Today I shall be Mainly...

[Marilyn]

I am always amazed you can take plants/fruit/veg to France.
Our rules are so strict here we can't even take them state to state, within the country...and our border security is so strict they even check your shoes for mud or seeds when coming in from overseas. Luggage is x-rayed and searched for organic material.Huge penalties apply.
If you are on a caravan holiday and cross the state border, you must throw fruit and veg in the bin at the border. Police can pull you over and go through the fridge and cupboards in your van for fruit/veg/plants. Even if you can prove they were bought from a supermarket and not home grown, things will be confiscated. It is all done to keep our crops disease free and bug free ( and keep our bees healthy too).
I wholly support the cause and think our quarantine officers do a great job.

[Tripps]

There's a daytime TV programme on here that covers the work of the Australian Border Service, including phyto security. Fascinating - especially since I did it at Dover for a while. They have a lot more technology aids than we had in the 80's.

[Sue]

There are some restrictions, but most seeds etc in Europe come from Holland. We can't bring ash trees, azaleas, cotoneaster, rhododendrons, and I think seed potatoes.

[Stanley]

I can remember a time when, just before the plane landed in Oz, the cabin staff came back and sprayed all the passengers with disinfectant. Remember that Oz is up there with the world's worst places for gastric bacteria. The only time I ever had a really serious attack was after a visit there but in fairness that was eventually found to be a dead mouse in the water tank of the property we stayed in at Denmark.... Even my immune system wasn't proof against that one!
Wendy, give John my regards and pull his leg about stones!

[Marilyn]

The only time I am aware that planes and passengers shoes etc were sprayed was because passengers may be carrying foot and mouth disease from UK!
Our plane was sprayed in Singapore in preparation for landing in Oz. we then had to have our shoes inspected in Oz. we were fine because ( as advised) I had scrubbed our shoes before packing them, as well as the ones we wore, as we had been in rural areas of Devon and Cornwall.
When you had your problems with Mad Cow Disease, anyone who had eaten Beef in the UK was unable to donate blood here for months. We were advised not to eat Beef before we left, so didn't .
Spraying the plane was not to protect you Stanley, it was to keep our land safe! (For we are pure, as you like to quote)

They used to spray planes that came through Malaria prone zones too..

[Stanley]

Consulting with the design committee....

[Stanley]

Dealing with the major revelation from the design committee. They have pointed out a serious error in my design.....
Watching the snooker, fascinating mix of skill and drama.

[Sue]

Heavy rain today after a glorious week. Should help all my plants to grow. Today I am making a three course Sunday lunch for our friend Audrey. Since Mike died she doesn't get out much as she doesn't drive and there is no public transport round here.

Yesterday I finished my toile for a summer top I have designed, and cut out the actual material.

[Marilyn]

That sounds lovely, Sue.
I threw makings of a Stew in the slow cooker this morning and have just added the Dumplings. I dedicated the hours in between to helping hubby with his family tree...not an easy job because he has very little patience. I found two half siblings of his father, that had never been spoken of ( we don't think his Dad ever knew that his Dad was married three times!)
I didn't want to stop then, trying to find out who took the kids when wife No.1 died. Sheets of paper were flying off the printer. We are getting closer as we eliminate close relatives, but it's going to take more time. Have discovered some very sad lives and circumstances en route ( poorest part of Cockney London...families of 8 or more living in one room...so terribly upsetting...not to mention deserting husbands!)
I love getting my teeth into such searches. I just get this fire in my belly and have to work it out.
Several times hubby just wanted to give up and creep away to watch the football, but I just gave him the death stare and made him keep looking things up.

[Wendyf]

Oooh, sounds like fun. Let me help Maz......pleez pleez ....I want a go..... pleeeease, throw me a crumb!

[Sue]

I love all that genealogical problem solving. I recently did a talk at Todmorden U3 A on MY CONVICT ANCESTORS. hours of new research were needed to try and tie up some loose ends, which I managed just in time.

[Marilyn]

Will keep you in mind when we get back to it tomorrow ( I am afraid D's eyes have glazed over for today and I have had to put him in front of football and wrap his fingers around a glass of wine...he should be ok when a few sips hit his blood stream...poor old thing.)
It is just a matter of searching known relatives on both sides first. Then I suppose it may be orphanages and such like.

But thanks, Wendy ( I suspect we have a similar passion for digging about in history).

