Cheslyn Hay & District Local History Society

Last week at our Base we had twelve visitors with interests including the Steadmans, Fallows and Walley families plus visitors needing help on a couple of new projects.  We are open every Tuesday for such enquiries at the Salem from  10am – 3pm.
A couple of requests this week.  Gordon Pace from Canada asks if anyone is researching the Wootton surname as he has two links with them from the Pace family from Shareshill.  Enoch Pace (b1832) a locksmith from Willenhall married Hannah Wootton (b abt1835) from Willenhall.  Then the son of George (b Cannock) and Frances Emily Emery (nee Pace and b Shareshill), Joseph E Emery (1891-1952) married Florence E Wootton (1892-1931).  Florence was born in Bloxwich to Charles and Sarah Ann Wootton and she emigrated to Canada in 1911 and died in Toledo.
And David Whitehouse is after information on the marriage of Rhoda Ridgway (b1869 to George and Rhoda) to William Leadbeater sometime between 1892 -94.  They had at least six children all born in the 1890s – Ellen (Nellie) and William Henry (in Cheslyn Hay), John (Gt Wyrley), and Wilfred, Lucy, Elizabeth (in Bloxwich).   Ellen and William appear to be registered as Ridgway while the other four as Leadbeater and David is hoping to find a descendent to help him to resolve the issue.
And here is a ‘longshot’ request and also from Canada.  Does anyone know of any local independent dressmakers in the early 1900s and were they tagged in any way to identify the makers?
And some successful responses from previous requests with full details provided for Ellen Thomas, baptised 26 Oct 1830 and for John Thomas who married Sarah Ann Whitehouse in 1868.  These are linked with the Hickman, Brindley, Read and Brookes families.  Additions for the Beech family have been provided and more information on the Haycock family has come to light from a new member who has the family bible with records of births back to the early 19th century as well as family traditions, anecdotes and folklore, together with an autobiography of one of the family.  There are also links with the Bills, the Perks and the Jones families.  And finally our researcher has resolved the longstanding Bates/Whitehouse problem for Margaret in Shropshire.  It reveals a rather complicated family tree from the late 1700s to the early 1800s with two unrelated Mary Whitehouses and illegimate chldren but fortunately we have a transcript of local entries at St Lukes which turned up the answers.
Handed in to our archives this week is a Salem School Anniversary Scented Card dated 10th May 1970 and the Rev W Clarke is named.
And in Mike Belcher’s newspaper reports of this week 50 and 100 years ago include the death of Mary Jane Worsey of 21 Hollybush and details of her life in 1961, but 100 years ago stories include the efforts to raise funds for a piano for the Girls Schools including the names of  Mrs Allan, Mr J Jones, Miss Scragg, Harry Hawkins, Mr and Mrs Hosegood, Mrs Lowe, Mr and Mrs AE Hawkins, Mr and Mrs FW Hawkins, Mrs Minnie Hawkins, Mr and Mrs W Jukes and WJ Bowen (Great Wyrley).  There was also a Whist Drive involving Mr AJ Jones, Miss Hunter, Mrs Baggaley, Mr J Bown, Wilfred Hawkins, Camilla M Gripton, Miss Mann and Hamar Holcroft.

Also news in 1912 of Wilfred Ridgway, who emigrated to America and also news of the two daughters of  Mr W Lawson, caretaker of the Salem Church who were now living in Canada .  And the Working Men’s Club ran a tournament of all-fours organised by A Perks, T Bickley and A Allen with details of the winners.  Plus details of Percy Carpenter and his involvement in the area but is now leaving the Red Lion and the area.

