My parents, Gordon and Alma Wood, live in the village

Diana Jones (née Knowles) - Reading, 31st August

I am descended from James Lawrence via his daughter Harriette, who married Andrew Knowles, and am thus a cousin of Roland Lawrence who posted a message in May.

As a child in Bristol I visited Wrington lots of times never realising it was where my ancestors came from until I started to trace back the family. My best friend at school even lived in the village.

I would be delighted to contact anyone else with connections with the Lawrence, Knowles, Maine, and Parker families.

Congratulations on a brilliant website - Wrington sounds such a good place to live!

Sarah Farrar - Henley In Arden, Warwickshire, 10th August

Lived in Wrington from aged 7-ish to leaving home for University 14 years ago. Parents live in Village and I am a very regular visitior. I am getting married in Wrington this month. I was Baptised in All Saints and used to attend the village Brownies many years ago!

Jo Lewis - Plymouth, Devon, 7th August

I've just read the report on whether picking Bluebells is illegal and felt I had to write about when I was a child growing up in Wrington.

I lived in Lawrence Road and every year my sisters, brother and myself used to love going out in the nearby fields to pick bunches of primroses, bluebells or cowslips. I can still remember the joy of seeing a mass of yellow under a hedgerow, or the blue haze of bluebell wood. One of the fondest memories is of one day, taking my younger brother and sister 'primrosing'.

We were only two fields away from our home and Mark saw the yellow flowers lining the hedgerow at the top of the field. He ran as fast as his little legs would go and wouldn't heed our warning. What we knew, and he didn't, was that there was a 'boggy' patch before you got to the hedgerow and before we could stop him he was minus one of his little red wellies - it was stuck fast in the mud!

When we got home, Mum would always make up some smaller bunches of the wild flowers, for us to give to any elderly neighbours to brighten their day. Although I can understand the need for conservation, in recent years there appears to have been a substantial increase in wild flowers growing in the hedgerows (especially on the roadside verges). I do think it's a shame that our children or grandchildren may not experience that joy of being able to take something home to Mum, or Grandma, that they hadn't had to ask for money to buy!

So much of what we maybe took for granted, when we were young, is being lost and I, for one, look back with great nostalgia to our many trips 'across the fields' and the 'treasures' we found.

I might add that we never willfully pulled a plant out of the ground and cannot remember ever being told by Mr Marshall that we weren't allowed to pick the wild flowers or to get off his land. So much in the world today is prohibited and I think maybe the act of prohibiting may breed contempt. Am I alone in thinking that those days of the 50's/60s were definitely 'the best'!

Regards

[I was] looking for information as my one of my great great grandfathers lived and is buried in All Saints churchyard. I have visited Wrington twice, looking for my great great grandfather's grave but was unable to find it the second time. I will be back in 2005.

Just an quick update folks - on April 26 I joked about sending money for a new PC. Maybe I shouldn't have - I think the old PC heard me and died 2 weeks ago. Now I have a brand new PC with lots of HD space and heaps of ram....

Now what to do with some of the spare space! Well a long running project of my mother's (Lyndley HAVYATT) has been her research into the 'Family' history - photos, documents, visits to England, Wrington & NZ etc.- almost 20yrs worth of gathering.... I think its time to 'digitize it all'.

This in itself creates a problem (although I work as a webmaster professionally) - how to work out a good format with cross links, pics and family tree visually - that actually makes sense and is easy to use! This should be an interesting challenge !!!?!!! More on that later as I may need some input from members re HAVYATT/SPRATT/WRINGTON info.....

Note to John King - Thanks to Yvonne Spratt (aunt) via Cynthia Walters (NZ - who mum has just visited in the last 2 weeks) and Richard (Scmoose-man) - we will be in touch shortly :)

Although mum was a bit tired when she got back from 2 weeks in NZ - there are lots of photos of the 'Spratts' and more info to sort through - I'll leave that upto mum to post more.......

All the best - Jon

After nearly four years away we are finally coming back to live in Wrington. Florence and Elizabeth will return to Wrington school on 17th June, which they are very excited about.

I look forward to getting back into Wrington village life again. I have missed the W.I. market on a Friday morning and of course all my wonderful neighbours in Garstons Close that have kept in touch all the time we have been away.

See you all very soon.

For the last time from Sao Paulo.

Married names of the daughters were:- CANDY, COX x 3 (Three of the girls married three brothers) and SPRATT (New Zealand)

Andrew Whiting - Seoul, South Korea, 2nd May

To all friends in Wrington.

