Here are some of the unusual names given to Turvey children in Victorian times.
The 1851 and 1881 Censuses have the following interesting Christian names for village children. Many of these names were quite common in Britain at the time but would now be unusual. Some are from mother's maiden names and some are Biblical - some though, are just a mystery - Kerenhappuch is so much more interesting than my name, Debi !!!
For girls there was...
Temperance, Selina, Hepzibah, Easter, Kezia (a popular local name of the time), Cilena, Kerenhappuch, Alethea, Duty, Eli, Lettice, Letitia, Rosaly, Blanche, Salome, Johannah,
Antheninah (how pretty!), Lydia, Priscilla, Ahinoam (how do you say this?) and Adela
And if you thought the boys might be more conventional, try these.....
Algernon, Ephraim, Carington, Gilloway (surely this must be his mum's maiden name!),
Ezra, Ebenezer, Jethro, Joel, Steff, Negus, Reuben, Oscar, Herbert, Eben, Legh, Gustavus, Seth, Dudley, St John (Sinjun), Augustus, and Bryan (earliest occurance I have seen)
If you are thinking that some of the above names are not at all unusual (perhaps you are called Oscar or Lydia) please bear in mind that in Victorian England the majority of people bore one of just a handful of names. The above names are all unusual in that context. There were a few Jews in Bedfordshire at the time which might explain the Biblical names and remember that upper class families liked to give their children more singular names.
Turvey Sayings of Yesterday
Turvey is a country village and for many years people spoke in a local dialect.
This has been eroded with the coming of radio and television. Here are some snippets:
'I can't spit sixpence' means 'I'm thirsty'
'Sloome' means 'of neglected appearance'
'Chelping' means 'talks to much'
'Cackling' also means 'talks to much' (were Turveyites very talkative???)
'He's as slow as a wet week' means 'dead slow'
'Gawping' means 'staring' as in 'Stop ya gawping gal!'
'Traipsing mud over the house' means 'coming in with dirty shoes'
'My young old boy' means 'my father's son'
'The backhouse table' means 'the kitchen worktop', my nan says this!
Turvey and The Grand National
From 1953 until 1965 the mill at Turvey was owned by Cristo Crisps (potato chips). One of the flavours of crisps produced was Oxo. One year a horse called OXO was in the Grand National steeplechase at Aintree. Just about everyone in the village backed the creature and there must have been a lot of drinking to his health when he won the race!
I have only ever seen these great lion-faced water pumps in a few villages of North Bedfordshire (this one is in Carlton Road, near the Post Office). Right up until the early 1960's people used these for their water supply. In the winter people would cover them in straw to try and stop them freezing. If they did freeze, then folks would light the straw to thaw it out!
It's an Odd Place,
Is Turvey!
Stone Cold Dead
The winter of 1794/5 must have been a bad one. Charles Shelton, a mason who was buried on 27 January 1795, was 'found frozen to Death in Cox's Close', according to the Parish Burial Register. Poor old chap.
An old book of place names and their meanings gives the meaning of TURVEY as...
'land of good turf at the bend of the river'.
When bells of Olney Church are distinctly heard at Turvey Abbey, it is an almost certain prognostication
of rain in a short time!
Or so an old Turvey saying goes!
Big Fish - Big Bird!
Thomas Benbow, the gamekeeper at Turvey Abbey, was certainly well skilled in the ways of the countryside.
On 10th May 1796 he caught a pike, in a bow net, which weighed 21 pounds - scary!
In 1830 he also caught (and killed) a giant swan, weighing 19 pounds and measuring 5ft 3in from beak to claw and with a wingspan of 7ft 6in !!!
The most popular names for new babies in the early part of the 17th Century in Turvey were:
