Day 3: Exploring the Steeple Ashton Area

Here’s the second post sharing our adventures in the British Isles and Ireland from September 29 to October 17, 2025, for genealogy, business, and sightseeing. Hope you enjoy it!

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

On our first morning in Steeple Ashton, we slept until around 8:00 a.m. I took a shower and then went to the kitchen. I was happy to see there was coffee, but there was no traditional coffee maker, only two French presses. I’ve never used such a device, but I’ve witnessed the process. Still, I had no confidence in what I was doing, so I Googled it. No problem. It turned out great.

I found the food in the fridge and made us a nice hot breakfast. Afterward, Jim took a shower, and I started updating my journal. After a day of traveling, we were taking it slow and it wasn’t until 1:00 p.m. that we got on the road to see the “Silverthorne House.” It was a bit confusing that the Silverthorne House is located in East Town of West Ashton!

The Silverthorne House was the subject of a post on the All Things Silverthorn(e) Facebook page years ago. It was easy to find on Google maps at home, and we had no trouble finding it in person, well, what we THOUGHT was the Silverthorne House based on that Facebook post. But something didn’t seem right. If Brian had not given me the Silverthorne book the day before, I would have thought I found what I was looking for and been done.

We took lots of pictures of the wrong house and drove away, but a nagging feeling made me ask Jim to go back. By matching up the pictures in the book, I figured out that the real Silverthorne House was the one next door to the house that had been posted to Facebook. Google maps points to a house that matches the photos in the book Brian gave me. What made it difficult to identify is that the rear of the house faces the road. You cannot see the front unless you peek through foliage and trespass to the back of the building we thought was the Silverthorn house.

While we were walking around the area of the Silverthorne House, we saw a caution sign for old people crossing. It’s also funny because there is next-to-no traffic there! This was not the only “old person crossing” sign we saw on our travels in Great Britain and Ireland.

Back at the B&B, I reviewed the list of Silverthorne House owners in the book from Brian. I had thought about contacting the owners of the home to see if we could get closer to it, or even inside, and then, consulting Ancestry.com, I realized that I couldn’t prove that those owners were my direct ancestors! I’m sure they are related, and they could be in my direct line, but I haven’t nailed that down, so I wasn’t too motivated to contact the owners for a tour, when I had many other tasks to accomplish in the area.

Soon, it was almost 3:30 p.m., so we walked over to the church to meet with Rosemary, whom we had met the day before. Unfortunately, her meeting with some architects was running late, and she promised to meet us the next day at 6:00 p.m. She said the Silverthorne plaque was indeed in the Hey Library of the church, but she didn’t have her key with her. Of course, I was disappointed, but I was confident that Rosemary’s promise would be fulfilled the next day. 

While we were inside the church, we wandered around some more and took additional photos.

After emerging from the church, we stopped in at the Village Shop, which had a book on the history of Steeple Ashton, but it was only display, because it’s out of print. The nice man looked it up on Amazon, and I ordered a used copy.

Back at the B&B, we made reservations at a restaurant in Trowbridge, the next town over. It had been sold to a chain, but we figured it would be at least an English chain, and it had lots of vegan/vegetarian options, so it must be good, right? Well, in the first place, it was like a circus, and you had to download an app to order or stand in a long line. It was worse than the worst, tackiest restaurant back home. From the accents of the customers, we knew they were probably English rednecks! They sure didn’t sound like the woman we were renting the B&B from! We decided to get out of there.

We found another restaurant that seemed promising, but we had to park in a public lot and couldn’t figure out how to get to the actual restaurant, and we didn’t feel like figuring it out. We had passed this place called “The Lamb” that had its own parking lot, and it was in a very old building. It turned out to be very modest, same accents, but the Rotary Club was meeting there, and they had books and board games, so the place had to be good, right? It was a great experience. Friendly people, a close game of Scrabble (won’t say who won!), and excellent food and beer.

Back at the B&B for the night, I captioned photos and updated my journal while we watched BBC news on TV. The next day would be our last of exploring my ancestral lands. Not nearly enough time. Must.Go.Back.