Family history finds in Dover and Thomas's birthday 28th April

Another busy day, Firstly we set out to find River, the home of great grand uncle Robert Jennings, little did we know it was at the back of where we live.  He owned River House, and while we didn't find that property, the house must have been substantial as he had 7 servants.  His lands most probably bounded London Road as this seems to be the area where a lot of the gentry lived, as we found out during the day.

This place is so hilly, all the land is chalk.

We drove up along the coast road to Deal, a fishing town a few miles up, unfortunately the weather started to get foggy.  The beach is made of stones!

There is the Deal Castle and another that we could not find parking and so we continued back to White Cliffs, driving through some very narrow roads

.  One wrong turn took us into a holiday park, full of A frame houses, with heaps of people staying there.

We found the White Cliffs and the fog was getting thicker, the path was closed off to the lookout, but probably best that we didn't  go the long way, as vertigo might have been a problem.  

Into town after a coffee to visit the Town Hall, Maison Dieu, but it was closed, so to find St Mary's Church were the Jennings were baptised, married and undoubtedly farewelled but it was closed as well. 

Interesting reading the sign about subsidence due to the crypts.  

Could be the ruins of a very early church 1300

Off to the Museum, in the Market Square

and to see a 3600 year old boat, from the Bronze age, it was found recently in the Harbour.   There were some great exhibits at the museum.  We ended up there because as Ellen Jennings's grandfather Robert Mudge was the Harbour master and worked on packet boats.  Ellen was living with him in 1862 and we wanted to get an idea of where the old part of the Harbour was.

 Old William was a bit of a baddie in those days, he burnt the city.

Typical of the rich man's home in the mid 1800's

The Romans brought elephants to UK, that must have been a fun trip

Then we found a Poundland store everything £1.  You won't believe the price of everyday products. The adaptor was $15 in Dick Smith, but only a quid here shampoo, $8 home just a quid.  

Then a few wrong turns on the way to St Martin's Place Robert Mudge home. On the way we found a lookout and a local who filled us in on where the old docks were.  Some great photos from the lookout of the Harbour.  There has, over the years, been a lot of redevelopment,  geared mainly for the Channel crossings. Roadways and barriers have been built where the old history locations were.

Another local, and I met 90 year old Edna who gave me a very quick look inside the Mudge home.  She told me she didn't remember the last owner, um,  maybe not quite there today, considering he died in 1882 or thereabouts. 

Anyway much appreciated, back to town for carvery lunch, but when we got there they closed at 3, not having much luck today, so we found The Eight Bells pub.  Great meal including a guinness and for me a Pimms, long time since I have had one of them.

Another scenic route to the cemetery, where George Jennings as buried.  Connaugh Park, well, as old cemeteries go this one takes the cake.  It would take a month of Sundays to read each of the old stones, hope you appreciate it's size from the photos. 

The to Mangers Place and Dodds Lane in an attempt to find g.g.grandfather George Jennings home. I had the description of the area from the for sale notice in the paper, and knew the house was a substantial one.  This time I chatted up George, another 90 year old who remembered the place next door to him used to be called The Shrubbery, when I described the land to him. Helpful these oldies. They like to think they have helped.  So here we were,  I was pretty excited because I had been trying to find this house for ages.

This was the original house then bits were added on.

When the lands were sold it was made into a hospital, and later added onto.  We were able to make out the original house, and the huge trees are still standing.

We are living almost opposite the lands, and Robert lived behind us, earlier we had photographed St Peters Church,  another linked to the family, it seemed a long way away, but looking across the fields next to here, there it is.  So the family kept pretty close to one another, and a coincidence that we are within walking distance to all the lands as they would have been back then.