Category: Work and Migration

People in the Lost Hamlets both arrived and left, this is looking at why and where they came from or went to, and especially how this was affected by their work and skills.

The Granite Connection 3 – The Threlkeld Connection

There was a report in the February 2013 Edition of the Newsletter of the Black Country Geological Society about Rowley Rag, the local granite which provided work for so many local people. One of their members Julie Schroder had visited the Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum  the previous year which lies in the valley between the Blencathra mountain and the village of  Threlkeld, close to Keswick in the Lake District. What, she pondered, is the connection with Rowley Rag?

Julie wrote

“The museum is housed in an unprepossessing building, but inside is an Aladdin’s cave of historical and geological treasures. We learned that the quarry opened in the 1870’s, initially to supply ballast for the Penrith – Keswick railway. The stone is a light grey in colour and was also used for kerbs and as dressed stone to face buildings. But there was also a demand for 4 inch ‘setts’ for roadways, which required the expertise of skilled stone dressers. And where better to find this expertise than in the quarrying community of Rowley Regis?

In the 1870’s some skilled quarry workers answered the call from far away Cumbria and took their skills to Threlkeld. One of these was our guide Donald’s grandfather. In Donald’s words: “My Grandfather on my mother’s side moved from Rowley in the 1870s as a sett maker. My Grandmother was a Levett. I believe they were butchers in Black Heath”. That was all Donald could tell us, but I felt that there’s a story here waiting to be unearthed.

I wonder how big was this exodus from the Black Country? Do you have any connections with the sett makers who went to Threlkeld?” asked Julie.

Copyright: The Black Country Archaeological Society

On the  ‘I remember Blackheath and Rowley Regis’ Facebook page a while ago Natalie Gazey mentioned that some families from Rowley had moved to Threlkeld in Cumbria in about 1900, as the quarry there needed their expert skills in making stone setts from granite. And Joyce Neech commented at the time that her great-aunt had retired there and wondered whether there was a connection.

So, yes, it seems that many Rowley folk, including myself, have a connection or two to the sett makers who went to Threlkeld. So I have spent a few hours finding out more about this expedition.

As with my previous information gathering about migrating workers, the Censuses were my first port of call. Mining for various minerals has been going on in the Cumbrian area since at least the 1600s and very possibly since Roman times. But Threlkeld is a very small village and it was a quick job to see in the censuses whether anyone born in Rowley Regis was living there. The 1870s had been mentioned as a possible start date and Natalie had said that her family had gone up there in about 1900.

The 1871 Census showed that there were Lead miners in Threlkeld who were from Devon and Cornwall but none from Rowley. In 1881, again, there were no Rowley folk there. Of course, these were only snapshots every ten years so it is possible that some people had come and gone in the intervening years. The overwhelming majority of the population there was native to Cumbria and mostly from an even closer area.

By 1891, that had changed. By then, there were thirty-six people living in and near Threlkeld who had clearly moved there to work at the quarry.

In the nearby village of Wanthwaite, St Johns-in-the-Vale, living in Blencathra Vue, there was a household headed by James Holcroft, a widower aged 38, a Granite Quarryman with his two nephews William Taylor, aged  16 who was a quarry labourer and James Taylor, aged 9, a scholar and Martha Haywood, aged 23 a domestic servant, all born in Rowley. James was still in St Johns in the next census in 1901.

Martha Haywood was to be married on 7 Dec 1891 to Thomas Smith, aged 22. Perhaps this was the Thomas Smith of Rowley Regis who was living along the row with Thomas Hill at the time of the Census. Or she may have married the Thomas Smith, a local lad, who was living with his family next door. Sadly this Martha appears to have died in Sept 1893 in St Johns, aged only 25 aand no children appear to have been born to this marriage.

Two doors away again in 1891 were John Clark aged 50, a sett maker born in Leicestershire and his wife Merriel, aged 39 who had been born in Staffordshire, although their four oldest children had been born in Shropshire, the next three in Yorkshire and the youngest aged 1 in Penrith, Cumberland, a familiar pattern from my previous studies, reflecting family movements between quarrying areas.  Moving on another house and there was George Burns, aged 33, a quarryman, born in Shepshed in Leicestershire where there was – of course – a large quarry, less than ten miles from Mountsorrel. His family were all born in Leicestershire. So not all the sett makers came from Rowley Regis.

Next door to him in Blencathra Vue was Thomas Hill, aged 24, a sett maker, born Rowley Regis, as were his wife Sarah aged 23 and their children Annie aged 5 and Edward aged 3. Lodging with them were Thomas Smith, aged 18, a Mason, born Rowley Regis (later to marry Martha Haywood in St John in the Vale), and John Bishop aged 18, also a mason but born in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire. Also William Dowell, aged 18 and William Dingley aged 36, both born in Rowley Regis, and William Wood, aged 36 from Graby , Leicestershire, John Sowell aged 30 from Yorkshire and Ben Derrey from Leicestershire. All these lodgers were single and all the last five were sett makers. These houses appear from later census details to have been two up, two down cottages without bathrooms or toilets, they must have been very crowded.

Their widowed neighbour George Noon, aged 40, was from Mountsorrel, all of his five children had been born in Durham.

A little way along the terrace was Thomas Clift, aged 22, lodging with a local family who was a general labourer and gave his place of birth as Portway, Staffordshire. (I have Clifts on my family tree, though somewhat earlier than this – but they lived in Lye Cross, Portway so were almost certainly connected! ) By 1901, Thomas was still in St Johns in the Vale but was married to a local girl and had three children born in Threlkeld.

A couple of doors down were Frederick Edwards who was 37 and a quarryman gave his birthplace as Staffordshire, as were his wife Ann Maria and their four children. I have been unable to find out for sure much about this Frederick Edwards. Edwards was a relatively common name in the area, well before the Rowley men arrived.

Two doors on again were Thomas Morton, aged 24 and a sett maker with his wife Maria, aged 21 and their son Thomas, aged 2, all born in Rowley. Thomas was my 1st cousin 3xremoved. They must have moved back and forth to Rowley at some point because by 1901, they were living in Northumberland (Thomas still working as a sett maker) and had three more children all born in Rowley Regis and then two more born in Blencathra, Cumberland in 1898 and 1900.  Also in his household in 1891 were seven single lodgers aged between 18 and 30, including William Dowell aged 18 and William Dingley, aged 30, both from Rowley Regis, the others from Leicestershire, all sett makers.

By Tango22 – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3826239

All of these were living in Blencathra Vue as it is listed in the census or Blencathra View in other records – and a glorious view it must have been, this is a very unspoiled area even now. The impression is that this must have been a terrace or terraces of cottages built for incoming workers. There is the pattern which became familiar when we were looking at the Mountsorrel and Shropshire connections in an earlier post, of young men moving to an area where their skills were in demand, where they lodged with local people or with fellow immigrants, often ten or a dozen to a cottage. I can find no reference to Blencathra View on modern maps but it seems likely that either it fell into dereliction or acquired other names in later years. Next time I visit my sister-in-law in Penrith, we may just go exploring and see whether we can find a likely row of houses!

Interestingly, in Church Street, Keswick, only a couple of miles away, was an Emily Mayo, born in Tividale who was a widow aged 60 and who was a Bookseller and Stationer, also there in 1901.

1901

By the time of the 1901 Census, there were still some Rowley people in the Threlkeld area. Thomas Hill who had been in St John in the Vale in 1891 was now living in Threlkeld village and giving his age as 39 (thirteen years older than the previous census!) and was now a quarryman and Innkeeper. His wife Sarah and children Annie and Edward were still at home, Annie working as a Barmaid and would marry a local man in 1904 and Edward gave his occupation as a Lead washer at the mines. Their domestic servant Elizabeth Davis, aged 18 was also born in Rowley Regis.

Also in the village was William Redfern, aged 25, a sett maker, born Staffordshire and married to a local girl with their 11 month old son.  

However, the overwhelming majority of Threlkeld residents were locally born.

Over in Quarry Cottages in St Johns in the Vale, Thomas Clift was still in residence and had married his local girl Laura and was still a granite quarryman.  Further along the row Samuel Knight, aged 22, born in Rowley, a Granite Kerb Dresser was lodging with a local family. It appears that young men who fancied a change of scene were still making their way to Threlkeld. Quarry Cottages seems to be the new name for Blencathra View because again, just along the row is James Holcroft, now 48 with his nephew William Taylor still living with him, but now with William’s locally born wife and their two small children. Both James and William were described as Granite Stone workers. Also still boarding with them was his nephew James Taylor, now aged 20, born Rowley Regis –  an engine driver in the granite quarry.

Next door was George Long, aged 45 who was also a quarry worker, born in Strensham, Worcestershire but his wife Rebecca, aged 43 came from Rowley and their three children had been born in Birmingham, Rowley Regis and Threlkeld.

Samuel Dowell aged 27 was also living in Quarry Cottages  with his wife Alice aged 29 and a boarder Frank Levett, aged 22, all from Rowley and both men working in the quarry. Samuel Dowell had married Alice Levett at St Lukes church in Cradley Heath on 16 Sep 1895, Alice was 23 and living in Rowley Regis , and was the daughter of John Levett who was a butcher in Garratts Lane, Old Hill. That Alice did have a brother Frank according to the 1881 Census so this was probably the Frank Levett boarding with them.

A few doors along was Frederick Edwards, a widower, aged 46 and his four sons, William aged 22, Joseph aged 20, Alfred aged 18 and Thomas aged 16, all born Rowley Regis and all working in the quarry. Frederick’s daughters Martha, aged 9 and Alice aged 7 had been born in Threlkeld.  

Next door to Frederick was Thomas Hackett, also a widower, aged 32 with his children William, aged 8, Ellen, aged 6, both born in Rowley Regis and Thomas aged 1 born in Threlkeld. There is only one GRO Death registration for a female Hackett in the Cockermouth Registration District in this period and that is for Sarah Ann Hackett who died in the June quarter of 1900, aged 32. The birth registration for Thomas, in the December qtr of 1899 shows her maiden name as Davis. Also in the household were Jesse Hackett (28) and what appears to be his wife Mary Hackett (28) who was described as a Housekeeper (Domestic). Jesse gave his place of birth as Baptist End, Worcestershire but Mary was from Rowley Regis.

