1914 Nevard Wedding

This letter to my grandfather was written in great detail by his sister, Emily,

back in Lexden, Essex. Describing the wedding of their younger brother, Cecil Nevard to Ethel Nellie Cornish.

I was tempted to leave out some of the minute details of the pink helitropes and such
but thought at least one reader might find them of interest.





36 Straight Road Lexden,Essex
April 16, 1914


My Dear Horrie

Now I have some news to tell you I will write . I went up to London last Saturday and saw Cecil married to Ethel. It was a double wedding as her twin sister Alice was married directly after Cecil and Ethel. Of course one service answered for both.
The wedding took place at St. Mark's , Battersea at 1:30 p.m.
Mother went up with Cecil on Friday morning. Miss Dumm, Mrs. Cornish's aunt, went up with me. We met Will at Colchester Station and the 3 of us travelled up together. It was raining fast when we left here but by the time we reached Liverpool St. it had cleared up fine in time for the wedding. When they left in the afternoon the sun was shining bright. It couldn't very well shine on them in the church as the windows are high and the church is rather dull. Not so bright as Lexden church. The Rector of St. Mark's
married them. Our Rector, Mr. Evans promised Cecil he would go up and marry them and he fully intended to but two youngest girl Spurgeons wanted to be married on Saturday. The Rector tried to persuade them to put it off and tried to get another clergyman to take it but could'nt. You see a great many clergy object to marrying anyone on that day as they consider it Lent.
The service was fully choral. The organ played selections before the service during the time the people were assembling in the church.
We drove in style in a motor brougham. There were 6 motors employed for the bride's guests, etc. The service was very nice. The processional hymn was 281, Lead us heavenly father lead us, and the other was 578, O perfect love all human thought transcending.
The bride looked very nice dressed in cream crepe de chene with long trains. The dresses were trimmed with real lace.
They had white tulle veils and wreaths of orange blossom, carried bouquets of white carnations, lilac and white heather.
Ethel's two bridesmaids were dressed in very pale pink, almost flesh color crepe-de-chene and Alice's were in pale helitrope.
They all wore tunics (which is like a coat without sleeves) of cream lace tied around the waist with a girdle or sash. On their heads they wore little round caps of lace with a frill round. The ones that wore pink dresses carried helitrope lilies, and those that wore helitrope carried bouquets of pink carnations.
The reception was held in St. Mark's hall adjoining the church. It is a very large hall. You could put the institute inside it. There was a long table down each side of the hall. On one table the presents were arranged and the other was for refreshments. The large wedding cake stood on a table in the centre of the room. It was 2 tier, a large cake at the bottom and smaller one above, then a
receptable above full of lovely white flowers and smilax trailing down.

Mr. Cornish provided lunch for all the guests who cared to go to the hall before the service. We had ours at the house. The bridal group with Mr. and Mrs. Cornish and the 2 best men had their photo taken with the cake in center of group. There was plenty of nice dainties to eat, champagne,tea, coffee and other drinks. Piano and two violins played lively selections during the afternoon.

The brides and their bridegrooms changed their costumes in dressing rooms at the hall and each left in a motor about 4 p.m.

Cecil and Ethel for Lowestoft home, Alice and Bob, or rather, Mr. and Mrs. Duminel I should say, en route for Bournemouth.

We left the hall about 5 p.m. and returned to Mrs. Cornish's house again. We had supper and left just after 7 p.m.. Mr. Cornish provided a motor brougham for us to drive to Liverpool St.. We had a good view of London along the embankment. We passed St. Thomas' hospital, St. Paul's cathedral, Bank of England, and a lot of other places too numerous to mention. Mother,Miss Dumm and I came home but Will stayed on until Sunday night, being his first visit to London he wanted to see all he possibly could. We left a party of friends at the house.

Louie went to Sax station to see Cecil and Ethel as they were passing through. She took them some butter, eggs, bread and pickles. Cecil has a very nice house and nicely furnished. Mrs. Newton, his landlady, very sorry to part with him...............

Barn Repair 1944

I call this one "barn repair 1944". My grandfather, Tom Goff on the right
had called in the Nevard brothers, Horace, centre, and Ernest on the left
to come and lend a hand rebuilding his barn. The barn was originally log
construction and after nearly 40 years I guess the logs may have needed
some work. They removed the logs replacing them with double ply lumber.
Maybe money was a little more plentiful that fall from a good crop to
justify this extra expense. In this close up picture I can see the shiny
new nail heads in the boards.
Horace Nevard was pretty handy carpenter while his brother Ernest
was a bricklayer. They had come out from Essex, England some 40 years
earlier to seek their fortune homesteading in Saskatchewan, known at that
time as "District Of Assiniboia, N.W.T."
Tom Goff , brother Alf, and cousin Jack had also come from England, but from Dorset on the south coast about the same time as the Nevards and settled on homesteads about 3 miles apart.
 Maybe it was their shared British heritage that drew them together
but they became friends and neighbours for the rest of their lives. They formed the "Goff/Nevard threshing syndicate" in 1910 and bought their first threshing machine and stationary engine to power it. IH Famous engine
Eight years after this barn  photo was taken Horace's daughter married Tom's son and they became "in-laws" (And my grandfathers)

The Passing of Tom Goff

As was often the case, the Nevard and Goff history overlapped sometimes. 51 years ago this week, my grandfather, Tom Goff passed away. The occasion was recorded in Bill Nevard's journal as follows...

March 2: I went to Regina today on the bus. Found it somewhat messy, stepped in a puddle crossing Victoria avenue and wet my foot. I caught the Dewdney west bus to the Grey Nuns hospital. I had never been in this hospital before. I was given a pass card to Tom Goff's room at the desk and walked down a long corridor to the elevator and up to the third floor. Tom being in with three other patients looked so poorly that I hardly recognized him. I talked to him a bit but I could only hear what he said by putting my good ear close to his mouth. . Bill Dodd was there looking after him .

I did not stay long and on leaving the hospital I walked to the Geriatric centre. It took me 50 minutes so I couldn't stay there long either. Uncle Arthur seemed to be pretty good. I walked back to the bus depot with a bit of time to spare. On the bus home I was talking to a Mrs. Clark who used to be Nancy Griffin and has a store in Dysart.

March 3.....I drove to Lipton after dinner and called at Goff's where Mrs. Goff told me that Tom died this morning. Leslie was there and he and Mrs. Goff were going to the Fort to go with Sandy to Regina to make the necessary arrangements. Mrs. Goff would like Dick and I to be there Monday in case we are needed as bearers.

March 6......Mick Jennings took Dick's shift and Ernie Craven took mine so we could have the day off. We arrived at Goff's about 1:15. Lipton Church was filled for the service.

Pat Neil, Reg Waters, Will Wilson, Philip Fisher, Bill Michelson and I were the bearers. Canon Corkhill took the service and Alice Neil played the organ. It was cold at the cemetery and a nasty wind blowing but we didn't have to be there long. We went over to Goff's afterwards. All the Goffs, the Hobetzeders, Mrs. Wheale, Dick and I were there for lunch. After visiting for a while we came home.