a new challenge for our expert decipherers

Sandra Parker

Sandra Parker

Well-Known Member
Taken from a page of the Dickleburgh records, on a separate page with later baptisms.
I'm sure one of you will read it - I can read a few words, like burning....
SandraDickleburgh Burning 1658 detail.jpg
 
"Collected in the parish of Dickleburgh in Norfolk according to the order of a Brief concerning the inhabitants of Defford in the County of Leicester for a burning by fire the sum of ten shillings and one pence June 20th 1658" - I think!!

Janet
 
Well done Janet.
Ten shillings would have been a lot of money in 1658. Now what on earth was to be burnt in Deptford that needed money from the village of Dickleburgh?
Sandra
 
janetbooth said:
"Collected in the parish of Dickleburgh in Norfolk according to the order of a Brief concerning the inhabitants of Defford in the County of Leicester for a burning by fire the sum of ten shillings and one pence June 20th 1658" - I think!!

Janet
Click to expand...
Well done Janet, all I could read was the date
 
janetbooth said:
"Collected in the parish of Dickleburgh in Norfolk according to the order of a Brief concerning the inhabitants of Defford in the County of Leicester for a burning by fire the sum of ten shillings and one pence June 20th 1658" - I think!!

Janet
Click to expand...

Excellent, Janet :)
 
Thanks for the Desford translation, Last Resort - I should have looked up Leicestershire parishes on Genuki!

I don't think it was uncommon for parishes to collect or donate money for other parishes in dire need, because of some sort of tragedy, as Steve has explained in post 5. I have some Churchwarden's Accounts for Ashwell in Hertfordshire and there are quite a few instances of charitable collections/donations for inhabitants of other parishes who have suffered in some way or another.

Janet
 
I thought I'd find out about this fire from the Desford angle and so Googled various hopeful search strings in order to find out. Not a thing! Unless you count a reference to this thread, of course!

Sandra or Janet might like to contact the local history society in Desford (there is one) to see whether they know anything about this fire. I don't know how widely a brief would cast its net to gather collections for unfortunate towns, but this one covered the east of England, at the least. If they don't know now, they should be grateful for some new info.
 
Oh dear. I get off track easily enough all by myself without anyone suggesting I should head off to places where my ancestors weren't. I'd need so much more housework time if I took up your suggestion.
On the other hand, Last Resort, that's a very interesting thought, so maybe .....
Sandra
 
Me too, Sandra. I find it extremely easy to go off on a tangent, especially when poring through the parish register images that are now online, look up and then find a couple of hours, or frequently more, have flown by!! I don't think I dare go off on tangents that are not remotely connected to my line, although having said that, it has been known to happen to me before ......

Janet
 
I've seen quite a number of Essex parish registers with briefs collecting money for various things/catastrophes.
 
I used to travel the 12 miles by bus to a grammar school through Desford for around 5 years but I have never heard of a major historic fire there. Mind you between the ages of 11 and 16 I was studiously avoiding gathering information, particularly of a historical variety!

I Googled Dickleburgh which I'd never heard of and it is about as far to east of Desford as you can go without falling into the North Sea. It is probably 80 - 100 miles away which makes the idea of a collection there for the people of Desford intriguing. It suggests that the fire must have been fairly severe and probably involved a lot of properties, because surely a solitary timber and thatch cottage burning down would have been commonplace and would not have attracted much interest.

In the 19th and 20th centuries Desford had a colliery and for a while our next door neighbour worked there and came home each day with a pretty dirty face even though the colliery had showers.

Desford also had a famous (at least in the world of brass bands) and very good colliery brass band in the same tradition and quality as more well-known bands like Grimethorpe and Black Dyke Mills. People often tend to associate coal mining and brass bands with the North of England, Scotland and South Wales but the East Midlands coalfields of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were also very substantial. There is even a village not far from Desford called Coalville!

Properties in Desford and other nearby villages that sit on top of the old pits often show the signs of subsidence caused by the overlying land slumping into the expired coal seams below.

Nothing at all to do with the original enquiry but I thought that you might like to know some of the above :)

Tony
 
Thanks Tony. It's always interesting to find out those extra bits of information about people and places. Just adds a bit more to giving our research a 'bit of soul'. And often throws up information that we'd never have known.
Sandra.
 
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