ROB & VAL HAYWOOD
of Leicester & Hull

welcome you

Click here to go directly to
St James' Church, Sutton on Hull
 a Hull skyline
Hull city skyline, taken around 2005;
St Mary's Church, Guildhall tower, and Crown Court dome, all central
Click here to go directly to
St James' Church, Sutton on Hull
Here you will find an eclectic mix of pages showing our interests in many topics:

Online Photo Repair and Restoration service
Genealogy and our own family history
Leicester City Transport
The Royal Air Force and Military Matters
Valerie's UK Heritage DVDs
Dig even deeper and you will find a host of other interests as shown on our Links Page.

We hope you enjoy your visit to our website.
If you have any queries, we would be pleased to hear from you.
email: click the button on the left





Private Henry Holt
204379
The Leicestershire Regiment

Grandad 'Harry' Holt, enlisted aged 18, on the 8 Nov 1911, in 156 Protection Company of the Royal Defence Corps, the equivalent of today's TA, the HQ battalion of which was based at Loughborough. His records show he signed up for 4 years.

He was first fully mobilised, along with thousands of others in that momentous week, on the 5 Aug 1914, at the huge camp on Loughborough Rd, Whitwick, and signed up into the Leicesters. But he was a coal miner, for the Ellistown Colliery Co, and in a reserved occupation, and so was greatly disappointed to be immediately sent back to his workplace and only remain in the regiment's reserves. There were plenty of other volunteers, and he was a newly married man. Besides, it was all going to be over before Christmas, and he wouldn't be needed. As such, he didn't actually get called to the Colours until the spring of 1915, at which time he was also transferred to the 4th Bt Northamptonshire Rgt. Not his choice, but I suppose it was to fill vacant ranks created by war losses in that neighbouring county regiment. He then served in France as a machine gunner, and was demobilised in February of 1919. What had been intended in 1911 to be a sign-up of 4 years turned out to be 8. By the time he left the army, he and Violetta had two daughters, Gladys born in 1915, and Edna, born in 1918.

Fortunately for us, though his army records are amongst what are known as the 'burnt records', they are remarkably intact, albeit with very singed edges. And so we have a good deal more information about his army service than we otherwise would have.

A lifelong Methodist and Salvationist of extremely strong faith, returning home to his work in the mines, and already with two older daughters, Henry and Violetta had two more girls, Mavis in 1923, and Sylvia, my late mother, in 1930. Grandad referred to his four daughters, from their initials, as his four GEMS.

He took part in the General Strike in 1926, suffered more than one nervous breakdown largely as a result of his war service but not helped by dire poverty, and eventually ended up working for Coalville Urban District on the local refuse tip. This First War veteran ended his working life on 'the Dust'. The Second World War wasn't without it's trials, though now too old to serve but losing his wife to cancer in 1941, and a son-in-law Jack, married to Mavis, torpedoed at sea in 1942. Also a skilled watch and clock mender of some local repute down Highfield Street in Coalville, he retired in 1958, and died in January of 1972, aged 79, ironically enough during the Miners Strike of that year, of pneumonia after a fall in the dark during one of the many power blackouts at that time.

The fine drawing above, in it's frame with emblematic symbols of King, Country and the Empire, had already been hanging above the sideboard in their tiny sitting room for some 30 years before I came along in the 1950s, and so I've known and revered it all my life. I'm proud to own it now. It was an image of an example of a man to live up to, but I fear I failed by quite a wide margin.

I pay tribute here, exactly 100 years after his enlistment,
to the memory of a lovely man.






FAMILY HISTORY

Genealogy is one of the fastest-growing hobbies in the worldwide.
Rob and Val have researched most of their families
and you will find more details here.

For more general genealogy links which might prove
helpful if you're just starting out, click here.

The table below shows some of the main names in our
respective Leicestershire family trees.
We moved to Hull in 1978, but we have no family here.

OUR JOINT FAMILIES
a very stunted tree
showing where we come from

ARTHUR HAYWOOD
of Griffydam
& Leicester

HILDA SMITH of Aylestone Leicester

HARRY HOLT of Donnington
le Heath
Hugglescote
& Coalville

VIOLETTA MANDERFIELD
of Shepshed

 

JOHN STEVENS
of Hinckley

EDITH BENNETT of Sharnford nr Hinckley

THOMAS SWANWICK of Blaby Leicester

ALICE TOWNSEND FRETTER
of Aylestone

NORMAN HAYWOOD
of Leicester & Coleorton

SYLVIA HOLT
of Hugglescote and Coalville

 

JACK STEVENS
of Hinckley

JOAN SWANWICK
of Aylestone & Leicester

 

ROBERT HAYWOOD
of Leicester

married Aylestone 1971

VALERIE STEVENS
of Leicester


We are members of the Leicester & Rutland Family History Society.

A firm belief: "Every Englishman should know and be aware of his own history."

Here's a quote by another Englishman:
"England has become a dwelling-place of foreigners and a playground for lords of alien blood. No Englishmen today is an earl, a bishop, or an abbot; new faces everywhere enjoy England’s riches and gnaw her vitals, nor is there any hope of ending this miserable state of affairs."

So said William of Malmesbury around 1130.
William's father was Norman, but he was English through his mother.
He lived in the early 1100s, just half a century after the Conquest,
and was a monk at Malmsbury Abbey.
He's famous now for being one of our very earliest historians.

It seems he told it how it was.

We forget our own history and heritage at our peril!




