EMAILS RE: JOHN LINES, CANBERRA
26/10/11
Reply from John Lines:
Janet
Thank you for your kind wishes to Margaret who is along the road to what is going to be a rather slow recovery. As a former nurse she is, not surprisingly, a very impatient patient (what do doctors know!) but it may be a little while yet before she regains all her usually incredible energy and vitality! For the moment at least, I can outmanoeuvre if not outrun her.
Thank you also for sending the letter from Doug which, once again, contained warm recollections of my relatives that are most interesting. Perhaps you will let Doug know how much I appreciate these memories. It is very kind of you to provide the email contact. I gather from the postscript that Doug received the book and will be in touch about it in due course. As I said in my covering letter to him, I am not sure how pertinent the book may be to the history of Chediston but I am happy to expand upon the Lines' part in that story if it is of interest.
I am currently working on two books. One is about the first member of my part of the Lines dynasty (born in Chediston) who migrated to South Australia in 1854. The other is a far cry from Suffolk and chronicles some adventurously flamboyant members of my wife's family. It seems unlikely that either book will be finished this year as I am having far too much fun with the latter research!
Regards
John
26/10/11
Doug came round yesterday with a letter which I copy below:-
Dear John,
I have to hand a copy of the last email dated 27th September you sent to Janet in which you mentioned a story you have written concerning the Lines ancestor born in Spexhall. I would like to read it if at some time you are able to send it. In years gone by people moved around very little and Spexhall is only a mile or so from Chediston and it usually meant people of the same name were related within a certain radius. When my father died in 1931 the vicar at the time realised he had been church sexton for 22 years searched the church history and discovered people by the name of Cady had held positions within the church for upwards of 300 years so I guess the Cady name in Chediston is part of history. Harriet lines was one of the congregational faith and used to walk to the adjoining village of Wissett where the nearest church of that fait was situated and in a book written by a local historian it stated that Mrs. Lines of Chediston gave a communion chalice for use at the Wissett church. After Joseph died, Harriett sold the post Office and moved into an adjoining property they owned and it was ironic that the only fresh water supply for the two houses was a hand operated pump situated at the second house. The new owners of the Post Office were a Mr. & Mrs. Cox along with their two children Dennis and Mary the same name as the landlord of Chediston Duke who probably followed the member of the Lines family you mentioned in your first email. Harriett did not tolerate young children too well and I think there was some friction if they misbehaved when they went with their father to collect a bucket of water. The local blacksmith and carpenters shop was just across the road from the Post Office and my father was employed as a wheelwright and carpenter and he made many cart wheels and although I was six when he died I can still recall the operation of fitting the steel 'tyre' made at the blacksmith shop and the skill used to heat it up and shrinking it onto the newly made wheel by the pouring on of cold water. I have good memories of Harriet and her kindness to me when my mother used to send me to the carpenters shop to collect fragments of wood to light our coal fire, the men usually filled the bag so full that I could hardly carry it but Harriett seeing my problem would come and carry it for me then reprimand my mother for the bag being so full. wonderful memories of a bygone era.
Douglas Cady
PS Thank you for your airmail containing your book and I will reply in due course.
08/10/11
Janet & David
I have received the book thank you - my wife was admitted to hospital unexpectedly on Thursday and things have been a little chaotic for the past couple of days. I will respond directly to Doug over the next day or so and will let you know when I have done so. I will send him a copy of my book if you think this appropriate and would like to do something for the Chediston church also once things have settled down at this end.
Regards
John
05/10/11
David
Thank you so much - I am quite taken aback! I really had no idea that we have been talking about such a delightful house. For some reason, I had a mental picture of something quite small and single storey. This is possibly because the Walberswick pub once owned by related Lines is now a 'picture book' cottage, the original building having been relocated when the new, much more grand, pub was constructed in the 1920s. I need to keep reminding myself that I am thinking about things that are now over 100 years old!
I really appreciate your kindness in making something of my heritage available to me.
Regards
John
LETTER FROM CANBERRA - UPDATE
Since Doug's response, the website has written to John Lines and enclosed a copy of Doug's History of Chediston. We have also sent a photo of the old Post office referred to in John's original email. The old Post Office is now Thornton House.
REPLY TO LETTER FROM CANBERRA
Doug Cady has written the following response:
Dear John,
I write as a former resident of Chediston, a village with which I have maintained connections through the Church to this present day. I was born in Chediston In 1925 and have many memories of Harriett Lines but very few of Joseph. Harriett was a lady of very strong Victorian principles wearing clothes which “swept” the ground and being held up by a slight hitch as she walked. She operated the Post Office from the front room of her house whilst Joseph operated his shoe business from an attached building on the side of the house.
Postal business was operated by the customers standing outside and if you stood on her immaculate “whitened” door step it meant a severe reprimand. By strange co-incidence on the day I received a copy of your letter I had found a memorial card to Joseph Lines who died on 15th November 1927 aged 76 years and interred at Chediston Churchyard on 19th November. It was a common practice in those days to print such cards and distribute them amongst friends. My father who died in 1931 was sexton and gravedigger at Chediston so would have dug Joseph’s grave and my brother who took over Father’s task would have dug Harriett’s.
After Joseph’s death she moved to another house which she owned in the village selling the Post Office to a Mr and Mrs Cox. Her principles may have been with a Victorian connection but she was of a very generous nature, her one “modern” possession was a battery operated radio which seldom worked and many times I have been called to clean the corroded battery terminals and wind her 7 day clock which had a very strong “wind”, but was always generously rewarded. I have many other memories of a lady who was a true Chediston legend.
Doug Cady
If you think the memorial card would be of any interest to yourself I would gladly forward it to you in Canberra. In pre-war days Chediston had two shoemakers, the other being a Thomas Crane.
John may like to have a copy of Doug's book describing his Chediston memories; we shall send him a copy if he writes in to the website with his address (Webmaster)
LETTER TO WEBSITE FROM CANBERRA 03/08/11
Good Morning
Congratulations on the web site - I write to say how much I have enjoyed it and also on the extremely long shot that somebody may be left with memories of Chediston from ninety years ago!
I have never lived there but my roots are deep in Chediston with one of my early ancestors buried in St Mary Chediston in 1752.
My particular interest is the Chediston postal agency operated by Joseph and Harriet Lines until his death in 1927. Joseph took over the business from his uncle, John Lines, around 1900. Shoemaking remained, as we now say, the 'core' business until at least 1914-1918 I believe. Originally started by John's father, also John, a master shoemaker, in 1851, I think the actual business premises probably changed several times over decades - John senior was recorded as resident at 'The Duke' public house in 1851 and again in 1871.
The limited time during my first and only visit to Chediston some years ago was far too brief. I did not see enough of the village itself and failed to search for the post office. I should have started delving into my family history decades earlier! It is too late now for another visit I suspect.
With warm regards from "Down Under' to the current residents
Sincerely
John (Lines)
Canberra