Greetham and Uppingham

When Samuel Sims left Uppingham in Rutland in 1852 and went to Australia he left behind his widowed mother, Mary, and his siblings. They were struggling financially because William Sims, the father, had died. Thirteen years later Samuel was able to bring his siblings to Australia after the death of the mother. Samuel was Phil's grandma Phelan's grandmother.

We know that the family lived in Leamington Terrace in Uppingham so we went to have a look. We found it to be a narrow one-sided street between the church and the prestigious Uppingham Grammar School. Most of the buildings in the terrace looked like they could have been there 160 years ago. We saw some of the school's pupils in the main street on their way to a sporting field.

Mary Sims nee Litherland (or Leatherland) was from a village called Greetham in north Rutland. We noticed a plaque on the little store, awarded for being village of the year in England several times.