Leicester City Transport : cap badge for uniformed platform staff

MEMORIES OF LEICESTER CITY TRANSPORT
1968-1973

I joined Leicester City Transport in 1968 as a bus conductor and later trained as a driver. The image above was my cap badge! Local public transport was important in those days as fewer families had cars. There were more buses around 40 years ago – and certainly many more than are seen today. Some people are actually interested in all old forms of transport and there is an abundance of photographs here to interest any present-day bus enthusiast, and especially those with a specific interest in LCT.

Go to a 5-page photo montage of
LCT vehicles
and journey back in time!

LEICESTERSHIRE BUS MEMORIES
Grantham to Leicester to Coalville to Coleorton .. c1955
a text article originally posted on LEICESTER OVERSEAS,
now modified and updated and posted here.
A child's-eye view of rides on the Midland Red and in Leicester,
training days on LCT, and now also a short article on ticket machines.

Leicester City Transport : Leyland Atlantean PDRA/1 : PBC 115G : LCT's first overall advert bus, in 1971
Leicester City Transport : Leyland Atlantean PDRA/1 : PBC 115G
Their first, and very flowery, overall advert bus, in 1971, on what was then
the relatively new service 62 to South Wigston.


TS TIGER - Leicester Sea Cadet and Royal Marines Cadet Unit

T.S. TIGER
Leicester Sea Cadets and Royal Marines Cadet Unit
in honour of my time there
1965-1972

This is a link to an organisation that gave me some of the best 7 years of my life.
Click the Tiger badge above to go to their site. But please read on first.

For any lad in his mid-teens, with nothing particular to do and seeking adventure and a wider interest in life, I can't recommend joining a cadet unit highly enough.

Sea Cadets or Marine Cadets, the adventure and fun and mates are the same. It's all part of our same Royal Navy, and it's all a question of preferences. I originally joined the Sea Cadets in 1965, but was quickly 'poached' by a Marine Colour Sergeant, and that was that. I stayed on as a sergeant-instructor till, aged 22, I and my wife left to go and live in Hull. I always intended to offer myself to the local Sea Cadet Unit in Hull, but shift patterns forbad, the chances passed, and to my regret, I never did.

The Royal Marines Cadet Unit, at TS Tiger in Ross Walk, Leicester, was the saving of me, and gave my life direction and focus at the time of a family break up in my mid-teens. I could have so easily 'gone in the other direction', and as people say, become a wrong'un. Instead, I went camping, rowing, caneoing, rock climbing in North Wales, and made a great load of mates. I learnt pride in myself, my uniform and the Corps, and got some badly needed discipline. I can't thank them enough. Except to put a link here and wish the CO and all the lads and lasses down there, who work so hard for each other and their proud unit traditions, great good fortune for the future.

To go directly to their website for more information, address, contacts, etc,
click the fearsome tiger above.
Or ring them direct on 0116 266 2865, Tues or Thurs evenings, 19:00 to 21:30.

For guys n' gals in Hull that have an interest in the sea and would like to take part,
T.S. IRON DUKE
is Hull's own unit, based in Argyle Street.
They can be contacted by clicking the link,
or email tsiron.duke@yahoo.co.uk


Military Forums

SUPORT OUR SOLDIERS
Military Forums and Support our Soldiers
are websites for those interested in supporting H.M. Armed Forces. There are many links on these sites where you can show your support and the obituary pages are exceedingly poignant indeed. The whole nation should pray that our forces will succeed in whatever task they undertake: they give the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf and we should never forget that.

THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION
is of course original support organisation for all our Armed Forces,
giving help for heroes since the 1920s.
Did you know that you don't have to have been in the
Forces to join the Royal British Legion?
The Royal British Legion Home Page

Members of both our immediate families were in all the forces;
fathers in the the RAF and Royal Marines,
other family members in the RN and the army.
We are proud to support all our Forces, and we hope you do too.
Please take time to look at these websites – thank you.

PROUD TO SUPPORT OUR TROOPS !




Past devotees of Tim Airey's
LEICESTERSHIRE OVERSEAS

might be forgiven for blinking on sight of this logo! Unfortunately Tim's site has not returned, but much of it is still available at the remarkable WAY BACK MACHINE. This website is unsurpassed when searching for old web information. More correctly known as the Internet Archive, it is a brilliant and largely unknown resource which also includes old media, music and image sites. Tim and his wife Carol created LEICESTERSHIRE OVERSEAS from their home in Calgary, Canada, and it was a work of genius, highly popular with many early users of the internet who were natives of Leicester. As far as I can see most of Tim's text is still here including the worldwide bulletin boards, stories and histories. Some larger graphics will not load but many do. This page is for 6 Aug 2003, the best link I can see that seems to load the majority of Tim's stuff. It really does contain a veritable goldmine and was one of the best things to happen for Leiceter and the county in recent years.

Sadly, Tim died in 2006 and many Leicester folk and Tim's fans and correspondents around the world were saddened by the news. Tim was a great 'son of Leicester' and also a founding member of the 1960s Leicester pop group The Foursights.

I hope you enjoy trawling through his site and hopefully, one of these days, some enterprising person will revive and rewrite Tim's site so that, in his memory, the site could be restored to today's internet. I'm convinced he would have liked that.

 

Finally, here's a link to a most excellent Leicester website ...
The local radio station has been going since 1968,
and regularly wins awards.
Not surprisingly, it's in our old home town ...
Where the Red Cheese comes from,
and Gary Linneker !

The first stop for news, sports and features
for Leicestershire and Rutland.
BBC RADIO LEICESTER



END OF PAGE


Holt Pics


CV