Also 100 years ago this week Joseph Whitehouse and Bert Pee were charged with stealing with full details of the case mentioning Herbert James Price and PC Pearce.
And this week we welcome Joyce Gough’s first impressions of Cheslyn Hay when she came from Willenhall in the sixties.
Full details of any of the above items can be requested via the email address -
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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We welcome local author Tony Hunt as our guest speaker this Thursday, 26th January at the Salem at 7.30pm talking on ‘Dr Palmer – the Rugeley Poisoner’.  £1 including refreshments.
Our Salem Base is open every Tuesday from 10am – 3pm.  Last week we had 9 visitors enquiring or researching into the Haycock, Whitehouse, Thomas, Baker, Fisher and Dace family trees.
Requests this week include where eleven of the Shorters were buried in the late 1800s and an appeal for information on the Haycock family that go back to the 1700s originating from Wedges Mills and there were six sons from Cheslyn Hay – William Henry b1908, Archibald b1905, Cyril b1912, Douglas b1919, Charles Leslie b1922 and Harold Kenneth b1925.
Also John Alsopp from Nottingham appeals for information on John Thomas who was christened at St Marks on 11 February 1849 and born to Ellen Thomas and Manuel Feorette.  Does anyone have this Ellen Thomas in their tree?  And a request from Margaret McGowan in Canada after details of Joseph Turner of Trysull, whose son Samuel married  Eliza Beech.  The Beech family lived in Little Wood in 1851 and Margaret would appreciate any help or information on them.
Last week’s request on Emma Thomas has been solved.  She has been traced and so has Beatrice Whitehouse.   Also information and relatives of the Cheslyn Hay Wolloxalls has been found and passed on.
New photographs this week include one of Ethel Dorothy Davis and two mystery photographs of a Christmas party at either the Mount Zion or the Bethel at Bridgtown and a shopkeeper and his family outside a Cheslyn Hay shop around 100 years ago.
And handed in for our archives is the detailed life of William Baker (1850 – 1922) and a family tree of the Whitehouse family going back to John Whitehouse (b1797) who married Jane (b1805).  Plus a mincer in its box to add to our artefacts for our displays.
In Mike’s ‘What Happened 50 Years Ago’ this week the papers cover a Wesley Guild concert including Mrs Kath Spooner, Mr B Hackett and Miss A Alsop and also recorded was the death of Mr James (Jim) Jones of Old Falls off Low Street, and full details of his life as a miner and also as a noted singer.  And ’100 Years Ago’ there was a full description of the renovations to the Salem church, and a meeting of 40 members of the Bricklayers Arms together with a meal and entertainment mentioning Mr and Mrs Henry Dutton, Mr JE Hart, and Messrs Boswell, Stanton, Smallman, Evans, S Sargent, A Bailey and Mr W Taylor.
And in Part Two of Peter Cadman‘s ‘Fings Aint What They Used To Be’ Memories, he expands on life in the fifties and sixties including Doctors Malone and Stott, Arnold Horton, Duncan Brough, Sergeant Tommy O’Neil, PC Murtagh, Clarence Biddle, Ethel Horton and the shops of Herbert and George Perks, Hacketts, Garbetts and Parkes.  As well as some nostalgia about the Rec, the Razza, the Nook Basin and Middle Hill as well as Rosa’s ice cream!
Full reports of all of the above can be emailed via the address below.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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Our Base at the Salem is open every Tuesday from 10am – 3pm and everyone is welcome for help on all types of researches.  And it’s free.
We are discussing ways of developing all the Whitehouse family trees and we would welcome all enquiries of anyone with such lonks with Cheslyn Hay.
And Katrina from Reykjavik  has picked up on a mention of a Roseanna Wolloxall from an old Newsletter on our website and she is interested to get any details of any of the Cheslyn Hay Wolloxalls.
Our researcher has answered John Buckley’s query from last week with confirmation that the three children are those of Eliza and Jonathan Buckley together with their burial plots but no joy with John Wood’s enquiry as Mary Ann Cope was born in Wednesbury but there is certainly no baptism there. However her parents moved to Yorkshire in the 1880s and her father William Cope died in 1889 in Doncaster aged 69 with his widow still living there in the 1891 census.
And Sue has had much response to her Bullock family enquiry.
New photographs catalogued this week include seven of Sunshine Farm and the Fallows family, seven of the Baker and Haycock families, eight of the Daces, Piatts and Powell families plus the wedding of Norman Wright of the Accordian Band, Gladys Kingston, the Paxtons, Don Perks and one of the 1953 Carnival.  All available at the Base.
This week we have been donated a Souvenir Programme dated 2nd January 1945 of a Musical Evening at the Salem celebrating 50 years of music.  And three family trees – the Wolloxalls from 1818, the Carpenters from 1832 linking with the Baker, Follows, Smith, Beech and Bird families of Cheslyn Hay and also the Westwoods from 1790.  Richard Westwood is also keen on linking his family tree with the other two Westwood trees from Cheslyn Hay and would appreciate any help.
And a trawl through the local papers of 50 years ago on 20th January 1962  reveal stories of the concrete cement works to be built in Coppice Lane, a pigeon show by the Cheslyn Hay Homing Society including prize winners J Owen, T Condrey, W Izon, A Bradbury, N Hughes, J Mason and S Baxter, and the death of  Mr Wilfred Pee of 6a Station Street Cheslyn Hay together with full details of his life and all the mourners are named at his funeral.
Memories this week come from Ivor Plant of Ross-on-Wye recalling his boyhood days in Littlewood, the Coppice, the Raz and on the Rec with ‘The Policeman’s Helmet’ and the slide.  He also recall stories of Mrs Kingston who lived in the Station House and being in Miss Cross’s class.
More information on any of the above stories can be obtained by request to the email address below.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

