Cheslyn Hay & District Local History Society

Mike Hewitt is our monthly speaker this Thursday 25th August at the Salem starting 7.30pm.  Entrance £1 and all are welcome.  Following his very successful talk of last summer he is continuing with another powerpoint presentation of ‘More Tales of Old Cannock’.
Our Salem Base will be open as usual on Tuesday 10am to 3pm and this Tuesday Amanda Blood is paying us a visit from Halifax to research the Kingston and Bird family trees.  We will be on hand to help on these trees so anyone with information or interest in these families will be most welcome.
Requests this week  include information on the Moore and Tricklebank families, one on Samuel Whitehouse and details of the family of Joseph Lawson b1849 in Stoney Stanton and living in Hatherton Street in 1901.
And responses from recent weeks have come in with detailed information on the John Whitehouse and Lydia Dace query, as well as the information for William Lunt.
And in ‘What happened 100 years ago’ Mike Belcher covers Cheslyn Hay United’s start to the new season with their players Lester, Whitehouse, Jones, M Lockett, Perry, W Wesley, Cooper, A Kingston, G Kingston, T Lockett, Wood, Westwood, Alsopp and Stokes, L Hubery, F Thomas, J Cooper, C Moore, Walter Bull, and F Stokes
And this week’s Memories Column covers Lodge Farm and Oscar Lewis and his son Ronald with mentions of Michael Griffiths, Derek Piggott and Derek Stanton. Plus more recollections of Trudge Harris from the Hutments.  And from our archives is a written piece on the old characters from the village including Harry Podmore, Joe Clewley, Trotty Jukes, Topper Davies, Sam Bills, the poacher Dick Benton, Mrs Shorter, Tompter Pearson and Rosanna Wolloxall.
And in General News, Ellen Farnell‘s poem was included in Peter Rhodes column in the Express & Star this week.
Fuller information can be obtained by emailing
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net 

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An enquiry received this week from Jane Taylor who is trying to find the date that her g-grandfather William Lunt died.  He was born around 1878 in Walsall and married Ellen/Helen Collier in 1901.   And we have provided the Frederick John Ridgway’s connection to the Withington family from last week through the Wood family.  And one of our members has given Ben Alcock help with his researches into his family tree as well information of his grandfather’s military record in WWI
Also more details of the old Plant family of 63 Littlewood Lane as well as Winnie Kingston, George Brough, John Whitehouse and Lydia Dace enquiries from a few weeks ago.
New photographs this week received of the ‘Razza’.

In the local newspapers of fifty years ago this week were reports on the death of Heddle Nash, with details of Cheslyn Hay’s musical background together with information on the Hawkins’ and Robert Easton.   Plus  a story of Cannock’s 1961 Labour Party Gala Queen, Miss Marlene Dace of  31 Windsor Road, Cheslyn Hay.

And this week’s Memories include Peter Cadman’s recollections from the village in the fifties mentioning the Parkes, Mr Hall, Derek Stanton,Vic Mears, Arnold Horton, the Morris family, Jean Hemmingsley, Dr Ken Williams, Major Tom Foulke, the Westwoods, Ted Wright, Percy Poole, the Doctors Malone and Ike Bradburn.

The Great Wyrley LHS has just released their first book which is called Great Wyrley Review.  64 pages and priced at £4 it is excellent value and we are carrying stocks of the book.  For anyone not local, postage costs are an extra £1.23p.
Janet Smith of Branksome in Station Street sadly passed away on Monday morning.  She has been a well respected member and a big friend of our society and is well known throughout the village.  Funeral is at the Salem on Thursday 18th August at 2pm.  No flowers but all donations to go to the Marie Curie fund.
More detailed information on any of the above items can be obtained via the email address below.  Free of charge of course.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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John Griffiths is our guest speaker at our Coffee Morning this Thursday 11th August at 10am and his topic is ‘Tales from the Paddock’.
Our Salem Base will be open to allcomers as usual on Tuesday 10am to 3pm.
Requests this week come from Jill in Australia is trying to find a connection between Fred Ridgway and her Withington family.
New photographs have been received of the Cheslyn Hay v Landywood Primary Schools football match 1955/56 season with all 22 players named, Hawkins Sports FC 1979, Hawkins Bowls Team 1971, Frank Hackett and the Queens Silver Jubilee Parade in Leveson Avenue. Plus a newspaper cutting of the Cheslyn Hay WMC v the Wolves All Star XI in 1973 and an invoice from The Cheslyn Hay Press for our Archives.
And responses to the Plant family have been quite extensive with memories and stories of Leslie Plant and Tim has been put in touch with three different arms to his family and they will be meetin up when Tim visits here from Canada next month. And our researcher has also added connections to the family with the Stollards and the Hawkins’. And we have provided all the information on the William Whitehouse enquiry.

And ‘What happened this Week’ in 1961 includes the Rev WR Kerry’s baptisms of Carol Patricia Burton, Richard Dennis Tonks, Karen Julie Nicklin, Dawn Marie Palmer and Lorraine Joy Whitehouse.
And memories of ‘A Stroll around Cheslyn Hay in 1946′ the Mount Pleasant, and all the shops round there and the High Street with names of all the old village characters. And more memories developed from the Cheslyn Hay station enquiry have come in as well together with names of the train drivers.
Another 85 viewings on the staffspasttrack website of Cheslyn Hay postcards and photographs in July and included Brittania Picture House (16), Salem (16), Hackett’s Butcher’s Shop (13), Albert Hawkins shop (11), Walter Hackett (9), Garrett’s shop (8), High Street (8), Wootton’s Post Office (4).
Fuller information on all of the above can be obtained from the email address below
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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Our Base at the Salem will be open as usual on Tuesday 10am to 3pm. Last week we had another five visitors tracing family trees and also a batch of 40 old photographs loaned to us for copying and research. A plea from Pam Jukes of New Zealand who wants help to research her family trees of Ridgway and Whitehouse and also a request from Tim Plant of Canada who says his dad, Leslie Plant, was from Cheslyn Hay and born November 1923 and had brothers Jim and Ray and a sister and wants to trace his family connections as he and his wife are visiting England in September and wishes to see where his family came from. And Claire wishes to contact anyone with Bullivant family connections as she has a raft of photographs and newspaper cuttings in her possession which she is happy to share information. And Barbara from Birmingham responds to Ben Alcock’s request of last week as she is part of the Alcock family as is Chris from Kettering and both provide details of family trees and military service etc. And the railway saga rumbles on with recollections of POWs home from the war, of schooldays and trainspotting! Also recollections of the Brays and the Bladens living at the top of Park Street. Quite a few of new photographs have been handed in with one exceptional one. It is of Bill Webb local ‘Grocer’ with his horse and cart on his delivery rounds in the 1920s and additions to the archives include written comments and pencil drawings together with dates on the back of the organ screen at the Salem from 100 years ago by M Lockett and Bert Elwell, George Wylde, H Rose, S Smith, G Chetter, R Fletcher 43 High Street and a not very flattering cartoon of Arnold Hawkins! Local newspaper reports from 5th August 1911 include the court appearances of Walter Owen and Raymond Jones of Hill Street arrested by PC Smith. And this week’s Memories come from Ray Franks’s 1946 Stroll around Cheslyn Hay, written in 1996, and include the shops and buildings in Station Street and the High Street as well as the Rec, the Railroad and Chapel Square and Off Licences and Sweet Shops and what has replaced them today. More information on any of these items can be provide free of charge on request. trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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