EVENTS Our Annual Exhibition is next Saturday, September 30th at the Community Centre (Village Hall) in Pinfold Lane from 10am – 4pm with the theme of ‘People, Places, Maps & Mines’ and 9,000 photographs will be available to browse through. Free admission.

OUR SALEM BASE is open to everyone from 9am – 2pm every Tuesday.

REQUESTS No requests received this week.

RESPONSES Following the news of the passing of Willi Schaefer, Derek Bullock from Canada emails his recollections at Abbey Dropforgings during the 1950s.

Thanks to our three researchers we were able to produce the information that Ellie required for the compilation of the histories of her Elwell family.

Further to Roger’s request earlier this month in tracing the family of Jack Hughes who married Dorothy Foster at St Marks in 1943 we have been contacted by one of our members, who has been able to update us in our research from Dorothy’s two marriages.

NEW PHOTOGRAPHS Two photographs, both involving The Lot, now Park Street. The old cottages in March 1984 before they were demolished (PL-PAR-26), and the Perks family including Sarah, Fred, Nigel & Anthony Perks, Kath & Mac Walmsley, Charlie & Lorraine (nee Haycox) Vernon and Chris Jervis outside 23 The Lot in 1956 (PL-PAR-27). £1 per 7×5 Photographic Print.

ARCHIVE ADDITIONS/ARTEFACTS/DONATIONS Certificates of Harry Cartwright and Rhoda Whitehouse marriage (26 Dec 1881) and birth certificate of Daniel Cartwright (24 Apr 1886).

EXTRACTS FROM CANNOCK ADVERTISER researched by Dave Washington

Death of reporter George Follows in the Manchester United air crash (25 Jan 1958) and Isaac Stokes drawing attention to the increasing costs of maintaining the Salem Church (1 Mar 1958).

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO by Mike Belcher

28th September 1967 Cheslyn Hay village may soon have the help of a working party of enthusiastic teenagers from the Great Wyrley Secondary Modern School.

29th September 1917 Recognition of the workers of the Women’s Working Committee with Mr F Wynn, Mrs R Evans and Miss Lily Cartwright.

29th September 1917 The Annual Harvest Festival in connection with the Primitive Methodist Church was held on Sunday last mentioing Mr Lawrence Hood and Mr S Allen.

MEMORIES Once again we turn to Pat Everiss’s researches with one of her narratives, a full and descriptive, poignant piece written about the history of our own War Memorial.

WWI COMMEMORATION This October we commemorate the death of Captain Clarence V Hawkins of the 5th Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment, who was killed on 26th September 1917 aged 25, son of Thomas and Alethea Hawkins, of Glenthorne House, Cheslyn Hay, and remembered with honour at the Loos Memorial.
WILLI SCHAEFER Willi’s funeral is on Wednesday, 27th September at the Bushbury Crematorium at 3.00pm.

trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

EVENTS We have no speaker this month because of our Exhibition on Saturday 30th September, but Bridgtown LHS have John Devey giving a talk on ‘A Walk to Cannock and Back’ at the Bethel Church, Union Street, on Wednesday, 20th September, starting at 10am.

OUR SALEM BASE is open from 9am – 2pm every Tuesday and this week Philip Jones is following up with more research on his Rowley family.

REQUESTS Just received a welcome request from Ellie who is writing two life histories of her Elwell family. I have always said that everyone should write an outline of their own memories of their grandparents and family members for future generations and hopefully we may be able to help Ellie in her quest. Alfred Elwell was born on 11th January 1866 in Bilston, to a James Elwell and Eliza (nee Dudley) and he married Jane Holland (b1869) on 8th October 1888 at St Matthews Church, Wolverhampton. They had two children – Alice (b1890) and Leonard (b1893). The family are on the 1911 census living at 91 Station Street, Cheslyn Hay, along with a child named Alfred, recorded as a son aged two, but as Jane is 45, I am assuming the child might be a son of Alice who is aged 20 or even Leonard. My main reason for contacting you is because I am doing life stories of Alfred and his nine siblings for a birthday present for a descendant of their great niece, Iris Sharrott, who will soon be 93 and she is the great-granddaughter of Alfred’s brother James Elwell (b1868) at Highfields, Ettingshall as confirmed by his birth certificate, but I have not been able to find the family on the censuses pre 1891 when they lived in Pelsall. I have noticed that there is an Elwell’s Garden Nursery in Cheslyn Hay and I wondered if they may be descended from Alfred and Jane. Or have you any information on Alfred that I could add to his story. His occupation was a colliery engineer.

