The Nutters of Riseley

This has been the most exciting day!! We've really branched out and left the confines of the Maple Cross area and we're on the move. We met John this morning after checking out of the hotel, and I rode with him to read the maps while Jim followed behind. We went north, and after a little getting lost (oops, I was the navigator!), we ended up in the area of Bedfordshire where our Nutters came from. First we visited Harrold and saw the house of one of our ancestors. This is it to the left. It is so close to the road and used to be four houses in this one structure back then. We parked right out front so close that we could actually look in the windows!

After we left Harrold, we traveled on to Riseley, where many of the Nutters lived in the 1700 and 1800's. These next few photos are taken in Riseley, and the first is a lovely old home that didn't belong to anyone in the family but I love it! The thatched roof and the timber construction are just beautiful. We had lunch at the Fox and Hounds pub there and that was really a nice hour. Hubby and I had sandwiches while John had the ploughman's lunch (ham, cheese, pickled onion, pickles, two crusty rolls, and Branston's pickle). The pub (below) was quite old as you can see and the flowers hanging out front were just spectacular.

We took a nice walk up Gold Street where many of the Nutters lived, although their houses have long been torn down and replaced by more modern structures. We turned onto Church Lane, where, at the end, is the church. It was built somewhere in the early 1200's which we just can't imagine in the US. It is surrounded by fields and scenic vistas. The following are a series of photos taken there:

We were lucky enough to encounter the church warden there who was happy to open the church for us when we told him about our family history and connection. That was really fun and I got a couple of photos inside of the altar area and one of the list of vicars, dating back to 1224!






We spent some time walking around the graveyard and finding that many of the stones that are more than 150 years old are just too difficult to read, having been worn by the elements over the years. They are covered with lichen and much of the sandstone has just fallen away. Just as we were getting ready to leave I decided to go back up the church yard to take a photo of the top of the church, when I discovered some graves under a tree. When I read the inscription, I yelled for John, who thought I'd fallen in a hole! Lo and behold, wasn't one the grave of Sarah Litchfield Nutter who was married to our 4 great uncle, Ellis Nutter! The other is of some Smart family members although I haven't yet sorted out where they fit in the tree.


















We left John around 4 PM, with hugs and thanks, and some sadness because I just don't know when we'll see him again. I've worn him out, I'm afraid, but he's been so good and so interested and wanting me to have a real sense of all the things he already knows. I owe him so much for these last few days.

Now we're in the town of Alfreton, Derbyshire (pronounced Darby-shire). It's about 2 hours north of where we spent the day and we're staying at a Marriott that feels very much like home. It's nice actually! We had a lovely dinner: I had chicken alfredo with artichokes, and Jim had a ribeye steak. We each had a cocktail and a bottle of wine which was nice because here, you cannot drink and drive. And I mean, CANNOT! It's major fines and license suspension with even the first offense. The US should adopt a similar policy. Drunk driving deaths are so fewer here. Anyway, we were too full to have dessert but there are some chocolates in our room which we may have to dip into later on. ;-)

Now for a new daily segment of my blog--interesting town and village names we've seen today:

Leighton Buzzard
Great Brickhill
Husbands Bosworth
Kegworth
Wymeswold
Bugbrooke

Tomorrow we get to sleep in a little later than we have been and then we'll go have lunch with another second cousin on my mother's side of the tree. We've never met so it should be interesting. I could never have done this as a 25 year old! After lunch we'll have a long drive up to Carlisle, on the England/Scotland border near Hadrian's Wall. Something for you all to look up in history books (or better yet, Google!).