We really enjoyed this. How fascinating for Ian and his family to visit all of those places linked to their history. I looks a beautiful part of England, that we need to explore - and eat at that cafe! That looked amazing. 🍻
Wow, this boot bath is fascinating. As it is not entirely open, the water will surely have kept warm for longer. What a genius idea to carry it from door to door so that even the poor could have a minimum of hygiene.
Just love your channel, just like a history channel , so much content, you know more about the UK than I'll ever know and I live here 12 months of the year...you and Ian are really lovely and so rare , such a beautiful couple and so interesting, you both are just something good in the world , love your commentary and great footage, makes me want to get out and explore more 💞💞
Thank you so much, Jamie! That is very kind of you to say. Truth is, I know a lot about a subject when I research it for a video. And then I promptly forget! I would fail a pop quiz someone gave me a month later... LOL Unless it had to do with food. I always remember information about food! 🤣
Ooh, I love family history adventures! This weekend I too visited villages and churches where some of my ancestors once lived. This was in Norfolk. Really fun, and I found some interesting finds👍😊
You have a very fine appreciation, it's infectious! Yes, it's like being there! I'm taking a leaf out of your book and doing my videos in a more spontaneous style. Great to see the family photos, it's amazing to have a connection to ancestors in the distant past.
Awww, you are too kind! I go back and forth on my video styles because I am always trying to improve. Let me know how it goes with you trying new things as well. It's been fun to "walk in the steps of ancestors"... we are doing one more video in this "Ian family history" series. Today's video is from Birmingham! These relatives are in the much more recent past ;-)
@@MagentaOtterTravels no love not that lucky, Bradford Yorkshire a beautiful area but a drug riddled city that would improve significantly with a nuclear explosion lol
@@potdog1000 oh yes! I know that Bradford! Next to Leeds, and known for having lots of great curry places! I worked for many years with a design firm in Bradford. If you had mentioned Bradford to me a couple years ago that's what I would've thought of, but I just visited Bradford on Avon for the first time, so it was on my mind 😉
Great to see you out with the family, Ian and Dara. Interesting about the boot baths. I noticed you said water was let out and new water put in. But you didn't say all the dirty water was let out. I know quite often in the past whole family's bathed in the same water, one after the other. Hot water was a scarce commodity. Beautiful churches and fun to see the baptismal fonts. Lunch looked wonderful. As Ian mentions it a beautiful area. Thanks for bringing us along on your trip to the past.
Aww, you are too kind! I try to make my videos as short as I can, but the content really dictates the length. I'm currently struggling with my video for this Friday. It is a vlog of Birmingham, and I just have way too much content!! 😣🤓🙄 Wish me luck!
Hi Dara & Ian … well what a nice journey you took us on …. It’s quite exciting to see the actual places where your family ancestors lived,walked and worked … in Ian’s case most of the villages haven’t changed much in centuries …. It’s a weird sensation walking in the footsteps of generations past … one of my nieces (Sue) has been researching our family tree and she has managed to get back to the mid 1600’s … from what she has discovered I think our family (on my mother’s side) started out in West Yorkshire (The West Riding) somewhere around Pudsey (near Leeds) but my mum was born in South Wales and was brought up in Ebbw Vale …. I have cousins still living there and also scattered around Gloucestershire and Herefordshire … some of them are just outside of Ledbury … it’s a beautiful part of the country and my wife and I try to visit regularly … especially my cousin Gareth in Ross -on - Wye. Gareth’s dad (my uncle Ken) worked and lived on one of the larger fruit farms just outside of Ross ( quite a few years ago now) and it was magical going to visit them there … acres and acres of apple,pears and plum trees … the apples were for making cider for which the area is famous for (as well as the SAS … but Shush … that’s a secret) … thanks for sharing your journey into the past 👍
Yes, everyone seems to mention the cider and the SAS! It's funny. But living in Cheltenham where the GCHQ is located, I am used to secrecy 😉 How fun that your family tree overlaps the area where Ian is from as well as where we live now! I agree with you, it is a blessing to visit an ancestral village and see so many buildings from 300 and 400 years ago, knowing that those same buildings were there when your ancestors lived! Speaking of Pudsey, have you watched the video of me making Yorkshires with my good friend Rachel in Yorkshire? That was filmed in Pudsey! It was a couple years ago, but I remember it well because it was a fun day 💖 Thanks for your lovely comment! Cheers! Dara
Thank you for such an interesting ancestral tour of Ian's Herefordshire roots. Great to see you, Ian, picking up some of the commentary. Lovely to be able to research your family history in one of the quietest places in England: beautiful scenery, excellent photography, great editing and, as usual, superb narration.
Thank you Richard. Yes, I was saying to Dara when we were there, I could happily live in any of these places where my ancestors lived. It's rather ironic, these ancestors left the bucolic Herefordshire/Worcestershire countryside for industrial Birmingham with the hope that they could improve their lives and then my dad had to leave Birmingham because the pollution caused by that industrialisation was affecting his health .
Thank you so much! It was a really special day for our family and I was glad to be able to document it! Next Friday I'm tackling a family history video of Birmingham. I promise you it was not nearly as quiet and serene in its setting! Lol
Oh, thanks so much! I try to keep things as fast moving as possible and take out the fluff... some videos end up longer than others. I'm currently taking 1 and 1/2 hours of content I filmed in Birmingham and trying to edit it down to two reasonably sized videos 😬. Wish me luck! 🍀
You've got loads of videos covering places I grew up in/lived in/now live in - I think you forget what's on your doorstep sometimes when you're familiar with somewhere. While I've not been to Texas, I've been to other southern states, they were great as were the folks there, but it was so very different from home!
