an adjunct to brother Guy’s blog available here: https://guyhanchet.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/hanchet-brothers-roots-tour/

I’ve been curious about my British roots since forever, but after joining Ancestry.ca and a previous trip to the UK where I mysteriously felt like I was at home on a molecular level I felt an urge to delve farther into our roots. As I was looking up stuff I encountered a facebook group called “World of Hanchett’s” which, despite the misuse of an apostrophe, opened my knowledge up exponentially. I met several Hanchetts and other variants (Hanchant) online who are much more passionate and skilled at this genealogy tracing than I am. Their interest and e-mails helped me immeasurably in planning and understanding. In particular, Leland Hanchett has written many historical books on this very subject.

It all started with this picture that was in my filing cabinet in a manila folder called “Dad”. I knew this was a photo of my great grandfather’s monumental mason business. I scanned the picture and started googling using clues like: Hanchet;stone mason; Finchley; East Finchley etc.

I found this next photo in Pinterest and bought it.

This photo had more clues. I got satellite views of High street and scanned up and down to no end. On a hunch I looked up East Finchley Historical societies or something like that and sent the picture asking if they knew the actual address on High Street. Within the hour I received a response… 79 High Road.

“Hello there.

My name is Ian Hanchet and I am writing from Montreal, Canada in search of my roots. My great grandfather was Walter Alfred Hanchet whose stone carving business was on High Road in East Finchley. Seeing as many of my ancestors apparently came from the area around Oxford, I am writing on the off chance that there might be a connection here. Thank you for your time.”

Within the hour I received a response… “79 High Road. Now a Lebanese restaurant.” I thought “how cool to go to England and have a meal there. Maybe they’d let us into the basement and see stuff that was too cumbersome to move out”… First I got brother Mark interested in this idea, then we invited brother Guy along.

The best laid plans of mice and men…. The pandemic bankrupted the restaurant and it was closed. Apparently squatters moved in and it is now boarded up and secured. It is “To Let”. Disappointing, but affirming as well. Everything changes.

The neighbourhood of East Finchley is a colourful, bustling place with visible minorities seemingly in the majority. Many foods from the middle east.

The Diary

Sunday May 14th -Monday May 15th I squeezed into a “red eye” sardine can with wings and promptly dropped a noise cancelling ear bud which rolled backward as the plane was ascending. I had to use my ipod earbuds, but music was impossible with the noise floor so high from the airplane.

I was able to watch 2 films: “The Banshees of Inisherin” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11813216/ and “Dunkirk” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5013056/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_dunkirk.

They were set in Ireland and in England (I know Dunkirk’s in France)respectively. I used English subtitles to increase my understanding as the earbuds suck. It was a happy coincidence that as the soldiers and sailors evacuated from Dunkirk were arriving safely in England our plane was approaching the white cliffs on the English side of the channel. too far southwest to be Dover, but so what!

Monday May 15th I had a few hours to kill before Guy’s plane landed. Struck up a conversation with some Scottish travellers…oy vey.. Anti Maskers etc. Fortunately I found an escape before I had to go all Rob Roy on them… The train system is connected to the airport which is totally awesome. Direct train to Cambridge.

Didn’t need “Findmybrother” Mark was where he said he’d be in Cambridge.

Mark was the only one insured to drive the rental, so he got to white knuckle it on the “wrong” side of the road. Guy and I got to practice our roller coaster yells as designated back seat drivers.

Uh yeah!

We checked into our rental in Steeple Bumpstead which brother Mark found for us. It was an excellent choice! We were hungry and thirsty so we hiked the hundred yards to the Fox and Hounds

Lovely reception from the locals, but sadly their kitchen was not open on Mondays. A customer called The Red Lion for us and ascertained that their kitchen was open. A kind gesture. We went over to what was to be the first of many Red Lions we encountered on our travels. The beer was better than the “Bangers and Mash” which we had nostalgically mis-remembered as a delicacy from our grandfather. To make matters worse, we paid for it twice by mistake. Glad it wasn’t paid for by deservedly getting indigestion!

The food helped us get a good night’s sleep until the wee hours of the morning when the birds…

Tuesday May 16th the roots trip gets under way. On our trip to Shudy Camps we passed a sign for Hanchett toys. Had to stop! The toy store is no more, it specialized in wooden apparatus and other specialty items. We spoke to someone at the attached equestrian school who said it didn’t survive the pandemic. One of my reprobate friends altered (photoshopped) the picture an improvement which I cherish.

We found Shudy Camps which is little more than a crossroads with a church. We were walking around the graveyard looking for ancestors…turns out they were all dead and their name tags faded or fell off….Hanchet Hall in the upper right corner

Extract from ‘Magna Britannia – ‘Cambridgeshire’ by Daniel & Samuel Lysons, first published 1808.

SHUDY-CAMPS, in ancient records, called Shudee-Camps, and Scode-Camps, adjoins to Castle-Camps, being 14 miles south-east of Cambridge, and about 13 south of Newmarket : it was sometimes called Parva-Camps; and appears to have acquired its present name form the family of Shudee, who, in ancient times, possessed the manor, and gave the hamlet of Northoe to the monks of Ely.

The manor of Shudy-Camps was held by the family of Hanchet, in the reigns of King Edward I. and King Edward II. of the family of Playz, as heirs of the Montfichets : at a later period, it was successively in the families of Cholmeley and Bentley 

A short walk from the church is the Hall. Obviously the Hall has been added to over the past half a millenium, but the land and part of the structure would have been my family’s. I wanted to knock on the door, but my brothers felt I should respect the present owner’s privacy.

