Weekly update – a lofty adventure

We have two attic rooms here in the Quirky Museum and this week we have been spending time on a lofty adventure.  We have been up the Himalayas and way back in the mists of time.Firstly, the main point of our little adventure was fairly mundane.  There are some spaces towards the edges of the attics (see above photo) which are uninsulated – regular readers will know how I have complained about our house being cold with expensive heating costs, so I decided to do something about it.  It also gave us the opportunity to sort through some of the STUFF which has accumulated over the decades.

Insulation material has now been laid wherever accessible and the sides boarded up; extraordinary to think those timbers were placed there 300 years ago (and they are ‘ard as nails, I can tell you!).   Some years ago the attic ceiling plaster had fallen down and so that was repaired with plaster board and a quick skim of plaster.  Before that was carried out, insulation was fitted in between the roof joists.  The insulation carried out this week means hopefully we can prevent some heat drifting out of the roof.

So, what did we find?

Firstly, to put things in context, Rachel’s family (on her father’s side) is one of those family’s with quite a past.  Some skullduggery, fortunes made and lost, some globe trotting, some lofty titles and some interesting connections.  Rachel knows some of the stories having heard them from her father or Aunt Diana but there is scope to piece together other family things and somehow record it.

Well I have previously mentioned Arthur Royston Parker, a successful tea merchant (click here).  Turns out he was friendly with someone on Sir Edmund Hillary’s climb of Everest in 1953 and we discovered a number of photographs taken on Everest.

This photograph is probably of Hillary with his Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.  Note the rope simply tied around their waists, no special harnesses.  Note also the oxygen tank and, of course, the string vest.  We wonder if there is an organisation out there who would be interested in these photographs for their archieves.

Uncle Arthur is the dashing young man on the left of the photo below; the young girl is Rachel’s Aunt Diana (Daniell).  The older couple are Rachel’s grand parents and this was probably taken at the Warren House in Royston, once they had returned from living in Canada.  Before that they lived in India, where Diana was born.

We already have the main line of Rachel’s family tree going back to Henry the second.  Another family tree goes back to the 12th century and includes a chap who was killed in the crusades and another who was killed in Africa on his way to join the crusades.  Further investigations are needed to piece everything together.

Most extraordinary was finding evidence of a 36 year old Daniell travelling to India in the 1700s with his 16 year old nephew.  Can you imagine that, in the 1700s, travelling to India?  So intriguing.

Speaking of travelling, we have a number of travelling trunks, all of which probably need a new home, though I can imagine a trendy glass-topped coffee table sitting over one of them.  One, by the way, was made of thick leather and is so heavy I could hardly get it down the stairs – and it was empty!  I can’t imagine what it was like for those poor porters who had to lug these things around, filled with their evening attire and the like.  Below is a rather shabby trunk, finished in canvass and leather with a certain charm to it; you can’t help but wonder what exciting travels these trunks might have been on.

Continuing the theme of travelling outdoors, we came across this vintage picnic set, probably unused and very quaint.  We were so pleased to see the dainty cups had saucers as it’s just what one needs when roughing it outdoors.  We are unsure whether we should enjoy using it, or perhaps pass it on as it is.

All this makes me think

While Rachel’s family is fascinating, with the intrigue we all have with the landed gentry and aristocracy, ordinary people also have their place in history.

I wish I had known my Grandfather, George Louis Brown Esq.  He was a principled man, who sadly died in hospital while my mother had been evacuated out of London in WW2.  He was a conscientious objector and because he was a skilled optician, he was put to work making lenses for gunsights, periscopes and so on.  Prior to the war, he had found himself in a spot of bother having been suspended at his work for allegedly handing out Labour Party and trades union leaflets in work time.  The whole workforce walked out on his behalf, demanding he was reinstated as it was then proved he was doing this during his lunch hour.  He won the day.

I am becoming increasingly conscious of my own position in what will eventually become a little more family history; I’m feeling like a link in a long chain.  What will be my legacy?  For sure I don’t have a fortune or a title to pass down, I’m just an ordinary bloke but it just makes me think.  Is there a little part of me which has some of George Brown’s principles?  How have I played my part in the world?  What can I still do……?

Related post – Vagabonds, the aristocracy and ordinary people like us

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If you find this through researching the family trees of the following families and think their might be a connection, please get in touch using the contact screen – Daniell (d’Anyers), Gordon-Moore, Besley, Nickisson or Parker.