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Today was never really meant to turn into a field trip. Initially we set out to visit a farmers market in Great Welnetham, which turned out to be a bit flat, with only a handful of stalls. Probably the best stall and in fact the only one from which we bought something was a stall selling ale and beer from the local Bartrams brewery. Very nice, if not a little on the expensive side.
Due to the frankly rather poor farmers market we decided to visit a few surrounding villages to go grave hunting, as this was the right area to be. We visited the church at Great Welnetham first, a small looking church opposite the school.
Although we didn't find anyone we could immediately link back into the tree, there were some Birds there who had a rather large monument. Normally I would have ignored these, interesting as they were, if I could not link them back to my tree. Recently, in a small change of direction I've decided to take photos of any Birds I come across in Suffolk, even if they can't be linked back in, as, after all, this site is really about the Bird family name in the Suffolk area. So, here is a picture for anyone that may be interested.
We visited Little Welnetham, but, regarding the family tree there was nothing of interest here. The church was a beautiful little place, but if you have an interest in churches and would like to know more about the building in particular, visit Simon Knotts excellent Suffolk Churches website.
Next village on the way was Bradfield St George. A rather interesting headstone was found here for a Francis Sheppard Bird of West Lodge. I found this guy in the census and in some Kellys directories, but couldn't find his birth record or a census listing of him with his parents. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that has a family connection to this guy. Here's some pictures:
#1 The church at Bradfield St George.
#2 A headstone for Edmund and Sophia Balls.
#3 A headstone for Francis Sheppard Bird of West Lodge.
Even grouping these three places together it's hard to put together a paragraph about it. We didn't find anything at all at these villages. Again, for more information on the churchs, visit Suffolk Churches
There were a couple of Birds at Rougham. Quite a strange visit as I was expecting to see a fair few Simmonds as this is where a large chunk of them came from, but we only really found one or two more recent ones.
