Our Salem Base

We are reopening this Tuesday 8th September please note revised opening hours
Revised opening times 
Our Salem Base is open from  10am – 1pm every Tuesday
The safety and well-being of our members and volunteers is paramount to us. We will be complying with all Government Guidance on Covid and the Salem’s own safety measures. Our opening hours have been reduced to allow us to sanitize the tables and chairs before and after use.  All visitors will have to wear face coverings at all times and we aren’t allowed to use the kitchen so no refreshments will be available at the moment, but we are looking at ways in which we will be able provide hot drinks in the future.
For those who want to browse our photo albums, you will be able to access these via a laptop and our researchers will be available to help with family and local history questions as always.
Unfortunately, our Chat N Char and Speakers Evenings will not take place for the foreseeable future.
This is a learning exercise for all of us and we thank you in advance for your co-operation.

What Happened This Week 50/100 years ago…by Mike Belcher

Cannock Advertiser  3rd September 1970   Story of  the brickmaking firm Haunchwood  Lewis moving to Rosemary works in Cheslyn Hay.

3rd September 1970  Story of  the Cannock Royal Observer Corps based in their underground headquarters at Cheslyn Hay ready for a mock nuclear “attack”.
3rd September 1970  Observations of Mrs. Alice Wayne of 2 Cheslyn Drive on her visit to Canada to see her niece.

3rd September 1970  Mike Perry and his success at the Landywood Estate Residents Association garden competition.

3rd September 1970 The Rev. Ron Hicks, of Cheslyn Hay, has started a trial campaign to make people aware of the church and for the church to have a re-think.

Cannock Chase Courier  4th September 1920  Last week Fred Altree the local fast bowler, accompanied by several of his colleagues accepted an invitation to play with the Warwickshire Club and Ground against Aston Unity.
Story of John Owen Whitehouse, of Station Street, being badly injured whilst working at the Mid Cannock Colliery.
The end of the cricket season with F. Altree and J. Bown having a remarkable successful summer.

Old Newspapers by Dave Washington

Cannock Chase Courier  4th September 1920  Details of the last cricket match of the season played on “The Dell” on Saturday with the gate proceeds set apart for the benefit of T. Hood.  with mentions of A. E. Elwell, W. Lawson, J. Bowen and H. Linnett.

Requests
Bill Thomason has emailed us with the following request:- “,I know this is a big ask, do you, or any of the members have any photos of any of these spouses from my Wollaston family?

SPOUSE                                          MARRIED
THOMASON SMITH                        ELIZABETH WOLLASTON
SARAH ANN SHORTER                 WILLIAM WOLLASTON
FLORENCE PERKES                     JOHN WOLLASTON
SAMUEL SMITH                              ADELAIDE WOLLASTON
FLORENCE EVANS                        JOSEPH V. WOLLASTON
GWENDOLINE CARVER                HENRY J. WOLLASTON
ALICE SAMBROOKE                      ARTHUR WOLLASTON
FRANCIS PEACH                           ETHEL WOLLASTON
GEORGE GLOVER                        EDITH M. WOLLASTON
MARGARET NICHOLLS                ALBERT WOLLASTON
LEONARD ROBINSON                  CLARA WOLLASTON
THOMAS BRADLEY                      MILDRED A. WOLLASTON

suewashington.cheslynhayhistory@btinternet.com

AS OF SUNDAY 15th MARCH ALL EVENTS DUE AT BRIDGTOWN HISTORY SOCIETY ARE SUSPENDED DUE TO THE BETHEL CHURCH BEING CLOSED BECAUSE OF THE CORONA VIRUS . FURTHER NEWS WILL BE VIA THE BRIDGTOWN WEBSITE AT WWW.BRIDGTOWNHISTORY.CO.UK.

KEEP WELL!!

