Several years ago now I used to boast, with some pride, that I was Yorkshire born and bred. ???
Nowadays I have replaced that redundant boast with a much stronger pride. A pride born out of the discovery that, previous families bearing our name have contributed to and trod these areas in and around Burton Joyce from the early 1600s.
I remember this when I visit St Helens Church Yard and I see two early gravestones (mid 1800s) remembering earlier Alveys, that we know that in 1641/2 the Protestant Returns NTT show that a William Alvye of Burton Joyce lived in the village (William Alvye is listed as family 74 in the “Alvey BJ database”) .
At the Main Street end of Tim Lane (no. 3) there is a bricked up window in the boundary wall which was the window of John Alvey‘s “Stockinger” workshop and his wife’s Bread shop - this was in 1848.
In the village centre I imagine the family children being taught in the Old School.
I see the building which today is a Dance Studio, yet I am aware that in earlier times it was the Blacksmiths workshop of Joseph and later his son Matthew Alvey (mid 1800s).
At the Main Street end of Tim Lane (no. 3) there is a bricked up window in the boundary wall which was the window of John Alvey‘s “Stockinger” workshop and his wife’s Bread shop - this was in 1848.
In the village centre I imagine the family children being taught in the Old School.
I see the building which today is a Dance Studio, yet I am aware that in earlier times it was the Blacksmiths workshop of Joseph and later his son Matthew Alvey (mid 1800s).
At the junction of Meadow Lane and Main St stands the Methodist Church. Harry Roberts and his wife Sophia (née Alvey) used to attend here.
Just a little way down Meadow Lane on the left is the "Old Manor House" - Joseph (son of Joseph the Blacksmith) and his family used to live here - Joseph also died here.
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Back into Main Street heading away from the village centre - at No. 63 two Alvey children Samuel and Susannah boarded in 1841, serving time with a Mr Barrowcliffe.
At the far left end of Main Street (at the point where it becomes Bulcote), stands “Spring Cottage” the Home of Abel Alvey and his son “Nonckling John” Hosiery Bagmen for some 30 years ( late 1800s- early 1900s) At the peak they provided work for some 100 or so stockingers in BJ and the surrounding villages
Down Shaftsbury Avenue, across the bypass and into Gordon Road, visualising the surroundings in which a “John Alvey and his son John Jnr” lived and worked as Hosiery Bagmen.
At the bottom of Gordon Road, turning left into Lee Road (named after the Rev William Lee - inventor of the Stocking Frameworking Machine), we quickly come to a right turn into Criftin Road. All this land in Criftin was owned by Joseph Alvey, He sold it to Harry Roberts who married his daughter Sophia (1896/7) in the building “Fernside” midway along the road.
At Meadow Lane, turning left and over the unmanned level crossing, the lane eventually becomes the Old Grimsby Road.
The Old Grimsby Road turns left at the River and eventually reaches Gunthorpe, Hoveringham and Hazelmere, where the first Ferry crossing leading onto Newark. However just beyond the left turn of the road at the River and on the left is a bench seat. I frequently sit here, interrupting my walks and imaging days gone by for just behind me is the field in which Samuel Alvey used to farm his small allocation of land.Now we trace the bank of the river back towards BJ and the Lord Nelson Pub. Here I recall that a small 3 year old with the Alvey family name, had drowned in the river in 1819.
At the Lord Nelson, research shows yet another Joseph Alvey once boarded here in 1871.
Finally walking into Chestnut Grove I regularly realise that there is a question I still have to resolve - where did Elizabeth Alvey once live in The Grove? I will bottom the query... Eventually!
I guess I can still go on eulogizing about the family and the village for ages, eventually boring the reader to tears. However for those interested in the village there is a record of some of the research by my cousins and myself and illustrated by the easy to understand "TimeLine" technique and illustrated at The Burton Joyce TimeLine 1600 to 1900.
