Essex calling

La famille Erulin kindly provided the transport, driver and company for Grandma, Grandpa and Tati Evie to visit the area nearest to my ancestral connections. This is a tiny village in Essex near Walton-on-the-Naze called Kirby-le-Soken. My nearest confirmed ancestor, Great-Great-Grandfather John was born there in 1810. However he was in Colchester by 1840, but until then our ancestry were sons and daughters of the soil, ie agricultural labourers. Our invaluable photographer Evie took some useful photos. We looked for buildings recognisably earlier than 1850 and found at least two, one 1700s, and its neighbour 1600s, which despite makeovers particularly showed their age in their roof and chimneys. The pub we patronised, the Red Lion, and which kindly let us use their car park for a picnic lunch as the weather was inclement, was also of that era. As one of the church musicians I was particularly impressed by the stained glass windows triptych in memory of the honorary church organist for 17 years, and whose surname is mine, though as he lived only in the 20th century his connection may be remote. But they are fine windows of two singing clergy and a muse of music, possibly Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music, and two organists of 19th and 18th(?) century respectively. He had a smart grave also near the entrance to the church! The local Forge allowed us to take photos of a map of the village as it was in 1923, and it did not look as if it had changed much from 1823 comparing it to an older map I've seen. After a brief detour to Walton to show granddaughter number 1 (number 2 was asleep) a very cold, grey North Sea we returned home to beautiful sunny weather, as is always the case!