Halloween in Caldecote

Halloween.   October 31st.  There are some families in Australia  who have good reason to pass on their ancestral Halloween traditions to their children while the Christian community celebrates October 31st  it in its own way as All Hallows Eve.

Usually it is a most unremarkable day in Australia.

But in other parts of the world  it is a time for  black cats, bats and spiders,  ghosts, skeletons, witches and wizards;  or pumpkins,  cobwebs, haunted houses  and graveyards

So this Halloween let us glide over to the  graveyard at The Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Caldecote, Huntingdonshire, a few miles south of Peterborough.

The church has now been converted into a private residence after having been de-consecrated in the mid 1970s  and the headstones  have been stacked against the church wall the last time I heard.

Photo from Michael Trolove

Perhaps the ghosts rise up on the night  of October 31st to protest at having been disturbed.  There might even be some Tanseys and some Lawsons among them.  A perfect setting for all things supernatural.

This lonely church  is where my  grandfather’s grandparents, Thomas Tansey and Rebecca Lawson, were  married in 1834  Later they were buried  there  after all twelve of their children were christened there and five of their children  buried there.

There are three different spellings for the same person’s surname.  Thomas signs Tanser, the Curate writes Tansor and the headstone says Tansey.

But when Thomas was born in 1813 in Whittlesey to the east of Peterborough he was christened as Tansey.  That was the year that Richard Wagner was born, Napoleon invaded Russia and the USA declared war on the UK, a war which lasted 2 years

Further links to the colourful Halloween card can be seen at this week’s Sepia Saturday post

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H…A…R…P…S

The starting point for this week’s Sepia Saturday will send participants running for all the harp and angel related  photos in their family albums

 

H………A………..R………..P………..S

 

 

 

is for hair which sometimes supports a circlet of flowers such as in the ring of roses worn by the bride and bridesmaid in this 1948 family wedding at Scots  Church, Melbourne,

is for angel – it is believed that angels play harps but in this case my angelic granddaughter clasps a recorder.

is for repeat because I have another angel to show you,  a knitted knitting angel.

is for playing a musical instrument, not a harp this time but another stringed instrument, the piano, played by the young angel above, practising during her brief venture into piano lessons.

is for St John of God Hospital in Geelong where for over twenty years harpist  Peter Roberts has offered music on a one-to-one basis to fragile and vulnerable people in a medical setting,  compassionate care through music.

Peter Roberts music Thanatologist at St John of God Hospital

(From Australian Story ABC TV 14-6-2010 Transcript here)

PETER ROBERTS, THANATOLOGIST: The instrument itself doesn’t have the power. It sits there on its own and it doesn’t do anything until it’s touched. It’s about the person who’s playing it. Honestly, it is. When I take the harp out of the car and roll it into the hospital, usually there’s curiosity and surprise. A funny thing usually happens when I get into an elevator with people and there’s that silence that happens when the door closes. And I always say, “You’re in big trouble now.” And then they’ll laugh and they’ll say, “Well where are your wings?” I always say that well the music is not that good.

Each time a baby is born at St John of God they play a short recording of Peter playing  Brahms Lullaby on his harp over the loud speaker system  to announce the birth.  And when you are lying in bed sick and hear this soft, slow and sweet  melody it is very comforting to know that life is just starting somewhere else in the building.

This is the segment but played by John Kovac.   Do close your eyes and listen and let your thoughts roam free.

You can see more people connecting to this weeks theme image on Sepia Saturday

Clocks – for more than just telling the time

A long time ago it was not necessary to open your iPhone to find out the time because you would have a watch on your wrist or, if indoors,  you would have a handsome clock on your mantelpiece, just as in the background of this group posed to have everyone looking in the same direction.  No posing was done in the next photo – someone off-stage is creating mirth.

It’s Christmas time about twenty years ago.  The house is my daughter’s, the man my son, the children his niece and nephew, and the clock had been part of my husband’s collection.  For clocks  and clock books were one of his hobbies. He collected a few, he studied their workings and took them to bits and then re-assembled them, he read about them and a couple of times constructed a new clock from pieces of old clocks.  Unfortunately no-one told me that one day in the future I would find a group called Sepia Saturday where photos play an important role and so few photos were taken.  (BTW, Jo, I knitted the cotton Father Xmas jumper.)

