Great Aunt Nellie. Warning: it's all a bit surreal...[Yates Tree]

Now, at some point in my very distant memory, I remember being driven to Solihull, to sit for what seemed like an interminable length of time outside a large, suburban Victorian mansion. This may or may not be true, but I seem to remember that we had to take my grandmother there on some errand.

And I remember driving into what seemed like a double, gravelled driveway; and on the left was this large house. And I can remember looking back to the left of the house and behind it somewhat and seeing what seemed to be a monstrously enormous garden. In my mind I got out of the car and 'was allowed' to go into the nearest part of the garden, as far as to an ornamental fountain of some description. But I wasn't allowed to remain: I had to come back to the car as soon as possible, and the waiting again ensued.

I wonder if it is possible that this is true, because when I read the vivid description of her memories of this house, it sounds as if I might just have made it all up. My mother writes:

'They lived at Arden Vale which was a late Victorian or early Edwardian gentleman's residence in St Bernard's Rd, Olton, Solihull. It had a full-sized ballroom and it stood in a massive many-acred parkland setting, with sweeping lawns and formal tree setting. Huge cedar of Lebanons were underplanted with acres of blue/pink/white bells and rhododendrons stood in large clumps bigger than the plots of most modern-day houses. A large lily-pond with golden carp and rustic bridge was the focal point of the grounds. In the octagonal entrance hall was a larger-than-life-sized statue of a blackamore in a loincloth, bright-red turban and one gold earing, carring a huge flat pannier on his shoulder, which would be filled with fern fronds and fresh flowers, making a huge centrepiece. The hall floor was black and white marble squares and held a three-piece ebony suite with marble inlay. In Arminelle's boudoir was a full tiger skin with its mouth open in a snarl. Outside there was a black chauffeur-driven Daimler.'

Great Aunt Nellie was a legend in my mother's family: she was rich and kind to my grandmother, whose somewhat unhappy marriage had brought her this connection, and the kindness must have been so welcome. Did perhaps Nellie see something of her own marriage reflected in that of my grandparents? And this is my little discovery tonight: Aunty Nellie's real name was Arminell Baylis and she was born in 1881 in Hackney. This was determined by finding Charles W Cheney's marriage on FreeBMD and it yielded a wedding in 1913 in Hackney.

I found the following on St Bernard's Road, Olton, Solihull, and it gives some insight into the type of quality and scale of the place:

By the 13th century, Ulverlei was being referred to as 'Oulton' (meaning 'old town') to distinguish it from the 'new town' of Solihull. Olton remained largely agricultural until the opening of the station in 1869 and the development of St Bernard's Road. Part of the road that later be came St Bernard's Road appears on the 1839 Tithe map and, in 1869, a new road was constructed to link this road with the Warwick Road. Originally named Windmill Road, it had become St Bernard's Road by 1872, named after the seminary that was being built. The first house to be constructed in the road is thought to be Elmhurst (no. 21), which was used for a gathering of 200 people in 1872.

'Fairview' (no. 25) St Bernard's Road was the home of Frederick William Lanchester from 1893-97, an engineer who designed gliders, a motor boat and a motor car.

Another famous resident of Olton was Edith Holden, whose 'Nature Notes of 1906' were to be published in 1977 as the 'Country diary of an Edwardian Lady'. She lived with her parents and sisters at Gowan Bank (no. 15), Kineton Green Lane from 1905 and taught at a girls' school in Solihull.

Meanwhile, I am also trying to track down the Chapmans of Somerstown, but this is proving tricky. Let's see if I have more success tomorrow night....