RESPONSES An email from Gary in France responding to a request in our newsletter dated 10 April 2016, from Julie Cooke, for a photograph of Ted Wilkes and offers to help. They are now in contact with each other and Julie confirms that her paternal grandmother was Elsie Wilkes (b1895) who married William Bevan in 1920, having seven children, the youngest being her dad, Edgar Thomas Wilkes (1935 – 94). Julie assumes that Gary’s wife is the granddaughter of Ted, Elsie’s brother. Ted (b1887) married Hannah Knowles (b1888) and had three daughters, Gertrude (Nancy), Hilda and Dorothy M. Gary is now sorting through his photographs, so hopefully Julie’s request will now come to a satisfactory conclusion.

Our researcher Vi has given details of the Bulls Head for Marlene and we have located a photograph of the pub for her.

We have also managed to settle Moss Fisher’s dispute for him by quoting the Cannock Advertiser in 1966, dated 25th August, and we also have used a photograph of the floods in Littlewood Lane in our book ‘The Fleeting Years’ (p40).

And Tessa’s request has brought an immediate response from the family of Hettie Cascarino and they are now in contact with each other and exchanging information.

Our researchers though are struggling to find any information for Jane on the pit death of her g-grandfather, Joseph Boddice as his name does not appear on the UK Index for coal mining accidents and deaths. Also it seems that his death was registered in Wolverhampton and nothing is appearing in the Staffordshire newspapers.

More information on Adrian Baillie’s request tracing his Mason connections in Cheslyn Hay and they come from one of our members, who is related to them.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO by Mike Belcher

21st September 1967 Full details of the Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley and District Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society holding its ‘early’ show.

22nd September 1917 A meeting of the Food Production Committee involving Miss Kathleen Wooton and Mr Isaac Stokes.

22nd September 1917 Details of the special occasion of a Sacred Concert on the green of the Cheslyn Hay’s Working Men’s Club.

MEMORIES This week we continue with the recollections of Ron Whitehouse on local events during the Second World War with stories involving Horace Jackson, Mr Hitchen, Mr Ponder, Albert ‘Trotty’ Jukes, Harry Parbrook and,some Jellyman stories.

CEDAR TREE It’s sad to see the end of the Cedar Tree in Low Street as it will be closing for the last time on Friday, 22nd September. It will be missed by many people but continuity will be thankfully maintained as the Salem who will open a ‘Coffee Stop’ every weekday from Monday to Friday from 10am – 4pm in the actual church itself starting the following Monday, 25th September.

GENERAL NEWS For Sale for Family History researchers. An Eye Com Portable Briefcase Fiche Reader. Model 2100 AC & DC (attachment to use in car as well as at home). Full Instructions, fiche holders, plus spare bulb (worth £15) As new – £50.

WILLI SCHAEFER I have just heard the sad news that Willi has passed away aged 92 having been in a local nursing home for the past few months. Willi had worked for Elliot Lucas’s all his working life as a foreman and then as a director and was always well respected by everyone who worked there.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

EVENTS Chat n Char this Thursday, 14th September starting at 10am as usual in the Salem’s Main Hall with Roger’s theme this month is ‘Give Us a Clue’.

OUR SALEM BASE is open from 9am – 2pm every Tuesday. Open to everyone.

REQUESTS Two requests from our website page. Marlene Gladwin asks for pictures of the Bulls Head pub in Shareshill, which was later turned into a lodging house around 1940, as her grandparents ran it, Norman and Gertrude Perry and would appreciate any information at all.

Also Jane Pettifer appeals for information her g-grandfather Joseph Boddice who died in 1927 in a mining accident around the Cannock area.

And Tessa emails from Wales ‘I am researching my Ancestory and believe that Hetty Cascarino was the wife of Vincent, they had a son Frank who Virginia Margaret Ward married and would like to contact any descendants of Hettie.

Finally Moss Fisher wants to settle a dispute. He emails ‘What year did the brook at the bottom of Little Wood flood and was it the Wyrley Brook down there? Moss is confident that it is the Wyrley Brook and the floods were in 1967.

RESPONSES Vi, our researcher, has looked into Roger’s enquiry re the Jack Hughes and Dorothy Foster marriage by examining all the local christenings.

