Category: Wheelwrights, Publicans and a Country Lad
-
George and Doris
George was the first born of my Great Grandfather Henry Spilletts second wife, Sarah Emily Lynn. He was the younger half-brother to Henry Spillett, my Great Uncle who ran the bike shop in Oxted in the first half of the 20th Century. Before long, the Spilletts had moved from Bognor in Sussex to settle in…
-
Bill Carver
George William Eustace Henry Carver was my father. He always signed his name G.H. Carver, but everyone called him Bill. Unless my mother was admonishing him for something and then she called him William. Baptism entry in the Oxted Parish Church register for W.G.E.H Carver, Bill Carver, living in School Lane, his father was a…
-
An Interesting Wedding
Laura Esther Spillett 1906 -1992 My Great Aunt Laura was someone who I can never remember meeting, if I did, I expect I was very young, too young to remember. I think that I heard my father talking about her. I have a nice photograph of Laura and my father at the annual Crowning of…
-
An Oxted Recap
This week I have been trying out making my own family tree template to create better graphics of the family detail in my postings. It is a work in progress but this is a better way than using tables all the time. In previous posts about the Spilletts I have explained that Henry, my Great…
-
The Oxted Bike Shop
It’s back to the Spilletts this week. I remember a talking heads video that my sister Janet made of my Father, Bill Carver. He was talking about his childhood. I remember him talking about his two uncles who ran a bicycle shop in the High Street, Oxted, the village where my father was born. Old…
-
Searching for Aunt Mabel
A short posting this week about a Great Aunt who if I met I cannot remember because I would have been very young. My Father, Bill Carver, had two aunts on his Mother’s side. It was Mabel’s absence in the 1901 Census return when the Spillett’s came to Oxted that led me on a short…
-
Bankrupt in Bognor
I recently wrote about my Great Grandfather’s move from Bognor in Sussex to Oxted in Surrey and pondered about what made him make this move. I had been researching his life in South Bersted, just outside of Bognor on the main Chichester Road. He had become what I had presumed to be a successful entrepreneur…
-
Henry Comes to Oxted
In last week’s post I described Henry Spillett’s arrival in Bognor after leaving home in Canterbury. Henry, my Great Grandfather, became the Licensee of The White Horse in South Bersted while also operating a Coachbuilding business at the back of the pub. In this post I explain his arrival and first decade of life in…
-
Henry Leaves Home
In previous posts I have established the origins of my Great Grandfather, Henry George Spillett, in Canterbury, Kent. He was born in 1858 in Ivy Lane. He and his mother were living in her mother’s house with his older brother John and his Uncle Stephen. This is recorded in the 1861 Census return. Because his…
-
From Canterbury to London
Previously, I outlined the story of my paternal Great Great Grandparent. A strong maternal upbringing of two generations of the Spillett family in the cathedral town of Canterbury in Kent. I had discovered my Great Grandfather, Henry George Spillett, living in Ivy Lane. This week I am looking at how Henry and in particular, his…