General Chat

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Ah Sylvia, thanks for the Ancestry explanation :-D

It's nice to know Ancesty isn't be-all and end all, and can't buy everything up.
You can search the slavery records online, for free, thanks to those who did the work - the UCL!

The 5-legged stag is quite impressive.

Years before I started family history, I drove past the Drax estate (Charborough) whose walls seem to go on for miles. I felt drawn to it, somehow, and wanted to find out more but, as it's usually not open to the public, information then (pre-www) was hard to come by.

When I started my research, there were generations of my Dorset ancestors living in 2 villages nearby and working on Drax land.

It's still not open to the public.
They once held a Summer fete there. Even from the grounds, you couldn't see the house - and if you wandered off for a quick 'nosey' there were security guards!

I started learning about it when I got divorced.
I lived in the New Forest, my ex lived in Stinsford (Dorset), so the children went past Charborough and back, every other weekend!

Drax certainly had a lot of land!

I realised last night that I probably drove past the stag a couple of years ago. I didn’t count it’s legs but did wonder why it appeared to be above the back gate :-S

That's the 'old' gate, nameslessone.
A bit too dangerous to use now.

I have always noticed the stag and the lion but never thought to find out who lived there. Just thought it was the Blandford estate