Friday, June 5, 2009

Cranfield, England, 2009

Since we had an evening flight into London, we decided to stay over night in a hotel before driving into the country side in search of Dormer Cottage.  The next morning, we picked up our rental car and were headed to Aylesbury, then Stewkley.  We were expecting to get lost, but with my father's extremely accurate directions, we made it to Stewkley in less than an hour.  After exploring the area, we made our way to a pub for lunch(Story to follow later) then off to meet Jill at Dormer Cottage.   She gave us precise directions to Cranfield.  We decided to find our way there first.  Our intention was to attend Easter services there the following day and did not want to get lost or encounter any unexpected detours.  Thanks to Jill's directions, we successfully navigated through numerous roundabouts and narrow roadways to Cranfield.  The home of our ancestor, Thomas Wheeler and his family.  We met Hugh Thompson, the minister at the St. Peter and Paul Church.  He was more than happy to give us a tour and information about the Wheeler history in Cranfield.  His hospitality was generous and welcoming.  We greatly appreciated his help and were pleased to have met him.  The church was stunning.  We were standing in the actual building that our ancestors had been baptized and married in!! The feelings were emotional and hard to explain.  We made arrangements to return on the following day for Easter service.  I can't wait to return to the church with my son and share the experience with him as I shared with my own father on that April day.