Events
No events this week.
Malcolm Podmore and Dave Washington represented the History Society at a Lifestyle Roadshow in Pinfold House last week.  The residents were very interested in our society so we have decided to leave a copy of our newsletter each week in the lounge for them to read and hopefully comment on. We hope to be able to visit Pinfold House occasionally to talk to some of the older residents about their memories of our village 

Our Salem Base
Our Salem Base is open from  9am – 2pm every Tuesday

What Happened This Week 50/100 years ago…by Mike Belcher

Cannock Advertiser  15th January 1970
From the “Advertiser” 20th January 1943 A discussion that some of the streets in the parish were “Orphans of the Storm” was made by the chairman (Mr. J. Baker) at the meeting of Cheslyn Hay Parish Council.
15th January 1970  A plea for more choir members to join the choir of the local Methodist Church, Salem.
15th January 1970  Details of the funeral service of Mr. Harold Sambrook of 5, Woodland Drive, Cheslyn Hay, took place at Salem Methodist Church. 
Cannock Courier  17th January 1920  Sarah Edge, wife of Elias Edge, of  Hollybush, warns one of her neighbours of legal proceedings should she slander her again.
17th January 1920  Chat from Cheslyn Hay
The death of Mr. William C. Thacker, of Rosemary Road with full details.

Details of the male voice choir organised by the local Working Men’s Club that is making satisfactory progress.
On Tuesday, a meeting was held at the Talbot Inn, to organise a concert to assist an unfortunate citizen by the name of Russell, who has been ill for 18 months.
Match report of the Cheslyn Hay Villa reserve football team who journeyed to Hednesford for the first round of the local cup match. 
Memories

Following on from our article  in last weeks newsletter Anne Kelsall emails with her memories of the chip shops on station Street.

suewashington.cheslynhayhistory@btinternet.com

Unfortunately, due to the general election, we have had to cancel our

“Christmas Chat ‘n’Char party”

on the 12th December. Bring your pennies on

14th NOVEMBER 2019

We will have our Christmas Party early : 

Parliament isn’t going to stop us having a good time.

EVENTS We start off this year’s new Speakers Programme with a recommended talk entitled ‘Perceptions of Prostitution in Victorian Lichfield’ and Linzi Cooke is the speaker. This Thursday, 25th May, at the Salem starting at 7.30pm. Admission £1 including refreshments. Everybody welcome.
OUR SALEM BASE is open as usual every Tuesday from 9am – 2pm.
REQUESTS An email request arrived this week from Steve Rochelle. ‘My father served in the South Staffordshire Regt from around 1950-53. Whilst serving in Northern Ireland and Singapore/Hong Kong he knew a Chef by the name of Lote from Cheslyn Hay. I guess there aren’t that many Lotes in Cheslyn Hay so I assume the recently closed Lotes Butcher’s shop have to have connections to this Army cook. So I wonder if you have any information on how to contact the family?’ I have contacted Paul & Janet Harper (nee Lote) from the shop but it isn’t Janet’s father, Jack, as, although he was in the South Staffs, his only overseas posting was in Gibraltar. It is also doubtful that it was his younger brother as he only served in WWII. The only conclusion as Steve suggests it might be a cousin that lived in Cheslyn Hay.
ARCHIVE ADDITIONS/ARTEFACTS/DONATIONS Ernie Carter’s cane and the original keys of 1882 to the Pinfold Lane School!
OLD NEWSPAPERS researched by Dave Washington From the local newspapers in the year of 1892 with stories and court case involving W Slaney, C Brough, J Mills, T Jukes, J Harrington, E Jones, E Stanton, J Ingram, W Baker, W Savage, J Smith, C Hawkins, W Jones, Henry Benton, George Pearson, Maud Steadman, Henry Challinor, William Jones, Joseph Pearson, George Pearson, William Westwood, Handel Whitehouse, Mary Davis, Sarah Westwood, Oliver Whitehouse, Mrs Whitehouse of the New Inns, W Crutchley, W Rogers, Edward Smith, Rev Shapurji Edalji, Thomas Sambrooke, James Farnell, W J Devereux, J H Whitehouse, TJ Green, J Groutage and F Biddle. Copy of any Newspaper Report £1.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO by Mike Belcher
25th May 1967 The New Horse Road problem again.
26th May 1917 Working Men’s Club Bowling Green opening ceremony with names.
26th May 1917 The visit of Mr David Clegg, of Blackpool, who has given over 5,000 recitals on the organ in the principal cities and towns of the British Isles, the Continent and America, to Salem Church, on Tuesday.
MEMORIES This week we look at the reminiscences of Ruth Mills, a popular character on the village who kept a shop in Station Street, next door to Nellie Pee’s shoe shop.
MICK FELLOWS FUNERAL is on Thursday, 25th May at the Strawberry Lane Cemetery in Landywood, starting at 10.30am and afterwards at Fishley Park.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.netQ

