| October 2003
It was Monday October 20, 2003 and I made
my way into Doncaster to meet a train coming from London. It had been
quite a nice day but as evening approached the weather turned to rain. The
train arrived and I met Richard and Valerie Ackroyd for the first time
when they stepped off it. Outside the station we got a taxi to take them
to their hotel. There I left them to eat and rest after their long journey
from Portland, Oregon, USA.
At 10am the following day I went along to
their hotel with my husband Jim. From there we went to meet Keith my
brother-in-law. Jim and Keith are the fourth cousins once removed of
Richard.
First of all we did a tour of Old
Edlington and the area that the ancestors once lived, although it has
changed over the years. We then went on to St Peter's Church and took a
look around the churchyard. In the churchyard are the graves of Joseph and
Ann (nee Grayson) Ackroyd, Joseph and Elizabeth (nee Mitchell) Ackroyd and
George and Emily Jane (nee Dixon) Ackroyd. There are also some of their
children buried there too. We were also very fortunate to be able to look
around the inside of the Church as the Church has been closed for a number
of years. This was the first time for Jim, Keith and myself as we had only
seen the church from the outside until this day.
The next stop was Conisbrough to show
Richard and Valerie the area as many of our Ackroyd ancestors lived here
as well as Edlington. We took them to Wellgate where a lot of our
ancestors lived. It is understood that John Ackroyd (1793 - 1849) once
owned Wellgate. From there we went to St Peter's Church, Conisbrough. We
then went on to the cemetery on Doncaster Road. By this time we were ready
for lunch.
Taking in a couple of views we made our
way to the Pastures Lodge for lunch. There we met Keith's daughter who
joined us there. After a relaxed lunch we said goodbye to Keith and made
our way to Meadowhall to make a couple of purchases. We then made our way
to Bingley to take Richard and Valerie to the hotel there, where they were
staying that night. Here we said goodbye to them. We are hoping that we
will all be able to meet up again, perhaps next year.
By Carol Ackroyd |