Yes, I hear that from British people a lot... having a tourist visit your hometown allows you to see it from an outsider's perspective and appreciate it more!💖 I love being in Texas because the people there are fantastic, and I have wonderful friends. It's also a very convenient place to live ... with every restaurant or shop you could want within easy reach. But it just doesn't have the natural beauty or the history of Britain . 😉🇺🇸🇬🇧
It is amazing to travel in your ancestor's footsteps. I will do this one day too if I have the opportunity to travel to Italy. For now, I could only go back to the 19th century here in Luxembourg on my mother's side. But for my dad's side, I will have to travel.
Wow! That's amazing you were in Suckley. I grew up in a village just a few miles away, Boadwas on Teme. Our church dates back to the 12th century! We had neighbors with the surname Callow, I think that's how it's spelled? maybe distant relatives? The Teme Valley is one of England's places of true natural beauty. I could see the Malvern Hills from our cottage.
@@MagentaOtterTravels I now live in the Black Country, luckily bordering countryside, but sadly no comparison to Worcestershire's Teme Valley. The black country is stooped in our Industrial Revolution's amazing history though. Looking forward to catching up on your vlogs 🤗
How interesting, some of my own ancestors were from Suckley and the Malvern area including a “Gloveress’ before moving to the expanding Birmingham in the early 1800’s. There they were also involved in the Jewellery trade and we even had a marriage at St. Georges Church Edgbaston. I imagine the world was a smaller place back then. Just to add that on a similar research holiday we visited Suckley church and the nearby garden centre tea-rooms, what a lovely area of England tucked away from the motorway behind the Malvern Hills.
We moved to Devon when the children (now adults) were small but visit Brum often, especially Northfield, Harborne and the older parts of the city centre such as the Victorian tea rooms in the city art gallery. Here In the South West I can recommend some National Trust properties, for example Saltram House near Plymouth and Stourhead (not far from Wells with it’s fabulous Cathedral), also Agatha Christies house near us in Paignton. I totally agree with your husbands views on ice cream by the way, perhaps occasionally adding a Cadburys chocolate flake as a treat :) @@MagentaOtterTravels
@@davecarr6718 i'm starving, so the Victorian tea room sounds lovely about now! We absolutely love Devon, and I appreciate your recommendations. I need to return to Stourhead now that I have a UA-cam channel, because I would love to film there! We did some nice vlogs of Salcombe and Dartmouth... as well as a few in North Devon. But if you are a Wells cathedral fan, in the spirit of shameless self-promotion I need to recommend this video: ua-cam.com/video/_SXB3S1EeVw/v-deo.html
@@MagentaOtterTravels It is a Hawthorn, but of an unusual color - this is the same as a May tree -the white ones that are in flower everywhere in the month of May.
13:19 You know that your favourite stained glass window is the one with my favourite saint: St Francis of Assisi. I try to follow his religious way of living. 🥰
The Republic of Ireland have green post boxes, some are original Royal Mail boxes from a previous era now painted over, i have a photo of a green King George V post box, no doubt originally red.
Hi Dara, what a lovely church, nice to see family members. Loved the stained glass windows beautiful. Loved seeing Ian giving a little sermon. The Glass House Cafe sounds amazing, the church in Hanley Castle was beautiful and also loved the arches inside like you did. The little cottages in Cradley were lovely. Really well narrated x Julie and Tony x
I love Family History, but sadly only got really interested in it when I was in my late 20s. When I was 18 my aunt took me around various family locations and introduced me to assorted distant cousins and I have to admit I wasn't hugely paying attention! I do tell younger family members now don't feel bad if you're not interested now but if you find you become interested as you get older, here's where to find the information I've recorded. A few years back I did take one of the cousins on a Family History tour and I organised to stay in a little boutique hotel in the village our fathers grew up in as I wanted us to experience village life. The constant church bells, the children going to the village school, it was a lovely experience. A year later her husband (who had been with us) took one of their sons there on a break from a business trip to Europe, so it's good to know the information is being passed onto the next generation.
Oh I love hearing those stories!!! Yes same thing here with me... as a teenager I attended large family reunions and really didn't pay much attention. Yesterday my brother, who is an avid genealogist, sent me an email listing our 56 first cousins! Isn't that an astonishing number? I must confess I don't know or remember most of them 😔
@@MagentaOtterTravels 56 FIRST cousins that's amazing! I have 9! The number does get higher once it's second and third cousins but I know very few of them.
Fabulous video again. I feel Blessed to live here. Just a little note though Suckley is actually a civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in Worcestershire. (Although irbid on the border)❤
Once again, I never know what county I am in! Lol Back when it was all one county of Hereford & Worcester then I wouldn't have had to worry about it. I'm still going to be lazy and keep the title and thumbnail saying Herefordshire 😉
@@catherinehaywood7092 honestly, it was even worse when we went on our anniversary trip a couple weeks ago. I never knew if I was in Kent, East Sussex, or West Sussex! I kept saying the wrong thing every time I was vlogging a new place! 🙄
What beautiful churches and lovely villages. Very nice photos of Ian, his father, and his aunt in the various churches. The food looked very nice too - yum!! I loved your gobsmacked photo! 😲😍It's fantastic that Ian can trace his family back so far. As he said in the video, it was good to know that although times back then were hard, it must have been uplifting to live in such a picturesque location. Very enjoyable video - well done ❤
Thanks so much Julie 🥰. Sometimes it's nice to do a video for posterity... no Mayer how many other people want to watch it!😉 I have another one coming up of Birmingham. 💖
What a great idea to do. Ledbury looks really charming. Wow the stained glass windows and fonts are lovely! Nice to see Ians Father and Aunt, very happy reminders of a great day out. The sermon of Ian regarding his ancestors was a nice touch! A magenta tree? Whatever next! Loving the olde world cottages and memorials. Just look at the light shining through the stained glass windows. Remarkable shot. Love the fete hats, very cool. A green post box, never seen that before, will keep an eye out for something other then Liz2PB. Great video ❤
I think the green post box might mean it's decommissioned... waiting for a clever subscriber to confirm ;-) Yes, my magenta radar is VERY strong!! haha Thanks for the compliment... I love that stained glass light shining on Ian in that font photo! Thanks so much for watching, Nick and Jill! X
Do love your videos. Really heart warming. Genuinely appreciate the narrative and time put into each vlog. (Pssst : might want to check the century for King John. He died in the 13th century)
The churches from Ian's family history are quite substantial ones, it's lovely that you can visit and enjoy them. I've attended services in my family's churches, we do have one paternal ancestor who is buried in the church. It's 17th century and the flagstone inscription is in Latin, later burials were in the churchyard behind the church and anything from the 19th century are in the purpose built cemetery which is further away from the church. It seems for practical reasons, more people in the area they needed a larger space to bury them. (Luckily I did pay attention when my aunt showed me the burial stone in the church, I took a photo of it, since then it's been covered with matting to make the church floor more walkable.)
