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• Thank you for your comment. Certainly there were local agents promoting emigration, although whether these visited Turvey I don’t know but we do know that some Turvey families migrated through the assisted passage scheme. In some areas, as you suggest, non-conformists had emigrated seeking greater religious freedom abroad although this migration was primarily to North America and was much earlier than the nineteenth century, and in fact legislation in 1828 and 1846 removed remaining restrictions on dissenters so I think this was less likely a motivating factor for Turvey families.

  Sara Jenkins, Chair Turvey History Society

  By Sara Jenkins (26/08/2022)

• Having looked at the large numbers of folk leaving Turvey for New Zealand in 1850 – (Gibbs, Ayers etc) it would be interesting to know whether (given the limited postal service) there were Snake-oil sales men selling the new land – or whether it was the various Methodist/C of E altercations which prompted it

  By Neil Hartwell (08/08/2022)

• Thank you for your interesting comment, and apologies for the delay in responding.

  I’m afraid having looked further into this, I’m not sure we can be definitive one way or the other about it, and of course, the history of Methodism and the various schisms in the movement is complicated! As you may be aware, the term ‘Independent Methodists’ was used by some early chapels breaking away from the Wesleyans although the Independent Methodist Connexion wasn’t formally established until the end of the nineteenth century. Other congregations seem to have used the term ‘independent’ more generically to refer to the break from the Church of England, and it may have been this sense in which the term was used in some of the documents the author consulted. The situation is further complicated by the fact that there were features of the Turvey chapel that were unusual in a Methodist chapel, namely a bell and a baptismal pool. The bell was put in place the year following the chapel’s foundation, perhaps suggesting some early departure from traditional Methodist practice. On the other hand, the author has some Turvey chapel crockery which displays the traditional Methodist belt symbol. There is a roundel over the chapel door where ‘Old’ had been painted over an incised ‘Wesleyan’, but we don’t know when this was done.

  I don’t know whether the founding of the Bozeat chapel in 1852 was linked to the 1848 expulsions from the Wesleyan Methodists, but we haven’t found any indication of Turvey expulsions at this time.

  So, it’s a bit of a mystery, but we’d be interested in any further information anyone can provide.

  Sara Jenkins
  Turvey History Society

  By Sara Jenkins (23/08/2021)

• I was very glad to discover the article on the Old Chapel, Carlton Road, on the Turvey History website, but surprised to see it described as “Independent Wesleyan”. I was aware of Wesleyan (Methodist) and Independent (Congregational) Chapels in Turvey, but thought that the nearest IW was at Bozeat, some miles north. But I’d be glad to learn more.

  By Peter West (19/07/2021)

• Thank you for sharing your family’s history regarding Norfolk Lodge. It’s good to be able to add to the ongoing story of the history of the houses in the village. I wonder if anyone remembers the fire?
  Kind regards,
  Sara Jenkins
  Coordinator/Secretary Turvey History Society

  By Sara Jenkins (11/06/2020)

• Our family owned and lived in Norfolk House from 1970 to 2001. Prior to that we lived in one of of the chalet semi detached house ( named Thorndale ) from 1965. My parents purchased Norfolk House from the Baker family, Mrs Baker was a primary school teacher at Turvey Primary School.
  In 1985 , my parents sold part of the land of Norfolk House , on which the new Rectory was built.
  Norfolk Lodge the other half of Norfolk House was left derelict for a few years , following a fire in 1969. It was badly damaged.
  Christian Wilson

  By Christian Wilson (28/05/2020)

• Stuart,

  The person on our team that catalogued the item has drawn my attention to page 356 of the Turvey Abbey Scrap Book (part of the Longuet Higgins Collection) in which John Higgins writes about the tree and is the source of the original spelling.

  Cheers.

  By John Warwick (09/05/2019)

• Stuart, many thanks for this. When one of our team was cataloging the paintings, she was helped by notes supplied by John Higgins (the painter). His description of the tree as an ‘Arbayle” caused us some consternation as we could find no reference to such a tree but decided to go with our understanding of his spelling. Many thanks for your informative comment. I’ll change the description.

  John Warwick

  By John Warwick (05/05/2019)

• Hello and thanks for the opportunity of seeing some of the history of Turvey this afternoon – very enjoyable.

  Hope you will not mind me pointing out that your reference to a tree in one of the displayed coloured illustrations should be spelt “abele” it being a type of silver poplar. Hope this helps.

  By Stuart Chesher (27/04/2019)