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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