One thing I was going to ask you at some point was...does the Earby History group know much about the history of the Red Lion Pub? I am particularly interested in the war years...and if people listed themselves as living there possibly because it was seen as a central place where perhaps mail/messages/info could be passed on? Was it ever the post office perhaps? I am just curious...

[Sue]

The review of my talk


http://u3atod.org.uk/u3atod/posts/my-convict-ancestors

I too am only happy to help out.

[Wendyf]

We will have to book you to do your talk for our history society Sue!
Maz, I will see what I can find out about the Red Lion. Are you talking about the first or second world war? As far as I know it hasn't been used as a post office, but I suppose it's possible that pubs acted as places where people could collect mail. The Red Lion is on the outskirts of modern Earby, but would be handy place for anyone living on outlying farms.
The electoral rolls for Earby are available on Ancestry under the Skipton District, though they don't exist for the war years.

[Marilyn]

I enjoyed that Sue!
Very interesting.

Hubby and I have not linked our trees because we do not have any children together.
Most of his family history is in his head, though he has made some half hearted attempts to record what he knows, but he is pretty elastic with his dates and specifics. We don't tend to work well together when researching, because as I get drawn in, he tends to goof off, and I find it hard to keep him on task. (I reminded him several times today that he had actually requested my help, I wasn't just sticking my nose in). And, I don't know if this is a "man thing" but he really only cares about the direct male line, which I find annoying. Are we not the sum total of our male and female ancestors?!
I like to know HOW people lived, and get a glimpse of their total lives. To me, it's not just names on a chart. I often do timelines for my relatives and add all sorts I collect about them.

[Sue]

Absolutely Marilyn

[Sue]

I would do it Wendy, I have already been asked to do it some where else.

[Stanley]

Sue, Mr Boutell must have been listening. What a splendidly comprehensive review!
As for the Red Lion/PO/news.... In our small towns, during the Great War, there were always recognised unofficial locations where war news, casualty lists etc. were posted as public notices as they didn't have our modern media and many couldn’t afford newspapers. The Red Lion would have been an ideal location as a 'news hub' and it wouldn't have done the pub takings any harm either. That area was almost a sub-district of Earby and was well served by Jim Pollard's parents' oatcake bakery, at least two small shops and of course travelling vendors of fish and greengroceries, not to mention the well organised shop deliveries from the main town and the milk chaps.

[Marilyn]

Red Lion Street/Water Street come up so often in my family searches...
(and when I visited, I had the distinct feeling something pretty awful had once happened there!)

Is that a photo of Red Lion Street?

[Sue]

Stanley, John Boutell came to speak to me at the end and said I had so many facts he couldn't keep up, so he borrowed my notes and resources. His write up does have one mistake, ie he had Elizabeth Marriott having a fling with Wilfred Widdup. Actually the fling was with John Widdup and Wilfred was their son !

[Stanley]

Maz, the Earby Murder? We used to have it on the old site....
Sue, if there was only one error he did well!

[Wendyf]

Red Lion Street/Water Street come up so often in my family searches...
(and when I visited, I had the distinct feeling something pretty awful had once happened there!)

Is that a photo of Red Lion Street?

It is Red Lion Street Maz, the pub is set back on the left where the cart is. The famous Earby murder LINK doesn't appear to have a connection to this part of Earby.
Before the Red Lion appeared in the late 19th century the road was known as Main Street, and it is the oldest part of the town.

[Marilyn]

Ooo...ok...soaking all that in.
So, if it was known as Main Street, it obviously wasn't THE Main Street of Earby, as it has been mentioned ( "is on the outskirts of modern Earby")so this was a more modern area....so did it have a different town name?
Now that I am oriented in the photo ( with the pub on the left), I did feel on my walk there had been a Bakery on the right ( possibly 2 houses comprised a Bakery?). The dreaded feelings I experienced are actually behind us in this photo ( behind the photographer but on the same side as the pub).
I know...you all ringing your "weirdo alert" bells.
I just know I felt a crushing sadness up that end of the road. I could say more, but I won't.

[Marilyn]

Having looked at the photo again, I would love to know the history of that first building on the left of that pic, closest to the photographer. My thoughts are 1850 - 1900 history, though it is so hard because I felt I was a bit further back from the pub than that.

[plaques]

Red Lion 2015.

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