This story, taken from a transcript of a newspaper article published in the Derby Evening Telegraph on Monday, 8th December,
1986, was supplied to Ray Fowke, publisher of Fowke Family Tree by Elizabeth Toop of Ontario, Canada.

NANNY FOWKE'S GREAT WALK
By Megan Boyes

Nothing on earth could deter the old gardener of Allestree Hall from making her way to the Old Bailey .  .  . in 1837

OLD ladies often show amazing powers of endurance but surely old Nanny Fowke, of Quarndon, must hold the all-time record
for sheer grit and stamina.
 
  At the age of over 90, in the year 1837, she walked the entire distance from Quarndon to London in five days. 

  As if this was not remarkable enough, she made the journey in early January when the roads leading from Derby to the capital
must have been seas of mud, turned by the hooves of horses and the wheels of carts and carriages.
 
  Her son, who judging from her own age, must have been over fifty-years-old, had been charged with assault in London on
December 31, having presumably celebrated New Year's Eve too well.
 
  As soon as she heard the news, Nanny set off for London with the intention of speaking on his behalf at his trial, which was to
be held at the Old Bailey.

  The fact that she would have to walk over 120 miles to do so did not seem to deter her in the slightest. She was a tough old
lady, being still employed by the Evans family of Allestree Hall as a gardener, a post she was to hold for another eight years, not
relinquishing it until she was 98-years-old!

  Being of an independent nature she did not try to enlist the support of the Evans family before she set out on her marathon
journey but proudly made her own way through the mid-winter darkness, the wet and the mud.

  It is not known if anyone accompanied her or where she slept at night. Perhaps it was under a hedgerow wrapped in her shawl,
perhaps in an outbuilding. History is mute on these points. She might even have had the occasional lift in a cart but walked the
story says, so perhaps walked it is.

  When her son's trial opened at the Old Bailey, a few days later, there she was, well enough to rise to her feet and plead on his
behalf. What is more, she did so successfully and he was acquited and fades from her story.

Quarndon Cottage

  It would be satisfying to think that old as he was, she gave him a cuff round the head for causing her so much trouble, but, be
that as it may, it is unlikely that he got away without receiving a lashing from her tongue before she set off on the return journey
to Derby, but this time she did not walk.

  By now her employers had heard her story and Mr Evans had sent the fare for her to return by stage coach. Possibly it was the
first time she had travelled in such style and no doubt she enjoyed every minute of it, uncomfortable though such journeys were.

  She returned to the gardens of Allestree Hall, working there until her retirement eight years later. She was to live for another five
years after that, in her little cottage in Quarndon and later in Derby, dying there in 1849, in her 103rd year.

Determined

 Her life had spanned five reigns. When she was born in 1746, George II was on the throne and, when she died, it was Queen
Victoria. Her death was worthy of a mention in the Derby Mercury of August 8, 1849, and, according to that newspaper,
she  retained "all her faculties" until the end but who would expect anything else from this determined little old lady who was as
tough as the boots she wore to do her gardening and walk the long way to London.

  How interesting it would have been if she had kept a record of her experience but it is doubtful that she could even read or
write.

  How much has been lost to us because the poor and those in humble circumstances could not leave their version for us of what
happened in the past, and we have to rely on the diaries, journals and letters of the intelligensia and of the upper and middle
classes.

Ordinary

  It is only when one of the thousands of ordinary people does something unusual like old Nanny Fowke, that they are heard of
at all as individuals. In this way the tapestry of history becomes of uneven weave.

  We are left with the glittering satin and silk threads but the more homespun greys and browns are lacking.

* * * * * *

The above article has been published in Fowke Family Tree for a number of years and just recently some information has been
located which might provide an answer as to just who Nanny Fowke, hitherto unknown, was, and something of her family.

Nanny Fowke's first name was Ann but we do not yet know her maiden name. She married John William Fowke, b.1749,
and they had a son, John Fowke, born 1778, at Nottingham, England, who married Jane Mee, b.1777, on 17th October, 1803.
Names of children and grandchildren of John and Jane are still being investigated.

Unfortunately the names of John William Fowke's parents are also still unknown.

Fowke ancestral home - Brewood Hall, Brewood, Staffordshire, England.

(Photo courtesy of Sue Costello)

William Fowke was living at Brewood Hall during the reign of King Edward (1399-1413), however references to a Manor held by the church on this site date back as far as 822. An early spelling of Brewood is "Breude" and this Celtic name means 'fearful place', a name derived from the dark forests which then covered much of the area. The Domesday Book records that the Bishop of Chester held 'Breude'.