Beautiful villages. I've only ever been to Hereford and that was just travelling to watch my local football team play there. Very tasty cider from there lol. Great video
Pavlova - Australia's gift to the dessert world (shut up NZ). 😂 I love a good pav. Lovely villages and churches. Fantastic to a familial connection to them.
Yes, we are forever indebted to that ballerina from down under for giving us Pavlova! Heavenly stuff! First time I had it was at our British wedding reception in 1992!
@@ShaneNixonFamily wedding in Los Angeles, but three receptions and California, Illinois, England. If you ever want to hear all of our crazy wedding stories, watch our "Ian & Dara love story" sometime when you have 30 minutes to kill... it gives all the backstory on how we met and our courtship and some of the crazy things that happened with our engagement and wedding.
Idyllic scenery again. Any relation to Edward Woodward do you think? I think you may have to explain to your American viewers what a garden centre is. 😁 That yew tree is nearly as old as me. 😂
Near to me is an extremely rare Edward Viii post box, the coronation was abandoned, he abdicated and married twice divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.
Oh yes! I've always wanted to see one of those, since they are the MOST rare! We live in a flat in an Edwardian house... and have an Edward VII post box on our street 😉
@@MagentaOtterTravels I like the cypher for Edward VII, it’s very similar to the new cypher that King Charles III chose, both have the crown and initials in a vertical design.
Hi Dara I always enjoy your vlogs looking at English villages, and this was no exception. However, I do have to correct you on one small detail - you said that King John had Hanley Castle built in the fifteenth century. He actually died in 1216 the year after signing the magna Carta. Also, your always mentioning Ian's ancestry but I haven't heard you say anything about your own. Do you have any information that you wish to share?
I'm very cross about that castle error... someone else pointed that out. I need to check my sources! I think one place said 15th century castle and maybe another mentioned King John and I got my wires crossed? Oh goodness, I hope I"m better at family history than I am British history! haha As for my family tree, the Brits moved to the colonies 300 years ago so I haven't found my British roots yet. But next year I hope to do a family history video with Ian and my sons in GERMANY! In honour of what would have been my father's 100th birthday. Both his parents were from Germany so it is much easier to trace that side of the family tree in Europe ;-) Thanks for watching! And for your support despite my rubbish historical references! Cheers! Dara
@@MagentaOtterTravels Thank you for you reply, Dara. Don't worry about the odd historical inaccuracy the quality of your videos more than makes up for them, and in any case I don't expect you to be as knowledgeable about our history as someone who was born here. I shall look forward to your visit to Germany and hope you manage to visit some of the beautiful fairytale castles. Cheers
@@kennethfishwick4061 i'm just rubbish at history in general, so when I have to write book reports and do voiceover I really need close supervision to make sure I get everything right! Since I've made small errors in the last two videos, Ian knows he's now in charge of quality control! As for fairytale castles, I am looking forward to Germany! But we really enjoyed visiting castles in Kent two weeks ago. A couple of them definitely fell in the "fairytale" category in my opinion. Hopefully I can get those videos edited sometime in the next several months! And I still have a wonderful Vlog I filmed in a super charming fairytale village in Germany last September. I just need to spend 30 hours a day editing so I can catch up! 😆
Tracking down family trees is so much fun , my lot have done loads, apparently we are from the Flemish traders of the 1200 that traded with Berwick on Tweed on my Dads side and cut throat Border Revers on his Mums side Just being nosey , but why choose Cheltenham to live in while your here in the Uk I thought I had seen most of the UK but fair play your going to places I would not thought of , how do you choose where to go and what to see
I didn't know anything about the border revers until we spent time in Northumberland and the Scottish borders. Such an interesting part of British history! And so many fascinating castles and fortified manors in existence because of it! Sometimes we choose to go somewhere because we have friends or family visiting who want to go there. For example, last year my son wanted to go to a jewelry factory museum in Birmingham! And we did this video because Ian's father had not been back to England since we learned about these ancestors from Herefordshire and Worcestershire . And sometimes we just want to explore a new area, like when we went to the Scottish borders a couple years ago, or Kent and Sussex two weeks ago. Basically, we want to explore everywhere, and we have a very long list! But the rest of our time here this year will be spent fixing our rising damp and entertaining a few more rounds of houseguests 😉. I really AM going to do a video one day about why we chose Cheltenham. But the really short answer for now is that it's easy to get to from London and close to family and convenient overall .
