Aspley Guise Video

Back in 2003 Jools and I were in England and my mum asked me if we could pop into Aspley Guise (if you are curious here is the Google Map link).

Why? I hear you murmur with feigned interest.

My mum asked me to go and have a look at a place called Aspley Guise, as it’s where my mum’s side of the family come from. When she went over to England on a tour some years earlier the driver of the bus didn’t think he would be able to get into the village (good guess). So in a “Meet The Ancestors” moment, Jools and I were off to find any references to the “rellies” somewhere in the area. AND take a bunch of pictures.

The main clue we had was a reference to The Church of St Botolph (I am not making this up, he was the patron saint of travellers and farming) that was mentioned in some of the genealogical stuff mum had. Well we found it, and the village is just so cute (I have a theory that says that England is basically just a huge film set) and the church is still there and in use. We could hear the choir practice that was in progress while we were there.

Across the road from the church is an old graveyard and Jools found a head stone with the family name on it. We had discovered a relative who hadn’t made it onto the tree yet.

So picture this. Thatch is standing in an English country village graveyard taking photo’s with a digital camera and talking on a mobile phone to his Mum 11000 km away, reading off the details from the headstone. Isn’t this just a great time?

[flv:/video/2003AspleyGuise.flv 320 240]

The video is made up of some of the pictures Jools and I took as we roamed around the village. The historical photo’s and the maps come from the internet, Jools handmade a book for my Mum (mum isn’t a big fan of the interweb) after we got back.

The church and graveyard photo’s are of St Botolph’s and the headstone really is my great great (whack in a few more greats) uncle Rob who passed away in the 1600’s.

The music is by Mark Knopfler.

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