Tag: #AllAboutThatPlace

Auntie Kate and Uncle Middle

On By HelenFinchIn #SticklepathOnePlace, Local History1 Comment

#SticklepathOne #AllAboutThatPlace

This is the next instalment of the life of Kezia Ching, also known as Auntie Kate. Auntie Kate is my alter ego and she will be talking at the #AllAboutThatPlace event to celebrate our great genealogical and local history societies and the 10th anniversary of the Society for One-Place Studies.

You will have to imagine Auntie Kate’s Devonshire burr. “Now then me dearies I be going’ to tell ‘ee someat ’bout me firs’ ‘usband…”

Ooh, I loved them hats, I could alter the decorations and make it new for each occasion. Usually did it myself but for real special occasions I took it to Miss Finch who kept the milliners in Okehampton, on Fore Street there. I dare say that’s where I bought that one you see on the right.

This here soldier is my Crimean war veteran, Private William Middle.

We were married in 1898.  There were murmurings of course – he were 40 years older than me.  Older than my father indeed.  Twas practicality and companionship really.  I couldn’t have looked after him as a single woman, lived with him without being his wife.

Anyhow being married gave me a bit more respectability, and of course I had to give up my position and come home closer to Sticklepath.  Eliza was my bridesmaid and William had Samuel Knight as his best man. So many gifts, twas very useful. William had lived in lodgings and I was in service, so we needed most things for the kitchen and so on. We went to live down Exbourne, rented a little place t’other side of Okehampton to start off, but that didn’t last long.

We soon came back to Sticklepath. We had a lovely little garden there next to the chapel –  see me, a lady of leisure, sat there taking tea next to my husband, with a visitor!

Yer be our house, Farley Cottage, jus’ opposite chapel.  That’s William, with our nieces – Phyllis and Muriel. Uncle Middle and Auntie Kate they called us.  Well I suppose, being of senior years, using his surname showed the proper respect. He would have been ‘Uncle’ before we married cos his first wife were a Finch, a relation of the girl’s father. I, of course, sister to their mother Gina.

On high days, holidays and every Sunday, William would don his Crimea medals. People gathered each week before chapel or church and walked up and down the village greeting each other and chatting, sharing their latest news.  William loved that, an audience for his stories of the war and how he helped with laying the first telegraph wire to America. In those days chapel was nearly always full and about 30 or 40 children would be there besides.

We all looked forward to the annual chapel outing and Sunday school anniversary. We had started having a few family picnics on Dartmoor by then too.  And a bit later, 1920s we would all go in one of them Charabancs to Ilfracombe or Bude.

Next time Auntie Kate housewife…

Auntie Kate’s Early Life and Schooling

On By HelenFinchIn #SticklepathOnePlace, Local History1 Comment

Kate had two sisters. Eliza was four years her senior and Georgina was two and a half years younger than Kate. Their mother was a dress-maker. I wonder if the girls were taught to make their own clothes at home?

Their twin brothers George and Louis were born when Kate was six. It is likely that once Eliza went into service Kate would often have been responsible for the boys.

We do not know which school the Ching children attended, but all the children were educated. They lived about equidistant from Belstone and Sticklepath. Both had Dame schools at times. Miss Martha Gillard had her day school in Belstone and I suspect the children went to her. Martha Eliza Gillard (b.1838) was of Irish extraction, but began her private school in Weigelia Cottage, Belstone by the age of 19. She is in William White’s directory 1878-9. At times it seems her mother Letitia ran the school, between them the school continued for 53 years, ending in 1910. Miss Gillard had a wooden leg, but that didn’t stop her. She lived to the grand age of 91 years.

Weigelia Cottage (Later Stoneycott) with the next generation of the Ching Family (George and Rose).

Miss Gillard is said to have used an ebony cane. After punishing a child she would wrap their hand in cobwebs to stem the bleeding and ease the pain.

For some children at that time Sunday school was their only opportunity to learn to read and write. The Ching Family were Methodist. Sticklepath chapel was very popular and a school room was added, opening in 1866 which must have been exciting for the 6 year old Kate. The bell was added at the same time, very unusual for Methodism. It rang for well over 100 years, calling people in to worship.

Her story continues – Kate’s time In Service…

Bibliography – includes information from The Book of Belstone 2002 Chris and Marion Walpole.

