Cheslyn Hay & District Local History Society

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Our Annual Exhibition, which is our main event of the year, is on Saturday, 2nd October at the Village Hall (aka Community Centre) in Pinfold Lane and is open to members at 9.30am to 6pm.  The exhibition includes a variety of displays, a film show of old cinefilm and photos, the launch of our new book and of course 850 photographs.  All are welcome.
Also the Cannock Chase Mining Historical Association are unveiling an Information Sign at the old West Cannock No 5 site at 11am on Wednesday, 29th September followed by the launch of their book ‘The Annals of The West Cannock Colliery Company Limited 1869 – 1957′ but also includes its latter years up to its closure in 1982. Its author, Alan Dean, will also be available on Thursday at Hednesford Library, on Friday at Heath Hayes Library and on Saturday at Cannock Library to sign copies between 10am and 1pm.
Our Salem Base is open as usual on Tuesdays from 10am – 4pm.
More family history requests this week including the Smith and Bate families from the mid 1800s and also one from the States on the Heningham family history.
Responses received from last week’s Newsletter on the girls first day at Rugeley Grammar School with names from the past including Jennifer and Clare as well as the Middletons, John Kirby, Barry Pee and David Crosby.’  Also plenty of information on the DAS Land Developments and Joe Wilks who  had his pit on the side of Landywood Lane where the Spring Meadow estate is now.  Letters have been received from 1938 concerning W Steadman who was employed at Hawkins Colliery and George H Marshall of 40 Watling Street.
We now have in our archives the memories of Mr Joe Cadman (1920 – 2009), Part Time Parish Clerk to the Cheslyn Hay Parish Council as well as having a lifetime career at Hawkins’ Colliery.  These are available on request at our Base.

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Eight more visitors at our Base last Tuesday provided more in depth research into three local family trees – the Griffiths, Kingston and the Ridgways.
Also we have received an email from Canada researching the Egerton and Edgerton family.
More photographs have been handed in and they include the Harley and Birch families during the 1940s, the Kingstons, Corfields and Sam Newell.  Plus three of Pinfold Lane School classes, two from the First World War era and one from the 1890s which include Alice Smith (later Hawkins) as a teacher, as well as Alice in the gardens of Grasmere.  As well as three choir photos with Howard Shingler and a Sunspots one of 1932 at the Mount Zion with everyone named and a beautiful one of the nine Hackett sisters from 100 years ago.
Also received are copies of the Deeds of Enfranchisement for our archives and other certificates for the land purchased for Allman’s Garage at Churchbridge dating back to 1st May 1913 together with maps.
This week, Leslie Huffadine has sent us some marvellously happy memories of Cheslyn Hay stretching back to the 1930s of the Hackett family.  These can be obtained by contacting me below.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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More enquiries have been received this week for the Lockett and Russell family trees and we also have had good responses for both the Showell and Thomas families for their requests.  Also some interesting information for anyone with Moses Lockett in their ancestry.
Also received is a raft of photographs covering all different aspects of the village including The Lot cottages before they were knocked down, two ‘Now & Then’ of Mount Pleasant, some school photos from the early 1950s inc Pat Foster, Jean Bullock, Tina Farrington, Margaret Burton, Valerie Norman, Madeleine Wain, Pat Stokes, Janet Gunn, Mavis Round, Heather Havelock, Sheila Roberts, Joan Davies, Roy Peach, Barry Taylor, John Heminsley, Barry Simpson, Dolphin and many more unnamed.  Also some of Wedges Mills around 1954 with the haymaking in Nodens Field and of the Village Fetes.  Well known local names include Dawson, Rowe, Bibb, Osbourne, Jones, Lewis, Sargeant, Prosser plus many others.  We have also received a photo of Birds Row in 1959, the demolishment of the old houses at the Station Street end of Littlewood Lane and one of Floss’s Wool Shop.
Our base is open as usual on Tuesday 10am – 4pm.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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Great Wyrley LHS have a Local History Open Day at the Great Wyrley WMC (now GW Sports & Social Club) on Walsall Road next Saturday June 19th from 11am – 4pm. We will be there together with other Local History Societies from Bridgtown, Burntwood, Pelsall and the Cannock Chase Mining Museum. We will have a scanner available so that any photographs will be copied on the spot. Also Ian Wykes talk on the Anglo Saxon Hoard is only a week away on Thursday 24th June and there are still a few tickets available at £2.50. Email or telephone me on 01922 414772.
We have had a few more family trees added to our Database this week. They are the Bradbury, Showell, Thomas, Dace and Goodfellow family trees but they also include the Whitehouses, Locketts, Russells, Bakers and Ridgeways.
We have had another donation from the Bale family and it is quite a remarkable Diary/Scrapbook entitled ‘Great Wyrley Secondary Modern School – 4th Year Journey to North Wales 1948′. Beautifully assembled it contains photographs, postcards, maps, timetables, drawings and written accounts by the boys themselves as well as Mr Bale. Entries are included from Graham Bennett, E Pearse, Colin Booker, Derek Smith and Ernest Thacker and we are appealing for anyone who remembers this trip, or if they know where these ‘lads’ are today. The book is added to the ‘Cuthbert Bale Collection’ and can only be viewed at our Base. More memories have been sent in from an old ‘Bomker’ who has been exiled for 45 years but he remembers ‘Coggers’ and the ‘Pretty Woman’s’ Fish and Chip shop and much more nostalgia.
Our base is open this Tuesday as usual from 10am – 4pm.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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We have organised a Local History Fun Walk & Quiz for Friday 11th June to raise funds for the Cheslyn Hay Primary School. Only £1 each with teams up to six if required with 5 Sections with 5 Questions in each section including a photographic one. All questions are based on observations connected to local history, so that everybody, including any newcomers to Cheslyn Hay will all have an equal chance to win. It starts at the Talbot (the Dog) at 6.30pm and includes a short triangular walk round to the Colliers for more refreshments.
And the Coffee Morning coach trip to Chasewater takes place on Thursday 10th June leaving the Salem at 9.45am.
Had an interesting request from Surrey concerning the Russell/Lockett family trees and in particular Moses Lockett.
Please contact me if you have any information.
A batch of photographs of the 1977 Carnival has arrived this week with plenty of dancing bands but no names and we would appreciate any help.
On our Members Weekly News is a summary of the teachers from the 1950s/60s and interesting reading it makes. Incredibly another 145 sightings on the Staffordshire Past Track website during May of our photographs and are as follows – Albert Hawkins Shop 34, Britannia Picture House 34, High Street 21, Walter Hackett 20, Salem Church 15, Wootton’s Post Office 13, Garrett’s Shop 5 and Hackett’s Butcher’s Shop 3.
Our base is open this Tuesday as usual from 10am – 4pm. Any queries please email.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net