Again, the majority of residents, including those working in the quarry were locally born in Cumberland though there was a sprinkling of workers from Leicestershire. It appears that marrying locally made it much more likely that you would stay in the area.

Emily Mayo was still in Keswick, still running her stationery and bookshop there.

Hailstone quarry workers, about 1910, shared by Ronald Woodhouse. Some of these may have been to Threlkeld or even been born there, they would certainly have known the families who went there.

1911

By 1911 the numbers of Rowley people had reduced considerably again. In Threlkeld there was only Robert William Stuart, aged 30, a quarryman who was born in Threlkeld and his wife Annie (nee Hill)  who was 27 and their lodger Edward Davies, aged 24 and also a quarryman and described as a cousin were both from Rowley so it is likely that Edward was Annie’s cousin. Robert and Annie had been married in the Penrith Registration District (which covers Threlkeld) in 1904 and Annie appears to have been the daughter of Thomas Hill who had been in the area for the two previous censuses.  

Frederick Edwards was still living in Quarry Cottages in St John’s in the Vale, with his son Alfred aged 28, a quarryman and daughter Alice aged 16 who was their housekeeper. Frederick and his wife Annie had been married in 1876 at Gornal, although Frederick was living in Perry’s Lake. Annie had died in 1896.

Also in Quarry Cottages Frank Levett , now 34, had married Annie Hindmoor Benbow in Threlkeld in June 1901 and they had three children, all born locally.

William Redfern , now aged 38 was also still living there with his wife Sarah Ellen (nee Airey) they had been married in 1900 locally and had four children, all born in Threlkeld.

James Taylor, now 29, (the nephew of James Holcroft) was by now married to Jane, nee Young Watson, and they had a one year old daughter.

Thomas Hackett, still a widower, now aged 42 was still in Quarry Cottages with his children William, (now aged 18 and a sett maker like his father), Ellen, aged 16, both born in Rowley Regis and Thomas aged 11 born in Threlkeld. The cottage is noted as having just four rooms so quite where they fitted in their boarder Elizabeth Harding, aged 38, a dressmaker and her two children aged 12 and 11 is interesting! Perhaps best not to ask…

In Keswick, Ellen Dora Long, aged 21 born in Rowley Regis and single, was a housemaid.

1921

By 1921, even fewer Rowley born people remained. Alfred Edwards, now 38 and still a quarryman, was living with his father-in-law Robert Stuart and Robert’s Rowley born wife Annie . Alfred’s wife Sarah Jane was the sub-post mistress in Threlkeld and they had a son Ernest, aged 6. Their boarder Edward Davies, aged 33 and born Rowley Regis was still with them, as in the previous census. So this family had strong Rowley connections.

In Lake Road, Keswick, Ellen Dora Long, aged 31, born in Rowley Regis and single, had advanced from housemaid to Cook!

So these are the official records I have been able to find which reflect the migrations between Rowley Regis and Threlkeld, apologies if I have missed anyone. There may have been shorter trips which were not captured by the censuses at ten year intervals but certainly the names mentioned by several members of the ‘I remember Blackheath and Rowley Regis’ Facebook page are included here.  And the Levett family mentioned by one of the volunteers at the Threlkeld Mining Museum.

GRO Births,  Marriages and Deaths

Another set of records which can show where families were at any given time since 1837 is the General Register Office Indexes of Births Marriages and Deaths. These are divided into quarters of the year and when I started working on my family history, you had to go to Somerset House in London and physically haul down the huge original registers and check each quarter separately. And it was very busy and if someone else had the volume you wanted to check, you just had to wait until they had finished with it. Time consuming, difficult to access, but still sometimes important. These days the indexes are available online, births and deaths through the GRO website, but also through Ancestry and FindMyPast . And they have been transcribed by FreeBMD, the sister organisation of FreeREG so I was able to spend a few hours today checking for births and deaths for some of the Rowley names in the Threlkeld area from 1880 through to 1930. And then to check some of those entries against marriages to see where those marriages had taken place. To do that in a matter of a few hours would have been unimaginable only a few years ago!

As a result of that, I was able to establish that there were four children born in the Cockermouth Registration District between 1883 and 1889 to a Hackett family, with a mother’s maiden name of Billingham. Now there is a Rowley combination if ever there was one! And sure enough, I found a marriage for a James Hackett and Ellen Billingham in the Dudley Registration District in the June qtr of 1882. But in fact this James Hackett was not a quarry worker and he was living in 1901 with his family in Workington, on the Cumberland coast, where he was working at the steelworks there. One can never assume even when something looks so obvious!

Similarly the family of Hackett/Sloan who baptised three children in the same registration district came from Ireland and Lancashire and were also living in Workington.  And the family of Hackett/Walker who had nine children in the same Registration District between 1897 and 1914 were also in Workington, though James, the head of the household and his uncle William who as living with him were both from Old Hill. So some but not all of the local Hackett families in Cumberland came from the Midlands and not all were involved with quarrying. Quarrying was not the only mobile skill!

There were Redfern births registered in the area between 1895 and 1910 and, interestingly a marriage of a Redfern in 1937. Similarly there were Dowell births in 1903 and then with a different mother’s maiden name in 1913 and 1919.

The Levett births in this period relate to Frank Levett who married Annie Hindmoor Benbow in 1901 and they had two children in 1902 and 1907. By 1911, Frank and Annie, with their children Sidney, James and John were living in Threlkeld with Annie’s parents James and Elizabeth Benbow, both men working as stone dressers. James Benbow was born in Clee Hill, Shropshire, Elizabeth in St Johns in the Vale, Frank Levett in Rowley, Annie and their first two children in Threlkeld and the last child in St Johns. A real granite area blended family!

But also in the June qtr of 1901, when Frank Levett had married Annie Benbow, Amy Levett, Franks sister, had married William Henry Edwards also in the Cockermouth RD. It is tempting to think that this was a double wedding! Sadly, the original registers do not appear to be available online so I cannot check this but it seems a coincidence that brother and sister married in the same area and the same time period.

William Henry Edwards aged 32 and Annie, aged 35 were living in Threlkeld in 1911, with their two children and both William and Annie were born in Rowley. The local schoolmistress was boarding with them. So were these the grandparents of the tour guide who was quoted right at the beginning of this post? I think they probably were. And he was quite correct, the Levetts still had a butcher’s shop in Birmingham Road, Blackheath, just opposite my grandfather’s house, in the 1950s when I was growing up, I can remember the smell of the sawdust which used to be scattered on the floor!

Joyce Neech has noted that her great-aunt , a later Martha Haywood (born in Rowley in 1891 and the niece of the Martha Haywood who was in Threlkeld in the 1891 Census) retired to Threlkeld after working most of her life in Rowley Regis so some connections obviously remained so that she knew enough of the area to want to live there.  There were other Haywoods not so far away, including a family of Haywoods in Sheffield, at least one of whom was married in the Cockermouth area.  But all of the Haywood families who were registering births in this area from 1903 onwards were in Workington and working at the steel works, which is also a trade associated with Sheffield. So how Martha came to retire to Threlkeld remains something of a mystery. But this Martha had nine brothers and sisters and her father had ten, one of who was married to a Redfern so it was entirely possible that one or more of these retained connections with the Rowley people who had stayed in Threlkeld. And yes, Martha Haywood is on my family tree, too – my 5th cousin, once removed!

So there was a certainly strong connection at this period between quarrymen and their families in Rowley and Threlkeld and some of those who had travelled to the area stayed there and some apparently have descendants there to this day. I hope this might be of interest to anyone who has this connection on their family tree. Rowley genes are spread around the country, it seems! It will certainly add some interest to my next visit to Penrith to see my sister-in-law and I shall be viewing the countryside with new interest.

Daily life in the hamlets in times gone by

In our generally comfortable living conditions today, it can be quite difficult to imagine the conditions in which our ancestors lived and worked. These are some memories which relate to Rowley and Blackheath, so technically may be considered outside of the area of the Lost Hamlets but I am sure that many of them apply also to the houses and residents there. Some of my own memories of growing up in Long Lane and Uplands Avenue are also included.

What the Vicar thought…

The Reverend George Barrs, who was Curate of St Giles from 1800 to 1840. He did not seem to have a high opinion of his parishioners and he wrote in the 1830s:-

“In 1831 the number of inhabited houses in the parish was 1366, the number of families occupying them 1420 made up of nearly 7500 individuals, an equal number of each sex, within a very few, the males predominating by only 7 or 8. 82 homes were then without inhabitants and only 5 building. Since then the state of trade has considerably improved, many houses have been built or are in progress but few unoccupied.  

Of the above number of families 140 were occupied in agriculture and 909 in manufacture, trade etc. Many however who are ranked as agriculturists are frequently engaged in some branch of trade or manufacture. A very large proportion of the manufacturers are nail makers and nearly all the women and girls; that being the chief pursuit of the operatives in this and surrounding parishes. Here chains of various descriptions and the making of gun barrels especially in time of war, find work for many hands. Here also the manufacture of Jews Harps is carried on and sometimes employs a considerable number of persons.

 A great many of the manufacturers are very poor and their families frequently appear clad in rags, and as if they could obtain but a slender pittance of life’s comforts or even necessities. This however is not to be attributed to their being destitute of the means of procuring these comforts in a degree unknown to other manufacturers but in their want of frugality, domestic economy and good management. Their work is laborious but they can generally earn good wages, which, if discreetly applied would furnish them with a comfortable competence. Unhappily however many, from their very youth contract habits of idleness and prodigality and these are a certain and fruitful source of rags and wretchedness. Since the national pest the “Beer Act” came into operation in 1830 their manners have become more dissolute, their morals more corrupt, their habits more idle and unthrifty and of course neither their personal appearance nor their domestic comforts has much improved.

