They found maps and allocations in Tunstall and Cantley. They also identified 3rd great grandfather Stephen Bately as being the largest landowner in Tunstall, plus a few additional pieces of land which he enclosed. By extending his freeholds, it is arguable, he could have, inadvertently, contributed to the decline in the fortunes of his descendants at Tunstall. ...

Alfred Neave, above, was married to 3rd great aunt Emma. He came to the rescue when the close relatives of my Tunstall ancestors were in trouble in 1887 . The farmers who married my 3rd great grandparents' daughters took on responsibilities they could never have anticipated. Francis Allard, apparently, didn't recover from the death of his wife Charlotte. His tendency to drink too much alcohol is in many press reports. It makes me think there was more than one person of that name with a drink problem.    Francis Allard and Sherwood William Page were executors for their mother-in-law, Harriet Bately. Apart from that and the friendship of his daughter Ednalenna with Rosa May, who was at his house in the 1881 census, Francis Allard doesn't feature much in our family saga. After all, our lot were tea drinkers. There is one exception, Francis Allard's daughter, Bertha Kett, is listed in my great grandparents address book.    Jane Betsy and her sisters could be maintained i...

  The Moreton Bay took Arthur (57, farmer) and his wife Maud (55), Kathleen (27, home help), Olive (24, domestic), Ena (22, domestic), Arthur (20, clerk), Doreen (18, clerk) and Lucy (14, scholar) to start a new life in Australia in 1926.   Arthur Skinner gave up trying to make a living farming in Norfolk in 1926. He, his wife Maud and his entire family emigrated on the Moreton Bay to Sydney. The farm he left was on the edge of the broads. It was beginning to be easier to make a living catering for visitors in the area than from farming.    Arthur's eldest son, John William Irvine Skinner had preceded him to the Antipodes. He had emigrated in 1912 and served in WW1 with the Anzacs. Fourteen years later, the rest of the family joined him in New South Wales. In Moss Vale, where Arthur and Maud lived, there are a couple of street names which caught my eye. One is Arthur Street and the other Chapman Street, (Maud's maiden name).    At this time, Arthur's sister...