Places of Origin

NORFOLK

My earliest known CLARKE ancestors were born and raised in Norfolk ,a low lying county in the east of England. It had very old settlements who revolted against the Roman invaders in 47AD and again in 60AD led by Queen Boudica who was born there. Located on the east coast it was vulnerable to invasion by the Vikings, Angles and Saxons and by the fifth century the Angles had established control. It is fertile country on which arable agriculture and woollen industries were developed during the Middle Ages. The Broads are in Norfolk and it remains essentially rural in character with agriculture and tourism its main pursuits. The early Clarkes farmed there during the 1700s and later were in commerce.
Norwich, the capital of Norfolk was a Saxon village that became second only to London in importance at one time. The area was then the main centre of worsted manufacture and was one of the leading textile production regions until the 19th century.
Diss is a picturesque market town in Norfolk about 120kms north east of London and 30kms south of Norwich.It is on the river Waveney which is the border between Norfolk and Suffolk.
The villages of Thelverton, Roydon, Tivetshall, Pulham, Winfarthing and Oakley are within 10kms of Diss.
Martham, where great grandfather served his drapery apprenticeship, is a village just north of Norwich with an ancient Saxon history. I went there in the 1980s; it is a very pleasant little place with an attractive village green and a fine old Norman church dating from about 1377 on a church site mentioned even earlier in the Domesday Book.

BIRMINGHAM

At the height of Britain's industrial world domination, Birmingham was at its hub and described by many as "the workshop of the world". It had an effective transport system of canals and roads as well as the railway from 1838. By the middle of the 19th century Britain was producing half of the world's manufactured goods, the greatest portion of which was made in Birmingham. The Proud family lived there for most of the 19th century describing their occupation as "spur manufacturers".

SCOTLAND

Beauly and Urray are villages on the north coast of Scotland close to Inverness, Loch Ness and the historic battlefield of Culloden. Grandmother, Georgina Russell Fraser and her mother Sarah Campbell Fraser were respectively born in these two villages and it was in Beauly (1861) that step great grandfather Thomas had his first business as a saddler and harness maker before the Frasers moved via Glasgow (1871) to Birmingham (1881) and then South Africa (1888). The dates are when they were known to be in these places not necessarily when they moved there.