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Archiver > DEVON > 2003-03 > 1047595121


From: Brian Randell <>
Subject: Re: Crossing the Bristol Channel, was [DEV] Newquarry
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 22:38:41 +0000
References: <15a.1cf81e22.2ba11d5b@aol.com><000701c2e9ac$f73b4aa0$1b95883e@default>
In-Reply-To: <000701c2e9ac$f73b4aa0$1b95883e@default>


Hi Philip:

>Bridgend is only about 5 miles by road from Porthcawl, which is then 25
>miles, as the crow flies, from Lynmouth (but a lot more when tacking against
>the wind and the tide). From there it is about 60 miles to Tavistock. A much
>shorter journey than the shortest land route via Gloucester.
>In Victorian and earlier times it was very common for people to cross from
>Devon and Somerset to the Welsh shore and vice versa. There were many small
>boats that would take passengers from small ports such as Appledore, or
>Lynmouth, or Porlock, or Watchet, to Swansea, or Porthcawl, or Aberthaw, or
>Barry. When the South Wales ports were being developed some men who owned
>small boats brought them over and became Channel Pilots operating out of
>Cardiff , or Penarth, or Barry. Others soon developed into owners of
>ocean-going tramp steamer fleets.
>This is one reason why there are so many Welsh surnames in Devon and
>Somerset, and so many Devon and Somerset names in Glamorgan. However, my
>great grandfather walked from Thorncombe (then in Devon) to work on the
>construction of one of the West Country railways, then the Severn Tunnel,
>then the Cefn On tunnel near Cardiff, then ended up in Barry in 1886
>constructing and working on the railway to the docks.
>Philip.

My Randell family provides another example - after several
generations of being mariners, and ships captains in Clovelly, one
(Capt. Francis Randell) moved to Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire in the
late 1700s, where he and several subsequent generations were ships'
captains and ship-owners. (Try as I may, I've completely failed to
trace any descendants of any of the many other Clovelly Randells.)

For years I and my cousin could not find where Francis Randell had
come from - though we suspected it might be Cornwall or Devon - until
luckily we located the the obituary of one of his grandsons, and
found it mentioned that the family originated in Clovelly. Ever since
then I seem to have been enmeshed in Devon genealogy (and
GENUKI/Devon)!

cheers

Brian Randell
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/

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