Here are some books and papers from his collection.

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Back in the early 1980s there was this photo of my daughter with his home-made  wall clock.  It began with a re-cycled clock face, then there was a brand new pendulum with a brass weight.  My husband designed the wooden case and out of sight at the top of the clock was a square battery which was organized so that something clicked around and every 30 seconds made a connection which gave a nudge to the pendulum.  Just don’t ask me how that worked but it helped the clock to keep good time instead of slowing down.

Earlier still, in October of 1948, another clock in the background when  the Adelaide College of Music Drum and Fife Band performed   “My Grandfather’s Clock” at the Tivoli Theatre. in Adelaide.  Thanks to friends P and G Flynn for this image.

My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short never to go again,
When the old man died.

CHORUS:
Ninety years without slumbering, tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering, tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopped short never to go again,
When the old man died.

Have a look at other blogs inspired by this week’s Sepia Saturday image.

Unnamed, Anonymous: Who Are You ?

This week Sepia Saturday , for their 300th birthday, provided us with this image of some unidentified people from The Age of Uncertainty blog here and  here.  It has long been one of my favourite blogs to visit, enjoying the topics he chooses and the way he writes.

And for my 101st post to this group I have chosen this unidentified photo from our extended family collection.  It was taken by photographer Charlie Farr  in High Street,  Maryborough,  in Central Victoria,  between 1893 and 1906.  It possibly has connections with nearby Carisbrook, and a link to the  names  Fricke, Aston or  Peet and their many connections.

To see  what other people saw in this week’s theme photo visit this week’s Sepia Saturday.

 

The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

Sepia Saturday provided us with a most unusual image this week.  I definitely needed those few words at the bottom,  those words/themes/suggestions to help us feel some empathy for the image and to help us connect to an image or an experience of our own.

It was the word cut-outs which resonated with me. But it took several searches, high and low,  before I found something which I had last sighted more than twenty years ago.  Fortunately I did find it as often I don’t find things until it is  too late for them to be of use for a post.

But find this one I did.  And this one is a book which is full of images which also happen to be cut-outs which can be stood up in place on the page to illustrate part of a story.  This book which very briefly tells the story of Alice in Wonderland  was given to me as a prize for attending Castlemaine’s Christ Cburch Sunday School on 30 Sundays in one year. I don’t know what happened on the other twenty-two Sundays.  I think Canon Vanston may have been Vicar at the time.

 

Down the Rabbit Hole

This book of stand-ups was published in 1934 by the Saalfield Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio with the design by Sidney Sage, who did many books in this style.   My copy has been well used and is in poor condition. Each cut-out is still connected to the book by its base and has a small wing at each side to fold back and hold up the character.  But may of these wings are now missing and  I had to prop up some of the cut-outs with other objects to be able to photograph them. The tale for each tableau is told inside the back and front covers.

In the Duchess’ Kitchen

The King and Queen of Hearts

The Lobster Quadrille

The is the original illustration by John Tenniel in the 1865 edition

Though out of Copyright I can find no courtesy reference to the author Lewis Carroll or the illustrator John Tenniel in this 1934 Stand-Up version of the  book though Saalfield claim to have copyright of this version.

All Saalfield’s tableaux are copies of the original illustrations then coloured.

Who Stole the Tarts

I think my favorite is the Lobster Quadrille.

” The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across his eyes. He looked at Alice and tried to speak, but, for a minute or two, sobs choked his voice. “Same as if he had a bone in his throat,” said the Gryphon; and it set to work shaking him and punching him in the back. At last the Mock Turtle recovered his voice, and, with tears running down his cheeks, he went on again:

“You may not have lived much under the sea—” (“I haven’t,” said Alice)—”and perhaps you were never even introduced to a lobster—” (Alice began to say, “I once tasted—” but checked herself hastily, and said, “No, never”) “—so you can have no idea what a delightful thing a Lobster-Quadrille is!”

“No, indeed,” said Alice. “What sort of a dance is it?”

“Why,” said the Gryphon, “you first form into a line along the sea-shore—……………………………..”

You can re-read this story of the Lobster Quadrille at http://www.authorama.com/alice-in-wonderland-10.html

Or you can see how other members have responded to this week’s Sepia Saturday image.