john devine
The sandy-colored hair belongs to Mr. Baxter’s great-grandmother, and the dark ponytail belongs to his great-grandmother.
Not everyone has the opportunity to physically touch their ancestors, but Richard Baxter experienced it in an unexpected way.
Mr Baxter, 47, who has lived in Cambridgeshire since March, was cleaning up his late mother’s house in the town when he looked into a wardrobe in her bedroom and found two brown paper bags.
He said he had made an absolutely incredible discovery. It was her great-grandmother’s and great-great-grandmother’s hair, and it was in perfect condition.
Baxter said he now plans to keep the locks, some of which date back to 1897, for “posterity.”
John Devine/BBC
Richard Baxter said he was “delighted” to be reunited with his long-lost friend’s hair.
“My mother told me years ago that her hair was falling out,” Baxter said.
“I saw the lock when I was a child, and I remember my grandmother telling me that the sandy lock was a gift from my great-grandmother.”
Ann Walton (nee Bailey) was born in Somersham in 1847 and lived in Whittlesea. She married a builder named Benjamin Walton.
Mr Baxter said he believed many of the properties Mr Walton built still remained in Whittlesea.
It is believed that her hair was collected and kept as a memento of her upon her death in 1897.
family contribution
Ann Walton (née Bailey). Mr Baxter said he was told the sandy-colored braids were taken from her after she died in 1897.
Mr. Baxter found a much darker and thicker “ponytail” in the second paper bag. This was very similar to what I was sporting a few years ago.
“Again, I was informed that this was a lock from my great-grandmother, Emma Marie Walton.”
She was born in 1877 and died in 1910 and also lived in Whittlesea.
“I heard that around 1908 she got a job working as a nanny in Montague Street, Bloomsbury,” Ms Baxter said.
He said the photo of his great-grandmother was taken around the time she started working in London. The role required him to keep his hair short. That’s when the ponytail was cut off.
family contribution
Emma Marie Walton grew up in Whittlesea and became a nanny in Bloomsbury around 1908, a job that required her to keep her hair short.
Mr Baxter said he would keep the locks “for posterity”, and while other family and friends thought it was “a little strange”, locks were a part of life and “I’m glad to have them.” I’m very happy to be able to do it,” he said. I thought it was abandoned years ago.
“Escape from decline”
Wisbech Fenland Museum curator Robert Bell said it had been common practice for centuries to keep hair as mementos of the living and the dead.
“The selection of hair as a physical reminder of humans probably stems from its chemical composition, which helps it escape decay in other parts of the body.
“The trend of creating mementos using the hair of the dead reached its peak during the Victorian era, when strands of the hair of deceased loved ones were placed in jewelry such as lockets and brooches.
“I’m familiar with small envelopes containing jewelry and locks of hair, but I’ve never seen hair as long as Mr. Baxter’s ancestors,” Bell added.
