Summer of 23 - UK Tour - Family History, Iron Age Forts & Family Homestead

Saturday May 13th, 2023   

We only have a couple of days in this area and the main reason we stopped here was because the Kents, Bryan's ancestors on his Dads side, came from here. His middle name, as some of you know, is Kent.

Bryan is fortunate because his distant relatives have done a lot of research into their family history.

Richard Kent arrived with his two sons, his daughter and one of the sons wives, in what later became the State of Massachusetts, in 1634, after traveling from Southampton, UK. The passenger list had Over Wallop as their place of origin.

Our first stop was St. Peter's Church, Over Wallop. Here's a LINK that tells the history of the church.

It felt surreal to be standing in a church that Bryan's ancestors could have been in nearly four centuries ago.

We walked around the graveyard, hoping to find a family name. We were unsuccesful. Unfortunately, but understandably the weather had erased the letters/dates of the older stones that you couldn't read them. 

Vicarage

We drove through Nether Wallop on our way to visit Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort. This site is many years older than the church we had just visited.

Taken from wikipedia, which I know is not always accurate but it gives you some idea of how long this site has been here.

"There is no historical record of events in Iron Age Britain, so archaeological investigation is the only way to reconstruct the history of Danebury, and other forts.  It is impossible to state with certainty every significant event in the hill fort's history, but where an event leaves an archaeologically identifiable trace, a general chronology can be established, although dates are much less easy to establish.  The hill fort was occupied from the mid-6th century BC until around 100BC, and the defenses were remodeled numerous times."

Toilet Block

We walked uphill to the site, admiring the views on the way.

We had a nice chat with this group who were locals and walking the dogs.

Ordnance Survey Marker

Bryan waited while I went ahead and explored. It was all uphill and we had already done a lot of walking around the church and graveyard.

I got to the top of the hill and could see an entrance ahead, presumably into the fort ruins. My legs were quite tired by now and I was out of sight of Bryan. I saw maybe two other people, so I decided to turn around as I really didn't want to continue on my own. I also knew Bryan would be worried if I was gone a while.

Our next mission was to try and find Kent Farm, which was the farm that Bryans ancestors, the Kents, owned before they emigrated to the USA in 1634.  

We drove all around the narrow village roads through all the different "Wallops". Over Wallop, Nether Wallop. were just two.

We were about to give up when I saw some workmen working on a property. Bryan slowed down and I was going to ask them if they knew where, or had heard of Kent Farm nearby. I got out of the car and started to walk toward the workers. Then I saw the sign on the gate "Kents Farmhouse".  I couldn't believe it. I waved at Bryan to come over and asked the workers about the farm. They went and got the owners father who happened to be there. As we were talking the son drove up. Amazingly he knew quite a bit about the history of the farm and was happy to talk to us. 

The original farm cottage(in the middle) has been extended quite a bit.

Looking from the rear, toward the road

They told us that the original building, in the middle below, had been restored but not changed since the original build. They had the original plans but the builder was using them. They had only just bought the farmhouse and a small piece of the land. The  extra acreage had been sold separately and would continue to be farmed by a neighbor.  They didn't want to farm it.

Bryan in front of the original Kent Farm where his ancestors lived in the 1600's

Quite an extensive property

They told us we could walk around and look at the fields behind which used to be a part of the property. They owned the land below up to a fence at the top of the hill.

Looking at the farmland on the other side of the fence. It was quite extensive.

Looking back at the farmhouse, they still have a little bit of land.

What a perfect end to the day, we were both so excited.

On the way back to our AirBNB we went past an air museum. We had already visited this one on a previous visit, completely unaware of Bryans connection to the area.

Houses still had Union Jacks flying. I think from the Coronation celebrations for the King.

I had found a fish and chip shop that sold my favorite fish, Skate. So we went and found that and got our Fish & Chip dinner.  The skate was delicious.

It was a very good start to our UK visit but little did we know there was trouble around the corner!!

That will have to wait until the next blog.