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We have a great night’s entertainment this Thursday evening, 7.30pm on 27th May at the Salem, as it’s our old friend David Bartley with ’An Evening of Black Country Banter and Poetry’.  Now appearing with the likes of Ken Dodd etc, David hosts most of the Black Country evenings in all of our local areas and is certainly a night not to miss.

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We are giving a talk at Glenthorne Primary School on Wednesday this week on the ‘Second World War’.   Also the Bridgtown &DLHS are holding their first AGM at the Bethel Chapel on Wednesday morning at 10.30am.  All potential new members are welcome.
More photographs from the old families have been forwarded to us to be copied and they include the Broughs, Davis, Pearson, Horton, Nicklin and Heminsley families.  All are available to be seen at our base at the rear of the Salem any Tuesday from 10am – 4pm together with all of our 5000 plus photographs.
An interesting family history request has been received connecting the Dace, Goodfellow and the Ridgeway families which we are currently researching.
A fascinating newspaper report from the 1920s has also turned up on the misdemeanours of some well known local names including William Roe, Cyril Parsons, Joe Hodson, Clifford Smith, John Pratt, Andrew Allen, Harry Lockett, William Leach, Harold Thomas, Baden Newell, and William Savage.  We will be only too pleased to issue full details on request – all free of course.
There will be a 40th Anniversary Reunion of the 1st Cheslyn Hay Boys’ Brigade on Friday October 8th at 7pm at Old Wyrley Hall in Olde Hall Lane Great Wyrley.  Tickets are £6 which includes light refreshments and can be obtained from Pam Ball on 01922 415067.