Fun fact about the Rievers they did like to travel Nixon , Johnson , Graham , Bell , oh and some bloke called Armstrong , apparently he liked space travel 😎😎😎 Iv often thought if I was moving to the Uk and wanted to be able to see lots of the country the Cotswold area would be a good base Good main line connections for the whole country on your door step , trains , motorway ( west coast 10 to 20mins away east coast M1 1hr away ) Sea is about an hour ish . Wales not far away , Scotland 5 to 6 hrs on a good day , you can be in Brussels in 5hrs if you use the tunnel Birmingham airport is less than an hour , I used to fly to Belfast on a regular basis , so everything is achievable if you can find the time If you haven’t done Belfast yet , please do , it’s a fabulous city and Northern Ireland is just stunning The Titanic Museum the City tours are a real eye opener . The Giants Causeway , the Strand , Strandford Loch the people , just a great place to check out Have you done North Wales yet ? Oh just thought you like a walk don’t you , try the 3 peaks challenge , Ben Nevis (Scotland ) Scarfell ( Lake District ) Snowdon ( Wales ) try and do the 3 in 24hrs round about June 21st ( longest day ) , great fun 🤣🤣🤣
@@davidfuters7152 oh I agree that the Cotswolds is well located to see many wonderful things and be a convenient distance from visiting loads and loads more! I'm ashamed to say that Ian and I have not been to Ireland or northern Ireland yet! We want to go, but... as I say, our list of places we want to go is very long! Remind me where you live now?
@@davidfuters7152 oh! Ha ha, you threw me off when you said "if I were moving to the UK". It was a hypothetical thing! You are just down the road! So you know how great it is to live in this area 😉
The Lychgate you passed under is quite common in many entrances to a Church.......QUOTE...A covered gate, usually at the entrance to a churchyard. The term lych evolved from the Saxon word for corpse, and the lych gate was traditionally a place where corpse bearers caried the body of a deceased person and laid it on a communal bier...UNQUOTE Dave.
Thanks for the quote! It took me25 years of visiting Britain to learn what a lychgate was... but now I think of a coffin every time I pass through one ;-) Cheers! Dara
My only connection to Herefordshire is I worked at a co-op filling station in Hereford a couple of years ago, we're still part of a Google anomaly there
@@MagentaOtterTravels A Google anomaly is when Google maps on street view have stiched together two images from different times to make one image, so that when you move along the street the image jumps between old and new. I believe that your road ( if I have the right one ) has an anomaly just across the road from you. If you were to look where I was you'd see our company van in one image and the other one the filling station open 🔎
@@wencireone that's funny! You've obviously spent a lot of time looking at Google Street view! You didn't answer my post box question. Certainly you have some older post boxes around you?
@@MagentaOtterTravels there is a Queen Victoria box in Southampton but it's not near me as such, only one of interest is golden, but is Queen Elizabeth ll
Love these church tours and heritage. Interesting details.
Thanks so much for watching, Sharisa! It's always special to walk in our ancestors footsteps 💖
Herefordshire is one of my favourite counties. Great cider too!
It is such a gorgeous place! Similar to Somerset. Both counties have great cider, but of course that's lost on me 🤣
We really enjoyed this. How fascinating for Ian and his family to visit all of those places linked to their history. I looks a beautiful part of England, that we need to explore - and eat at that cafe! That looked amazing. 🍻
Herefordshire is right there next to Wales, just the south part 😉!
Wow, this boot bath is fascinating. As it is not entirely open, the water will surely have kept warm for longer. What a genius idea to carry it from door to door so that even the poor could have a minimum of hygiene.
Yes, the design helps with keeping the water warm and also providing a bit of modesty?
Just love your channel, just like a history channel , so much content, you know more about the UK than I'll ever know and I live here 12 months of the year...you and Ian are really lovely and so rare , such a beautiful couple and so interesting, you both are just something good in the world , love your commentary and great footage, makes me want to get out and explore more 💞💞
Thank you so much, Jamie! That is very kind of you to say. Truth is, I know a lot about a subject when I research it for a video. And then I promptly forget! I would fail a pop quiz someone gave me a month later... LOL
Unless it had to do with food. I always remember information about food! 🤣
Yew have every right to take pride in this video and in Ian's family.
Thanks, Gerry! My 2nd and final video in this family history series for the grandbairns will be this Friday... of Birmingham!
@MagentaOtterTravels I will be sure to check it out but will be àway for a couple of weeks from Thursday.
Ooh, I love family history adventures! This weekend I too visited villages and churches where some of my ancestors once lived. This was in Norfolk. Really fun, and I found some interesting finds👍😊
Oooh wonderful! Did you video the visits?
That is so cool to see. That show looking tub is wonky but fun. HAHAHA. Very cool video guys. LIKE 142. 👍👍👍
Thanks 😊
Always great with so much info! The stained glass is so gorgeous!
Thanks Sueanne! It was fun to trace Ian's family tree to these beautiful places! 💖
You have a very fine appreciation, it's infectious! Yes, it's like being there! I'm taking a leaf out of your book and doing my videos in a more spontaneous style. Great to see the family photos, it's amazing to have a connection to ancestors in the distant past.
Awww, you are too kind! I go back and forth on my video styles because I am always trying to improve. Let me know how it goes with you trying new things as well. It's been fun to "walk in the steps of ancestors"... we are doing one more video in this "Ian family history" series. Today's video is from Birmingham! These relatives are in the much more recent past ;-)
i was stationed in Hereford in 71 & was blown away by it's beauty, especially coming from Bradford lol
Bradford on Avon or another place? I recently discovered BOA and think it's a lovely place as well! But yes, Hereford is a gem!!!