Such is the degraded and grovelling condition into which many of the nailers are sunk that during the late war when wages were high those who could make a miserable living by earning 2 shillings a day would not earn another 2 pence when they might by no great exertion have earned 2 shillings a day. Of all descriptions of individuals these appear most anxious to observe to the very letter that maxim of holy writ “take no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself” The wretchedness that results from their conduct is indeed an undeniable proof of its criminality and of the enormous evil of such perversions.”

[Note: It is likely that this statistical information is taken from the 1831 Census which is not generally available and did not include as much detail as later censuses. This information relates to the whole ecclesiastical Parish, including Old Hill, Cradley Heath, Whiteheath and Tividale, not just the village of Rowley.]

It is evident that Barr was a man of strong opinions and a striking contempt for his working class parishioners. He had married into the Haden family and apparently lived at Haden Hall, rather than in the village. The resistance he met from local people in his campaign to build a new church may have contributed to his dislike for his parishioners, but surely there must have been a few decent people? Excessive drinking was undoubtedly a general problem in those times, though not limited to the Black Country and certainly the non-conformist churches were strongly against alcohol because of the problems it gave rise to in society. And I suspect that non-conformism, particularly amongst Methodists and Baptists was already strong in the area, perhaps even encouraged by the contempt of clergy such as Barrs.

A visitor’s view of Rowley Regis

Walter White, a traveller from London, visited the Black Country in 1860 and wrote about his observations in his book ‘All round the Wrekin’ . He walked through the village of Rowley Regis and along Hawes Lane and noted the numerous quarries producing ‘Rowley Rag’. He would have seen the breathtaking view over Old Hill from Hawes Lane, a view I later gazed out at from RRGS many a time. Later he went through Tippity Green, Perry’s Lake and over Turner’s Hill to Oakham, right through the Lost Hamlets, a long walk! He also noted, echoing round the village, the click-click and thump-thump of hammers, finding that nearly every cottage had a workshop with a forge in place of a washhouse. In each workshop he and his friend observed the same scene, three or four women hard at work together, sometimes with children helping.

He noted “The fire is in common; and one after another giving a pull at the bellows, each woman heats the end of two slender iron rods, withdraws the first, and by a few hammer strokes, fashions and cuts off the nail, thrusts the end into the fire and takes out the second rod and gets a nail from that in the same way. So the work goes merrily on.”

For the women working thus, it may not have been quite as merry as he found it.

Memories recorded by Wilson Jones

In his book The History of the Black Country (now available as a reprint)  J Wilson Jones recounts that he, born in Walthamstow, had moved as a boy to Rowley Regis in 1921, following the death of his mother. He was often taken by his father to visit elderly relatives on Sundays – one born in 1839, one in 1844, one in 1845 and one in 1847 so their memories went back a long way. How fortunate we are that Wilson Jones listened to and remembered their tales and recorded them for posterity.

He tells that “One old lady had been sold as a bond servant at Halesowen Cross and had received three pence per day wages; another had been employed down the mines, harnessed like a horse and drawing tubs. They had all been nailers and had walked three miles to fetch iron, laboured 109 hours weekly for a penny halfpenny an hour, raised 11 children and saved enough to be owners of three houses. Recreational hours were unknown and children did part time work from seven years of age, school was voluntary and the majority could not read. “

Black Country houses were mostly of a pattern, and I recall that my first family home in Long Lane, my grandfather’s house in Park Street and my great-aunt’s house in Darby Street all exactly fitted this pattern. Built in terraces there was a long entry from the street to the back of the house (because the front doors were never used!)  At the rear there was a scullery or kitchen, in later years sometimes using what had been a nailshop or Brewhouse joined to the house with a bluestone or blue brick yard. There were usually two rooms up and down with a cellar below.  The lavatory was also in the yard at the rear – luxury was having a separate one for each house, often two or three or more houses shared one and people have commented on Facebook, remembering this arrangement in cottages in Tippity Green, Perry’s Lake and Gadds Green.  And a garden where vegetables could be grown and perhaps room for pig and some chickens was a bonus and not always provided.  My grandad Hopkins produced wonderful pickled shallots and grew beautiful flowers, in his garden and allotment. To this day I think of him when I see drumstick primulas which I remember him wearing in his buttonhole, in a tiny silver holder, when he visited us on Sundays.

Later, when nailmaking at home ceased,  many workshops or brewhouses were linked to the house, sometimes with a glass roof and became the scullery or kitchen, often with bathrooms or toilets later added on at the back. My grandfather’s Victorian house in Park Street, Blackheath and our 1930s house in Uplands Avenue still had cast iron ranges in the 1950s with a lovely coal fire and a kettle that could be put on it. The range in Uplands Avenue even had a little oven and I can remember my dad cooking some little lamb chops in there, they tasted wonderful. And toast made in front of the fire, using a wire toasting fork and slices of bread, fresh from the bakery in Bell End, lavished with tub butter from the shop at the top of Mincing Lane, (this was Danish butter, I think, I can remember it was cut from the block in the tub in front of you, according to how much you wanted. The shop owner could judge perfectly how much to carve off, showing long years of experience.) That toast was glorious! Toast made now with mass produced bread and toasted with electric devices doesn’t taste the same at all.

My grandparents had rag rugs on the floor, no fitted carpets in those days – from memory these were made of rags clearly from old suits and any other sturdy fabric available, hooked into pieces of sacking and warmer on the feet than lino or brick floors, though the floor in the entry and in the link from the house to the scullery was made of blue bricks. The range in our house was taken out at some point in the late fifties and replaced with a fireplace with a posh gas fire with a Baxi Bermuda boiler behind it which made the whole house warmer and undoubtedly less dusty. And yes, like many people of my vintage, I can remember ice, exquisite ferny patterns, on the insides of the (unheated) bedroom windows in bad winters, hot water bottles were an essential and when it was really cold my dad used to put his army greatcoat over the bed, it was very heavy.  

When we moved from Long Lane to Uplands Avenue in about 1957 we had an indoor bathroom for the first time – at Long Lane the bath was a tin tub which hung on the wall, filled on bath nights from the copper in the outside washhouse. There were still gas brackets on the wall at Uplands Avenue, (though disused) which had provided the lighting originally, and I remember we had a gas fridge, not something you hear of today with a tiny freezer section which just accommodated a little metal ice-cube tray. Not that we got ice-cubes out of it very often, as the freezer box accumulated frost around itself so that it usually became a block of ice itself. And your fingers stuck to the metal tray if  you tried to extract the cubes. The trick was to hold it under the tap and hope the ice-cubes came out before they completely melted!  If the little gas pilot light on the fridge went out, as it did periodically, my dad had to crawl into the space under the sink with a taper to relight it through the tiny hole at the back with a distinct ‘whoomph. Funny memories!

In most houses, including my home well into the 1960s, the front room or parlour was rarely used. In Victorian times it might have had an aspidistra, hard uncomfortable horsehair stuffed furniture, and a glass display cabinet. Perhaps a harmonium or a piano – my grandad Hopkins loved playing piano and had a white one!  I can remember my great-aunt’s middle sitting room in Darby Street had a dining table with a deep red velour cloth with a fringe I loved playing with as a child, with a lace-edged white cotton table cloth over that. My aunt could remember visiting the same house in Darby Street when she was a child in the 1920s when her grandfather still made nails out in the workshop and she could remember that she was sometimes allowed to work the bellows for the forge for him. Despite being asthmatic, he walked regularly to the bottom of Powke Lane with a little cart to collect iron rod and coke for his forge from the Gas works, and to take his completed nails to be weighed.

On one occasion, Aunt Alice remembered, while ‘helping’ her grandfather, that she had got some ashes on her white pinafore and, realising that her mother would be cross with her, my great grandmother washed, dried and ironed it before she went home. In the days before washing machines, tumble driers and electric irons, this was no mean task and speaks volumes of her kindness. My aunt also remembered that her granny was a wonderful cook and she remembered freshly baked cakes and particularly custard tarts set out to cool on the window sill. Is it coincidence that my father, myself and my son all loved custard tarts? Who knows, perhaps there is such a thing as genetic memory!

Black Country dress remained the same, probably  until the 1920s. Women nailmakers wore black lace-up boots, woollen stockings, long black skirt with a shawl , sometimes a man’s cap. Men wore checked shirts and sturdy leather belts.  The photograph here shows my great grandmother Betsy Rose and my great aunts, taken in the doorway of their shop in Birmingham Road probably in the early 1920s or thereabouts, and her dress fits this description although her daughters are more fashionable! Old photographs from the time of chapel gatherings show that many of the older ladies appeared to be still wearing their ‘Sunday best’ outfits and hats from some decades before. ‘Sunday best’ was definitely a feature of life in those days and even in the 1950s with new outfits for children for the Anniversary each year and I can remember that the men in church always wore smart suits and ties, the ladies dresses or costumes and often hats – no dressing down!

My great-granny Rose with her daughters. Copyright: Glenys Sykes

Weekly routines

Each week in earlier times apparently had routines. Monday was washday and nailmaking , Tuesday brewing and nailmaking, Wednesday and Thursday house cleaning and nailmaking, Friday ess-hole and grate cleaning, knife polishing and nailmaking, Saturday Window cleaning and nailmaking, Sunday   – preparing the Sunday dinner, church, chapel and Sunday school – no work, not even sewing! The days were long, starting at six and often not ending until 10pm. For women, all of this on top of bearing children, caring for and feeding them,  there was little time for rest. Men often worked during the day at outside jobs, in the quarry, mines or farms but also made nails when they got home.

Meals also followed a routine – Sunday, the joint, Monday cold leftover meat, Tuesday broth, Wednesday boney pie, Thursday stew, Friday faggots or tripe. What they would have thought of our supermarkets, online shopping and ready meals I do not know!

