Committee member – Darren Butler is currently undertaking a significant project to locate local families in relation to the local censuses on to a map of the same period – so that you will be able to see where in the village your families lived at the time of the censuses.

However, this has thrown up a couple of problems – many of the names of the addresses used at the time of the census are no longer traceable. So we need your help? We’re not suggesting you can actually remember back to the 1841 – but we are hoping your family gossip, folk lore & knowledge can help to trace some of these mysterious addresses.

From the 1841 Census
Mystery Address Near to – we think?
Needleys Alley (7 buildings) Mount Pleasant
Buxtons Crofts (1 Building) Needleys Alley
Back Lane Red Lane (Low St)
Wyrley Road (Probably top of High St)

From the 1861 Census
Mystery Address Near to – we think?
Birds Row (6 buildings) Red Lane (Low St)
Prince Albert beer house Between Birds Row & Red Lane
Lowes Buildings (3 buildings) Pinfold lane
Bowater Row (3 buildings) Lowes Buildings
Common (2 buildings) Birds Row

From the 1871 Census
Mystery Address Near to – we think?
Brickell House Saredon Rd
The Tunings (1 building) Brickell House
Bettsons Row (8 buildings) Top of High St
Horden Buildings (3 buildings) Top of High St
Lovetts Buildings (2 buildings) Top of High St
Locketts Buildings (2 buildings) Hatherton St
Lion Property (4 buildings) Red lion Inn
Thomas Buildings (5 buildings) High St
White House High St
Three Ways (1 building) Bottom of High St
Coal Wharf (1 Building) Bottom of High St
Thatched Cottage (2 buildings) Bottom of High St
Turners Buildings (5 buildings) High St
Providence Place (1 building) Cross St( Possibly Low St)
Brewers Buildings (2 Buildings) Low St
Thatched Cottage (6 Buildings) Low St
Old Falls (2 buildings) Low St
Stanleys Houses (2 buildings) In Queen St
Brewers Buildings (2 buildings) Queen St
Job’s Fold (8 buildings) Queen St

From the 1881 Census
Mystery Address Near to – we think?
Wootton Houses (2 buildings) Buxton place
Old Coal Wharf (5 Buildings) Bricklayers Arms
Rose Cottage (2 buildings) Old Coal Wharf
Duke of Wellington – 3 ways beer house Old Coal Wharf
Seymour Villa Low St
Hilton Lane Hatherton St
New Street Low St
Alma Cottages (3 buildings) Station St
Goldthorn Place (3 buildings) Station St


Most of these buildings will not have survived, we are certainly not aware of any thatched cottages still in existence today in the village, there were no building regulations in those days and many buildings would have been nothing more than mud shacks and lean-to’s. (A little like Larkrise). If you can help with any address please get in touch.

We are also hoping that if anyone who now lives in Cheslyn Hay has copies of their house Title Deeds – would they mind if we had sight of them or better still a photo copy of the older sections, as these will give us important information on previous owners and in many cases a small plan of the surrounding area – showing other owners nearby. The Deeds will also state (If they have survived) when the house was built. These deeds would be a great help for us, as some areas of Cheslyn Hay (The Lot, Chapel Square, the top of Queen St etc.) it is very hard to establish what houses were built where and who was living there and when. We do not want your deeds just a copy of the plans which will be used to identify any building in the area in order that we work out how the village looked in the 1800’s. There may be a very small charge to see these deeds but we can pay for the cost if it is a property with some local history. The hope is to put all this information together on to maps of the area which should be very helpful for anyone searching for their family or their house history. Please get in touch if you can help.