@@MagentaOtterTravels no love not that lucky, Bradford Yorkshire a beautiful area but a drug riddled city that would improve significantly with a nuclear explosion lol
@@potdog1000 oh yes! I know that Bradford! Next to Leeds, and known for having lots of great curry places! I worked for many years with a design firm in Bradford. If you had mentioned Bradford to me a couple years ago that's what I would've thought of, but I just visited Bradford on Avon for the first time, so it was on my mind 😉
Great to see you out with the family, Ian and Dara. Interesting about the boot baths. I noticed you said water was let out and new water put in. But you didn't say all the dirty water was let out. I know quite often in the past whole family's bathed in the same water, one after the other. Hot water was a scarce commodity. Beautiful churches and fun to see the baptismal fonts. Lunch looked wonderful. As Ian mentions it a beautiful area. Thanks for bringing us along on your trip to the past.
Thanks so much for watching and commenting. I'm afraid there was some shared dirty water... as you stated, baths were pretty much a community event! 🦦
Ian your ancestors had such nice digs!
Wait till you see what happens in this Friday's video... ;-)
@@MagentaOtterTravels 😲
Wow looks a beautiful place thank you dara and ian. For sharing your trip with us ,
Great video stay safe 👍
Thank you!!
Lovely tour of Ledbury the church was very nice. Very cool place to get some food, greenhouse style was very pretty. Those deserts looks delicious 😊
Yes, that meal was so good! We went back AGAIN last week... more pavlova for dessert and another cream tea for me! haha
A beautiful video, I didn't want it to end.
Aww, you are too kind! I try to make my videos as short as I can, but the content really dictates the length. I'm currently struggling with my video for this Friday. It is a vlog of Birmingham, and I just have way too much content!! 😣🤓🙄 Wish me luck!
Hi Dara & Ian … well what a nice journey you took us on …. It’s quite exciting to see the actual places where your family ancestors lived,walked and worked … in Ian’s case most of the villages haven’t changed much in centuries …. It’s a weird sensation walking in the footsteps of generations past … one of my nieces (Sue) has been researching our family tree and she has managed to get back to the mid 1600’s … from what she has discovered I think our family (on my mother’s side) started out in West Yorkshire (The West Riding) somewhere around Pudsey (near Leeds) but my mum was born in South Wales and was brought up in Ebbw Vale …. I have cousins still living there and also scattered around Gloucestershire and Herefordshire … some of them are just outside of Ledbury … it’s a beautiful part of the country and my wife and I try to visit regularly … especially my cousin Gareth in Ross -on - Wye.
Gareth’s dad (my uncle Ken) worked and lived on one of the larger fruit farms just outside of Ross ( quite a few years ago now) and it was magical going to visit them there … acres and acres of apple,pears and plum trees … the apples were for making cider for which the area is famous for (as well as the SAS … but Shush … that’s a secret) … thanks for sharing your journey into the past 👍
Yes, everyone seems to mention the cider and the SAS! It's funny. But living in Cheltenham where the GCHQ is located, I am used to secrecy 😉
How fun that your family tree overlaps the area where Ian is from as well as where we live now!
I agree with you, it is a blessing to visit an ancestral village and see so many buildings from 300 and 400 years ago, knowing that those same buildings were there when your ancestors lived!
Speaking of Pudsey, have you watched the video of me making Yorkshires with my good friend Rachel in Yorkshire? That was filmed in Pudsey! It was a couple years ago, but I remember it well because it was a fun day 💖
Thanks for your lovely comment! Cheers! Dara
Hi Dara thanks for showing us some lovely Herefordshire Churches.That boot boot bath looks a little small for folks today.
Definitely for Americans 🤣
Thank you for such an interesting ancestral tour of Ian's Herefordshire roots. Great to see you, Ian, picking up some of the commentary. Lovely to be able to research your family history in one of the quietest places in England: beautiful scenery, excellent photography, great editing and, as usual, superb narration.
Thank you Richard. Yes, I was saying to Dara when we were there, I could happily live in any of these places where my ancestors lived. It's rather ironic, these ancestors left the bucolic Herefordshire/Worcestershire countryside for industrial Birmingham with the hope that they could improve their lives and then my dad had to leave Birmingham because the pollution caused by that industrialisation was affecting his health .
Thank you so much! It was a really special day for our family and I was glad to be able to document it! Next Friday I'm tackling a family history video of Birmingham. I promise you it was not nearly as quiet and serene in its setting! Lol
Another great video , just the right length and content, good camera work too
Oh, thanks so much! I try to keep things as fast moving as possible and take out the fluff... some videos end up longer than others. I'm currently taking 1 and 1/2 hours of content I filmed in Birmingham and trying to edit it down to two reasonably sized videos 😬. Wish me luck! 🍀
You've got loads of videos covering places I grew up in/lived in/now live in - I think you forget what's on your doorstep sometimes when you're familiar with somewhere. While I've not been to Texas, I've been to other southern states, they were great as were the folks there, but it was so very different from home!
Yes, I hear that from British people a lot... having a tourist visit your hometown allows you to see it from an outsider's perspective and appreciate it more!💖
I love being in Texas because the people there are fantastic, and I have wonderful friends. It's also a very convenient place to live ... with every restaurant or shop you could want within easy reach. But it just doesn't have the natural beauty or the history of Britain . 😉🇺🇸🇬🇧
It is amazing to travel in your ancestor's footsteps. I will do this one day too if I have the opportunity to travel to Italy. For now, I could only go back to the 19th century here in Luxembourg on my mother's side. But for my dad's side, I will have to travel.
That would be so fun to do a family history trip to Italy! And delicious!
Woooo😍❤️ How Interesting is this💗✨ Thank youuuu sooo much for the Information and for the Amaaaazing Tour💛✨ I absolutely Love This Vid🙌
Thanks!
Wow! That's amazing you were in Suckley. I grew up in a village just a few miles away, Boadwas on Teme. Our church dates back to the 12th century! We had neighbors with the surname Callow, I think that's how it's spelled? maybe distant relatives? The Teme Valley is one of England's places of true natural beauty. I could see the Malvern Hills from our cottage.
