Auckland House Gilwern

[sarah]

Hello,

We have received a letter in the post for you, this is what it says.

ctjp56 might be interested to know that I have a photograph of the Pickering Family standing in front of Auckland House taken in about 1916. I also have the information on our very interesting family, that includes a Major General who fought in the civil war, and a famous early nineteenth century civil engineer/surveyor that I have put into a family tree.

Dr Thomas Peirce (1832-1923) who was my Great Grandfather, qualified as a surgeon and emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand in about 1858, but the story goes that his wife never settled in NZ and the law at the time decreed that she had to return to England in order to claim an inheritance from her dead fathers estate. So, Thomas Peirce reluctantly returned to Gilwern with his family in about 1870 where  they rented a house that they named "Auckland House". It was used as a family home and a surgery until the early 1900's when they retired to Western Super Mare.

One of their daughters (Edith b 1870) married a Mr Pickering, who worked in his uncle's ironworks in the Cardiff area, and they took over (the tenancy, or purchased? ) Auckland House when her grandparents retired.  During her childhood, my mother used to stay with her Grandparents, and later the pickerings at Auckland House.  Pat and Pete Pickering are both names my mother mentioned and she remembers another Pickering family member being killed in the first World War.

Hope this is helpful 

[cjtp56]

Many thanks for forwarding the reply that came to you by letter concerning Auckland House ..I would be most interested to speak/ email to the author as all of the names mentioned are familiar to me & form part of my family's background. I would love to see the family photograph taken outside Auckland House as it probably features my father as a baby ( Sadly he died 4years ago aged 93 ) & of course other members of the family.
However, there are no contact details for the correspondent in your message...I wonder therefore if you would ask him / her to contact me...How that is to be achieved is a bit of a mystery as I probably shouldn't put my own contact details into an open forum ..Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated .
Once again many thanks for your help.
Chris Pickering

[sarah]

Hi Chris,

I will send you an email with the contact details on 

Regards Sarah

[tech1]

I came across this when researching Gordon Pickering as part of a Project I am involved with called 'Behind the Stones' in association with the Crickhowell Archive Centre. Its objective is to pull together a brief biography, with photos where available, of all those who died or served in WW1 within the old Crickhowell area. Gordon appears on the WW1 window memorial at St Elli's Church in Llanelly parish. We have some information on Gordon from the Census, Commonwealth Graves Commission and the local paper.  We hope to publish a small book to cover all those within the Crickhowell area who died or served to raise awareness of them and try to bring them to life as the real people they were and not just names on a memorial. Any information on Gordon or photographs of him would be  very helpful. Hill full name was Thomas Edward Gordon Pickering and he served in South Africa with the South African Mounted Police  and was assigned to the Defence Force during the war. He died in Cape Town on 1 November 1918 from pneumonia aged 28. As we aim to publish this any information that responders do not want published should be marked as such.

I live in Gilwern and not far from Auckland House with it's position overlooking the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal and often wanted to know more of its history. The exchanges I have seen already have been fascinating and I hope more comes forward as well as about Gordon.

Dave H