My Family and Other Strangers by Hardy Jeremy

Author:Hardy, Jeremy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

CHAPTER 16

Loddon

My dad is spending a week’s holiday in Wymondham, in Norfolk with my brother, Simon, two of Simon’s children, Matthew and Joan, and Joan’s boyfriend, Ben. I’ve asked to join them, spend the night and lead a party to Loddon, the birthplace of Dad’s great-grandmother, Sarah Bell.

Dad always had an interest in archaeology, which he passed to Simon, who became an archaeologist and passed the interest to Matthew. Joan is happy to go along for the ride as Simon rushes from one site of historical interest to another. I have already made them late today. Simon has planned a route up to the north Norfolk coast, which is very beautiful. We will do Loddon tomorrow.

Simon is on a mission to see a number of churches and priories and the site of a Roman fort, with a couple of brief stops at the places I had recommended. I realise as I lead the party from the car park at Wells-next-the-Sea through the woods to the beach, that my family delights in ancient monuments, so a sandy beach on a day that’s suddenly turned very chilly, when there are several more archaeological sites lined up, is a bit of a distraction. I’ve also forgotten that Dad can no longer walk all that far; and all the distances are much further than I remember them being. Wells is a place that Katie and I like. Now I’ve brought them to one of our special places and it all feels a bit wrong.

I persuade everyone that it’s worth driving on to Holkham where, I have forgotten, you have to park up and walk through the woods to be met by a mile of flat nothing before the beach starts. I fear I have wasted even more of their time. I hope that we don’t lose the light before they’re able to see all their priories.

On the plus side, everyone’s up for going to Loddon tomorrow and I’m catching up with family. I feel rather proud of my brother, as he explains slight bumps in fields as the foundations of Roman outbuildings. And it’s nice that his kids are proud of him too. Even Ben seems quite happy, as he picks up bits of earthenware and takes them to Simon to be told they are fragments of medieval crockery or Roman roof tiles.

I realise that I am ill prepared again. I know that the mother of my great-grandmother Annie Aylott was Sarah from Loddon, and I remember that I somehow worked out her name is Bell, but I can’t remember how, and that’s as far as I got. I ring Richard to ask him to go online and find out more, but he’s at my niece’s. This is quite embarrassing now. Simon is building his day around me tomorrow. He’s a very organised man and an expert historical researcher. But I have very little idea of why we’re going to Loddon tomorrow except for a notion that that’s what you do when you’re doing history stuff: walk around places and that.

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