23 October 2008

Ely on an autumn day

Thought I'd go to Ely today and take some photos of the trees in the park. As the weather so far this week has been stunning, I thought I'd get some really good shots of the red & orange leaves against an azure sky.

It was breezy and grey.

Still, I wandered round the city, noted that my favourite cafe (Steeple Gate) has now closed, and paid my respects, as usual, at the War Memorial.

No Culpins on there, but there were Culpins in Ely; Henry Culpin, my great-grandmother Blanche's brother, moved there from St Ives with his wife Grace (nee Whittaker) and set up as a jeweller in the city. Henry, also known as Bob, and Grace are buried together in the City cemetery and I've just put on a photo of their memorial stone.

In Cambridge, the Gasworks Memorial on Newmarket Road has the name of Henry Richard Culpin on it. He was the son of James Culpin & Alice May Etheridge, born in Cambridge in 1913, and died 8 March 1940. His grave, duly marked with the Commonwealth War Graves headstone, is in the City Cemetery in Newmarket Road, Cambridge. If memory serves, he is also commemorated on a plaque on St Paul's Church, Hills Road, Cambridge.

As for Samuel, he and Ann (nee Dickinson, married in 1858) were still at the "Punch Bowl" in Spalding in 1881, with the younger two of their children - Richard, a stonemason's apprentice, and Frederick, a pig jobber.

Pig jobber? What on earth did was that? Not sure I'd really like his job description, but I'll put it on the To Do list.

More soon . . . .

No comments: