Our Family History

Our Ancestors

This Site is not just about immediate family: Parents, Siblings, Spouse, Children, and Adopted family members, it's also about our ancestors and their extended families. .

Some of the ancestors have hidden secrets and when we discover these it can be surprising and thought provoking. If any of these surprises pop up on this family site it's not meant to offend anyone, these are discovered facts and a matter of public record not hearsay from an aunt or uncle, so I hope you will enjoy our family from our distant ancestors right up to our present day descendants. Thank you for dropping by we hope you enjoy!

Our History

Compton Bassett Church

ST. SWITHIN'S chuch, so called in 1763, was built of rubble and freestone and has an aisled chancel with a north vestry, an aisled and clerestoried nave with north porch, and a west tower. Of the 12th-century nave, part of the west wall survives. The north aisle was added to the nave in the late 12th century, the south aisle in the early 13th; the chancel, partly rebuilt in the early 13th century, remained small. The walls of the aisles were rebuilt, probably on their original lines, in the 15th century; that of the south aisle may have been rebuilt again in the 18th. Also in the 15th century the tower and the clerestory were built, the chancel arch was enlarged, and an ornate stone screen with rood loft and integrated pulpit was erected. A medieval north porch was rebuilt apparently in the 18th century and again in the later 19th. In 1865-6 the chancel aisles and vestry were replaced by one designed by Henry Woodyer. Three bells were hung in the church in 1553 including one believed to have been cast by John Walgrave around 1420. Further bells were added in around 1620 by the Purdue family and the ring was increased to six in 1983 by the addition of a bell cast in the same year by John Taylor & Co from Loughborough. In 1983 the rectory was united to the benefice of Oldbury to form a new Oldbury benefice.

The Incident