Who was Auntie Kate? The Birth of Kezia Ching

On By HelenFinchIn #SticklepathOnePlace3 Comments

Auntie Kate, my alter ego, is telling Tales of Sticklepath School at the #AllAboutThatPlace event. So who was Auntie Kate? Born Kezia Ching, she lived from 1860 to 1933. My Grandmother’s Aunt and then Stepmother, but always known as Auntie Kate. Surprisingly her first husband was known by his surname – Uncle Middle. Perhaps a sign of respect. But let’s start at the beginning.

Hugh Pyke, registrar of births and deaths kindly registered Kate’s birth as described by her mother, with his clear handwriting and an accurate transcription is found at The General Register Office, now available almost instantaneously in digital format.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/ accessed 7 Sept 2023 under new digital format (£2.50) GRO Reference: 1860  S Quarter in OKEHAMPTON  Volume 05B  Page 369

It shows that Kezia Huxtable Ching was born to George Ching, driver of an omnibus, and his wife Eliza who was previously a Huxtable. This strongly suggests George and Eliza were married. Kezia was born on Sixth of September 1860 at Coombe Head (a farm) Sticklepath, Sampford Courtenay Parish. Mum went to register the birth on 15th September, which suggests she was in good health. Kezia already had an older sister Eliza.

The Ching Family lived at Coombe Head Farm Sticklepath, Devon with Eliza’s parents. 

In all George and Eliza Ching had three daughters and twin sons. They are well spaced. I wonder if George travelled a lot with his work?

NameBornDiedMarried name
George Ching18261897
Eliza Huxtable18271911Mrs George Ching
Eliza Ellis Ching18561918
Kezia Huxtable Ching18601933Mrs Albany Finch 3rd
Mrs William Middle
Georgina Ching18631917Mrs Albany Finch 2nd
George Edwin Ching18671926
Louis Richard Huxtable Ching18671927

In the 1861 census we find that Kezia’s grandparents were John Huxtable, agricultural labourer (75 years old) and his wife Kezia Huxtable a dress-maker (67 years old). Her father George is now a ‘Higgler’.

A higgler was  an itinerant trader, buying and selling items such as butter, cheese, poultry and eggs. Perhaps he would travel to the coast to sell his wares and return with fish. Higglers like peddlers and badgers (who sold corn and grain), needed a licence. Unfortunately I have not yet found any evidence of this.

Kezia is in the centre of the back row:

The Ching Family c.1880

In 1871 George, now a Carrier, is head of household with Eliza his wife. Daughter Kezia is aged 10 years. William White’s History, Gazetteer & Directory of Devon 1878-9 (accessed through the Leicester University special collections online) shows George Ching as Farmer and Bus Proprietor. This type of directory took several years to prepare, so information was often out of date. Unfortunately in 1878, when George would be 54 years old, the newspaper suggests the family hit hard times, selling the omnibus and market trap and ‘declining business’:

Western Times – Friday 05 July 1878 accessed via BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk Sept 7 2023.

HIGHER COOMBEHEAD, near STICKLEPATH. MR. W. FEWINS will SELL by Auction WEDNESDAY, the 10th of July, at 3 p.m., 17 Acres of Corn and Grass, 1 very useful Farm Horse, 1 Heifer Yearling, Omnibus, Market Trap, Farm Implements, and a portion of the Household Furniture, the property Mr. George Ching, declining business.

In 1881 George and Eliza have sister-in-law Kezia Huxtable staying with them at Higher Coombe Head. Kezia really was a family name, both grandmother and Aunt! In 1881 George is described as an Ag Lab, but by 1891 George is described as a ‘small farmer’ again, still living at Higher Coombehead farm.

Now did you see what I did – started talking about Kate and went off on a tangent to her father’s occupation. This sort of diversion is a constant risk for all family historians! Important to setting the scene here perhaps.

More about Kate …

References not included above:

England & Wales Census 1861 Okehampton District Class: RG 9; Piece: 1469; Folio: 98; Page: 13; GSU roll: 542818 Image accessed via ancestry.co.uk 

England & Wales Census 1871 Okehampton District Class: RG10; Piece: 2156; Folio: 24; Page: 6; GSU roll: 832040. Image accessed via ancestry.co.uk

England & Wales Census 1881 Okehampton District Class: RG11; Piece: 2226; Folio: 89; Page: 4; GSU roll: 1341536 Image accessed via ancestry.co.uk

England & Wales Census 1891 Okehampton District Class: RG12; Piece: 1757; Folio: 79; Page: 3; GSU roll: 6096867 Image accessed via ancestry.co.uk