Vi also provides information for Adrian Baillie on the descendants of his g-grandfather, George Richard Mason (b1867), illegitimate son of Elizabeth Mason, who was baptised at Wednesfield. He married Jane Elizabeth Hall and they had eight children. Full information given down to the local living descendants.
ARCHIVE ADDITIONS/ARTEFACTS/DONATIONS Three newspaper reports. One on the History of Cheslyn Hay from 1286 (17 Sept 1937), another on the Boundary Stones (12 May 1960) and also E J Homeshaw’s Cheslyn Hay nicknames (undated).

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO by Mike Belcher

14th September 1967 Story about ‘Fluff’ the three-years-old pet cat of the new steward and stewardess Mr and Mrs W Bevan at the Cheslyn Hay WMC.

14th September 1967 News of Cheslyn Hay Salem’s Women’s Own with Mrs C J Perks, Mrs S A Wollaston and Mrs McCulloch. .

14th September 1967 The Cannock, Hednesford and District Butcher’s Association Charity Bowling Cup was won by the Woodman, Cheslyn Hay, on Saturday, on the Cannock Town Green, when they beat Chadsmoor Progressive Club by 102 points to 92. Full report of the match and individual scores.

15th September 1917 Details of a successful Bowling Competition organised by the committee of the local Red Cross Society.

15th September 1917 The final round of the Senior Club Challenge Cup was decided on the green, with results and scores.

15th September 1917 James Lunt, of High Street, and his white Wyandotte’s fowl which laid a remarkably large egg.

15th September 1917 In Memoriam of Caroline Heminsley and William Heminsley, both of Warstones Farm.

WHAT’S IN OUR ARCHIVES From the recent donations from The Four Crosses Inn at Hatherton, the history of this old inn by Roland Ridgway.

GENERAL NEWS Bridgtown LHS are unveiling another notice board at the corner of North Street and the Watling Street, previously known as Wynn’s Corner to commemorate the history of both Wynne’s and Whitehouse’s factories as well as Astbury’s.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

EVENTS No events this week.

OUR SALEM BASE is open from 9am – 2pm every Tuesday and this week we have Mick Clark from Birmingham researching his Wollaston family.

REQUESTS Roger is tracing the family of Jack Hughes who lived at the Kop in Great Wyrley and was in the Royal Engineers in WWII. He married Dorothy Foster at St Marks in 1943 but they divorced and he married Vera Cartwright in 1950 to live at 31 Brook Lane in Great Wyrley and he would appreciate any information of his first marriage.

Just received a request from our Facebook page from Adrian Baillie stating ‘I am tracing my Nan’s father’s family in Cheslyn Hay. My great grandfather George Richard Mason was 81 when he died in 1945. However on the 1911 census he was only 44 and on his marriage certificate his age is also wrong. My great grandparents lived at 5 Cemetery Street in Cheslyn Hay where my late grandmother was born. I’m looking for the descendants of George Richard Mason and Jane Elizabeth Mason that might have more information or a photo of either one of them. My Nan, Ivy Mason, was their youngest daughter.

RESPONSES We have been able to provide Diana with plenty of information on her Morgan family with a 25 page family tree and it is an interesting one, as her g-g-grandmother Sarah Morgan was born in 1849 and the tenth child of Abel Morgan and Mary Lyons. We have also been able to help in the matter of their religion. Abel also seemed to have spent some time in gaol and when he died in 1851 Mary married into the Cheslyn Hay Lawson family.

NEW PHOTOGRAPHS One of Ivan Holmes, the barber, plying his trade in the Western Desert in 1941 (PE-HOL-5) and a photograph of John Prime, in uniform, who was our stationmaster from 1917-1933. £1 per 7×5 Photographic Print.

ARCHIVE ADDITIONS/ARTEFACTS/DONATIONS After the closure of the ancient inn on the Watling Street, The Four Crosses, we have acquired an original 1977 painting of the inn by Roland Ridgway together with a short written history of the establishment. Also a small framed picture dating back 100 years with an inscription etched into the wood on the back ‘L to R. P Henshaw, C Spilsbury, S Cope, C Lightfoot as given by Mr S Kirk, Four Crosses, Hatherton Farm’. Can anyone help us by identifying and adding more information on these drinkers?

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO by Mike Belcher

7th September 1967 A report covering the life of Mr R T Paradine.

