Worcestershire wanderings

My Dad's family came from West Yorkshire. Almost no one ever seemed to leave and they rarely married people from outside the County. One exception was my Great Great Great Grandad Thomas Tandy who came to Bradford from Worcester in the 1860s.

The old bridge across the Avon at Pershore

He was born in Pershore in 1836, and the records at the church of Holy Cross record that his mother was Maria Tandy, single woman.  The records go on to show, as does the 1841 Census, that Maria had three children out of wedlock, and that two of them were born whilst she was in the workhouse.

My sister Ann and I decide to use a few days of the Easter break to go to Pershore and see what we can find out about this er, unconventional woman.

We take a walk around Pershore on a bright but bitterly cold afternoon. The picturesque old bridge across the River Avon would have been there when my Tandy ancestors lived in the town.  We spend time in the church of Holy Cross where all the main ecclesiastical events of their lives took place.  Am moved to see that the old font, which was discarded in 1840 and used as a cattle trough, has been recovered and takes pride of place in the church.  It was the one in which three generations of my ancestors would have been baptised. We have a classic, "Who do you think you are?" moment and wipe away a tear.

We pop into the library to look at local history books, and to warm up!  My friend Liz Tucker, who had been the local councillor in Pershore for about 30 years,  passes me a book and says, "there's some stuff about the workhouse in here".  Sure enough, the book which was produced by local historians for the town's millennium in 1972 goes into detail.  I then come across this in a paragraph about poor discipline in the early days of the workhouse, "in 1837 Maria Tandy was put on bread and water as a punishment for breaking windows and other acts of violence".  Our ancestor is recorded for posterity... It goes on to describe how the wall between the men's and the women's sections had to be raised by 2 feet. Oh dear, we appear to be descended from a nineteenth century Jeremy Kyle family. My sister and I descend into helpless giggles.