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Chapter 12
WELLS KENDLE Light across the Waters
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1840 proved to be a memorable year. For Victoria, already made Queen
three years earlier - the year saw her marriage to her cousin, Prince
Albert of Saxe-Coburg. For Mr. Hill (later to be made Sir Rowland Hill),
an officer in the Post Office, his "Penny Postage'' on all letters, wherever
delivered in the country was successfully introduced.
For James and Biddy (nee Metcalfe), the birth of their last child, a son,
came towards the end of the spring of 1840. The couple who by now
had had 5 children (3 boys and 2 girls), named the child (their 4th son)
Wells Kendle - and registered his birth between April and June, at
Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk.
James by now was aged 43, and his wife, Biddy, aged 41, and although
the family still lived at Lugger Yard, Wells-next-the-Sea (and were still
there at the time of the 1841 Census), James was often away at sea
where he was employed on Trinity House's "floating lights".
A "floating light", was a moored vessel, anchored off the coastline in
areas where warning was needed to be given to passing ships. The
"floating light" had, in its early days, 2 fire-baskets - one each end of the
vessel. In later years the fire-baskets were replaced by a safer,
enclosed, smokeless oil lamp, which had been developed in 1782 by
Ami Argand - a Swede.
In 1679, the suggestion of a "floating light" was made by Sir John
Clayton, but rejected by Trinity House. By 1736 however, two such lights
had been successfully sited; one at the mouth of the River Thames, and
the other off Cromer, Norfolk. Further "floating lights" (now known as
light vessels, or lightships) were introduced by Trinity House as a result,
with the majority of the vessels seeing service on the Eastern coast.
Wells Kendle was therefore born into not only a sea-faring family, but
also into an era which 4 years earlier had seen an 'Act' being passed,
giving Trinity House the responsibilty of providing and maintaining all
"lights" (including floating, and -houses) around the coastline of England
and Wales. From 1836 onwards there was upsurge in the construction
of lighthouses around Britain - each one ensuring a continuance of
employment, for various members of the Powditch family, for years to
come.
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Research to date has failed to determine the early years of Wells Kendle,
so we must therefore join him in his journey at the beginning of 1867, just
3 to 4 months before his 27th birthday - for it was on Thursday, 24 January
1867, that he first entered the Trinity House Lighthouse Service.
Wells' first appointment was as an Assistant Keeper at the 5 year old
"Les Hanois" Lighthouse - which had been built on the south-western
(Atlantic-facing) side of the island of Huernsey, in the Channel Islands.
According to Richard Woodman, in his book, "View from the Sea",
which with words and paintings, tours lighthouses, lightvessels and buoys
around the coast of England and Wales, he refers to Les Hanois inasmuch
as;-
Arriving at the Lighthouse in May 1867, one is tempted to wonder
whether Wells' first view of his workplace-for-the-next-5-years was
"under a blue sky", or of a "welter of foam about the black fangs". Today,
in the 1980's, relief keepers are transferred to and from the lighthouse
by helicopter, but in the mid-1800's, transfer was made from a Trinity
Service sailing vessel, or steam tender (ship) - and in view of this being
the only means of getting from the safety of land, across water where
"the tidal streams are more violent, the rise and fall greater than along the
English shore" - one only hopes that when Wells crossed the water, that
the "blue sky" prevailed.
The lighthouse rises from a reef, approximately 1½ miles offshore, on
the South-West side of Guernsey, and takes its name from a group of
rocks - Les Hanois. ('Hanois' being the Celtic word for "agony"). Trinity
House erected the tower on the Hanois Rocks in 1862, after countless
lives had been lost on the surrounding reefs. The Trinity House engineer -
Nicholas Douglass' - suggested that the stones used in the lighthouse's
construction should be dovetailed together, both vertically and laterally -
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and this method proved to be the best means of construction. In later
years, all further sea-rock towers were to be built using the "new" method.
To shipping in the English Channel, the light - when it first appeared in
1862 - must have been a welcome sight, for the sharp reefs present the
greatest hazard to shipping in the area of the Channel Isles. Due also to
shallow, rock-strewn water lying between Jersey and Guernsey and the
coast of Normandy, the islands became known as the "graveyard of the
Channel", in the 1700s and 1800s. The modern day Maritime Museum,
situated within the mainland, 1804 built, Fort Grey - not far from the
Fishermen's cove of Portelet - houses artefacts from many ships,
wrecked over the last three centuries on the nearby rocks.
From the base of the tower to its top, Les Hanois Lighthouse stands
117 feet, its light flashing out a warning to ships up to 16 miles away.
