Day Three - From Leonminster to Liverpool

Dear Family:

Well another day - another generation. Wait till you hear about this! As usual, I thought we were going to Leonminster (where Papa and Edwin, Maria etc were born, but Polly had more up her proverbial ancestor sleeve. Yesterday was spent roaming back through generations of ARchers; today was spent exloring generations of Brunts (Sarah or Grandmother Archer), along with actually going to Leonminster and riding the train from Leonminster to Liverpool -- just as Granddad Archer and Richard did to be followed by Grandmother (Sarah) and the other children the next year. By the way, it seems that this time I have the pictures right side up but I can't seem to make them fit into the proper paragraph - so please try to understand which pictures go with which explanations - I will try to explain as much as I can.

But before I start, I want to show you some photos of Polly's marvelous home where I've been living for the past three days. Here we see the kitchen with hops hanging from the ceiling, the view through the front door of Polly's home, the house from the outside
and finally, the famous Polly herself - surrounded by the veritable library of information she has accumulated over the years.


We started out - passing through countryside views that seem to come from postcards - here are two photos - I wish I could let each of you see through my eyes the beauty of the countryside. Furthermore, it continues for mile after mile - punctuated only by villages or hamlets with picturesque red brick or black and white houses or pubs - farms - barns - sheep, cows, horses.
Here are two photos that don't come close to showing this beauty- I think of what Papa, Edwin and Maria must have remembered of this green country as they lived in Texas!



We drove almost to the Welsh border (in fact going into Wales at one point) remember Sarah's father came from Wales and she and Richard were married very close - here the land has more hills - Herefordshire is like a saucer with Hereford in the flat bottom and hills all around - In Leonminster, I noticed that many of the signs were in both English and Welsh - at any rate, we came into a small hamlet, Lingen, a wooden gate with overhang stood open, but we drove to the end and walked into the church - through the cemetery - the sun was shining and as we walked in, the bells began to toll. We walked into a sun-filled church - and I felt a joyeousness in there - this was the church where Sarah and Richard were married. The photo with the sun shining through and the white walls and redish colored floor is this church as is the photo of the small window with white walls - you can see the wooden and white ceiling also. This was a beautiful visit.

We left and drove down a small lane to the house that Richard and Sarah were probably living in with her family. (Julie: Note this!)
This is the house in the photo of a white house with brown wood - two storied, sitting on a quiet country street.
We then drove to another church where Sarah's parents were married and finally to a church where Sarah was baptized. The photo with the red flowers and the white candle on top of the baptismal font is the one used to baptize our great great grandmother Sarah Brunt(Archer). We then went on to Leonminster - where our grandparents were born. They lived in Leonminster on Corn Square - which is a square (now filled with parking places) surrounded with old buildings - the Archer brothers, Richard & Sarah nee Brunt, William & Elizabeth nee Evans, George & Eliza nee Holley and their sister Mary Archer who was married to Thomas Ricketts all lived around this square in houses numbered 13, 14 & 16 or down the narrow street off the square named School Lane. This is the house where Papa said they would go outside and play during twilight during the summer - I peeked into the garden behind one of the houses - surrounded by a tall red brick fence. We then went to the Priory church (or Hereford Cathedral) where our grandparents were baptized - the photo of the large church with the black car beside it is this church. I was stunned - it is huge - a cathedral - with 3 naves. It once had a Benedictine monastary attached to it, and the monks would come in with their candles, singing the services eight times a day. I have been going to all these small churches over the last two days and this was amazing; it was so different. I imagined Sarah and Richard taking each of their children to the large baptismal font (the photo of the one with the bright green plants on it) That is the victorian font which is no longer used. This is very different. Finally, we went to the train station where I took the train from Leonminster to Liverpool.
The photo of the small red brick building is the train station - the same one that they would have gone through. As the train sped on, I noticed that most of the trip was through beautiful country side - I wondered about Richard and Sarah taking their children on that train - today we passed through a rainbow and it seemed symbolic of the hope they must have had for the future of their families. What amazing people - the hills close to Wales gradually became industraial as we came close to Liverpool- Liverpool train station (Lime Street Station) is huge - I can imagine Sarah with the children. I hope she found as much kindness and help from strangers as I did today - from the young and old men helping me carry my heavy suitcase up or down stairs to the taxi driver who refused my tip because the trip was too short!
And so I leave you tonight with this photo of me on the train - the same trip 138 years later - I met my colleague Stacy from Auburn University -She brought a brochure for the Institute for Cultural Insight which will feature culture bump training. We will go through our presentation tomorrow to prepare for Thursday morning. It seems we all have our journeys in life - to fulflill God's dreams for us - so simple, eh?. Sleep with the angels dear family. Until tomorrow Carolmae