Web site looks great from Korea, reminds me of home from other side of world (good photo of Gill at Noel's wedding). Hot English summer out here. Looking forward to seeing Buddhist birthday celebrations this weekend in Seoul, lots of colour and traditional dress, if I had digital camera I would send. Culture very different to English village life! life expectancy for small mammals not good!

Look forward to seeing you all soon, may be at Tennis club quiz night 17 May (Tickets from Clair Walters).

Cum sa ham nida

Patricia Taunga - Auckland, New Zealand - 1st May

You may not remember me but I was Bishop Wilson's carer for 2 years (on and off) till September, 2001 when he entered full time care at Nailsea.

What a great idea - [Wrington World Day]. I would love to participate with an email on 21 June when here in NZ we will be "enduring " the shortest day of the year in direct contrast to you in Wrington.

You may be interested to know that the tape you made on the occasion of the bishop's jubilee is being used for Chinese students to hear "English as it should be spoken". I am a teacher trainer for teacher trainees wanting to become TESOL teachers and have also done some work in a preparatory course for international students wanting to undertake tertiary study in NZ.The tape has been very useful!

Best wishes

If there is anyone who can help in anyway I would be much obliged.

Firstly I must thank the people who replied to my initial letter, Darryl Brown, Ann Vaughan and Pat Parsons. I was great to hear from you and I hope I'll hear again. Pat, you have been a really good correspondent and I am enjoying being in touch with you. I'd still love to hear from anyone else who'd care to write.

Well here we are in the middle of our Summer (and the English Winter). January which can be terribly and consistently hot was not too bad, we had hot days interspersed with cooler rainy ones. The last week has been Hell with temperatures between 31C -35C during the day and falling to about 22C at night. The humidity has been very high which makes one constantly drip. "Why is she complaining ?", I hear you say. The humidity is the really awful thing.

As I said you feel constantly wet and it does not abate at night so you lie in you damp bed and listen to the mosquitos. Mosquitos ! I really loathe the little devils, they are around all Summer and they love me !! Fortunately this is not a Malaria region. One thing that does help a little is the incredible thunder storms that we get at the end of a really hot day. If you are afraid of lightening and thunder then you are in trouble here, we have some spectacular displays.

I had hoped to get this letter off before the departure of our annual visitors, a pair of Gymnogenes (African Harrier Hawks). For the last four years they have nested at the top of our Gum tree (Australian Eucalyptus) which is about 70ft tall. Each year they have produced a single baby and it has been our privilege to watch the whole process from nest repairing and mating to hatching feeding and fledging.

These are most spectacular birds, they are large with a wingspan of about 63 inches, they have a grey head and neck and speckled feathers under their body. Their wings are predominantly grey with black feathers along the edge and their tails are black and fan shaped with a distinct white stripe across. Their beak and legs are yellow and they have a bare face which has yellowish skin except in breeding season when they blush pink. They are the only bird of prey to have an articulated claw which enables them to hook their prey from between rocks etc.

They live on lizards and small rodents and birds. Their young are totally different and are speckled brown (rather like an owl ) when they leave the nest and they do not have the bare face. The change of colour comes with maturity. Our latest baby left the nest for good about 3 weeks ago. They start nesting in June and the baby finally leaves in January and they then disappear too until the next breeding season. We feel that it is a special thing to be able to witness the whole lifecycle of this amazing bird.

Of course if you take a short trip (in fact within walking distance) outside Howick you can walk (or drive) in the Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve where you can see all sorts of wildlife. This small reserve is run by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa and is there for the protection of the animals but also as an educational centre for students,tourists and interested members of the public. It is truly beautiful there with the most spectacular scenery.

The reserve runs along the top of the gorge below Howick Falls and right down into the gorge and down river to a grassy area between great high hills that run down the escarpment. South Africa is essentially an escarpment country, wherever you leave the coastal area and travel inland you have to climb the escarpment to reach the centre of the country. This why we here in Howick are some 1200ft higher than our nearest city Pietermaritzburg.

Umgeni Valley is full of plant diversity as well as animals and it took me, Sarah and two of her friends from the UK about five hours to walk down into the gorge and along the river and up only halfway through the reserve. It was hard walking but worth it. We saw warthogs, giraffe, zebras,blesbok and found loads of porcupine quills. We also saw black eagles, one of the biggest of the birds of prey.