And also 100 years ago on 20th January 1912 stories involving horses trespassing on the allotments, the great blizzard in the week and a Dominoes tournament at the Working Men’s Club and Institute with J Brough, S Bills and A Perks taking the awards.  But there is also a tragic story of Joseph Kingston, son of Thomas Kingston, of  Station Street, Cheslyn Hay.  He was only 18 years of age when he met with a serious accident to his spine at the brickyard last March.  A committee has been formed consisting of  F W Hawkins, T Kingston, W Brough , T Hand, I Smith, A Brough and W H Browell to raise funds for his needs with a special performance at the pictures at Brittannia Hall.  There was much interest manifested in the event and at the time that the performance commenced the hall was crowded with an appreciative audience.  There were two performances and the hall was filled on both occasions.  The Victoria Brass Band Quartette played outside the building and also a duet was prettily rendered by Messrs T Holcroft and J Allen.  The pictures were most interesting.  In fact it was stated that they were the finest ever witnessed in the township.  The programme mainly consisted of  cowboys and Indians, which were not only amusing, but instructive and met with repeated applause from the audience.
Requests this week come from Canada on Edward Whitehouse (1846-1890) who married Ann Taylor b1849 and had 12 children but there are queries on two of the children Clara b1885 and Beatrice b1889.  And also Emma Thomas b1872 in Cheslyn Hay to Joseph and Ann Thomas but after being baptized at St. Marks on 22 Dec 1872 there is no record of her.

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Coffee Morning this week on Thursday, 12th January in the Lecture Room at 10am for a presentation by Derrick Middleton on ‘Do you remember what Sundays were like?!’
Our Salem Base will be open as usual on Tuesday from 10am – 3pm for viewings of all photographs and help with local family history research.
After we were able to supply John with the burial place of his g-grandmother Eliza Buckley (née Walker) from his request of last week, John is after burial plots of Elizabeth (7 months) and Harriet Florence (9 months) Buckley in 1878, and would like to know if these are Eliza and Jonathan’s children.  Plus a request for details of the caretakers at the Salem Chapel which we are appealing for help with.
The Bullock enquiry has been satisfactorily resolved with current details of where the family is still living, as well as the entire Bullock family tree going back to 1801 linking with the Knowles, James, Morgan, Owen, Pearson, Pritchard, Smith and of course the Whitehouse families.
And more on Tom Beardsley from John who used to live next door to him as a lad.
Donations handed in include the handwritten last will and testament of John Lockley of Bridgtown, husband of Martha, dated 21st October 1880 as well as two excellent pages covering the story of the Buckley family in Cheslyn Hay from the early 1800s, together with the family tree which links in with other local families like Walker, Bowen, Simmons and Bates.  Also ‘A History of Walsall Hospitals (1838 – 1998) donated by its author Percy B Carpenter, a consultant at the Manor Hospital for many years and born in Landywood.  The book includes the Cheslyn Hay Isolation Hospital.
In Mike Belcher’s column of ‘What was in the newspapers 50/100 years ago’ covers a strange story of Bert Kingston’s cow stuck down his well and also the death of George T Dutton of 199 Station Street Cheslyn Hay and his life story together with the demises of cricket umpire Richard William Hood of 15 Windsor Road Cheslyn Hay and miner Wallace Timmins of 30 Low Street and their life stories.  And an article explaining a rather unusual way of raising money for the Methodist Women’s Work by the Rev WR Kerry.
And 100 years ago, details of the Cheslyn Hay branch of the Unionist Association tea and concert reception involving Mr G A Lloyd MP, Minnie Hawkins, Annie Hampton, J Mason, Mrs Devereux, Mrs J C Browell, Mrs Sambrook, Mrs Lawson, Miss A Hampton, Miss C Whitehouse, Miss F Thomas, Miss A Sayer, Miss Connie Greensill, Miss Horobin , Miss C M Gripton, Miss J Grose, Mr A R Knox, J Thomas, J. Garrett, A. Wollaston, Laurence C Hawkins, Carrie Whitehouse, Miss K Hosegood, Miss Carter, Miss Pass, Percy Edgar, Mr W Barrett and W H Steadman.
Also in the same edition was an advert for W Brian’s shop in Low Street.
Sheila (nee Ridgeway) from Sussex recalls a flood of memories from her childhood days in Cheslyn Hay covering stories of her friends and the characters she remembers from her schooldays including  Maureen Downton, Jackie Cross, Norman Fletcher, Johnny Sivorns, Alfie Rogers, Paul Zazalak, George Gaskin, Roger Moore, Wilfred Barker, Ernie Heminsley and Vera Pringle.
Throughout December there were 103 sightings of our local scenes on staffspasttrack   They were -  Brittania Picture House 29, Walter Hackett 16, Albert Hawkins shop 12, Salem 12, Hackets Butchers shop 11, Garrett’s shop 9, High  Street 7 and Wootton’s Post Office 7.
Fuller details on any of the above stories can be obtained by contacting me on
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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Our Salem Base is open as usual  every Tuesday from 10am – 3pm for all researches and enquiries.  Everyone welcome.
With increasing interest for Family Tree researches we have invested in more websites to accommodate these enquiries.  Now we have all the censuses throughout all of the country including Scotland and Ireland at our fingertips.  Plus WWI Military Records, local Church, Parish and Burial Records, and also School Log Books and Records as well as Newspaper Reports now going back over 180 years.
Sue is researching her Bullock family tree from Great Wyrley and she believes they were caretakers at the local school and lived in the schoolhouse for a time.  She emails ‘My great aunt Florrie did ‘emigrate’ to Cheslyn Hay when she married my uncle Owen Whitehouse but the others stayed close to home.  Some lived in the old cottages on the Walsall Road and the other girls married names were Hartwell, Knowles and Pritchard.  I have a couple of second cousins from the Hartwell side – Aunt Nancy (baptised Ann Marie Bullock) had two daughters, Doreen (who I don’t think had any children) and Joyce (had two sons Malcolm and Terry Brown).  I have no idea what happened to them but they would be in their early sixties.  My gran’s married name was Standley and I seem to remember second cousins called Robert and Brian Bullock – one of them had a newsagents in Great Wyrley. Hope someone will help me to track them down but my main interest is in finding out who my great grandfather was as I only found out in later life that my grandmother was illegitimate.  And the lady I’d always thought fondly of as a lovely auntie was actually my great grandmother.  I think this often happened in families !
And John appeals for help in finding where his g-grandmother Eliza Buckley (née Walker) is buried.  She was returned from Bedworth to Cheslyn Hay in December 1935 but the records show that there are no Buckleys buried at all in the Cheslyn Hay cemetery.  And a desperate plea from Margaret who has spent some years trying to trace the Bate and the Whitehouse families back to the late 1600s to either Cheslyn Hay or Great Wyrley and has continually drawn a blank.  Can anyone help Margaret please?
Also re the Beardsmores, Sheila emails saying that ‘Aunty Ivy Beardsmore  was  my dads sister and last year I came across John Beardsmore, my long lost cousin, on Friends Reunited but he went off  the site before I could contact him.  So I would love to find him as he was my dad’s favourite nephew.  I am also looking for Susan Robinson  whose dad was Les and they moved into the cottage we lived in at  101 Littlewood, next to the Woodman.
Correction from the last Newsletter’s ‘Responses’ re Benny Thompson the bookie.  Alf reminds me that he was referring to Tommy Beardsmore driving the three tonners with his mate Jim Bates. My fault and my apologies!
And we have now been able to trace the Bridgtown addresses of the Startin family, and also details of the widow who remarried in 1915.  And Elaine responds to the Newspaper Report of 100 years ago on the death of Josiah Dawkins due to a pit accident with sad details of his orphaned children.
Peter Cadman has drawn up a family tree for the Hortons back to 1790′s and is also forwarding copies of BMD certificates of this family for our records.  Peter also now confirms that he and David from Canada are 5th cousins and that their g-g-g-g-grandparents are George Whitehouse (b1758) m Lucy Brindley (b1772) on the 10th May 1790.