How fun to meet someone from this area! Yes Callow was a popular name in Suckley. We love the Malverns.🩷 What area do you live in now?
@@MagentaOtterTravels I now live in the Black Country, luckily bordering countryside, but sadly no comparison to Worcestershire's Teme Valley. The black country is stooped in our Industrial Revolution's amazing history though. Looking forward to catching up on your vlogs 🤗
How interesting, some of my own ancestors were from Suckley and the Malvern area including a “Gloveress’ before moving to the expanding Birmingham in the early 1800’s. There they were also involved in the Jewellery trade and we even had a marriage at St. Georges Church Edgbaston. I imagine the world was a smaller place back then.
Just to add that on a similar research holiday we visited Suckley church and the nearby garden centre tea-rooms, what a lovely area of England tucked away from the motorway behind the Malvern Hills.
That is fantastic! I have already gone back to that garden centre again because I loved the food so much! What part of the world do you live in?
We moved to Devon when the children (now adults) were small but visit Brum often, especially Northfield, Harborne and the older parts of the city centre such as the Victorian tea rooms in the city art gallery.
Here In the South West I can recommend some National Trust properties, for example Saltram House near Plymouth and Stourhead (not far from Wells with it’s fabulous Cathedral), also Agatha Christies house near us in Paignton.
I totally agree with your husbands views on ice cream by the way, perhaps occasionally adding a Cadburys chocolate flake as a treat :) @@MagentaOtterTravels
@@davecarr6718 i'm starving, so the Victorian tea room sounds lovely about now! We absolutely love Devon, and I appreciate your recommendations. I need to return to Stourhead now that I have a UA-cam channel, because I would love to film there! We did some nice vlogs of Salcombe and Dartmouth... as well as a few in North Devon. But if you are a Wells cathedral fan, in the spirit of shameless self-promotion I need to recommend this video:
ua-cam.com/video/_SXB3S1EeVw/v-deo.html
The magenta tree at Suckley looked like a Hawthorn.
Oh, thanks for that! That's not a tree I'm very familiar with. But I like it!
@@MagentaOtterTravels It is a Hawthorn, but of an unusual color - this is the same as a May tree -the white ones that are in flower everywhere in the month of May.
@@johnadey3696 well, I'm glad we got a special Magenta tree in the churchyard of a church that is special to our family! 💖
13:19 You know that your favourite stained glass window is the one with my favourite saint: St Francis of Assisi. I try to follow his religious way of living. 🥰
Yes, I always know it's him because of holding the bird! I liked that image, and I also liked the magenta flowers 💖
Love how very ‘English’ you are getting. “This font is not very old. From the late 1700s.” 😊
EXACTLY! Especially compared to the 12th century font we saw that day 😆
The Republic of Ireland have green post boxes, some are original Royal Mail boxes from a previous era now painted over, i have a photo of a green King George V post box, no doubt originally red.
Yes, I figured that it is now decommissioned and so they painted green so people know you can't post letters there!
Hi Dara, what a lovely church, nice to see family members. Loved the stained glass windows beautiful. Loved seeing Ian giving a little sermon. The Glass House Cafe sounds amazing, the church in Hanley Castle was beautiful and also loved the arches inside like you did. The little cottages in Cradley were lovely. Really well narrated x Julie and Tony x
Thanks so much 🤗
There is a GR post box a 100 yds from where i live in Ramsgate, which is also built into a wall
That sounds lovely! I love old postboxes, especially when they are built into walls. You live in Kent? Have you seen my recently published Kent Vlogs?
At least the tree in the churchyard was not broken, so you could get your mandatory magenta flower video clip 😉
I do try to fit that in 😉
I love Family History, but sadly only got really interested in it when I was in my late 20s. When I was 18 my aunt took me around various family locations and introduced me to assorted distant cousins and I have to admit I wasn't hugely paying attention! I do tell younger family members now don't feel bad if you're not interested now but if you find you become interested as you get older, here's where to find the information I've recorded. A few years back I did take one of the cousins on a Family History tour and I organised to stay in a little boutique hotel in the village our fathers grew up in as I wanted us to experience village life. The constant church bells, the children going to the village school, it was a lovely experience. A year later her husband (who had been with us) took one of their sons there on a break from a business trip to Europe, so it's good to know the information is being passed onto the next generation.
Oh I love hearing those stories!!! Yes same thing here with me... as a teenager I attended large family reunions and really didn't pay much attention. Yesterday my brother, who is an avid genealogist, sent me an email listing our 56 first cousins! Isn't that an astonishing number?
I must confess I don't know or remember most of them 😔
@@MagentaOtterTravels 56 FIRST cousins that's amazing! I have 9! The number does get higher once it's second and third cousins but I know very few of them.
@@theresabigwideworld2632 yes, both my mother and father were part of huge families!
Fabulous video again. I feel
Blessed to live here. Just a little note though Suckley is actually a civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in Worcestershire. (Although irbid on the border)❤
Once again, I never know what county I am in! Lol
Back when it was all one county of Hereford & Worcester then I wouldn't have had to worry about it. I'm still going to be lazy and keep the title and thumbnail saying Herefordshire 😉
@@MagentaOtterTravels it’s like if you go to the Hereford border with Wales a lot of the people there have Welsh accents 🤣
@@catherinehaywood7092 honestly, it was even worse when we went on our anniversary trip a couple weeks ago. I never knew if I was in Kent, East Sussex, or West Sussex! I kept saying the wrong thing every time I was vlogging a new place! 🙄
Great vid guys
Thanks so much for your support! We have another family history vlog this Friday... from Birmingham!
