On a recent visit to Badsey, John Grindle, whose Jelfs and Keen ancestors lived in Badsey for many years, took a trip round the village following the QR trail. This motivated him to send some photos from the family album. During the 19th and 20th centuries, both Jelfs and Keen were amongst the top ten names in Badsey. John is the grandson of Eric John Jelfs (1901-1975) and Elsie Connie Keen (1902-1988), who married at Badsey in 1928.
Eric Jelfs was born at Badsey on 4th June 1901, the son of Oliver and Fanny Jelfs of Orchard Way. He was one of five children, his siblings being Thomas Francis (1895-1998), Mary Caroline (1897-1972), Edmund Joseph (1899-1975) and Doris Winifred (1906-1974). Eric was not quite five years old when his father died in May 1906, aged 39. This was just four months after the birth of Doris, the youngest in the family. Elsie Keen was the youngest of nine children of Richard Keen (1858-1939) and his wife, Sarah Louisa (née Pethard).
In early married life, Eric and Elsie lived at what is now 33 Synehurst. They had two daughters, Elsie Mary (1928-1984) and Joan Evelyn (1934-1997). Some time after the death of Elsie’s father in 1939, they moved to Ivy House, Chapel Street, which had been the Keen family home since about 1918. Eric died there on 2nd April 1975, aged 73. Elsie remained in Badsey for the rest of her life, dying at Seward House Nursing Home on 23rd March 1988. Both are buried in the churchyard of St James, Badsey.
Daughter Elsie married Kenneth Michael Grindle at Badsey in 1951 and moved to Dorset. They had two sons, Michael and John. Pictured below are some photos which John has inherited.
