The late Mr. Edgar Jordan, whose funeral took place recently at the Parish Church, was a farmer resident in Bradworthy. His wife predeceased him last year. The Jordan family were associated with this Parish for many years and Edgar was a son of the late Mr. & Mrs. William Jordan.
I had decided to spend some days in London at the end of February, to visit a few events or places which I perhaps hadn’t seen or been. One of which would have been the Monet Exhibition. I had my travels and new experiences all right, but not in London and not the kind I would choose. As a lot of people know now I have been in Barnstaple, Exeter and Holsworthy Hospitals, the first time I have been in a civilian hospital. From the time I left Barnstaple I was isolates in a single ward, because the medical authorities were tracking a bacterium known as MRSA, which in certain circumstances can cause an infection. I was not happy about this as I am a sociable chap and preferred to be in the open ward. However, I became reconciled as of course there were advantages, a kind of freedom in which I could spread out to my heart’s content without interuppting the general discipline of the hospitals. In fact at Holsworthy I had the luxury of an en-suite ward. When I arrived in Exeter, my first nurse asked me what I preferred to be called, "Cecil, Mr. C!" Half jokingly I said "Col" as this was the name my colleagues in the Air Force unit abroad called me, and later my wife adopted. It took on and was written on the board above my bed. Even my surgeon, a pleasant South African, used the nick-name. "Good morning Col" he would cheerfully greet me on his rounds.
I read newspapers and magazines galore whilst in hospital. In one there was a list of fity women judged to be the most powerful women in Britain. I was interested in one name in particular - Julia Cleverdon, 48, Chief Executive, Business in the Community. The name has fascinated me as some of those bearing this name insist that they all originated from the first Cleverdons who lived at Cleverdon in Bradworthy. There is not another Cleverdon place name in Devon they say. I could hardly believe this but extensive research I have made seems to prove this is correct. Yet the name is simply derived from clover dun (Saxon) meaning clover hill. Centuries ago there were Cleverdons living at Cleverdon.
I was pleased to learn in an indirect way that the late Mrs. Margaret Strangway’s genealogical collection has been worked upon, being sorted and photocopied. Mrs. Strangway spent many years researching her family history, that of the Ashtons of Bradworthy. I saw much of it when I had been in her home in London Road, Sarnia, Ontario. And of course I helped with her research, with her husband. Well, she visited my more than once at Wisteria when they were over from Canada; also the late Mr. William Wickett, who descended from the same Ashton branch. I sent a copy of our "Transcriptions of Bradworthy Church Registers" direct to Margaret, later to be passed to the Ontario Genealogical Society. For a time I missed their whereabouts but since have found them, with some articles and a booklet I wrote safely housed in the North York City Library in Toronto. Much details of Margaret’s family research is within the large amount of correspondence which I received from her and still have. Her emigrating ancestors were Samuel Ashton (born at Silworthy farm in 1799) and wife, Mary Ann Gibbings, who farmed Great Dinworthy before emigrating.