7th September 1967 Talbot F.C. had an easy victory beating visitors Shelfield Athletic 6 – 1. Full report of the match with goal scorers.
8th September 1917 Thomas Ponder, Cheslyn Hay, found guilty in court.
8th September 1917 John Thomas Preece, of Chapel Square, Cheslyn Hay, was found guilty in court and expressed a determination to go to gaol.
Nellie Preece, the wife in the above case, was charged with another offence but denied it. Was found guilty.

John Thomas Preece was then charged with another separate offence against Moses Whitehouse, of Cheslyn Hay. Found guilty again.
Preece was then charged with another offence against Moses Whitehouse, which he denied but was found guilty again.

Preece was then charged with a similar offence against Hannah Roe. Denied again but found guilty again.

Preece was then charged with yet another offence, this time against Thomas Hall, at Cheslyn Hay. Once again he denied it but there was enough evidence to find him guilty and send him to prison. Preece then showed the spirit that was in him by shouting “This is what we are sent out to fight for; for men such as you – you ought to go out there”. Preece later apologised and asked not to be sent to prison.

GENERAL NEWS Anyone wishing to become a member for the annual fee of £5 and to receive this newsletter with full details under all the headings every Sunday morning at 9am please contact me through my email address below. Many thanks.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

EVENTS Highlight of our Speakers Programme this week. The professional entertainer, Ron Popple, is providing us with a ‘Black Country Humour and a Bit if Magic’ night. Thursday, 31st August at the Salem starting at 7.30pm. £1 including refreshments. Not to be missed!

OUR SALEM BASE is open from 9am – 2pm every Tuesday for all enquiries and researches. Everyone welcome.

REQUESTS Diana Pinkett enquires ‘My g-g-grandmother was Sarah Morgan b1849 in Cheslyn Hay, she married Richard Perkins and later lived in Bulwell, Nottingham. Sarah’s parents were Abraham Morgan and Mary Lyons but much of the info I have collected has contradictions around Abel/ Abraham and indeed their religion.’ Can anyone researching this Morgan family assist Diana?

Norma Barta from Michigan in her emailed response, as seen below, adds ‘I see in the newsletters reference to the Pearson family of Cheslyn Hay. My dad, Frank Bowen, and his best friend, Harry Pearson, went to Australia together around 1932. They sailed on the Bendigo and went to Sydney. My dad came back after six months but Harry stayed there for the rest of his life and he married a girl named, Ena, having two sons, one named Ross. I corresponded with Harry right up until his death, when he lived in Hurstville, NSW, and I wonder if any of your local Pearsons have any knowledge of or had any contact with Harry and his family.

RESPONSES Our military researcher, Bob, is able to assist Norma with her enquiries on her uncle, William Robert Bowen and includes full details of his life as well as his military records.

Having contacted Norma with Bob’s research, she emails back ‘I had no idea that Robert was buried in Cheslyn Hay, always thinking that, as both brothers were reported as ‘killed in action’ they would both be buried in France’ adding a gruesome thought on William’s death.
NEW PHOTOGRAPHS Henry Rigby with his fossil collection in 1922 (PE-RIG-1) and Ivan Holmes the accordionist at the Chums Club (PE-HOL-4). £1 per 7×5 Photographic Print.

ARCHIVE ADDITIONS/ARTEFACTS/DONATIONS After last week’s meeting of the Green Bus Company’s enthusiasts we have had a series of newspaper reports, compliment slips and bus tickets from the 1970s donated for our archives.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 100 YEARS AGO by Mike Belcher

1st September 1917 Full details of a Butcher – Elwell marriage.

1st September 1917 Stories of the deaths together with their lives of Private Richard Franks, Private John H Mann and Private Ernest Roobottom.

1st September 1917 In connection with the Local Relief Committee and Red Cross Society bowling Mr T Williams, tobacconist, High Street makes a gesture at his shop.
1st September 1917 On Saturday a bowling competition took place on the Senior Club Bowling Green, which attracted 40 entries with full details.

1st September 1917 Report of Mr T Whitehouse presiding over a meeting of miners at the local Working Men’s Club.
MEMORIES Of Doris Muriel Cooper recollections of the Isolation Hospital and a bomb being dropped together with the memories of Ron Whitehouse, listing the bombs and where they fell around Cheslyn Hay in the war.

WWI COMMEMORATION This September we commemorate the death of 17298 John Henry Mann with full details.

GENERAL NEWS Just another reminder if anyone has not received their ‘Mailchimp’ newsletter (ie the one that is addressed to each member by their Christian name and not as an attachment) on Sunday morning please email me straight away so that I can send it in another format. Last week a few of our members received their newsletter as usual but it contained no content.

trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

13th August 2017

EVENTS  No events this week.