There are no predators like lion etc. in the reserve so we could safely walk by ourselves. The biggest danger is actually snakes but if one is careful and aware, the snakes are more scared of us than we are of them. The one to really watch for is the Puff-adder who is rather lazy and will sometimes sleep on the paths and does not move out of the way as quickly as other snakes. The experience of walking in largely untouched countryside among animals that are free is extremely liberating.

Generally speaking of course life here is as mundane as life is anywhere. We have our weekly routine, the washing, the shopping, the cooking etc. There is a large new shopping centre being built down the road from us with yet another supermarket. We are wondering how successful it will be as Howick is not all that big.

They are also in the process of building a small new hospital near the Doctor's surgery. This is much needed as at present people have to be rushed down to Pietermaritzburg. This town is really quite unusual and we have all sorts of things going on ie. we have two internationally renowned wildlife photographers who live here, we have a lady who has a business making handmade Belgian-type chocolates, we have a small factory producing men's outdoor clothing, there's a taxidermist, there's a traditional healing place and lots of tourist and antique shops.

I have been busy painting since Christmas and have completed 6 paintings, all commissioned barring one. I still have one more to do. My work is hung in a local gallery and there are other venues for me to use. The Natal Midlands has a lot of artists and crafts people living and working here. The standard of the work is very high and there's a great variety. It's a very creative place to be. This of course does not mean that I do not miss Wrington and the environs. I would love to have a walk up Wrington Hill and the picture of Tumbling Weir on the website this month made me sigh. Wrington will always have a place in my heart.

I have probably bored you to death by now but once again I would really appreciate it if anyone who cares to, would drop me a line with any news of those folk I knew and any little titbits of news I'd love to hear from them.

So for now, 'hamba khahle' ( Zulu for 'go safely').

My playmates/contemporaries include, in order of appearance(!): Jane Lee,
Sally Hunt, Rowan Yamanaka, Ruth Hunt, Suzie and Noel Kumpel, Annie Wilcox,
Adam Joy, Will Densham, and James and Annie Marsh.

Married a lovely South African chap called Peter at All Saints', Wrington, in 1999. Moved to South Africa for four years (photo). In June 2002 I returned to the UK for a couple of years, and am currently living with Peter in Shepherds Bush, London. I am studying Interior Design at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. Peter is working in the finance department of the Outward Bound Trust.

Newsflash ! When I found out that one could gain a place in the London Marathon by running for a charity as opposed to entering into the great 'entrance lottery', I was first in line!

Fortunately for me, since Peter works for the Outward Bound Trust (which has over 200 secured places each year) my choice of charity was not very difficult. It just so happens that this particular charity is also founded on principles which are very close to my heart and which echo the principles of the work I was involved in South Africa with young people.

In short, the Outward Bound Trust offers structured residential development courses with the purpose of raising self-esteem and confidence, developing skills and preparing young people from every background for the challenges that life brings.

They've got four bases in the UK (one in Wales, one in Scotland, two in Cumbria) but the philosophy behind the courses has been adopted by loads of other OB centres that now exist all over the world. The founder of Outward Bound, Kurt Hahn, said: "We are all better than we know. If only we can be brought to realise this, we may never be prepared to settle for anything else".

I have grasped this challenge and have pledged to raise £1,000 to help to create opportunities that will allow many more youngsters to join the 25,000 already passing through Outward Bound centres each year. This money will go directly towards funding the Trust's inner city programmes that assist disadvantaged young people by sponsoring them on Outward Bound courses.

If you feel like supporting me in my endeavour, you can make a donation or a pledge in several ways: If you have access to the internet, you can donate on line. Just type in: http://www.justgiving.com/roskoch and click on one of the links underneath the picture on my page.

Alternatively, if you'd rather pay by cheque or whatever, I can always send you an individual sponsorship form. Just email me at roskoch@btopenworld.com and let me know your postal address. And, if you would like to donate but can't afford to make a donation right now, don't worry! There's a few months before my deadline.

Each donation can be made using the Gift Aid scheme where the charity will get 28% tax reclaim from the Inland Revenue on every £1 you donate. (my webpage explains how all this works!) . And, last but not least, if you don't feel like donating, you can always come and support on the day; I'm sure I'll appreciate the vocal support just as much as financial!

Is anyone else out there running a marathon?!

[Well - is there ? In addition, that is, to Tony Watts, our esteemed Village Journal editor - Ed]

Are there any descendants of the Wrington Parker family still in the area?

I would love to visit the home of my ancestors sometime and "stand in their shoes".

Please email me at virgilns@ burnett.net.au

I love the site and am sure I will visit it many times.

Thanks for helping me with my search