I became intrigued by the Hockliffe surname when the 1881 UK census disks were published and I found to my surprise that there were only 31 people listed and of course this included the wives. At that stage it didn't occur to me to look for alternative spellings or wonder about transcription errors although I subsequently found 5 Hackliffe names indexed. Hockliffe was just one of the family names I grew up with. 'Grandma' Hockliffe was a formidable character even though confined to her bedroom, and eventually to her bed, during most of the time I knew her. I grew up in Bedford where Hockliffe's was one of the largest shops, built on the corner of the High Street and Lime Street in about 1885, selling books, stationery and fancy goods. It had a lending library and a separate second hand book shop. The village of Hockliffe is in Bedfordshire about 18 miles SW of Bedford on the A5, an old Roman road still known as Watling Street, so altogether I was very familiar with the name and hence my surprise at it's rarity.