OUR SALEM BASE is open from 9am – 2pm every Tuesday and this week Mark Tebbet is visiting us from Connecticut researching his Rowley family who had a farm at the corner of Cross Street and Low Street in the 1870s living in the farmhouse later to be known as ‘Paradine’s Cottage’.  Philip Jones who also has a direct link to this John Rowley will also be in attendance.

Next week we have a get-together of several interested parties to view our archives on the Green Bus Company/Warstones Coaches with Brian Waters, who was the voluntary conductor on the ‘Summer Friday’ only service from Newport in Shropshire.  Open to everyone.

REQUESTS  Vicki emails in response to the mention of the Bailey family tree in the newsletter of 23rd July ‘My great grandfather was John Henry Bailey(1878-1958), the third son of Thomas Bailey (1836/7-1911?) both of whom were born in Cheslyn Hay.  Thomas married Eliza Brough.’ And Vicki asks if we can provide more information to add to her family tree.

RESPONSES  Our researchers have located all three plots of the Clenton family for Janet.

NEW PHOTOGRAPHS   Several photographs including Sarah Elizabeth Bolton (nee Leach) & Jack Newens (PE-LEA-9), two of the Dundalk Lane Cottages in 1979 (PL-DUN-13&14) and a range of the Dawkins family of 29 Station Street with Gladys and Jack Hill, Eliza & Harmer Dawkins with Bert ‘Bobsy’ Whitehouse, Doris, Albert, Jack Jones and William and Albert in the First World War at the Norton Company Royal Engineers training camp at Luton (PE-DAW-9,10,11,12,13,14,15).  £1 per 7×5 Photographic Print.

ARCHIVE ADDITIONS/ARTEFACTS/DONATIONS  An old Cheslyn Hay plate with seven local scenes donated by Steve Gwilt and a copy of St Mark’s Queen’s Jubilee Souvenir Programme  of 1977.

EXTRACTS FROM CANNOCK ADVERTISER OF 1957 researched by Mike Belcher

Reports and stories of the following Eva Elizabeth & George Whitehouse, of 176 Station Street, William & Isabella Moreton of 105 Station Street, Over 60 Annual Party, Horace Price of 24 Low Street, Mr & Mrs Arthur Davies of 64 Station Street, Cheslyn Hay Over 60 Club entertainment with the names Thompson, Wesley, Evans, Haynes, Cartwright, Preece, Crofts, Brough, Hitchens, Plant, Holmes, Baker, Waltho, Morgan, Reddings, Evans, Barlow & Stokes, family gathering of five churches, Parish Council meeting re complaints about the local pigeon fanciers, William Alfred Follows of 2 Station Street, Frederick Bird of 46 Coppice Lane, Arnold Hawkins, Sam Newell of 86 High Street, Salem centenary year with details of Methodism in Cheslyn Hay going back to 1778, History of Cheslyn Hay from 1668 by Mr E J Homeshaw, Victor Steadman, Dr Louis Dillon Malone, Oscar Anslow of 2 Coppice Lane, Vincent Thompson, prize distribution of the Cheslyn Hay WMC bowls teams with names and a Salem service for the Malayan Teachers College.  Copy of any Newspaper Report £1.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO by Mike Belcher

17th August 1967  Meeting of the Cheslyn Hay Over 60 Club involving Mrs H Whitehouse, Mr C Devereux, Mr T Harvey, Mr F Chilton, Mrs Cartwright, Mr J Smith, Mr Ruddick, Mrs D Chilton,  Mrs Waltho, Mrs Lawson, Mrs Knott, Mrs Kingston, Mrs E Plant, Mrs G Plant, Mrs Poxon, Mrs Sheldon, Mrs J Pearson and Mrs Hook.

18th August 1917  Story of the Cheslyn Hay Cricket Club after 30 years with Mr H Hawkins, Jesse Crutchley, A E Elwell and Mr A Benton.

18th August 1917  The adjourned Hospital Sunday collection in connection with the Friendly Society with Fred Altree.

18th August 1917  Parish Council meeting about scavenging in the district.

18th August 1917  John Chadbund, found guilty of serious charges involving Emily Williams, 121, Station Street, Cheslyn Hay, and William Beasley.

MEMORIES  This week we complete Peter Cadman’s humourous recollections of schoolteacher Mrs Corona Price.

trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net