Wells was to remain as Assistant Keeper at the lighthouse until 1872, but
it was in the summer of 1867, just a couple of months after his arrival in
Guernsey that he returned to London, and dry land - and where, at Poplar,
he married Elizabeth Mary Stephens (sometimes spelled as "Stevens").
The marriage was registered between July and September 1867.
Family tradition is that Elizabeth Mary Stephens had "come from the
Cornwall area".
Wells may have met Elizabeth in Guernsey - although I don't believe that
such a meeting would have resulted in their going to London to get
married. I am more inclined (at the moment) to suggest that as Wells'
brother, Robert - was already living in Poplar, with his own family, that it
is conceivable that Wells had for a while, stayed with Robert, and whilst
there had met and courted the young Elizabeth. Perhaps the couple
married whilst Wells was on one of his "shore-leaves".
Not long after their marriage, Elizabeth accompanied Wells back to
Guernsey, and there, in the village of Portelet, (Pleinmont), not far from
the lighthouse, they settled down.
The warmth of summer and the gentle sea-breezes, were just beginning
to change into cold days and frosty nights accompanied by late-autumn
squalls, when Elizabeth presented Wells with the first of their children.
Named Minnie Ada Elizabeth, she was born on 5 October 1868, and
baptised at Torteval Church.
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Three years later, Wells and Elizabeth's second child - and their only
son, was born. Recorded as Wells Joseph Alonzo Ferdinand Powditch
on his baptism certificate (and as Joseph Wells Alonso Powditch by the
Mormon transcriber on their International Genealogical Index [I.G.I.] ), he
was born on 9 September 1871, and baptised two weeks later, on
the 24th.
The "Batemes celebres dans Is Paroisse de Torteval ile de Guernsey,
le 24 Septembre l'an 1871" proclaims that Wells Kendle (written as
Kendall) Powditch, and Elizabeth Mary (nee Stevens), lived (Demeure)
at Pleinmont, the nearest "district" to Les Hanois. Wells Kendle's
"Rang, Metier, ou Profession", is stated as being, "Gardien du Phare
des Hanois". What a lovely description of a lighthouse keeper !
Wells Joseph Alonzo Ferdinand. The "Wells" was a "traditional" name,
going back a few generations. "Joseph" although not a Powditch name,
may have had links with Elizabeth Mary; it may have been her father's (or
brother's) christian name. But "Alonzo Ferdinand"? Certainly these last
two christian names, which appear to be of Spanish origin, do not figure
in any previous Powditch names, nor do they appear to relate to known
names on the Stephens side of the family. Where, therefore, did the
names originate, and why was Wells and Elizabeth's child named thus?
One year after the birth of Wells Joseph Alonzo Ferdinand, the whole
family, in August 1872 were on the move. First, after leaving Guernsey,
they travelled eastwards, up the English Channel towards Dover,
following which, they passed London, and the scene of their marriage.
They went past Norfolk, and the seaport of Wells-next-the-Sea (place of
Wells Kendle's birth); then past the Wash, and the long Lincolnshire
coastline - until finally they were put ashore not far from their new home.
Wells Kendle Powditch had, from August 1872, been appointed
Assistant Keeper at Spurn Head Lighthouse - and it was to this new part
of the English coastline that the family moved.
Spurn Head Lighthouse stands on a narrow tract of sand and shingle, on
which little grows except coarse grass. The peninsula, which juts out into
the Humber estuary, is exposed to the gales of the North Sea, which for
over 500 years have been buffetting many of the various structures
erected at the "Head".
Opposite this lonely spit of sand and shingle, lies the town of Grimsby,
whilst further up, and at the head of the estuary, lies the sea-port of
Kingston-upon-Hull - possibly where the family landed. Twenty-eight
bending miles away from Kingston-upon-Hull
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lies the lighthouse and the nearby villages of Kilnsea, Basington,
Skiffling, Welwick and Patrington.
Spurn claims the distinction of being Britain's first lighthouse, in 1428 -
although Norfolk annals record that in 1349, some 69 years earlier, a
large cross "of the height of 110 feet" was erected by one John Puttock
"in the Bishop's marsh by Lenne" [sic. Lynn], which was "of great service
for all shipping coming that way".
In 1672 and 1678, at Spurn Head, towers, containing iron grates in
which coal was burnt, were erected - and there they remained until 1766,
when they were dismantled, and new towers built almost a mile away.
The new towers were completed in 1775 although the lower light was
washed away in a great storm the following year. The high light, standing
90 feet, and originally constructed with an enclosed tower for the fire,
remained in use until 1895, when it was replaced by the present tower.
The Lighthouse in which Wells Kendle worked as Assistant Keeper
therefore, was the one built in 1775 by John Smeaton, who had already
built one of the Eddystone lighthouses.