trevor.cheslyhayhistory@talktalk.net

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Our House Researcher Darren Butler is giving a free talk on House History at our Coffee Morning this Thursday morning in the Lecture Room at the rear of the Salem at 10am.
We are giving a talk at the Lakeside Residential Home on Monday on the topic of ‘The Good Old Days’ and we are providing a photographic display of Cheslyn Hay Carnivals on Saturday and Sunday 15/16 May at the Cannock Chase Museum. Plus a talk and display at Glenthorne Primary School on the ‘Industries of Cheslyn Hay’ on Wednesday afternoon.
This week we have been presented with quite a remarkable British Legion Official Programme and Order of Service commemorating the visit of Ex-Servicemen of the Great War to Staffordshire, but what is unique is the signatures on the programme.  They include the Earl of Harrowby, leading dignatories from Poland, Greece, France, Italy,Bulgaria, a couple of Lord Mayors and Great Wyrley’s Colonel WE Harrison.
Tickets  are now printed for the Anglo Saxon Hoard talk by County Archeologist Ian Wykes on 24th June.  Proceeds go to the Anglo Saxon Hoard itself and tickets are £2.50 each.  Normal price for this talk is £5 but we are limited to the Salem capacity of 120 tickets and sales are going well.  Tickets can be bought or reserved by phoning 01922 414772.
We have donated £50 for the Salem appeal for repairs to their ceiling and the church would appreciate any further support for their fund raising events and donations throughout the year.
Five weeks into our current year we now have an incredible 194 members, which will easily surpass last years membership of 208.
All visitors are welcome at our new base at the rear of the Salem through the iron gates but easy access can be arranged through the main doors by phoning 01922 414772 in advance.

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Had another eight visitors this week that included researches into local burials, reviewing photographs and handing in photographs to be copied.  But we also had visits from a law student, Gavin Wheatley, who is writing a book about the Edalji case plus Ann and Graham Collins who we have been liasing with re the history of Hawthorne Cottage.  Graham is a model maker and he has produced a magnificent model of the house to scale and this will be on display at our Annual Exhibition.  Our base will be open this Tuesday 10am – 4pm.
More family tree enquiries for the Whitehouse, Bate, Stanton/Staunton, Hodgekiss/Hodgekins, Parker, Stokes, Egerton and Paddock families.
One intriguing telephone call came in from Phil Burgess this week who left a message saying he has several old photographs of Cheslyn Hay Carnivals from his parents who went to live in Blackpool 25 years ago.  Unfortunately Phil never left his telephone number and hasn’t phoned back since.  Can anyone help me to contact Phil or does anyone remember the Burgesses who retired to Blackpool?
A fair range of photographs have been handed in for copying this week including the Hand family, the Whitehouses – Arnold, Sid and Eva going back to 1931, a school trip to Edinburgh Castle supervised by Miss Wilson, Miss Cross and Mrs Watson, but we only have Jean Parrington, Jill McLure and Ann Hewitt named.    But the two photographs that are outstanding are one of Glenthorne Stores in the High Street before the war and one of the full length of Cross Street in the 1930s.  Both of these will be used in this year’s book.
A local geologist Graham Worton is giving a talk at the Roman Way Hotel on the Watling Street next Thursday, 22nd April at 6pm and he will discussing the history of the West Midlands brickwork and explaining when brickwork clays were formed and why they were used.
trevor.cheslyhayhistory@talktalk.net

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Two weeks into our current year and we already have 144 members ‘signed up’ for 2010/11.
We had another ten visitors on Tuesday at our New Base and included enquiries on the Burton, Greensill, Norman, Perks, Farrington and Biddle families. Open this Tuesday 10am – 4pm. Requests this week have come from members tracing Harley, Boucher, Lockett, Butler, Marshall, Westwood and Garratt
family trees.
We have also received 30 photographs of the Perks/Saunders family this week as well as 23 of the Norman family that included individual pictures of Parbrook, Pee, Weetman, Hook, Whitehouse, Shorthouse and Jackson as well as scenes of Snapes Farm and Holly Hill cottages. Also a wedding group of the Willis and Lavelle families and a trip to Dudley Zoo in 1963 from GW School with names including Birbeck, Carruthers, Bridge, Willis, Heminsley, Horton, Pearce, Varty, Salt, Faulkner, Morris, Jones and Ridgway. And cyclists Dot Wilkinson, Marg James, Wyn Pearce and Lilian Dean enjoying the social side of the Clarion Club. All can be seen at our base or photographs can be ordered at the email address below.
One of our members has handed over copies of her research from a few years ago of local Births and Marriages between 1660 and 1671. Absolutely fascinating and there are, of course, plenty of current Cheslyn Hay families as well such as Hawkins, Dace, Bate, Brevett, Hall, Harvey, Hart and Smitheman. All available at our base but I will look any names up for anyone researching their family trees.

trevor.cheslyhayhistory@talktalk.net

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