Next stop was Saffron Walden where it was Market Day. The library faced the market so I went in and found someone on site whose volunteer job is to help with the archives. I found some stuff, but saved the site for later.

We had lunch at the Crown an upscale pub. We were in an annex whose walls were covered with pictures of bombers from WW II. There must have been an airfield in the vicinity during the second world war.

We had passed Hanchett Hall, Haverhill on the way back to our base. We had seen a picture of this house in our book “The English Ancestry of Thomas Hanchett”, My brother Guy’s log has a more complete accounting I have put the link to it again. https://guyhanchet.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/hanchet-brothers-roots-tour/

– We ate at yet another Red Lion in Sturmer. We needed groceries, so headed back to Haverhill for some silly photos of Hanchet End and Hanchett Village. Throughout all the reading and archival stuff I have been through it seems that One t or two t’s or several other variants were common. Someone told me that a T was added to the Hall fairly recently to be in line with Hanchett End etc. Easily rectified…lol. Again, my brothers didn’t think it’d be “in good taste” to hang my rear end out for a gag shot. So?!?!?!?

On Wednesday May 17 we went to Bury/St. Edmunds in the morning and met with Kevin Emsden who runs “Hanchets Monumental Masons” Kevin’s father and my great-uncle Walter Arthur Hanchet’s son were partners. He had some interesting tidbits. They kept the name because it was respected and Hanchet had cachet..

On to Cambridge University.

Why we really came to Cambridge was to re-enact the beheading of our ancestor. They wouldn’t let me on the plane with an ax…(philistines) and I couldn’t get one in time in Cambridge so Mark improvised with a baguette.

We are up early on Thursday may 18th to get to Oxford University where we are to meet our private tour guide for our C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien tour that we brothers unanimously decided was worth taking a day! Guy has great photos on his blog, so I’ll only post a few. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/travel/cs-lewis-oxford-narnia.html

There is a faun above Mark and Malcolm’s heads. Mr. Tumnus? The lamppost of Narnia behind them.

I love Oxford. I could spend a year or two here! I was super impressed by Blackwell’s Book store. 2 and a half miles of shelving…https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/about

We had greasy fish and soggy chips from Chippy’s takeaway.

Friday May 19th -off day Mark had to work. Guy and I walked around , ate at the Fox and Hounds caught up on some sleep and went into Haverhill for a Turkish dinner which provided us with leftovers for the next evening.

Saturday May 20th -trip to Edgeware (North London)to visit our second cousins at Alice’s home which was her grandmother’s (our great auntie Daisy).

, east finchley -souvenir photos- the old pot’s business- turkish leftovers

Sunday may 21st. hike to Helion Bumpstead the three horseshoes- hike back -mark forgot his phone with the name of the Nepalese/indian resto…in Saffren. by the time we figured out the resto was called Yugo Google maps sent us down two way roads that resembled a paved golf cart path or a one way country driveway lined with hedge that two bicycles could barely pass each other on. The place was a remote semi-rural location and no cars in the lot. we were worried the food might be scrappy because there were so few diners. No need to worry, the phone in, walk in Take Away business was hopping! probably the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten.

Monday may 22 -packing up and drive to Cambridge and train to Liverpool Street station. I find a hat that fits!!!

We had a big dinner planned at Sishoom Shoreditch with nephew Malcolm and niece Simone and Sharon’s 1st cousin Renu and Mark’s wife Denise.

Tuesday may 23 The big item today is a visit to Darwin’s cottage.

We returned to London and walked across London Bridge. It wasn’t falling down. Walked through Whitehall where there is a Jack the Clipper barber shop and a Jack the Chipper Fish and Chips stand. That evening we had reservations to Ronnie Scott’s which is to London what the Village Vanguard is to NYC. Jazz Mecca.

Wednesday my quest was to find Halcyon Gallery for a Bob Dylan Exhibit and get an Art Book of his work. I remembered after the fact that it was Bob Dylan’s birthday.

I then meet Renu at 2 at the Victoria and Albert Museum where she bought me lunch and we walked around the garden and the main floor. This art gallery is amazing, and Renu is a great tour guide and friend! I put my phone observations into this little video

We attended the Half Six Fix (London Symphony) at the Barbican centre. My brother Guy’s blog goes into greater detail than I can. here it is again. https://guyhanchet.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/hanchet-brothers-roots-tour/

thursday may 25th up early packed and train to Gatwick to take the plane home. No coffee… I hoped to snooze on the trip. Saw 2 films. Tu te Souviendrais de Moi. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9330648/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_7_nm_1_q_tu%2520te and Invictus. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1057500/

Home Sweet Home.

I realized early on in our trip that our scope and time was limited. The Ancestry we followed was strictly Patrilineal. The tree, although interesting is impossible to ever complete. For every male Hanchet there were other mothers, sisters, . I think that on any given day in the UK we probably passed dozens of cousins, but we were unaware of it. I believe everything and everyone is interconnected and if I follow the Do Unto Others… Love thy neighbour as thyself. It’s good.

The diaspora is huge and my Hanchett buddies who narrow things down and seek out headstones are better at it than me. Tombstones don’t talk anyway.

Thanks for joining me on this lame account of our very fun and interesting journey.