But Wilson Jones notes also that, in his words,’ Black Country people had “hearts as big as buckets”, they would laugh with the merry and weep with the sad. Neighbours would share the duties of a sick woman, share their meals, deliver each other’s babies. There was never any knocking at the door, they lifted the latch and walked in. They would draw a pint of home brewed beer for the visitor, be he a vicar or insurance agent. Brewing reached an art that no other district shared. Each home had its ‘secret’ upon how many hops or what kind of malt was to be used. The fermentation had to be produced by no synthetic yeast but from the ‘barm’ passed from one relation to another. The visitor would be handed the glass of beer after it had been inspected for clearness and he had to express his opinion that it was better than ‘so-and-so’s’  – their beer was too muddy, too sweet or too sour’.

Looking back

So – living in tiny overcrowded houses with earthen floors, no running water or sanitation, big families, polluted air, deadly diseases when no cures were available leading to high infant mortality and often early deaths, men working in dangerous jobs in mines and quarries or in the constant heat and grime of factories and the nailshop, children working in nailshops, mines, quarries and factories from the age of seven or so, few shops,  little money, little or no healthcare provision, plenty of hard work – our ancestors had tough lives, and few luxuries but often a strong faith and caring communities.  I am deeply proud to be descended from them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

A ‘Fleet Marriage’ for a Rowley lad

While researching my 6xg-grandfather Edward Cole, some years ago, I had found what appeared to be his baptism in Rowley in 1680, the son of John and Joane Coal/Cole/Coles.  Spellings were flexible in those days as most people were illiterate and spellings varied with the priest or clerk who was making the record. Most people stayed within or near to their own communities and I think it is entirely possible that these Coles lived in or near Fingeryhole, marrying within the community, as they did for many future generations.

So I was very surprised a few years ago when Ancestry (where I keep my family tree) offered me a hint that Edward had been married in London in what is known as a Fleet Marriage. Ancestry hints can be useful but always need to be treated with caution and the original sources they refer to always have to be checked before I consider adding any information to my tree.

Feeling rather doubtful , I looked at the Fleet record for this marriage. But there was Edward Cole, a Nailer, marrying Diana Land in 1730. And in the Parish Records for Rowley Regis, over the next 27 years Edward and Diana Cole were baptising eleven children in Rowley Regis, so it does appear that this was the right marriage.

All sorts of queries arise. Why was a humble nailer from the tiny village of Rowley Regis in London? How did they meet? Edward was already fifty in 1730, so a very late marriage. Where was Diana from? Both of them were recorded at the time of the marriage as being from the Parish of Christchurch, Surrey . Why were they married in a Fleet Marriage? Most of these questions remain unanswered nearly twenty years after I first found out about this!

Fleet marriages or Fleet Registers: From the Middle Ages onwards, the ancient Fleet Prison was a prison for debtors and bankrupts and for persons charged with contempt of the Courts of Chancery, Exchequer and Common Pleas; it was also a place of confinement for persons committed from the Court of Star Chamber. It stood on the east bank of the Fleet River in London. More than 200,000 clandestine or irregular marriages were performed in London between 1667 and 1754. The area around the Fleet Prison was particularly notorious, hence the name ‘Fleet Registers’.  In the 1740s, over half of all London weddings were held at the Fleet (over 6500 per year) with a further thousand conducted at the May Fair Chapel.

By the late 17th century, provided that a couple exchanged vows and had some proof of this, then a marriage would be considered valid. Marriages by a form of ceremony conducted by an ordained clergyman, but without banns or licence, and generally not in a church or chapel, usually away from the parish of the bride or groom were termed clandestine marriages. The main appeal of clandestine marriages was seemingly for reasons of cost. Other reasons for their popularity included the avoidance of the need to obtain parental consent, and also to conceal embarrassing pregnancies.

The marriages performed at the Fleet involved all classes from London and the surrounding counties, but mainly catered for artisans, farmers, labourers and craftsmen from the poorer parishes of London, soldiers (including Chelsea Pensioners), and particularly sailors so this popularity with artisans would tally with Edward’s occupation as a nailer.

This drawing, copyright unknown, shows a Fleet marriage, not taking place within the Fleet prison but in the vicinity. The notebooks of the clergy taking the marriages are in the National Archives.

I can find no trace of Diana/Diannah Land anywhere before she marries Edward Cole, although there were Lands in Norfolk who had individuals over a period of years with the name Diana so that is a possible home area for her. Presumably she would have been about twenty or less when she married, as she had children for another 27 years.  If I have the correct Edward Cole, he was 50 at the time of the marriage so 77 when their last child was born – possible but unlikely, I suspect. He is the only Edward Cole baptised in Rowley Regis at that time.

Another possibility is that the Edward Cole who married at the Fleet was not the Edward Cole originally on my tree who was born in 1680. Going from his date of marriage to Diana (1730) and the dates of birth of his last child (1757), I would have expected his date of birth to be about 1705 but there is no Edward Cole born in Rowley in that period. Perhaps he was baptised nearby but if so, I have not yet found him. There are numerous other Cole births, the family was here and, from the fact that Edward and  Diana settled in Rowley and all their children after them, makes me think that there is a strong likelihood that Edward came from Rowley or at least had strong family links here.  So at present Edward and Diana are my earliest known ancestors in Rowley and many but not all of the Coles in and around the Lost Hamlets are descended from them.  However, Edward’s burial in 1766 seems to be the only mention of an Edward around that period.

I also puzzled about what a nailer from tiny Rowley Regis was doing living (presumably) in London, at least for long enough to meet and woo a bride. No doubt there were people then who got itchy feet and wanted to see the streets paved with gold, just like Dick Whittington, so perhaps Edward just wanted an adventure. Or – here it comes again – perhaps he travelled for work.

There was a family called Crowley in Rowley Regis in those times. They were nailmakers and iron mongers. The first Ambrose Crowley had a child baptised in Rowley in 1639 and the name appears in the Registers until well into the next century. One of the Crowleys moved to Stourbridge where he was a nailer and ironmonger and his son Ambrose moved to London where he became a hugely successful merchant , supplying nails and ironmongery to the Government and especially the navy. The navy used a lot of ironmongery! In the National Archives there is a lot of correspondence from this Ambrose Crowley, concerning the orders and deliveries.

I may do a separate article about Ambrose Crowley, later Sir Ambrose because he did have Rowley connections and he was obviously a very interesting man. However, I can’t definitely associate him with the lost hamlets!

He issued detailed instructions on how the nails he was buying should be packed (this document is still in the British Library)and it is clear that some of his supplies came from the Black Country, possibly through his father. Sir Ambrose listed all the kinds of nails made for him, with the marks placed on the bags before they were shipped to London. That the nails were transported in bags is plain from the detailed instructions he gave to his managers for ‘the bagging of Nails and Baggen’. He wrote:

“The unsizeableness of Baggen I have found to occasion Short and dumpling baggs or else extreme long so that it is impossible to regularly Pile them when at London. For remedy I do order my Baggen to be only of 2 breadths, namely 22 inches for weight na : Dock na : and Tile Pinns and for other sorts that will admit of a greater breadth to be 25 inches wide”. He then specified exactly how the bags should be cut and sewn to minimise waste of fabric and at the same time to ensure against any loss by leakage during transport. J Wilson Jones in his book says that in Rowley therefore, as soon as any one workman had made enough nails to fill a bag, his stock was weighed and his number put on a tally amd sewn up inside the bag, which was to be ‘well shaken’ before the end was ‘sewed up well not with too wide stitches’. To the outside of each bag the nailkeeper was to attach a tally of ‘seasoned white wood and holes burnt in for a fastening’. The words Crowley’s Best Tough’ were to be written on every tally with the mark appropriate to the nails inside as ‘Cowley’s Best Tough L7’ – Lead nails. So substandard nails could be traced back to the individual nailer, 17th century quality control! He certainly paid attention to detail, a very shrewd businessman.

He also set up a huge factory up on the Tyne.  There are numerous letters in the National Archives collections from him to the Government, requesting safe conducts for his named couriers and people making deliveries especially to naval dockyards, even for his lighterman who remained in London criss-crossing the Thames. The reason that he needed safe conducts was that this was the period when able bodied men anywhere near the coast were at risk of being press-ganged into the navy. Since Crowley’s business involved sending men frequently into precisely these areas to make deliveries, this would be a real hazard for them. He got his safe conducts!

When Sir Ambrose died in 1713, aged 54, he left over £100,000. He had premises in London at Greenwich and in Thames Street. His family continued the business and the naval contracts so it is more than likely that supplies from the Black Country continued to be sent to London.

This made me think about how the nails themselves would have been transported from their place of manufacture. From his factories on the Tyne Crowley apparently used ships. Were young men from Rowley recruited to escort the nails and other ironmongery by land to Crowley in London? Presumably, in the quantities he was selling them, they would have had to be transported by cart so they would be vulnerable to theft, so perhaps an escort was necessary. Perhaps Edward Cole took the chance to travel to the big city with nail deliveries and stayed a while or even visited regularly and got to know Diannah Land there.

Another possibility is that the Edward Cole born in 1680 worked for the Crowleys as a courier/nailkeeper, married and had children in London and that it was one of these children that married Diana Land. There was a marriage in  Jan 1704 between an Edward Cole and a Mary Downer at Southwark St George the Martyr who may, just possibly may, have been the parents of the Edward Cole, son of Edward and Mary Cole who was baptised in 1705, at St Martin in the Fields. This would fit with this scenario but there is no information in the register about their origins or abode and records are sparse at this early period.  So I may have a missing generation on my tree.

Edward Cole was buried in Rowley in 1766 and Diannah in 1770. They have many many descendants around Rowley.

All speculation on these connections but fun! 

The Granite Connections 2 – The Bedworth and Nuneaton Connection

Another place which appears from time to time in all of these quarrying communities as place of birth is Bedworth, near Nuneaton. I had noted some time ago from my own family history research that Nuneaton and Bedworth seemed to have various links with Rowley Regis. So, who shall I choose to look at with Nuneaton connections?

