Sun, Jun 10th

Today we picked Dad and George up and did a 160 mile round trip to North Warnborough/Odiham in Hampshire to do some genealogy. Dad used to tell me as a kid how he used to go down there and visit his Aunt Emmy with his dad back in the 1930s and during the second world war. So, we headed out early to see if we could find the house he used to visit. The drive took about an hour and a half, and when we got to Odiham we couldn't find a house that Dad remembered, or a house that looked like the one that a local historian sent us a photo of a few years back. Dad suggested that we try looking in Hook. So we drove the half a dozen miles and checked this out, too. This was when our luck all changed. I bought a local map in a newsagents in Hook and we immediately saw landmarks that Dad remembered. In particular a castle and stream. So we headed back to North Warnborough and on immediately entering the town for the second time I saw the house in the picture. We parked the car and walked back to check it out. In the window was an elderly man looking out. So, I made my way up the garden path and introduced myself and see if he could be of any assistance. We hit gold. After a brief chat he informed me that Emily White (Dad's aunt Emmy) lived in the Thatched Cottage next door. Unfortunately, she moved out during the war without leaving a forwarding address. The cottage, which was built around 1445, had been obscured by trees. But, Dad was pleased once we saw it. He was also delighted to see that a little bit up the road was the stream he kept mentioning and the pub across the road from where Aunt Emmy lived. We decided to have lunch there, The Jolly Miller, before heading home feeling so pleased for Dad. We later found out that the old man that helped us lived in a house, The Albion, that my great-great-grand parents used to live in way back in the 1890s.