Three years after arriving at Spurn Head, Wells and Elizabeth became
parents to their third (and last?) child.
Registered between October and December 1875, the child - their
second daughter - was born in the Registration district of Patrington -
and she was named Gertrude Maude M. (did the "M" stand for
"Metcalfe"?). Unlike her Guernsey-born sister and brother, the
St. Catherine's House Registers hold no further clues to her having
married or died (in England or Wales), up to 1912, (when she would have
been aged 37).
Besides leading a "lonely" life (albeit with two other keepers) on remote
lighthouses - and despite the cycle of "one month on the lighthouse/one
month at home", working for the Trinity House Service meant that every
few years, when a "keeper's" job became vacant at another lighthouse
(however remote), Wells and his family were required to move.
Thus it is that Wells is recorded in the Trinity House records, as having
been;-
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The port of Newport is only about 12 miles from Cardiff. During the
period 1878 to 1884, when Wells and family lived and worked at "USK",
his brother James, together with his family were living at Cardiff. One
wonders whether Wells and James were able to meet up with each other,
and to meet each others' families.
* Note: Unfortunately, most of Trinity House Service records were
destroyed during World War 2, when fire swept through their premises.
Those records still surviving, have recently been transferred to a temporary
depository, whilst a new building for
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the Service is (1989) being constructed. Access to all surviving records
will not be available until approximately 1990 - including the possible
answers to Wells' involvement with the BASSES.
Besides the villages of Barnstaple and Bideford (after which the Bay is
named), the sea-port and boat-building yard of Appledore lies close by.
For the descendants of the "Cardiff" Powditch's (including Phyllis Mary
Smith, nee Powditch), Appledore has been the place for many a holiday -
the "venue" having been chosen long before 1908. One wonders whether
the "tradition" of going to Appledore was made following family "get-
togethers" whilst Wells Kendle and family were stationed at Hartland Point.
From the time of Wells Joining the Trinity House Service in 1867, until he
left Hartland Point lighthouse in 1889, he was employed as "Assistant
Keeper". July 1889 however, saw a change in Wells' fortunes, for in that
month he was appointed "Principal Keeper" at "Les Hanois" - the scene
of his first-known appointment in the Service; and so Wells and his family
returned for a while to the "blue skies" and "black fangs" of Guernsey.
Two years after re-settling in Guernsey, three events occurred within a
short space of each other, which were to split the family in as many ways.
28 July 1891 was a shock to the family, for Elizabeth Mary, died, aged 47.
Her tombstone at Torteval Cemetery In Guernsey makes reference to her
birth being in 1844, and that her husband's name was "William". As we
know that her husband's name was Wells Kendle, perhaps "William" was
the name that Elizabeth used, or by which he was known to his children.
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Believed also to have occurred In 1891, Wells Joseph Alonzo Powditch
- Wells and Elizabeth's only son - married Mary Beatrice Galliene at
Guernsey. Wells Joseph, unlike his father, took up the trade of Painter,
whilst Mary Beatrice has had her occupation recorded as being a
"housewife".
The third "event" of 1891 occurred 3 months after Elizabeth Mary's
death.
By October 1891, his wife having died, his only son having married, his
eldest daughter (Minnie) being aged 23, and his youngest (Gertrude)
aged 16, Wells Kendle - now aged 51 years old - was transferred away
from the memories of Guernsey, to the marshy coastline just south of
Southwold in Suffolk. His appointment, as on Les Hanois, was that of
Principal Keeper; the lighthouse was Orfordness.
The sea, north of the Thames estuary, due to its constant tidal
movement, has created sandbanks, which almost run parallel to the bare
coastline. One such sandbank, at Orford, stretches for over 12 miles,
and shipwrecks on it were not unusual. Over 350 years ago, in 1627,
just one night's storm caused the loss of 32 ships at Orfordness.
The lighthouse in which Wells Kendle commenced his duties, was
established in 1792, on the site of several earlier towers. Looking out over
the North Sea, the tower stands 99 feet tall, its light being 93 feet above
Maximum High Water. Whereas today, only one tower still stands, in
1836, when Trinity House bought the lighthouse from its private owner,
there were two towers - the (higher) lighthouse, and a lower tower.
Just before Wells Kendle's arrival, the lower tower was decommissioned
- the replacement light becoming operational at Southwold, further up
the coastline. The main lighthouse at Orfordness, however, remained -
for on this treacherous part of the coast, the need for a warning light was
vital for all who sailed the seas.
Wells Kendle (and his two daughters?) remained at Orfordness for
approximately five years.
In 1893 (Registered between October and December), Minnie Ada
Elizabeth, his eldest daughter - by now aged 25 - married in the
Registration District of Plomesgate.
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Acknowledgements