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PETE JENNINGS HOME PAGES
These pages cover the many interests of Pete Jennings: born 1953 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England and now living just over the Essex border in his native East Anglia.
 
Pete has had three main careers: on leaving school he completed an apprenticeship and became an External Planning Engineer for PO Telephones (now BT.) After 7 years he quit to become a salesman and sales manager with blue chip companies such as United Biscuits, Esselte Meto and Coca Cola, where he won the prestiguous UK Salesman of the Year award in 1986. Finally Pete embraced care work and was sponsored through university to gain a BA (Hons) in social work. He has now retired as a registered social worker. Previously he also studied as a counsellor / psychotherapist, gaining the BACP Diploma.
 
Pete is married to second wife Sue and between them they have four adult offsping plus seven grandchildren and a rescued lurcher Dobby. 
 
Outside of work Pete has pursued many other interests: he was National Media Officer and then President of the Pagan Federation, the largest umbrella organisation for many Pagan paths across Europe. His spiritual interests have also led him to become a writer with over three dozen books published and he lectures across the UK and abroad.
  
As a historical re-enactor Pete lead 'Ealdfaeder Anglo Saxons', who until recently were the semi resident group at the world famous Sutton Hoo site and elsewhere, and writes and lectures on aspects of Anglo Saxon & Viking culture. The group finished in 2023. 
 
Starting at the age of 12 Pete became a mobile disco dj and progressed on to twenty years of broadcasting folk shows on local radio stations BBC Radio Suffolk, Radio Orwell, Saxon Radio & VIC Radio.
 
Pete was the Green Man every May Day for East Suffolk Morris for many years and continued as the Wren Bearer for the Cutty Wren ceremony enacted each Boxing Day by Old Glory Molly in Middleton Suffolk until recently. He also founded the Magic Mummers and helped organise various folk clubs and festivals: including the Real Music Club Ipswich, Feast of Folk Ickworth, Folk at Snape Maltings, Felixstowe Folk Festival, Shotley Boat Festival, Toad & Raspberry Ipswich.
 
Pete has also regularly sung with folk bands such  as WYSIWYG, Bunkas & Rope and rock bands incuding Pyramid of Goats, Prof Keatons Experiment and Infra Red. Nowadays his entertaining revolves around re-enactment, lecturing and story telling as well as the odd bit of acting and filming. He recently retired from twenty years of guiding ghost walks around Ipswch. Since retiring Pete has also taken up painting.
  

   

 Pics: (Top) 'Last Journey'  film with John West. (Middle)  Orc & Villager in Lord of the Rings prequel 'Born of Hope'  film (Bottom) Dr Watson in a Sherlock Holmes Murder Mystery with the Irregular Special Players.

 
 

Although I have not lived there since about 1995 I still regard myself as a 'Suffolk Boy' and East Anglian. It is an important part of my personal identity, and I still retain a bit of my accent and dialect from there.

      

My  genealogy research has shown that my Jennings family descend from James Jennings (1796-1872) of Sproughton, Suffolk who moved to Ipswich where he was the licensee of the 3 Jolly Sailors pub.  To complicate matters in the 1880s descendant Thomas Jennings, an auction Porter married Mary Ann Jennings of Gt. Bentley in Essex. She was descended from William Jennings (1764- 1806) also of Gt Bentley. Maybe my surname should be Jennings-Jennings?

The Jennings surname is derived from Old Norse via the Normans who were Scandinavians despite living in what is now France. The name is a diminutive form of John like Johnny. 

My father's maternal line is the Rand family who lived in Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk in the early 1500s before moving around to Holton St Mary, Gt Blakenham, Debenham & Semer before settling in Ipswich.

My Mother's Howe paternal family originated in Bury St. Edmunds Suffolk, and over several centuries arrived in Ipswich, about 26 miles away. The earliest Howe ancestor traced so far  is Edmund How of Bury St. Edmunds, who was born in about 1670.  He married Susan in about 1698. Their descendants mainly lived in Thorpe Morieux, as well as Cockfield,  Preston St Mary and Lavenham (all in Suffolk) before settling in Ipswich

My mother's brother Lesley Howe ran the Old Bell Inn at Stoke Bridge Ipswich and later his family ran the Gardeners Arms on Bishops Hill, Ipswich.

Howe is a Middle English term for a small mound or hill, so the name indicates a person living near one.

Mother's maternal line name was Lambert, from a very early German origin. As a surname it started life in the 12th century, but the derivation is from a pre  5th century  personal name. My earliest recorded ancestor of that line is William Lambert who was born 1768 in Grundisburgh, Suffolk, England.  He married Sarah Braeme of Ipswich on 29 Oct 1797 in Grundisburgh,Suffolk.

I am much indebted to my cousin Patricia in Canada who researched my mother's family, and gave the fruits of her lengthy research to me freely. Thankyou

DNA I obtained my DNA record for both patrilinear and matrilinear material. I am wholly European (i.e. no recent Asian, Native American etc) The results are:

Gt Britain 68%, Scandinavian 10%, Irish 6%, Italy 4%, West Europe 4%, Iberian Peninsula 4%, European Jewish 3%, East European 1%.  Quite a mix - we are all mongrels! As someone keen on Anglo Saxon and Viking history I am pleased about the top two, although will be the first to admit that the  Scandinavian probably came via the Normans (boo!) because that is the most likely derivation of my surname Jennings. The Normans occupied a part of Frankish France under Rollo from Norway and his Viking band in about 918. I am proud to be such an eclectic mixture. No doubt my friends will now take great   delight in reading into this whatever they like!