Peter Cook
202 The Street
Boughton under Blean

Faversham
Kent ME 13 9AL

Tel: 01227 751300 mobile 07796 172680 email pcook78@btinternet.com

Maurice Raraty,
41 Bridge Down,
Bridge,

CT4 4BA.

Dear Mr Raraty,

Thank you once again for sending me the history of Bridge Windmill, whichl found
fascinating.

Thank you also for the pointers towards further research.

I have enclosed details as far as I know them so far, of my great, great, grandfather
Charles May, who was a miller at Bridge from 1841. I hope this is useful.

Charles May and his wife Elizabeth are buried in Bridge churchyard. The headstone is
about 50 feet to the right of the Church porch and forward a little way, obscured by an
elder bush.

I would be very grateful if you could send me a copy of the Bridge book. I enclose £5,
which should cover the postage costs.

Kind r6gar<ls//

   


Charles May

I WAS more than a little surprised to discover that I had a great great grandfather
buried just a few miles from my home, in the churchyard at Bridge.

May is my mother’s maiden name, and I had always assumed the family came from
the Portsmouth area, where my mother was born. This is because my grandfather
Walter May and great grandfather George May, were both in the Royal Navy and
their family home seems to have been Portsea Island.

However when I obtained my grandfather’s birth certificate, it showed that George
May and his wife Rebecca were living in Blue Town, Sheerness. I assumed this was
because of the Dockyard, and my great grandfather’s Naval career.

I obtained my great grandparents marriage certificate, which showed George’s father
to be Charles May, a miller. But it did not say where he was from.

Further researches on George May showed that he was born in Canterbury, and this
led to discovering his father Charles May, of Bridge, and mother Elizabeth, who was
born in Harbledown..

In 1841 Charles and Elizabeth May are shown as living in Bridge Street, Bridge. They
have a child one week old. Charles is described as miller.

In the 1851 census Charles May is 37, Elizabeth is 34, and they have eight children,
Charles, 8, Eliza, 9, George, 11, Hannah, 4, Harriott, 2, Lucy, 14, Maria, 1, and Mary
Ann, 5. They were living at 39 Bridge Village.

Charles is described as a journeyman miller.

In 1871 the family is at 30 Bridge Village. In addition to Charles and Elizabeth,
Alfred, 16, Emily, 14, Maria, 30, and Walter, 11, are living there. Charles is described
in this census as miller.

In 1881, Charles and Elizabeth are on their own at 17 Bridge Street, Bridge. Charles,
now 67, is described as a corn dealer.

Charles May was buried on May 10 1884 aged 70. Elizabeth died in Canterbury in
l89l aged 73 and was buried with Charles on July 8 of that year.

There is a record of a Thomas May, 65, in the Bridge Union Workhouse in the census
of 1841. But I have not been able to make a link between him and Charles May.