‘The Squire’

John Beet (1775-1844) who lived at Rowley Hall in the early 1800s and was known in Rowley as ‘The Squire’ was born near Nuneaton in 1775. I have a head start here as he was my second cousin 6xremoved, so I have already done quite a bit of research on him.

Rowley Hall 1893, Copyright unknown, drawing thought to be by H R Wilson, if details of Copyright are known please let me know.

In his will, proved in 1844, John Beet  left legacies to his cousins and family in Nuneaton in the event that his only daughter Elizabeth died childless (which she subsequently did. Her Clergyman husband contested the Will to try to prevent a substantial legacy going to the grandchildren of John Beet’s cousin but was unsuccessful, John had made very specific and unmistakeable provision for £3,000 to go back to his Nuneaton family although Rowley Hall and the mineral rights passed to the son of the clergyman by his first wife; he never lived there). John Beet’s Will makes it clear that he already had a substantial income from coal mining by 1844 and he disposed of his coal mining rights very carefully.

John Beet and his family have an impressive tomb still surviving in St Giles’s churchyard.

The memorial on one side of the Beet Tomb. John’s sister Elizabeth and her husband are also buried in this tomb and also his daughter Elizabeth, although apparently not her husband.

There have been a couple of mysteries for me about John Beet. First, how did he come to settle in Rowley Regis? His parents Thomas Beet and Sarah Dunn were married in Feb 1744 in St Philips in Birmingham. John was from and presumably raised in Witherley in Leicestershire.

I say presumably because John and his sister Elizabeth were the only two children of their parents, both baptised in Witherley but orphaned when John was six and his sister five.  I have the Wills of both John’s father and grandfather who both died in 1761 and both left what appeared to be substantial property to the two children. Thomas Beet Senior, John’s grandfather, describes himself as a Yeoman in his Will and left John  “my house and land situate and being in the parish of Halesowen in the County of Worcester now in the tenure of Cottrell together with all outhouses, edifices, buildings, Barns, stables, Yards, gardens, orchards, Backsides Homesteads, trees profits and appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining. My will is that my grandson John Beet aforesaid take possession and enter upon the aforesaid estate when he arrives at the age of seventeen.”

It sounds as though it was a very substantial farm. So there was a first indication of connections not far from Rowley. Plus he  left John another house in Bond End in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

John’s father Thomas, who died a few months before his father, described himself as a Husbandman in his Will, (which is defined as a farmer dealing with animals), and had also left him his own farm in Witherley, again to take possession when he was seventeen – which would have been in 1792. His sister was also left substantial bequests, including a house and all of Thomas Senior’s domestic goods which again would come to her when she was seventeen, in 1793. In the meantime trusteeship and guardianship of John and his sister appears to have been vested in Richard Beet of Nuneaton, who was a cousin and Benjamin Kirkby who I think was John’s  brother-in-law.

So where was Sarah Beet, John’s wife and mother to the children? There was no mention of her in either Will so it seemed likely that she was dead. Or perhaps she had run away, never to be spoken of again? She was certainly not buried in the Witherley area at that time, where both Thomases were.  And she had been married in Birmingham but that could cover many surrounding places. There was no formal registration of Births and Deaths before 1837 so you are looking for burials, or possibly a Will. But a will would be unusual for a young married woman.

So, whilst writing this article, I decided to try one resource which I was not familiar with when I last looked for Sarah’s burial. I searched FreeREG. (This is slightly ironic as some of my readers will be aware that I have been transcribing Rowley Regis and Blackheath church registers for the last couple of years for FreeREG.) So I entered the dates of daughter Elizabeth’s baptism (5 Dec 1776) and Sarah’s husband’s burial (23 Apr 1781) – such a short period, only five years. I searched the whole country. There were only two entries found. One was in Sheffield, not very likely, I thought, no known connections with that area. Then I looked at the second entry. St Giles Church, Rowley Regis. Sarah was buried in Rowley Regis….. and I was then able to find a baptism of a Sarah Dunn, also in Rowley Regis. (Not transcribed by me, I’m pleased to say, I surely wouldn’t have failed to make that connection had I transcribed the record!! ) There was a loud clunk in my brain as various things dropped into place – that was John Beet’s connection with Rowley, it was his mother’s home.  I have a new line to explore! 

I wonder whether John and his sister may have been less than popular with their Nuneaton cousins, with whom they were probably brought up.  The family seems to have practised primogeniture, the eldest son got all or most of the land and property which might account for other branches of the family being poorer. Thomas Beet the elder, having made very generous provision for John and his sister, left twenty shillings each – £1 – to each of his other grandchildren in the Nuneaton area, a very nominal sum. 

 Elizabeth Beet had apparently moved to Rowley with her brother John and she married William Sprigg a Gentleman of Dudley, at St Giles on 11 Apr 1799, when she was 23 so presumably brother and sister were already established in Rowley by then.  When the Enclosure Act went forward in 1807-1808, John Beet, of the Hall Farm, was relieved of manorial dues under that Act and, giving his occupation as ‘butcher’ he purchased land at Whiteheath, adjoining his existing property.  He married a local girl Sarah Higgs in 1818, before starting mining and quarrying on his property sometime later.

But John’s Beet family in Nuneaton and Weddington were graziers, people who raised and traded in cattle, an occupation which often includes farming or the butchery trade or both. As graziers and drovers they would travel round the countryside, buying up cattle, taking them back to their own farms and then fattening them ready for slaughtering and butchering. This may have been why Thomas Beet Senior owned a farm in Halesowen, to raise cattle there. The Beets may not have been the only graziers in Nuneaton, there was a Graziers Arms there, now demolished but sited on the Weddington Road, next to the railway station where probably they moved stock by rail once the railways had been built. Presumably as graziers they had their known routes and regular suppliers. Nuneaton would have been well placed, near to centres of population in Leicester, Coventry and Birmingham. Another branch of his family later settled in Coventry where they were butchers and poulterers, all in the butchery trade. Nuneaton had easy access to farming country and excellent transport links, situated just off Watling Street.

This 1841 map, copyright unknown, appears to be based on the Tithe Map and shows that although Nuneaton had a long main street and appeared prosperous and busy, it is surrounded by pasture, perfect for raising cattle.

There was another Beet living in Rowley, in Tippity Green, my 4xg-grandfather Thomas who was also born in Nuneaton in 1764 so was a few years older than John Beet. He also moved to Rowley Regis, probably twice. I was not sure, at first, whether there was any connection between Thomas and John Beet because certainly their stations in life were very different, wealthy squire and labourer/pauper. In 1841, 1851 and 1861 Thomas was living in Tippity Green, probably in the Poorhouse there.

There is a Removal Order from the Poor Law authorities in Nuneaton in 1820 relating to Thomas who was widowed and his two young sons who were deemed to have no Right of Settlement in Nuneaton, that is they were not entitled to go into the workhouse there or to parish relief and they were removed, sent to Rowley Regis. (Many thanks to my fourth cousin Margaret Thompson for sharing this with me, Thomas’s son Joseph was our mutual ancestor). The reason for this settlement decision is unclear as Thomas was born and married in Nuneaton and his sons were born there. One reason might be that he had previously lived and worked in Rowley which meant that the Poor Law Authorities in Nuneaton could repudiate him when he fell on hard times.  He died in the Poorhouse in Tippity Green in 1852, aged 88 and was noted in the Census as being blind.  But it seemed such a coincidence that both came from Nuneaton. It took a lot of digging amongst records and sideways clues but in the end I was able to confirm that Thomas and John Beet were second cousins.

They must, in a village the size of Rowley, have known each other, even if John Beet, for all his wealth, made no specific provision for his cousin in his Will. I have wondered whether Thomas worked for John Beet at an earlier date which might account for him losing his settlement rights in Nuneaton.  Thomas’s son Joseph was living in Spring Row which was the row of tied cottages behind Rowley Hall in 1851 and 1861, working as a labourer, so perhaps Joseph also worked for the Beet family, John Beet’s widow continued to live at the Hall after her husband’s death, until her own death in 1861. But John Beet’s line died with his daughter, whereas his cousin Thomas’s persisted for much longer. Beet Street in Blackheath may have been developed by John’s widow, who gave her occupation as ‘owner of houses’ and certainly some of Thomas’s descendants lived in Beet Street for some years.

However, in his Will, John Beet made the following bequest:

“I give and bequeath unto the clergyman of Rowley Church and the occupier of Rowley Hall for the time being the sum of three hundred pounds. And it is my wish and I direct them to nominate and appoint under their hands in writing six proper persons to be trustees jointly with them for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, that is to say: Upon trust to invest the said sum of three hundred pounds upon freehold or governmental security and to crave the interest and proceeds thereof and give and divide the same unto and between such poor persons residing in the parish of Rowley as they or the major part of them shall consider fit and proper objects for relief, part in clothes and part in money. I hereby direct that the clergyman and occupier of Rowley Hall for the time being shall in case any or other of the said trustees to be appointed by them shall die or refuse or become incapable or unwilling to act are to appoint other trustees or trustee in the place of the trustee or trustees so dying or refusing or becoming incapable or unwilling to act so that with the clergyman and occupier of Rowley Hall there shall always be eight trustees.” Perhaps John Beet had his cousin in mind when he made that provision. I have not found any reference to this Trust anywhere else so have no idea whether it was implemented, amalgamated with another Trust or, at some point, wound up.

I was also interested to note that one of Thomas’s sons Daniel was recorded as a ‘Horse Doctor’ and as a horse dealer in Quinton and then West Bromwich in later years, carrying on the family association with the trading of animals.

Other Bedworth connections

But in looking at these migrations for work, I have discovered more things in common for Bedworth/Nuneaton and Rowley Regis – Bedworth was the site of large stone quarry, with dolerite amongst the rocks found there – more quarrymen!  Industries in Tudor Nuneaton included leather tanning and brick making. From the mid-16th century, there was also an ironworking industry. Furthermore, although coal mining began in the Nuneaton area as early as the 14th century it boomed in the 17th and 18th centuries. And there were coal mines in Bedworth, too. Did Thomas come to Rowley to work in the quarry or a mine? Did he move with John and Elizabeth or was he here first? Was he blinded here in an accident or was it simply a medical condition such as cataracts? I shall never know.

