Extract from email from Ron Castle, December 2001.....

I have got the info we seek on Ellen Harknett.  I had an educated guess it might be the lady it turned out to be.  Here are the marriage details, and I will add further comments;

   Married 4th October 1904 at Hornsey Parish Church, Mddlesex.

   Henry aged 62, a Widower and a Shoemaker of 14 Eastfield Road.  Father's name John Neech

   Ellen aged 28, a Spinster of the same address. Father's name Alfred George Harknett, a Cab Proprietor.

   Married with banns. Witnesses were;
   James Leggatt and Ada Foster.

This makes Ellen's parents;
   Alfred George Harknett and (H)Esther Brand.

Ellen's further details are that she was born 4/1/1882 in Warwick.  She was baptised, I took this from the Parish Register, on 16/2/1898 at St Paul's Hoddesdon, Herts, as the daughter of Alfred George and Esther Brand.  This is strange as Alf and Esther were married in 1868 in Warwick Cathedral.

Ellen's age at her marriage is suspect as you can see.  Alf was born in the village of WORMLEY in Herts.  This small village was near Hoddesdon and Broxbourne and in the Harknett catchment area as it were.  Alf and his brother William went to work at Warwick Racecourse as greenkeepers, and raised their families there.  William got into trouble with drink and gambling, was broke and came home to his family. I suspect Alf and his family came as well.  William got his breath back, as it were, and returned to the Birmingham area to run a pub!!  Both he and his wife died in Birmingham.

Alf stayed in Hoddeson with his wife and lived their lives out there.

Source : Ron Castle