What beautiful churches and lovely villages. Very nice photos of Ian, his father, and his aunt in the various churches. The food looked very nice too - yum!! I loved your gobsmacked photo! 😲😍It's fantastic that Ian can trace his family back so far. As he said in the video, it was good to know that although times back then were hard, it must have been uplifting to live in such a picturesque location. Very enjoyable video - well done ❤
Thanks so much Julie 🥰. Sometimes it's nice to do a video for posterity... no Mayer how many other people want to watch it!😉 I have another one coming up of Birmingham. 💖
What a great idea to do. Ledbury looks really charming. Wow the stained glass windows and fonts are lovely! Nice to see Ians Father and Aunt, very happy reminders of a great day out. The sermon of Ian regarding his ancestors was a nice touch! A magenta tree? Whatever next! Loving the olde world cottages and memorials. Just look at the light shining through the stained glass windows. Remarkable shot. Love the fete hats, very cool. A green post box, never seen that before, will keep an eye out for something other then Liz2PB. Great video ❤
I think the green post box might mean it's decommissioned... waiting for a clever subscriber to confirm ;-)
Yes, my magenta radar is VERY strong!! haha
Thanks for the compliment... I love that stained glass light shining on Ian in that font photo!
Thanks so much for watching, Nick and Jill! X
This is wonderful tour. The church looks fabulous both outside and inside. Very enjoyed this beautiful and informative sharing ❤️👍👍
Thanks!
Do love your videos. Really heart warming. Genuinely appreciate the narrative and time put into each vlog.
(Pssst : might want to check the century for King John. He died in the 13th century)
Honestly, I just say things I read on pamphlets and websites. I always seem to be led astray! Lol 😂... I'm gullible and very easily misled!
I always enjoy your videos and this was up to your usual high standard.
Aw, thank you kindly 🙏
I made this video for the grandbairns... hoping to have some one day. And hoping that UA-cam is still around by then! 😉
The churches from Ian's family history are quite substantial ones, it's lovely that you can visit and enjoy them. I've attended services in my family's churches, we do have one paternal ancestor who is buried in the church. It's 17th century and the flagstone inscription is in Latin, later burials were in the churchyard behind the church and anything from the 19th century are in the purpose built cemetery which is further away from the church. It seems for practical reasons, more people in the area they needed a larger space to bury them. (Luckily I did pay attention when my aunt showed me the burial stone in the church, I took a photo of it, since then it's been covered with matting to make the church floor more walkable.)
Wow, that was good thinking on your part!👍
Beautiful villages. I've only ever been to Hereford and that was just travelling to watch my local football team play there. Very tasty cider from there lol. Great video
Oh yes, that area is well known for cider! The countryside in Herefordshire is just gorgeous.
I think, after a quick research, that the tree is a "Double Pink Hawthorn".
Very nice! 🤗
Pavlova - Australia's gift to the dessert world (shut up NZ). 😂 I love a good pav. Lovely villages and churches. Fantastic to a familial connection to them.
Yes, we are forever indebted to that ballerina from down under for giving us Pavlova! Heavenly stuff! First time I had it was at our British wedding reception in 1992!
@@MagentaOtterTravels sounds like you did what my brother did. Weddings in 2 countries?
@@ShaneNixonFamily wedding in Los Angeles, but three receptions and California, Illinois, England. If you ever want to hear all of our crazy wedding stories, watch our "Ian & Dara love story" sometime when you have 30 minutes to kill... it gives all the backstory on how we met and our courtship and some of the crazy things that happened with our engagement and wedding.
Idyllic scenery again. Any relation to Edward Woodward do you think?
I think you may have to explain to your American viewers what a garden centre is. 😁
That yew tree is nearly as old as me. 😂
Probably not any relation to Edward Woodward. I think there are a lot of Woodwards... definitely more than Sandlands!
I barely have any American viewers 🤣
well as I have mentioned before ... Jersey has the first ever postbox, but it is no longer used and is in the museum.
I forgot that fun fact!
Near to me is an extremely rare Edward Viii post box, the coronation was abandoned, he abdicated and married twice divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.
Oh yes! I've always wanted to see one of those, since they are the MOST rare!
We live in a flat in an Edwardian house... and have an Edward VII post box on our street 😉
@@MagentaOtterTravels I like the cypher for Edward VII, it’s very similar to the new cypher that King Charles III chose, both have the crown and initials in a vertical design.
@@john_smith1471 yes, I agree! A beautiful insignia
Hi Dara
I always enjoy your vlogs looking at English villages, and this was no exception. However, I do have to correct you on one small detail - you said that King John had Hanley Castle built in the fifteenth century. He actually died in 1216 the year after signing the magna Carta.
Also, your always mentioning Ian's ancestry but I haven't heard you say anything about your own. Do you have any information that you wish to share?
I'm very cross about that castle error... someone else pointed that out. I need to check my sources! I think one place said 15th century castle and maybe another mentioned King John and I got my wires crossed? Oh goodness, I hope I"m better at family history than I am British history! haha
As for my family tree, the Brits moved to the colonies 300 years ago so I haven't found my British roots yet. But next year I hope to do a family history video with Ian and my sons in GERMANY! In honour of what would have been my father's 100th birthday. Both his parents were from Germany so it is much easier to trace that side of the family tree in Europe ;-)
Thanks for watching! And for your support despite my rubbish historical references! Cheers! Dara
@@MagentaOtterTravels Thank you for you reply, Dara. Don't worry about the odd historical inaccuracy the quality of your videos more than makes up for them, and in any case I don't expect you to be as knowledgeable about our history as someone who was born here.
I shall look forward to your visit to Germany and hope you manage to visit some of the beautiful fairytale castles. Cheers
@@kennethfishwick4061 i'm just rubbish at history in general, so when I have to write book reports and do voiceover I really need close supervision to make sure I get everything right! Since I've made small errors in the last two videos, Ian knows he's now in charge of quality control!