In the 1851 Census, 78 people living in or within 5 miles of Rowley Regis gave their place of birth as Bedworth and 101 as Nuneaton. Many of these lived in the Dudley, Tipton and Tividale area.  John Darby, 49, Engineer lived at the Brades and gave his place of birth as Oldbury so he was not far from home. But his wife Jane was born in Blaenavon, South Wales and also in his household was a May Darby, a widow of 73, perhaps John’s mother, who was born in Bedworth. What do these three places have in common? Ironworks!

Job Millichip, aged 51 was living in St James’s Terrace, Dudley, he was an iron stone miner, born in Bedworth but his wife and all of his children were born in Dudley. 

Two women Susan Darby and Mary Haygill who were in Dudley Road described their husbands as Boatmen, presumably away from home on the night of the census and both women gave their place of birth as Bedworth. Canals would also have been an easy link between the Nuneaton/Bedworth and the Rowley area. Certainly in the 1861 Census, Joseph Eaton, in Hurst Lane Tipton, gave his occupation as a boatman and his place of birth as Manchester. But his wife Harriet was from Worcester and their son Joseph, aged 2 was born in Bedworth. Those with boatmen ancestors, including my husband, know well that when families lived on the boats, children could be born anywhere on the canal and river systems!

I was interested to see that two men Thomas Arnold, 24 and Henry Beasley, 37, listed in Tipton in the 1851 census gave their place of birth as Nuneaton and both were hairdressers, not a common occupation locally. Henry’s son George, aged 15 was also listed as a hairdresser, also born in Nuneaton. 

There were other Beasleys who came from Nuneaton in the 1861 Census.  Another Henry Beasley, aged 29 was living in Lye Cross, close to the Rowley and Oakham quarries, and he was a Stone Cutter. His wife Elizabeth, was a ‘riband weaver’ and their three children under six were all born in Nuneaton, so they had probably moved here recently.  Their boarder John Lilley, 47, also a stone cutter was also from Nuneaton. A visitor Mary Lilley, perhaps John’s relative, was from Wolvey near Nuneaton and was also a ‘riband weaver’. Coventry, only a few miles from Nuneaton, was well known for ribbon weaving – another skill on the move!

In the 1861 Census, 60 people living within 5 miles of Rowley gave their place of birth as Bedworth and 113 more as Nuneaton. Most were coal miners or stone cutters, this time many of them were in West Bromwich. In Tipton, John Butler, aged 60, was a ‘Pork Dealer’, another instance of the meat trade originating in Bedworth.

By contrast, only a handful of people living in Bedworth and Nuneaton in 1861 gave their place of birth as Rowley Regis. Familiar Rowley names – Enoch Hipkiss, 22 a nailer; Jesse Parker, aged 15, born in Rowley but son of a coal miner born in Bedworth; Benjamin Baker, 49 and his son David aged 14, Captain and Boat Boy respectively of a canal boat called ‘Industry’, more evidence for the existence of a canal link;  Josiah Whittal, aged 50, a whitesmith. In Nuneaton, John Smith, 16 year old was the Rowley born son of a Colliery Clerk born in Sedgley.

So a familiar pattern emerges, though not as pronounced as with Mountsorrel, of workers moving from Bedworth and Nuneaton to the Black Country for work, marrying locally and then often moving on or moving back. Two members of the ‘I remember Blackheath and Rowley Regis’ Facebook page have already told me that members of their family moved to or came from Bedworth/Nuneaton.

As I transcribe more censuses I may revisit this topic if any more of interest emerges.

The Clergy Connection

And there is one more link between Rowley and Nuneaton. The Reverend George Barrs, the notable Curate of Rowley Regis from 1800-1840, was also born in Caldecote in 1771, four years before John Beet. Caldecote is 2 miles north of Nuneaton and less than three miles from where John Beet’s family lived. 

Copyright unknown.

A coincidence? Perhaps! Might they have been at school together? There may be school records somewhere, I shall investigate. There is a family tree online for George Barrs, I shall also look at that to see whether I can find any links to the Beet family. Might the Squire have had some influence in the appointment of the curate and chosen someone he knew of from home? It does not seem unreasonable.

One more post to come on people moving for work – to Threlkeld in Cumberland, definitely connected to stone quarrying. But I have more research to do on that so it will not be for a while. Again, members of the ‘I remember Blackheath and Rowley Regis’ Facebook page have already mentioned this in comments, any further information would be very welcome.

The Granite Connections 1 – The Mountsorrel and Shropshire Connections

I have noted from Census entries for the Lost Hamlets over several decades that while most residents were from the village or the hamlets themselves, some people came from other areas. If a place recurs several times when I am transcribing, I look the place up to see whether I can work out the link and I often find that these places had granite quarries, just like Rowley.  Researching around this theme, I have found so much information that I am splitting the results into three posts.

To illustrate this migratory pattern, I have concentrated initially on looking at one family, the Hopewell  brothers who came to Rowley from Mountsorrel in Leicestershire, fifty miles away, in about 1841. There were numerous other migrant workers but I picked this family because there were three brothers to work on. I do not appear to be related to them, at least so far!

In the 1851 Census Thomas Hopewell (aged 30) and his brother Charles (24) were living in Tippity Green, probably lodging at the Bull’s Head. They both gave their occupation as Stone Cutter and both were born in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire. Thomas had already been living in Tippity Green in the 1841 Census, but the 1851 Census is the first which actually shows the place of birth, usually County and place. The 1841 Census does not show relationships within a household and just says whether someone was born in the County or not. In Rowley’s case, this means that someone could be born as close as Dudley, parts of Whiteheath or Gorsty Hill, Oldbury or Halesowen and still tick No so this is not a good indication of how far people had moved.

Thomas Hopewell had married Mary Trowman on 18 Sep 1843 at St Giles Church. His occupation then was given as a Stocktaker, perhaps at the quarry but there is no way of knowing for sure.  Mary gave her abode at the time of the marriage as Club Buildings and she was the daughter of Benjamin Trowman, a Jews Harp Maker. Thomas signed the Register so he was literate, as presumably he would need to be as a Stocktaker but Mary made her mark as most people in Rowley did at the time.

The marriage registers tell us that the father of the brothers was Septimus Hopewell and his occupation was given as a ‘Frame work slitter’ who does not appear ever to have moved from Leicestershire.  That would have been a very unfamiliar occupation in Rowley, and I think he was actually a frame work knitter. The framework knitting trade was common in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, making stockings but, like nailmaking, work at home which was very badly paid which is perhaps why Thomas and his brothers sought other employment. I have put a link at the end of this article to an interesting website about the conditions of Framework knitters.

There was at least one other Hopewell brother in the area, George Hopewell who married Mary Ann Masfield/Masefield in Rowley in 1842. George was also living in Tippity Green at the time of the marriage and was also a stone cutter. He died aged 47 in 1862, leaving his widow with his stepson. They do not appear to have had any other children.

Charles Hopewell, the youngest brother I have found in Rowley,  married Elizabeth Lowe in St Giles in 1852 but died aged only 32 in 1860 leaving his widow with five young children. Lowe is another Rowley name which will recur in this family tree. The children from Charles’s marriage appear to have stayed in the Rowley/Blackheath area although their mother had at least two more children and then remarried in 1870 to John Brooks, living almost next door to the Gadds in Ross. The Hopewell name in this part of the family appears to have been spelled as Oakwell in various records for some time, a hazard to the illiterate (and to the family history researcher)!  If you say Hopewell and drop the ‘h’ you can hear how that might happen. Later some of the children used the name Hopewell and some Oakwell and some swapped between the two…

Both George and Charles Hopewell were buried at St Giles.

In 1861 Thomas and Mary were living in Hawes Lane, Rowley with five children:  Annie, born 1844, Sarah, born 1847, George born 1850, Elizabeth born 1853 and Septimus born 1860, all in Rowley Regis. He was now described as a Stone Cutter.

Living next door to them were Joseph Lowe and his sons including Samuel, then aged 20 and Joseph, aged 18, both of whom feature later in the Hopewell family story. Thomas and Mary’s eldest daughter Annie married Samuel Lowe in Dudley in May 1861 and they stayed in Rowley for some years after her parents moved to Shropshire although her later children were also born in Shropshire.

Mountsorrel in Leicestershire, where the brothers came from, is described even today as ‘The village renowned for its granite quarry, the largest in Europe…  and the local area is built on granite. Organised quarrying of the granite in Mountsorrel Quarry began in the late eighteenth century, and the quarrying trade had around 500 employees by 1870.’ So there was certainly expertise in granite quarrying there.

Clee Hills, Shropshire:

There were apparently numerous granite quarries around the Clee Hills in Shropshire at this time, most of which are long closed now. Interestingly, there were a few Hopewells living in the area in the 1841 and 1851 censuses but I have not been able to link them to the brothers.

This map shows the locations of Mountsorrel in Leicestershire, Bedworth in Warwickshire, Rowley Regis and Cainham in Shropshire, all places which had a notable interchange of workers and their families.

Copyright Google maps.

By 1871 Thomas, Mary and three of their children were living in Cainham (now Caynham), Shropshire, thirty three miles from Rowley.

Most people in earlier censuses in Cainham were involved in agriculture but by 1871 there were many stone cutters, most of them incomers.  There is no mention of a quarry at Cainham in current information online about the village but in the 1871 Census there was a Quarry House and ‘The Stone Inn’ in Cainham, which are pretty good clues that there was a quarry operating then.  Quarry House was occupied by  a Quarry Man, his two lodgers were from Leicestershire – one from Mountsorrel and one from Sileby which is a nearby village, both stone cutters.

