Mareham Le Fen

     As you may recall, William and Rebekah Sharpe packed up their nine children, ranging in age from an infant to a 20-year old in 1869 or 1870 and moved to America. According to the 1861 English census, William farmed 28 acres in England. In America thanks to the Homestead Act, he could for a minimum amount and a promise to farm the land, attain 160 acres. The bill also provided a pathway to citizenship.

Drew, Erin, Lee and I walk around the Royal Oak in 2009.

Interior of Royal Oak - 1981

Interior Royal Oak - 2009

    And in the intervening century and a half, Sharpe descendants have been making the trip to the English homestead. It is known that Betsy Sharpe and her husband, Edward Walker, made maybe 3 trips back to England to see Edward's family in Chester, England. But I don't know if they made their way across England to the Sharpe homestead.

     But thanks to items that Laura and Dorothy Leib collected, I can tell you of two early trips in addition to my family's in 2009.

    These two photographs show the interior of the Royal Oak. I couldn't tell if the woman at the bar is Laura or Dorothy or a local patron. But in both photographs you can see the barrels that make up the bar. Betsy's nephew, son of her brother James, sailed across the ocean and visited the pub in 1964. His and his wife's notes from that visit said the homestead was now a pub, but according to a listing below the thatched building has been an inn since the 14th century.





Royals Oak's listing on the web

    The following 3 photographs show the side view of pub. It's clear in the 1964 one and the 2009 one that there is a French door on the side. It's not quite as clear in the 1981 one. The windows are all in the same places and the chimney is also. The distinctive thatched roof is apparent in the two earlier ones and not as clear in the 3rd because of its angle.

Royal Oak in 1964.

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Side view of the Royal Oak in 1981.

Drew standing outside the Royal Oak in 2009.

Rear view of the Royal Oak in 1964.

   The next two photographs show the rear of the pub. From what I can tell the Sharpes would have lived in the two-story wing attached to the rear. My thought is that the 1964 photograph shows pretty much what the house would have looked like in the 19th century.

     In the last 50 years there have been some changes and the central chimney is now gone and a small addition has been added above the back door where the despondent man is standing in 2009. But if you look above Lee you can see the thatched roof is still there.



    In the last photograph taken in 2009 you can see the distinctive top of the roof is still present. Not quite as neatly as in the past, but still visible. Maybe England has a dearth of thatch roof tradesmen.

Rear view in 2009.

Royal Pub front view in 2009.

Royal Oak - Sharpe Family Home