As for fairytale castles, I am looking forward to Germany! But we really enjoyed visiting castles in Kent two weeks ago. A couple of them definitely fell in the "fairytale" category in my opinion.
Hopefully I can get those videos edited sometime in the next several months! And I still have a wonderful Vlog I filmed in a super charming fairytale village in Germany last September. I just need to spend 30 hours a day editing so I can catch up! 😆
Tracking down family trees is so much fun , my lot have done loads, apparently we are from the Flemish traders of the 1200 that traded with Berwick on Tweed on my Dads side and cut throat Border Revers on his Mums side
Just being nosey , but why choose Cheltenham to live in while your here in the Uk
I thought I had seen most of the UK but fair play your going to places I would not thought of , how do you choose where to go and what to see
I didn't know anything about the border revers until we spent time in Northumberland and the Scottish borders. Such an interesting part of British history! And so many fascinating castles and fortified manors in existence because of it!
Sometimes we choose to go somewhere because we have friends or family visiting who want to go there. For example, last year my son wanted to go to a jewelry factory museum in Birmingham!
And we did this video because Ian's father had not been back to England since we learned about these ancestors from Herefordshire and Worcestershire .
And sometimes we just want to explore a new area, like when we went to the Scottish borders a couple years ago, or Kent and Sussex two weeks ago. Basically, we want to explore everywhere, and we have a very long list! But the rest of our time here this year will be spent fixing our rising damp and entertaining a few more rounds of houseguests 😉.
I really AM going to do a video one day about why we chose Cheltenham. But the really short answer for now is that it's easy to get to from London and close to family and convenient overall .
Fun fact about the Rievers they did like to travel
Nixon , Johnson , Graham , Bell , oh and some bloke called Armstrong , apparently he liked space travel 😎😎😎
Iv often thought if I was moving to the Uk and wanted to be able to see lots of the country the Cotswold area would be a good base
Good main line connections for the whole country on your door step , trains , motorway ( west coast 10 to 20mins away east coast M1 1hr away )
Sea is about an hour ish . Wales not far away , Scotland 5 to 6 hrs on a good day , you can be in Brussels in 5hrs if you use the tunnel
Birmingham airport is less than an hour , I used to fly to Belfast on a regular basis , so everything is achievable if you can find the time
If you haven’t done Belfast yet , please do , it’s a fabulous city and Northern Ireland is just stunning
The Titanic Museum the City tours are a real eye opener . The Giants Causeway , the Strand , Strandford Loch the people , just a great place to check out
Have you done North Wales yet ? Oh just thought you like a walk don’t you , try the 3 peaks challenge , Ben Nevis (Scotland ) Scarfell ( Lake District )
Snowdon ( Wales ) try and do the 3 in 24hrs round about June 21st ( longest day ) , great fun 🤣🤣🤣
@@davidfuters7152 oh I agree that the Cotswolds is well located to see many wonderful things and be a convenient distance from visiting loads and loads more! I'm ashamed to say that Ian and I have not been to Ireland or northern Ireland yet! We want to go, but... as I say, our list of places we want to go is very long!
Remind me where you live now?
Evesham
@@davidfuters7152 oh! Ha ha, you threw me off when you said "if I were moving to the UK". It was a hypothetical thing! You are just down the road! So you know how great it is to live in this area 😉
The Lychgate you passed under is quite common in many entrances to a Church.......QUOTE...A covered gate, usually at the entrance to a churchyard. The term lych evolved from the Saxon word for corpse, and the lych gate was traditionally a place where corpse bearers caried the body of a deceased person and laid it on a communal bier...UNQUOTE
Dave.
Thanks for the quote! It took me25 years of visiting Britain to learn what a lychgate was... but now I think of a coffin every time I pass through one ;-) Cheers! Dara
The tree is a hawthorn.
Thanks Helen! 🌸
My only connection to Herefordshire is I worked at a co-op filling station in Hereford a couple of years ago, we're still part of a Google anomaly there
Explain the Google anomaly?
@@MagentaOtterTravels A Google anomaly is when Google maps on street view have stiched together two images from different times to make one image, so that when you move along the street the image jumps between old and new. I believe that your road ( if I have the right one ) has an anomaly just across the road from you. If you were to look where I was you'd see our company van in one image and the other one the filling station open 🔎
@@wencireone that's funny! You've obviously spent a lot of time looking at Google Street view!
You didn't answer my post box question. Certainly you have some older post boxes around you?
@@MagentaOtterTravels haha, I don't waste my time, much. I'll just check on maps as I don't us the post that often
@@MagentaOtterTravels there is a Queen Victoria box in Southampton but it's not near me as such, only one of interest is golden, but is Queen Elizabeth ll
postbox is green because it's not in use
Oh, thanks for letting me know! That makes sense
The tree is a Hawthorn( Crataegus) they aren't all white.
Cheers! Every day is a school
day 😉
Hereford home of the SAS...so behave yourselves!! 😉😉😎😅 x
And Cheltenham is home to GCHQ! I always have to be watching myself! Lol
@MagentaOtterTravels ... you're surrounded 🙈💂♂️💂♂️😂
@@glastonbury4304 yes! And everyone is listening...
@MagentaOtterTravels ... then you'll be snapped up to be the US Ambassador to the UK 🇬🇧 🇺🇲🎉🍻💞
@@glastonbury4304 haha hardly! I definitely do not have a future in diplomacy! 😬
Does one really need an excuse for having good food??? 😂😂😂
Not me!
I don't think a "wee tour" would be appropriate for UA-cam!!!
Wee in the Scottish meaning... not the toilet 🚽 meaning 🤣
@@MagentaOtterTravels 🚽😆