Hi Michael
I think we have been in contact before – about 4 or 5 years ago. My great (x3) grandfather Robert Thorpe (b. 1819) was Townshend’s younger brother. I still live in Barroway Drove, in the house that Robert had built in 1885, just as he was reaching retirement age. So although Townshend didn’t live it in, he would have almost certainly visited his younger brother’s new home!
There are very few houses left in the village that were around in Townshend’s time and I am fairly certain that any he did live in no longer exist. I think from previous research that some of the Thorpe family lived either on Lady Drove or at the junction of Lady Drove and Barroway Drove. I do have a picture of one cottage that I know some of my Thorpe ancestors lived in and I think it is quite possible that Townshend and/or his children lived in it at some time. I will try to upload the picture onto this website.
I would like to look into this further and it would be helpful to know more about Townshend’s sons that stayed in the area. Do you know if any moved to Nordelph? It’s a neighbouring village and there is a row of houses called Thorpe Terrace and I seem to remember as a young child being told that it had something to do with ‘our’ Thorpe family and would like to find out if that’s true.
I do hope this is helpful and if anyone else reading this knows more please do get in touch. Also if anyone currently living in the village, especially around the Lady Drove area has the deeds to their property they might be able to check to see if any Thorpes are mentioned…
Vicki
PS: The people in the picture are not Thorpes, I think the older lady's name is Mrs Boyce but I'm not sure - perhaps someone else does know?
<img src="
http://barrowaydrove.org/smf/MGalleryItem.php?id=404" width="100%" alt="" />
Edited to add Image as requested: Tim
