Haggbridge.com – Page 3 – Never let truth get in the way of a good family story!

William Clark & Iron Puddlers

William CLARK (1852-1902), our Great Great Grandfather, worked as an Iron Puddler in the iron foundries of England and Scotland during the Second Industrial Revolution. Born in the small village of Seaton in Cumberland, William was the second child of nine, raised by parents Jane DREWERY and Joseph CLARK, a farm labourer and husbandman. The village economy had transitioned over...

Ronald Hardacre & The Commander of the British Empire

Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood St. James’s Palace, London, S.W.L The QUEEN has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of the Celebration of Her Majesty’s Birthday, to give orders for the following appointments to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. To be Ordinary Commanders of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order (CBE): Geoffrey...

Joseph Henry Hudson & The Lords Feoffees

The Court Leet 1919, July 17th, the day after the Peace Pageant. The Court Leet was a local court set in front of the Bayle Gate, formerly the gatehouse of the priory, in Bridlington and continued during the period of the Lords Feoffees. Joseph Henry HUDSON, our 2nd Great Grandfather, is the man seated in the back, closest to the...

Wandless Brothers & The Anzacs

On this Anzac Day, we remember our 4th cousins, Thomas Howson Wandless & Robert ‘Bob’ Wandless, brothers who were raised in Western Australia. Thomas was born in England just before the family emigrated, while Robert was the first of the seven siblings to be born down under after the family emigrated in 1881. Generations of the Wandless family came from...

William Thompson & The Mounted Home Guard

Our Great Grandfather, William THOMPSON (1891-1964), led the charge! “England’s only mounted section of the Home Guard, which nightly patrols 100 square miles of the North Riding,” read the caption in the Yorkshire Evening Press. Well, that might have been a slight exaggeration, as there were at least three other mounted units in Devon, Glamorgan, & Warwickshire. It was the...

H Robert Thompson & Vickers Wellington

Sergeant H Robert Thompson, Royal Canadian Air Force, was serving with 14 OTU at RAF Market Harborough, training as a navigator on Vickers Wellington medium bombers, having left his new wife, May, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to enlistment, Robert worked on his father’s farm and completed two years studying medicine at Victoria College. He intended to continue studies after...

Robert Thompson & SS Empire Spring

Leading Signalman Robert Thompson, aged 24, served as one of six Royal Navy staff aboard the CAM Ship, SS Empire Spring. Robert had completed naval training in London, met his wife on weekend leave in Southend on Sea, married in her hometown of Sunderland, and started a family. They were going to settle down in his hometown of York. The...

Thomas Hill & Raindale Mill

In 1966 Raindale Mill was relocated from Raindale, near Pickering, to York and reconstructed stone by stone at the Castle Museum. The mill was gifted to the museum’s founder in 1935 by the last owner of the now derelict building. As a child we visited the museum countless times and I’m sure I walked past the mill, entirely unappreciative of...

Gilbert Hardacre & West African Cocoa Trade

Gilbert Clapham Hardacre (1889-1959), our Great Grand Uncle on the Hudson side of the family, was our first ancestor to reach West Africa in his role a cocoa trader for York-based confectioners firm, Rowntrees. Gilbert’s travels were the inspiration for members of successive generations of our family to reach beyond the north of England and ponder the great yonder. In...

Geoff Bainbridge & The Cuban Missile Crisis

Flight Lieutenant Geoff Bainbridge (1924-2022) served with the RAF from 1942 for the duration of the war. He ultimately pursued a successful career with the RAF and by 1962 Geoff was stationed with the new V-Force. Having completed flights tests beyond the sound barrier on the new Avro Vulcan, he served as a test pilot, flight instructor, and demonstrated the...