Cheslyn Hay & District Local History Society

The Cannock Library are appealing for people who have any experience or knowledge of evacuees to interview at the library or in their own homes.  For anyone interested, please contact me first..
Our WWI researcher Jon has come to our aid again from an enquiry from part of the Benton family in Collie, Western Australia and it reveals an interesting story concerning Roland Benton, son of George Roland and Sarah Benton of Cheslyn Hay.   He and his brother Albert were both killed in the First World War.
John Harley now settled in Adelaide, South Australia emails saying how our latest book rekindles many memories of his early childhood, particularly when seeing photographs of his childhood friends and how they have succeeded in life, all thanks to their education at Cheslyn Hay Primary School.  And John goes on to recall memories of Rosemary Road, the coppice, the lezzars, the reservoir or razza, and tilleries and Hawkins coal mine area.  He also mentions Hart’s field, the Plant Pit area, the Hoss Road, Perk’s field and the Recreation Ground with the high helterskelter, liver stretchers and roundabout.
More photographs for our archives include fifteen new and old photographs of Jim Brevitt, from his family, which we will catalogue and include in next year’s Exhibition.  Plus half a dozen photographs of Sam and Bill Morris working in, or standing outside, The Cheslyn Hay Printers of Station Street, plus photos of the Perks family and one of the recently mentioned Christening Cup of Hannah Toft (25th October 1854).
We have printed more memories from Peter Cadman of Christamases long ago that include a stream of old Cheslyn hay names form the past. And finally more sad news this week on the sudden passing of Don Lees of Heath Hayes, who has been a member of our Society for many years.
More information from the Weekly News can be obtained via the email address below.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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he sudden and terrible news of Jim succumbing to a heart attack during last Sunday night has shocked us all.  Jim has been involved with our Society almost from the beginning and he will be sadly missed, not only by ourselves, but by the many people on the village that knew him.  Our thoughts and sympathies go out to his son Robert and to all of the family.
Jim’s funeral is at Stafford Crematorium at 2.30pm on Wednesday and afterwards there will be a social gathering at the Bridgtown Social Club at 3.30pm.
Instead of Jim’s Christmas Party on Thursday’s coffee morning we will be devoting it entirely over to a morning just for Jim.  It will be in the schoolroom at the Salem (not the Lecture Room) and the doors will be open at 9.45am.  Geoff Hackett will be leading the singing of carols plus a couple of other lighthearted things that Jim had got in mind and we are inviting everyone that knew Jim to come.  The morning has been arranged with the approval of Jim’s family of course and it will begin with a short prayer by John Devey followed by a minute’s reflection.  Mince pies, sausage rolls, cakes etc have all been arranged and any contributions will be added to the Air Ambulance Fund.
The Cannock Library have arranged a meeting for anyone with knowledge or information on the evacuees who spent time within our area during the war.  It is this Tuesday 14th December 1.30 – 3pm including refreshments.
We have received fascinating emails from Wales and Adelaide, both linked with the Boulton/Benton families.  It involves prominent Cheslyn Hay names of Benton, Perks, North, Boulton and Plant and makes a very interesting story, but more information is required.  A full print out of this tale can be obtained from the email address below.
Responses from last week include memories of Herbert Perks butchers shop, Station Street, Coppice Lane and the Devereuxs.
An we have received more photographs of the Broughs, Cadmans, Pooles and the Prices together with the Low Street families of Hawkins and Tew.  Some of the Brough and Hawkins photos date back to  the late 1800s.  And two mystery snapshots of ladies working at GKN in Bridgtown – one of a coach trip and a group one taken outside the factory.  Plus some old newspaper cuttings and some letters written during and just after the war from different families in Station Street.
And more memories from Peter Cadman in his life on the village – together with all the local names – from the 1960s.
We are open to all visitors at our Base in the Salem on Tuesday at 10am but we will be closing early this week at 2pm.
More details can be obtained from the email address below.

trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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The 30 strong Great Wyrley Town Womens Guild Choir will be entertaining us on Thursday night, 9th December with a two part show.  First half will be ‘Songs from the Shows’ followed by an interval and then Carols.  £1 entrance fee which will include a free raffle ticket for three prizes of a tin of chocolates, a tin of biscuits and a Christmas pudding.

Our Salem Base will be open this Tuesday 10am – 4pm.
An enquiry received this week is for information on Joseph Russell (b circa 1806 in Staffs) and his wife Ann Locket b circa 1816 at Cheslyn Hay. The couple were living in Red Lane in 1841 and Joseph died in 1850.  Ann continued to live in the town after his death. The story goes that his g-g-grandfather and g-grandfather (both William) walked north to Wakefield in the 1880s to find work in the mines there with a member of another local family – the Lloyds.  The younger William Russell was a radical and this may have been why he had to leave working as a miner locally.  He was a co-founder of the local Independent Labour Party and a councillor at Goldthorpe in Yorkshire where he moved to after Wakefield.   A fascinating story – but can anybody help with any information?
From last week’s appeal we have had two responses from the descendants of Hannah Toft as well as a sighting of her christening cup dated 25th October 1854.
New photographs include one of the Longhouse, which was the original site of Hawkins Tileries as well as photographs of Arnold Horton, Dulcie and Eunice Horton of Dundalk Lane cottages in 1924, Hawkins Colliery workers in the 1950s inc Joe Cadman, Horace Jervis and Margaret Poole and a few unnamed, one of Hawkins Cricket Field in 1954 with the Chilterns and the Greys and the teaching staff of the William Baxter school when it closed down in Cheslyn Hay.
More donations to our archives include a series of Gardening Certificates over the years, local commemorative newspapers, a  ‘Scholars Scripture Examination – 1935′ and two personal letters from Lord Archer, who was the Attourney General, and who worked at Hawkins Colliery as a Bevin Boy during the war.
After a query re Mystery Photographs on our website, click on ‘cheslynhay.info’ or ‘cheslynhayhistory’, click on Mystery Gallery and then type in ‘mystery’ in the Search box.  Then scroll down and you will find several pages of mystery photographs.  Click on the photographs to enlarge them.  We intend to include more in the near future.
Appropriately with the weather as it is prompts Peter Cadman this week to share some delightful memories of Cheslyn Hay Christmases in the 1950s and 60s in Corona Price’s class.   In ‘The Way We Were’ page in Friday night’s Express & Star, we had another page devoted to ‘Cheslyn Hay – Those Fleeting Years’ again.  This time covering six photographs and stories of Great Wyrley.
More details can be obtained from the email address below.

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