Churchmen of Hadleigh

Two study days will be held at St Mary’s Church Hadleigh, Suffolk on Saturday 26th June and Saturday 31st July 2010. Each study day will consist of lectures, lunch and guided tours.

Programme

Venues
Lectures and lunch will take place in St Mary’s Parish Church, Hadleigh, Suffolk.

Both study days will follow a similar format with two lectures in the morning and one in the afternoon. There will be a display of documents associated with the particular churchmen and guided tours of the Church and Deanery Tower. When visiting the Tower, please wear flat shoes.

Refreshments
Hot and cold drinks will be served beforehand, during breaks and at the end of the event.

Lunch
Ham or cheese ploughmans and a dessert.

Parking
Details will be sent with your ticket.

All profits from these two study days will go to Friends of St Mary’s Church Hadleigh.

Study Day 1
Saturday 26th June 2010

Roger Kennell: William Pykenham (14225-1497) ecclesiastic and builder

Dr Anthony Springall: Nicholas Shaxton (1485-1556) Bishop of Salisbury and curate of Hadleigh

Sue Andrews: Thomas Goad (1576-1638) royal delegate and church decorator

Study Day 2
Saturday 31st July 2010

Sue Andrews: David Wilkins (1685-1745) orientalist and historian

Rev’d Paul Hamlet: Hugh James Rose (1795-1838) academic and Hadleigh Conference convener

Hadleigh Society History Group: Henry Barry Knox (1807-1869) diarist and church restorer

I have been asked by Sue Andrews, Hadleigh Archivist and one of our members, to bring these study days to your attention. It does look very worthwhile with our own Tony Springall (right, upper picture) giving one of the lectures on the first day – Nicholas Shaxton, about whom he will speak was, of course, the uncle of our mutual many times great grandfather, Thomas Alabaster of Hadleigh (c1522-1592) and Sue Andrews giving another. She tells me that she will be mentioning John Alabaster, son of Thomas, in her talk.

In fact, Roger Kennell (right, lower picture), who is giving the first talk on that day is also known to many of you – it was he who gave us the excellent “Brick Tour” of Hadleigh during the afternoon of the third Alabaster Gathering in April 1994 and, more recently, guided several of you up the Deanery Tower at more recent Gathering in 2005.

I will certainly be there on 26th June !

If you are interested in coming to Hadleigh for either, or both, of these days, the cost is £25 for a single day including refreshments and lunch, £40 for both days, then please write to:

Sue Andrews, 17 Manor Road, Bildeston, Ipswich, Suffolk IP7 7BG

… and do let me know if you are coming to the day in June – who knows, we could have a mini Alabaster Alabaster Gathering!

Laraine.

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New Year in Thailand

by Carol Osborne

My husband David and I flew from Heathrow to Bangkok straight after Christmas 2009 to see our son Laurie and his delightful Thai partner Lynn and her warm and welcoming family. This in itself was an exciting and long-awaited reunion. However, after a night’s rest we made the long drive to Mae Rim, Chiang Mai in northern Thailand to have a wonderful belated Christmas dinner with my distant cousin Virginia Bird (Ginny) and her son Francesco and daughter Marisa (who had just flown in from New York), at their home ‘Bella Vista’ in the countryside. The family had kindly welcomed our son Laurie on his earlier occasional visits (he is very close in age to Ginny’s children and has similar interests).

When we visited Chiang Mai in 2008, we had no idea that there were descendants of Henry Alabaster (and our distant cousins) living there. It was very soon after we returned from that trip to Thailand that my cousin Laraine Hake came for lunch and revealed the Thai family connections – we were amazed! By this time Laurie had been working in Thailand for a while, in advertising, and had fallen in love with the country and its people. For him, the news of Henry Alabaster and his descendants was quite wonderful, ‘anchoring’ him to the country in some way and making sense of the affinity he felt for the place and the people and giving him great pride in Henry’s achievements.

On 30th December 2009, two dozen of us on the terrace at Bella Vista sat down to a delicious Christmas dinner at a long table decorated with flowers and the gold Christmas crackers and party poppers we had sent ahead of us from the UK. We overlooked rice fields and basked in the evening warmth, watching the sun go down and the moon come up like a giant paper lantern in the sky. What a contrast to the cold, dark and snowy conditions we had left behind!

It was fantastic to get to know Ginny, Francesco and Marisa and a great assortment of friends and family over the next few days. I found myself sitting next to a kindred spirit and pottery manufacturer called Mao, who it turned out had studied Product Design at the same London art school (Central St Martin’s) that I had attended a decade before her. What a coincidence! Speeches followed, greetings exchanged, and explanations of family connections attempted.

The evening concluded with the lighting of magical paper lanterns rising into the sky from the garden and some exciting and somewhat wayward fireworks sent us back to our hotel with our ears ringing and stars in our eyes!

The next day we explored Chiang Mai and then went to another ‘Alabaster’ cousin Sarah’s home with Ginny and family to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

We were treated to a fabulous buffet supper in Sarah’s magnificent gardens at her Mae Rim home. The garden was beautifully lit and I was fascinated by the unusual trees, plants and exotic flowers. Before midnight we were back on Ginny’s terrace for more celebratory paper lanterns and fireworks – what a New Year’s Eve to remember!

We spent three weeks in Thailand altogether, exploring the fascinating northern areas of Chiang Dao and Pai and Koh Samet, a paradise island south-east of Bangkok, doing all sorts of exciting ‘mid-life crisis’ activities – buggying through the jungle, zip-wiring (pictured right) and abseiling through the forest canopy at a great height, speed boating, and, in David’s case, jet-skiing and bungee-jumping. All wonderfully life-affirming stuff for him after a year spent bravely recovering from cancer! We also loved the craft markets, Buddhist temples, massages, high-tea at the glamorous Oriental Hotel (on the highway which Henry had designed and built) and the smiles, accent on family and great respectfulness of the Thai people.

The only thing to ‘spoil’ our Thai adventure was my ‘delicate’ tummy which succumbed to a nasty parasite and eventually the dreaded Norovirus, as it turned out! After some unsuccessful medication I was eventually admitted to a suite at a palatial private hospital in Bangkok (complete with tuxedoed pianist at a grand piano in the even grander entrance hall, marble floors and staircase, pictured left). After two days on a drip and antibiotics I was released just in time to fly home, taking in the famous Bangkok Aquarium on the way to the airport and an emotional farewell.

As I write, we are emerging from lingering jet-lag and casting our minds back over some wonderfully happy times, larger-than-life characters, sunny days and magical warm evenings – what fantastic memories to recall in the years ahead.

Thank you so much to Laraine for her family history revelations which made this all possible, to our son Alex for ‘holding the fort’ at home in Cambridgeshire so we could escape, and Ginny and all the family and friends who helped give David and me such a fabulous time (you know who you are)! Even the hospital nurses were memorable: immaculately elegant in their uniforms, respectful and kind. Roll on our next Thai adventure – but I think I’ll omit the tummy problems next time. Pass the antibiotics!

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Tree to show the relationship between Laurie and Francesco
 

Parents

 Siblings

 
 First cousins

Second cousins

Third cousins

Fourth cousins

Fifth cousins

 
Sixth cousins

Laurie Osborne is a sixth cousin once removed from Francesco

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