As soon as Patricia knew we were to tour the UK, she suggested villages we should visit in England and Scotland.

In England our focus was on: Morice Town, Plymouth, where her father’s great-grandparents Mary Ann Johnson and William Goard were married; and some hamlets and countryside near the seaside resort of Looe in south-east Cornwall where many generations of the Goards used to live. William and Mary Ann Goard emigrated to Australia in 1852. Their daughter Sarah married John Begg Martin at Ballarat in 1881. Jane Martin, their daughter is the grandmother of Patricia.

Kirkbean and Preston Mill, Scotland, were the locations where the Martin family had lived. Between 1852 and 1867 most of the family decided to emigrate to the Daylesford region of Victoria, Australia. One of those to emigrate was John Begg Martin. He married Sarah Goard at Ballarat in 1881. They are the great-grandparents of Patricia.

South-West England

It was at Morice Town that Mary Ann Johnson used to live. We had some navigational difficulties in finding this old town, and in the progress of getting ourselves lost we got the bonus of coming across the Royal Citadel which is located on top of a hill that overlooks the Sound of Plymouth. It was from the Port of Plymouth that William and Mary Ann Goard sailed for Australia. Unfortunately for Patricia there is no trace of Morice Town. All we saw, in what used to be Morice Town, was a naval establishment and houses for the under-privileged.

St. Martins is not far from the fishing village and tourist resort of Looe. Patricia’s family history records that Mary Lord married Phillip Goard at St Martins’ Church, Looe Bay, in 1666. Patricia was thrilled to visit the 700 year old Church of St Martins-by- Looe, and to find that the church is still in use. Unfortunately, the church was closed on the day of our visit, and a stroll amongst the gravestones did not reveal any resting places of the family.

From St Martins we drove 8 miles to Sheviock. It was there that William, the son of Mary and Phillip Goard, was married and settled in 1715. Four generations later William Goard married Mary Ann Johnson and soon after they emigrated to Australia in 1852. Their daughter Sarah married John Begg Martin at Ballarat in 1881. Sarah and John Begg Martin are Patricia’s great-grandparents.

Sheviock’s 700 year old Church of St Mary was the location for four generations of baptisms, marriages, and burials. We were successful in gaining entry to this church, and to purchase a pamphlet which outlined its history. Sheviock is very much untouched by time. It consists of narrow lanes, lined with very old houses and small farm houses and buildings. We also learned that the Lord Bishop of Exeter had dedicated the church of "Shevioke" in 1259, and that people have dwelt in this area for a period of 4,000 years. We pondered on these facts as we sat in the sunshine and enjoyed a cup of tea and a bun.

Having visited St Martins and Sheviok, we drove to have a look at the country side where the Tregoad Farm and Caravan park is located. Patricia was rather excited to stand on a hill and gaze on some of the farmlands where her ancestors used to work and live.

Patricia explained how the name Tregoad was formed and that it was mentioned in documents dated 1262. The pre-fix "Tre" means farm or settlement and thus the name Tregoad means "settlement of the Goads". This terminology helped us to understand why a lot of villages in Cornwall had "Tre" as the prefix for the name of their village. The family name Goard (Goad, Goide) was derived from the word "coid" in the Brythonic Celtic language and in Cornish it means woodlands. It was an apt word as the Goard clan lived for about 700 years in the wooded valleys through which flow the rivers Lynter, Tamar, and East and West Looe.

In travelling through this region, Patricia suggested that we also visit the neatly laid out village of St.Germans for it was there that other branches of the Goard family used to live.

Kirkcudbright- Kirkbean- Preston Mill

In travelling from Windemere to Gelston we moved from England to Scotland. In doing so we noted that our first impressions of Scotland were that the countryside was one of lush green open fields and rolling small hills and mountains in the distance. Most noticeable were the houses in the villages and countryside, which were painted mainly in a white colour, and that the streets were much wider thus making car-driving a less burdensome task.

Our accommodation was at Rose Cottage in the hamlet of Gelston, two miles from the 18th century market town of Castle Douglas. Given that we only had one day for our investigations, time did not allow us to look at some of the interesting tourist places in and around this town.

In attempting to go to Kirkbean we took a wrong turn and ended up going to the small town of Kirkcudbright which we had intended to visit later in the day. Kirkcubright is a fishing village which also gained some repute as an artist’s colony in the 19th century. We wandered around the town and had a look at the streetscape of 17th and 18th century merchant’s houses, and also took notice once again of the painted houses. In driving to Kirkcudbright we noticed the predominance of yellow gorse bushes which dotted the hummocky hills. We would continue to see these bushes throughout our tour of Scotland. The gorse bush is also a part of the Australian landscape.

Following a recommendation of Kerr, our host at the Rose Cottage, we visited the Arbigland Gardens and the John Paul Jones’ Cottage, near the coast, for he said that the cottages lived in by Patricia’s ancestors would have been similar. He also suggested that we visit New Abbey for the same reason.

The major event of the day was our visit to the hamlets of Kirkbean and Preston Mill, which are on a coast road between Colvend and New Abbey, south of Dumfries. The grand-father of Patricia’s father was born at Preston Mill in 1836. He was the son of Lewis and Ellen Martin. He had six sisters and six brothers. All were born at Preston Mill between 1832 and 1858, and christened at the nearby Church of Scotland, Kirkbean. Lewis Martin , his father and his sons were blacksmiths at Preston Mill.

At Preston Mill Patricia found two late 18th century houses and sheds which were littered with rusted tools, machinery, wheels etc. She suspects that this was probably where the blacksmiths of the Martin clan used to work

Soon after our arrival at the church at Kirkbean, we were lucky to meet a church elder who had come to wind the church’s clock. Not only were we able to have a look at the inside of the church where the family had attended services, but we were also privy to the elder’s understanding of the history of the church and the village. Unfortunately, Patricia was unable to find any tombstones of the Martin family.

At the end of the day we visited the village of New Abbey. We looked at the houses lining the main street and inspected the abbey, which although a ruin, is still a substantial building which gave the impression that it was ready for the next stage of construction.

On the next day we made a short visit to Kirkpatrick Durham which is not far from Castle Douglas. What a fascinating village. It being Sunday morning all was quiet. The old cottages which lined the main streets looked unchanged since they were built in the 18th century.