I had it drummed into me from an early age that family and knowing where your roots come from are vitally important. My Grandfather, Edward Gordon Gedge, told me fantastic stories about his aristocratic life and my parents often said to me that I had ‘blue blood’ in my veins although I had no idea what they meant, and that I could trace my ancestry back to William the Conqueror. Living in New Zealand, I didn’t have any appreciation of my ancestry until I first came to England and visited Whitmore Hall – my roots; the ancestral home in Staffordshire. […]