Unusual Places of Birth

[Carla]

Scrolling through Ancestry.co.uk in search of an ancestor I can across this place of birth in the 1911 census....

NAME: Beatrice Emily Batt
MOTHER: Elizabeth Ann Batt
BIRTH: abt 1882 - Police Station, Devizes Road
RESIDENCE: 2 Apr 1911 - New Sarum, Wiltshire,England

I did see that Beatrice's brother was also born in a Police Station so I take it that their father (deceased) may have been a policeman?
Has anyone else found an interesting place of birth, or indeed had one of their ancestors born in an unusual place?Not one of my ancestors, sadly, but it did make me think about what the circumstances could have been!

 

[AnneC]

Has anyone else found an interesting place of birth, or indeed had one of their ancestors born in an unusual place?

According to his birth certificate, my husband's grandfather was born at The Station, Swindon in 1844.....not sure which platform!

 

[Britjan]

Scrolling through Ancestry.co.uk in search of an ancestor I can across this place of birth in the 1911 census....
NAME: Beatrice Emily Batt
MOTHER: Elizabeth Ann Batt
BIRTH: abt 1882 - Police Station, Devizes Road
RESIDENCE: 2 Apr 1911 - New Sarum, Wiltshire,England

Here's what Brit Hist Online says about the Devizes Road police station "Police Station and Lock-up, near the S. end of Devizes Road, are of two storeys with brick walls and slated roofs; they do not appear on the Reform Act map of 1833, but they are on Botham's plan and probably were built before 1850. The station, now shops, comprised dwellings and offices and has a symmetrical W. front of six bays. The lock-up on the E. has been stripped of floors and partitions and is now a warehouse. The scars of the dismantled brickwork indicate ten vaulted cells in each storey, each cell having a lunette window set high above the floor, with an iron grille in an ashlar frame."
I also found an interesting record for Binbrook's former police station , a photo of the police house and a description " The police station or lock-up {now a private residence) was built in 1852. The superintending constable lived there and there was a room for magistrates' meetings -the Rev John Huntley was the local magistrate. Petty sessions were held there from time to time. The two Binbrook constables were assisted by constables from Ludford, Tealby and Thoresway." I actually thought the police stations were sometimes a modest cottage but these seem a lot more impressive.

 

[Liberty]

Some of my ancestors were farmers who (rather confusingly) sometimes are recorded with the hamlet, the parish or the farm as place of birth. This is the reason that some of them appear with p.o.b. as 'kennel'. The name of one of the farms was Moss Kennel.
I do have another line of relatives where the father was a lighthouse keeper. The children were born all round the coast, but I don't know if this would have been in the lighthouse, a tied cottage, or somewhere completely mundane in the neighbourhood.

 

[Britjan]

Thank you Liberty for sending me on a search .....Here is a list of school children born at the South Foreland Lighthouse near Dover , with one of my "cousins" mentioned, although there were probably more born there. Typically it seems that where the lighthouse was on a suitable piece of land there was some kind of dwelling attached. Two keeper "cottages" were built for South Foreland in 1860 but I haven't found a clear date for most of images of the lighthouse. I did find a lovely piece of trivia about John Buchan's "The Thirty Nine Steps", on my required reading list at school, inspired in part by a visit to North Foreland Lighthouse, but I'll let anybody interested find their own link!!

 

[Liberty]

Thank you Liberty for sending me on a search ...

My pleasure!
Do you know of this site ?
LIGHTHOUSE PERSONNEL IN ENGLAND, WALES AND THE CHANNEL ISLANDS, c1790-1911

 

[Britjan]

Yes my lovely "cousin" who keeps the family tree for many of our maritime connections has referred to it extensively but I was totally unaware of the local history societies including such detailed records as the one I found. I'm also trolling naval records and have just uploaded a screen saver image of JM Turner's painting "The Fighting ship Temeraire " because another "cousin" served on another vessel of the same name. The painting has long been one of my favourites so I'm happy to have a slight connection. The whole blurb from Wiki has of course been added to my tree notes!!

 

[Bee]

"The Fighting ship Temeraire "

My great great grandfather and his father, therefore my great great great grandfather, both served on the 'Temeraire' at the Battle of Trafalgar. I love the picture too Britjan!