Next to the Stone Inn were the ‘New Buildings’, eight or nine houses, presumably built specially to accommodate incoming quarry workers,  as  six of these were occupied by stone cutters or sett makers, mostly born in  the Mountsorrel area  of Leicestershire, one from Bedworth in Warwickshire  plus a Clerk of Works who almost certainly also worked at the quarry. Amongst these were a sprinkling of wives and children from other granite producing areas, including several who gave their place of birth as Rowley Regis.

A few doors along the street from the New Buildings Thomas and Mary had living with them their sons  George aged 20, Septimus aged 11 and Benjamin aged 7. All the children were born in Rowley, plus two boarders.  Joseph Bissell, a familiar Rowley family name, aged 20, listed as from Staffordshire (but in all likelihood the Joseph Bissell who was baptised at St Giles on 26 Sep 1849, the son of Joseph and Mary Ann Bissell of Hawes Lane). Another lodger in their household was a Thomas Baum, born in Leicestershire, the Baum name recurs later in the Hopewell family history, too. Thomas Hopewell, his two older sons, George aged 20 and Septimus aged 11, and their two lodgers were all described as ‘stone cutters’. 

Next door was Thomas Rudkin, also born in Leicestershire and also a stone cutter, with his wife Jane and his daughter Sarah who were both born in Rowley Regis, three further children born in Cainham and his brother-in-law Thomas Parkes and mother-in-law Mary Parkes, both born in Rowley Regis.  Samuel Sharpe, aged 22, a few houses away was also a stone cutter, he was born in Mountsorrel, his wife in Cainham. A real mixture in Cainham of Mountsorrel , Cainham and Rowley Regis origins.

By the time of the 1881 Census, Thomas and Mary, both now 60 , were still living in Shropshire but had moved three miles along the road to Hope Baggott. Their son Benjamin, now 16, was still at home and their son George, with his wife Hannah and children Mary, aged 8, Joseph aged 6 and Anne, aged 2 were living next door. All of the men were stone cutters.

Interestingly, although George had been with Thomas and Mary in Cainham in 1871, his wife Hannah and two older children were all born in Rowley Regis, clearly in the interim George had gone home to Rowley to get married and stayed there for long enough to have two children before they all m oved to Shropshire. His bride Hannah Bissell, daughter of Joseph Bissell, lived in Tippity Green, so still in the Tippity Green area. It took me some time to find the record of their wedding in 1872, as the bridegroom’s name was recorded as Oakwell!  Was Hannah the sister of the Joseph Bissell who was lodging with the Hopewells in Cainham a year earlier? Yes, she was. What you might call close family links!

By 1891 Mary Hopewell was living in Clee Hill, Shropshire, a widow, although I have been completely unable to find a record of the death or burial of Thomas Hopewell in this period. Mary had two lodgers aged 20, Albert Varnham (her grandson by daughter Elizabeth) and James Masefield, both stone breakers.  The Masfield/Masefield/Macefield name has occurred in this family before, too – Mary’s brother-in-law George Hopewell was married to Mary Ann/Maria Masfield in 1842 so it is possible that there is a family connection here too. 

In 1901 Mary was still living independently in Cainham, still with two (different) lodgers, one of whom was born in Rowley Regis, sadly I cannot read his name but he was, as you might expect, a stone cutter.

Mary Hopewell, nee Trowman, died in March 1907, aged 88 and was buried at St Paul’s, Knowbury.

I have created a family tree for the Hopewells on Ancestry; if anyone has connections and would like to see it do let me know and I will give you a link. At present the tree is private.

I have not yet been able to trace all the Hopewell descendants although I know that Septimus Hopewell moved to Pistyll, near  Pwllheli, where he was working as a sett maker in 1881 and lodging with Daniel Baum and his family, (in 1871 a Thomas Baum had been lodging with his parents). Septimus appears to have been with his brother Benjamin in the Bradford area by 1901, both working as sett dressers. He returned to Cainham later and was living with his sister Elizabeth and her family there in 1911. He had then returned to Rowley Regis by 1921, still single, when he was living at 1 Tippity Green, as a lodger and working as a quarryman, full circle for this Hopewell! He appears to have died in the Dudley Registration District in 1930.

There are some connections with the Bradford area where some of the family worked as sett dressers at one point but I have not done a great deal of research on that. Again, the granite dressing skills, this time used in road making, are the connecting factor.

Several of the Varnham family, children of Elizabeth Hopewell, later moved to the Alnwick area of Northumberland, where most of them were sett makers! Follow the granite…

A moving pattern

So there is a pattern in the mid-1800s of stone cutters moving from Leicestershire, in particular the Mountsorrel area, to Rowley Regis, marrying local girls and having children there and then moving on to other quarrying areas.  The family patterns felt rather like ribbons intermingling on a maypole at times when I was trying to sort them out. Suddenly a familiar name would pop up again!

 It was obviously very common, even for families with several children , to accommodate and living in what were probably quite small cottages, for young single men to be taken in as lodgers, though it appears that in the case of the Hopewells they were often related or in close friendship groups.

Stone cutters were clearly not simply labourers, there are other entries in the censuses for labourers, both general and agricultural but stone cutters and sett makers, wherever their origins, are listed by their skill.

This photograph (brought to my attention by Ronald Terence Woodhouse) shows workers in the Hailstone Quarry and shows the size of some of the rocks they were working with. Imagine the effort needed to manually reduce that very hard rock down to small evenly shaped setts. Hard and dangerous work. It is also used on the front over of Anthony Page’s book on Rowley in Old Photographs and he notes that it was from the Ken Rock Collection: the photograph itself refers to BlackCountryMuse.com. Whichever owns the copyright, due acknowledgment is made!

Whether these movements of workers happened because the quarries sent recruiters to particular areas which had the skills they needed is not clear or whether word was spread by the men themselves that work was available or a combination of both. Some of these skilled workers settled in their new areas and many moved on again to another granite quarrying location where their skills would have been at a premium. If you have ancestors in Rowley who you know came from Leicestershire, or who subsequently moved to Shropshire, this may well account for it!

I will do another post about the Nuneaton/Bedworth connections to Rowley.  

And there was another migration wave, a little later on in the century , which I will write about in another piece – The Threlkeld Connection, to follow soon!

Other resources:

The Framework Knitters 1821

The Tippity Green Turnpike

The 1851 Census shows that there was a Turnpike Gate in Tippity Green. The Gate Keeper Hannah Hadley, aged 34, was listed, along with her husband Samuel (35) who was a Nailer’s Tool Maker and their nine children. If the Toll Keeper’s cottage was like most tollhouses that you see, it would have been fairly crowded, though that appeared to have been true of most houses in this area.

I was not previously aware that there was a turnpike road in this area. From the census enumerator’s route, it was at the end of Tippity Green and just before Perry’s Lake.

Copyright David & Charles.

This map is an extract from the OS First Edition, which had been surveyed in the period up to the early 1830s. The road from Tippity Green goes up Turner’s Hill, there is no road straight on to Portway from Perry’s Lake as shown in later maps, so perhaps the very straight wide road from Perry’s Lake to Portway at what became Four Ways was a new Toll Road. In which case there would have been another Toll House, presumably where it joined Portway, with Newbury Lane on the other side of the road leading on to Oldbury. It would have been a very convenient and much flatter improvement to the route, much to the benefit of industrial traffic and at least better off people would have been willing to pay a toll to avoid the hill.

Turnpikes were apparently usually set up to improve existing roads which parishes were struggling to maintain. They were roads administered by Trusts authorised by private Acts of Parliament, on which tolls were charged at gates. They first began in 1663 and gradually increased in numbers so that by 1820 over 1000 turnpike trusts controlled about 22,000 miles of road with 7000 or more gates. Mostly they followed the old roads up hill and down dale. But by the early 1800s, new turnpike roads were being planned along routes whhich had not previously existed. This may have been such a road.

I am now trying to track down more information about this, in the form of the Act of Parliament setting up the Trust or plans and documentation and have sent enquiries to local archives. This may take some little time so this is a teaser and I will keep you informed of any more information I find. Watch this space!

In the meantime, if anyone knows of any information about this turnpike, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

I have been unable to find another Toll House Keeper listed anywhere in the Portway area in the 1851 Census but it is possible that a different enumerator might have recorded only the main occupation of the husband.

It does occur to me that perhaps the new road from Springfield to Dudley might also have been a turnpike road, and, if so, there would have been a gate keeper’s cottage there, too. But that is pure speculation!


Copyright Alan Godfrey Maps

The windmill off Tippity Green, which is documented as being there for centuries, was also still marked on the earlier map, where Windmill Farm was later.

Incidentally, you can also see from this map that the road to Whiteheath from Rowley village goes past the church and then bends round in front of Rowley Hall (I am old enough to remember where Rowley Hall was!) and straight on to Throne Road and past what became known as Ramrod Hall Farm. There was no Hanover Road then. When the quarrying and mining to the North of Rowley Hall expanded it cut off this road so another route must have been found by local people who would still have needed to access the parish church for services, baptisms, marriages and burials.

Copyright Anthony Page

This photograph shows the ‘small quarry’ below Rowley Hall. No chance of walking the old route across this.

This closure must have been inconvenient for people living in the Whiteheath and Mincing Lane area but the quarrying and mining did offer work opportunities. In due course, another road was built from Mincing Lane/Bell End to the Hall to provide a road for vehicles, called, of course, the New Hall Road which is still there, now called Newhall Road.

I recall that, more than a century later when I was a child, people still cut from Bell End up the side of the ‘bonk’, over the now flattened old pit and quarry workings, past the old reservoir to come out at Rowley Hall, on their way to Rowley village and church (or school in Hawes Lane in my case) as the shortest route available. Old habits die hard!

Nails from Rowley Regis

My mother told me that each village and community in the Black Country had a speciality. Some made nails, some chains, locks, jews’ harps,  gun barrels. Certainly in the Cradley area, some gave their occupation in the parish registers as ‘oddworkers’ who apparently made latches and hinges. Such clever dexterous people! But within that, many villages had their own speciality in the type of nails they made.  Dudley made horse nails apparently, Rowley specialised in small nails, and I know that some of my ancestors, particularly the Roses, made rivets, a trade which was later moved into industrial premises, such as Gadd’s in Ross.

