Ancestral

Apart from a few months after I was born I have never lived anywhere where I could claim any family roots - until now. You see with Norfolk I have ancestry, which I didn't know until about 4 5 years ago, but one of my great grandmothers came from Holt. I know very little I'm ashamed to say, she was in service for a while as a cook, she ended up living in Kent although how she got there from Norfolk I don't know but she and my great grandfather (who was Irish and I don't know how and where they met either) did live in the west end of London for a while before World War I.

Looking for things to do today I suggested we go to Holt to have a look round, as far as I'm aware I have no family left there but I thought it would be interesting nevertheless to have a look see. Holt is a bit of a tourist trap, a posh tourist trap, it's full of boutiques, expensive sandwich shops, galleries and gourmet supermarkets, oohs sorry "food halls." Holt reminded me very much of a mix of the village my brother and his family live in, the touristy bits of Harrogate especially round the Crown Hotel and Masham which has a Spar shop with gourmet tendencies.

Apart from the tourist trap shops there doesn't seem to be that much of interest to see in Holt, we had a look at the war memorial, had lunch in a local pub, nice, not too expensive and didn't taste like it was "fresh from our freezer".

And then we left. I would be lying if I felt anything about the place, I'm not sure if you are supposed to in cases like these. I wouldn't want to live there and I wouldn't visit as a matter of course as it's not my sort of tourist destination.

So ancestral stomping grounds - meh I think without some family there to connect with they don't mean that much to me.