Mrs Pool(e) has become an important part of my life over the last couple of years. My artwork has grown and developed out of the search for who she was and what trace she left behind. I am so grateful to a woman who I have never met and never will do as she died long before I was born. When I put the exhibition together at the end of last year I decided I needed to lay Annie to rest but it was not to be! Recently, in a cemetery about 5 miles away, I stumbled across her grave whilst looking for someone else. I hadn't expected to find her there at all and was quite taken aback and emotional. Here she was with her parents Grace and Samuel Todd, husband Charles and son Samuel in a family grave.
Annie Poole's family Grave
Once again, I felt that this brought to an end my search for Annie but it was not to be. A few weeks ago I went back to the family history research I'd been doing and discovered a new link to someone in America researching the same Poole family. Her great uncle, still living in the north of England, is Annie Poole's grandson. He phoned me the other day and we had a lovely conversation! He is 90 and remembers her from when he was very young. His uncle Samuel, Annie's son, was a tailor and used to make his school trousers and caps for him.