Something I think is rather remarkable happened this afternoon. I was, once again, out on my usual trundle: it’s a lovely day, so I was heading along the Thames between Woolwich and North Greenwich when I suddenly caught sight of two vans parked outside a block of flats. Nothing that unusual, but what gained my attention was the name on them. Now, I think I have a pretty rare name, and in fact I don’t remember ever coming across anybody who shares my surname ‘Goodsell’ on my travels. What made me do a bit of a double-take this afternoon, though, was the fact the vans were from ‘H. Goodsell and Son Ltd’, a company established in 1924. It immediately stopped me in my tracks, and I started to look around for whoever owned the vehicles – there was potentially interesting family history to discover, and even a long-lost relative.

It turned out, however, that the builders were working on the nearby ecology park, and that nobody from the family was there. But a little googling has revealed to me that H Goodsell and Son Ltd is a builders company based in Maidstone, Kent. I know I’m just blogging about seeing my own name on a couple of vans, but it was just one of those nice little surprises which keep me on my toes.