In Mike Belcher’s column of what happened 50 and 100 years ago this week, he covers the funeral of Mrs Mary Ann Perrins of 1 Chapel Square , Cheslyn Hay with full details of the mourners and of Mrs Perrins life.

But 100 years ago Haydn Whitehouse was sentenced to hard labour in prison.  Whilst on a lighter note the Cheslyn Hay Social Class convened their annual re-union with a full programme of entertainment with George Evans, Arnold S Hawkins, Laurence Hawkins, Joe Baker, George Wooton, T Garrett, S Altree, Miss E Horton,  Miss Nellie Carter, Raymond Hawkins, Laurence Hawkins, Mr Altree, Miss Horton, Kelly Carter, R Brough, H Perks, F Goodman, Sam Wheat,  Ed Brough, Mr Johnson  and J Warburton.

The Cannock Chronicle are starting a new weekly ‘Memory Lane’ series and we were asked to provide them with the opening column.  We were happy to oblige and chose ‘The Bleak Midwinter of 1947′ including five of our photographs and it was printed last week – December 22nd.   Also, thanks to the Great Wyrley LHS, Carl Chinn published a two page spread in Thursday night’s Express & Star on Harrison’s pit and local coal mining.

trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

Memories this week comes from Peter Cadman’s ‘Things Ain’t What They Used To Be’ covering life in the fifties with local characters Percy and Emma Poole, Jean Hemmingsley and Mr Eggerton.

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