Why were nails needed?

Nails were used in many ways in years gone by, in building and timber work, in shoemaking (think hob-nailed boots!), in ship building, in horse shoeing, in wheel making,  in furniture making. Sometimes they were used partly as decoration and partly as strengthening or fortification, some medieval doors and chests still exist which are studded with nails, often domed or squared ones, which have survived several hundred years.  It is not a new industry, the Romans used iron nails which probably looked very similar to the ones our ancestors used. But while most blacksmiths could and did make nails when needed, especially if they were distant from the traditional nail making areas, the quantities produced in the Rowley and Black Country area were far in excess of local needs. So where did they go? They must have been sold elsewhere. More on that in a later article!

How long had nail-making been happening in Rowley?

Trades and professions do not generally appear in the parish registers until the 1600s although in 1554, one John Lowe was noted as a ‘Naylor’.  During the Commonwealth period, when Cromwell’s Laws required much more information on marriages to be kept, the records show a clear picture of nailmaking as the principal local industry. Between March 1656 and March 1657, for example, there were 25 weddings recorded in the Rowley Registers, of which 19 of the bridegrooms and 5 of the brides’ fathers were nailers. By 1841, it was still the main occupation listed in the Census that year. The numbers dropped, census by census after that, and after the mechanised production of nails began, the trade became uneconomic, causing a drop in the prices paid for hand wrought nails resulting in poverty and near starvation for nailer families and many were forced or tempted into other jobs, though many remained in metal working industries. Women and children probably carried on nail making while their menfolk worked in mines , quarries and factories and men may well have joined in when they came home from work. 

And some men continued as nailers well into the 20th century. My aunt, born in 1917, could remember visiting her Hingley grandparents in their Darby Street home in Blackheath where her grandfather Neri Hingley continued to make nails in his backyard nailshop, well into the 1920s, collecting bundles of rod, taking his nails to be weighed each week  and collecting coke for his forge in a trolley from the gas works in Powke Lane. Considering that my aunt said he was asthmatic, it must have been hard going. Cobblers apparently continued to prefer hand made nails for shoemaking which may have been what my great-grandfather was producing.

Hugh Bodey, in the Shire Book on nail making thinks that by the 15th century, there were specialist nailmakers in the West Midlands. In the 16th century, demand increased  as wooden floors were laid in houses which previously would have had earthen floors and as upper floors were inserted in previously open halls. The establishment and expansion of the navy in Tudor times and the growth of trade with demand for new trading ships also increased demand for nails. The production process was simplified and speeded up by the development of slitting mills from 1628 onwards which cut hammered and later rolled iron into rods which could be produced in various thicknesses and sizes, according to the size of nail to be produced. The abundant presence of coal and iron in the Midlands gave the area a great advantage, though of course it also led directly to the desecration of much of the landscape.  

The industry was mostly controlled by nailmasters, often the owners of the slitting mills, others were merchants of the finished nails. Later, in the nineteenth century, foggers took more part in the industry but these were notorious for giving out shortweight iron and weighing the returned nails on rigged scales. Little allowance was made for wastage and payment was often by the Tommy shops, in tokens which could be used only in shops owned by the fogger where awful quality food and short measure were common. Tommy shops were later abolished by Parliament. The nailers were little more than slaves and a report was made to parliament on the working and living conditions in 1843.

The report to Parliament describes the typical nailshop:

“The best forges are little brick shops of about 15 feet by 12 feet in which seven or eight individuals constantly work together, with no ventilation except the door and two slits, a loop-hole in the wall ; but the majority of these workplaces are very much smaller, filthily dirty, and, on looking in upon one of them when the fire is not lighted, presents the appearance of a dilapidated coalhole or little black den.

In the dirty den there are commonly at work a man and his wife and daughter…  Sometimes the wife carries on the forge with the aid of her children. The filthiness of the ground, the half-ragged, half-naked, unwashed persons at work, and the hot smoke, ashes, water and clouds of dust, are really dreadful.”

Parliament did nothing to improve conditions, the problem was more complex than anything covered by factory regulation before then.  These then were the conditions many of our ancestors worked in during the 19th century and for increasingly poor returns.

How many types of nails were there?

 J Wilson Jones shows the following types of nails which he says were listed by a London ironmonger as made in Rowley in the late 1600s, including nails he supplied to the Royal Navy, hence the reference to ‘for ye King’.  (I will do a separate post soon about this man as he has Rowley connections.). The sheer variety of nails being made is astonishing, although this man also had manufacturing premise in the North-East so some of them may have been made there.  

Taken from my original copy of J Wilson Jone’s book, details below.

Brief Lives

So, for all of us who have nail-making ancestors in Rowley, there is a glimpse of the conditions in which many worked.  It is small wonder that so many died young.  John Cobden wrote a book, published in 1854 titled “The White Slaves of England” in which he described the working conditions in such trades and in dressmaking , the Workhouse system and also in the cotton mills of Northern England which is listed below, written in somewhat dire language and not cheerful reading!

Britain may have abolished slavery in Great Britain and fought to abolish it elsewhere but much of the profits of the wealthy manufacturing classes in the Industrial Revolution came from the hard physical work and the deprived conditions in which tens of thousands of the poorest workers existed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Further reading:

Nailmaking by Hugh Bodey, Shire Books. ISBN: 978-0-85263-60-0

The History of the Black Country by J Wilson Jones, originally published in about 1950, recently republished by Royston Slim, Janus Books.

The White Slaves of England by John Cobden – Digital download – free.

https://archive.org/details/whiteslavesofeng00cobduoft

There is an interesting article on the West Midlands Nail Trade here: https://historywm.com/file/historywm/the-west-mids-nail-trade-article-guy-sjogren-final-80502.pdf

Some statistics about the people living in the hamlets in 1841

So.. What did they do for a living?

In 1841, the population of Tippity Green, Perry’s Lake, Gadds Green and Turner’s Hill numbered 384.

The occupations listed for them were:

Blacksmith                          1

Butcher                                  1

Coal Miners                        13

Farmers                               5

Female servants               8

Forge filer                           1

Independent means      1

Ironmonger                        1

Jobbing Smith                    1

Labourers                            9

Male Servants                   5

Nail factor                           1

Nail tinner                           1

Nailmakers                         38

Publicans                             1

Registrar of B&D               1

Shoemaker                         1

Stick dresser                      1

Warehouseman                1

Wash for hire                     1

A couple of entries have no occupation shown, this may be because those men were out of work or simply an omission.

Nailmaking was by far the dominant occupation, coal mining was not yet a major employer . Very few occupations were listed for women unless they were widows, despite the fact that most women and many children also made nails at this time. No scholars were listed though that may not mean that no children went to school, there was at least one school in Rowley Regis at this time, it simply may not have been recorded.

Note that the local Registrar of Births and Deaths John Woodhouse was living in Tippity Green, his son William would succeed him in that role in due course.  I have many copy certificates of births and deaths with their signatures.

There appear to have been few shopkeepers at this time, people had to be self-sufficient or buy necessities from further afield, although there may have been some informal grocery shops in front rooms! Many households would have kept chickens and pigs and may have acquired the occasional rabbit for the pot, and presumably grown vegetables if they had gardens.

Where were they from?

Only 46 of the 384 were born outside the County of Staffordshire.

Of these 46 only 10 were born in Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts. 5 men and 5 women.  No information is shown in this census about where others came from but more is shown in later censuses.

How old were they?

Ages in the 1841 Census were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest five years. So if you were 38, your age was shown as 35. A trap which can mislead family historians who are not aware of this and who are looking for an ancestor of a particular age. And at this time ordinary people were often neither literate nor numerate so ages in this Census should be treated with caution

In this chart the ages are shown along the bottom. As it shows, it appears that living beyond 50 was good going and beyond 60 was a rarity. Two of the four  aged 75 were men living in Tippity Green in the Parish Poorhouse, one of them blind, the first woman was living on Turner’s Hill, the ‘wash for hire’ listed in the occupations and the second woman was living alone in Perry’s Lake.  But with no pensions, most people worked for as long as they lived.

Ages of adults:

Adults’ Ages in the 1841 Census

Younger people

The Census required the ages of those under 15 to be shown by year, perhaps to enable the Government to track child mortality.

Children’s ages in the 1841 Census

Transcribing burial records for Rowley Regis has shown me that great numbers of babies died – of debility, decline, lung and bowel problems – before their first birthdays. These will often not appear at all in Census records if their short lives fell between censuses. And older children succumbed to whooping cough, smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, typhus fever (as did numerous adults) and consumption (Tuberculosis).  Poor nutrition, cramped living conditions and exposure to smoke and air pollution would not have helped.

My apologies for the poor quality of some of these images: I am new to this medium and on a steep learning curve, I hope this will improve as I become more accustomed to it.

So these are the basic statistics for the population of the lost hamlets taken from the 1841 Census. In future posts, I will explore more about the families behind the numbers.

Families in the Lost Hamlets 1841-1881

There are 13 families who were living in the hamlets of Perry’s Lake, Gadd’s Green and Turner’s Hill area for all five censuses which I have so far transcribed. All are familiar Rowley names:

Cole, Cutler, Darby, Foster, Hill, Hipkiss, Levett, Parkes, Redfern, Simpson, Taylor, Whitehall/Whittall and Woodhouse.

A further 9 families had moved in between 1841 and 1851 and were in all four of the 1851-1881 Censuses:

Barnsley, Detheridge, Edwards, Hadley, Harcourt, Ingram, Jones, Knight, Ocroft, Payne and Timmings/Timmins.

Four families were in the 1841-1871 Censuses but had moved on by 1881 – Badley, Downing, Round and Siviter.

When time permits, I will check where these families had moved to.

Certainly there will have been marriages between these families and they were most likely closely interrelated over those years.

This information will be updated as more censuses are transcribed.