News From Oxford

Jill Dudbridge celebrated her ninetieth birthday with a lunch party in London for a score of her friends and relatives. Jill's extensive family history researches, especially of the earliest Blencowes, served as the foundation for our Blencowe book.

From left James Galbraith Jill's nephew from Geneva, Jill, Anna and Peter Blencowe

Keith Blencowe, who lives in Sunderland and descends from the 17thC John Blencowe of Whilton, wrote that he had been visiting his cousin ‘down south’. They went to Whilton and the other ‘Blencowe ’ villages nearby. At Spratton, whence their immediate ancestor, Henry Blencowe (1850-1937), migrated to the Northeast, they met a lady who told them there were about ten Blencowes in the village, including Guy Blencowe, a retired policeman. We'd like to hear from them!

Congratulations to Averil and John Blenko on the safe arrival of grandson Logan Joshua Blenko, first son of their younger son Colin and his wife Tamara. Averil and John are now settled in their new home near Malaga in Spain. The mailing address takes about a quarter-page so we look forward to John hooking back on to the Internet!

Phil and Jeannette Bailey from Sydney share an ale or two with Jack.

The Baileys spent time in Oxford while enjoying a long holiday in UK and brought the latest news of preparations for the 2008 Reunion in Australia.

Joy and Walt Blenko were over here from Pittsburgh and spent a day with us; they sounded keenly interested in the gathering planned here for next July.

Douglas Bain of Toronto very kindly purchased three documents for the Association. They were the records of the purchase and mortgage in 1921 of 11/12 Coventry Street Kidderminster by Lily Elizabeth Blencowe. The papers are interesting; the site plan showed the property to be freehold but with an indication that the cellar underneath No.12 belonged to the ‘Seven Stars’ pub next door!

I have yet to find who Lily Elizabeth was. I already had a note: ‘in 1921 she bought 11/12 Coventry St Kidderminster for £600 but took a £300 mortgage from one of the vendors. She ran a sweet shop; her son, a plumber and gas fitter lived next door.’ This cannot be correct for John the plumber was a son of John William Blencowe and Mary Jones; maybe Lily was his Aunt? Lily sold up in 1925 and moved to Walsall. A sign of the times: Stamp Duty on the two Conveyances were £7 10s and £2 10s, on the Mortgage 7s 6d.

The Kidderminster family had moved there from Banbury and can be traced back to Brackley and from there to Adam de Blencow.

I will send the papers to Daphne Austin for transcription; duplicate copies will be deposited at the Northamptonshire County Records Office. Is there a surviving member of the Kidderminster family who would like the originals as family keepsakes? If there are no ‘takers ’ they should be at the County Records Office, either at Worcester or Northampton.

John & Tina Blencowe wrote from Brighton sending me an extended family tree giving the descendants of Henry Herschell Blencowe (1851-1924) down to their youngest grandchild Max Jonathan, born in 2002. We now know, thanks to Ron Currell that HHB descended from Thomas and Louisa (Oddy) Blencowe of the Essex branch of the family; this makes an appendix to Figure 19.7 on p.344 of our book.

Jack Blencowe
Oxford September 2006