EVENTS Our guest speaker this month is Jack Brown with a talk (and demonstration!) on the ‘History of the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance’. This Thursday, 31st July at 7.30pm at the Salem. £1 including refreshments.
OUR SALEM BASE This Tuesday, 29th July, we have a reunion of all pupils who attended Pinfold Lane School in the 1940s starting at 10am throughout the morning. We expect a decent turnout so anyone coming please spread the word. The coffee pot will be on and Joanne is baking the cakes!
Base is also open as normal for general enquiries etc until 3pm.
REQUESTS Pete Whipple from Minnesota has made contact through our Facebook Page requesting help in locating his long lost grandfather William Bird (1860-1932). He emails ‘I have Mary Ann Satchwell (1858-1946) as spouse to William Bird, and George Bird (b1826) as father, Elizabeth Millward (b1831) mother. William immigrated to the US in December 1890 but returned to England abt 1932 to visit relatives and died but I do not have an exact date nor cause of death or where he is buried. William’s siblings are: George Albert Bird (1847-1922), Edwin Bird (1849-1929 Australia), Thomas E Bird (1851-1940 USA), Rosanna Ester Bird (1855-1907) and Lizzie Bird (b1868).
And another request from Facebook from Elaine Taylor who emails ‘I’m researching my family tree and I’ve found that my g-g-grandfather lived in Cheslyn Hay with his grandparent Moses Lockett and is it true that there was once a Locketts Lane? Moses had the Colliers Arms and most of my family were miners and their names followed on such as Moses, John, Job and Harriet. Also William Henry Lockett was licensee of the Red Lion from 1912 to 1922 and any information or photographs would be great’.
Pete Foxton from West Sussex pleads for more information to confirm or deny his findings and emails ‘I am researching my wife’s g-grandfather, William Hubery (b Wolverhampton c1859) and his brother James (b W’ton 1854) but I cannot find them pre 1881 censuses or BMDs. The trouble is the Hubery name gets spelt in different ways from Aubrey to Youbury and I’ve found him and James on the censuses from 1881 to 1911. On William and Sarah Connor’s marriage certificate in 1880 (Huldbury) his father is James and a miner. Before then I have nothing of his family in the name of Hubery. Also the Youbury/Oldbury family seem to vanish from census records after 1871 and the Hubery name does not feature before 1881 so I am wondering if the name changed.’
And the fourth request comes from member Stuart Pearson who offers his research on his Pearson family to anyone interested and he says ‘I am wondering if Andrew Pearson, who has done so much work on the Pearson family, may be interested in the links I have made back to John Pearson in Cheslyn Hay and one day we may find our illusive James Henry Pearson who was last spotted in the 1911 census. He did not, as I was told by the family, die in WWI but the family was in uproar around 1900 with splits which were never healed and ones I would like to heal albeit too late.’
RESPONSES Following on from the thoroughly enjoyable Wollaston ‘get together’ of last Tuesday when four strains of the family readily exchanged information, Wendy Manns, who was unable to attend, emailed details and information of all of her own Wollaston family.
Bernard Jackson from Sacramento emails ‘I noticed that you mentioned that you were sorting out two separate lines of the Clewley family and I wanted to mention that my g-g-g-grandmother, Sarah Jackson (nee Cartwright) remarried after her husband Joseph’s death to Joseph Tuft, a butcher. Their daughter Lucy Catherine Tuft (b1845) married Charles Clewley (b1837) and inherited part (and purchased part) of the old Jackson farm at Holly Bush Hall. Charles and Lucy Catherine had Hamer (b1866), Beatrice (b1874), Arthur (b1876) and Annie (b1878) Clewley.’
NEW PHOTOGRAPHS Cliff Titley (b1923) and Kay Titley (1925 – 2013) plus half a dozen of truly excellent prints off glass negatives from the local photographer Charlie Barker of New Street in Great Wyrley. They are taken around 1910 and are of the Great Wyrley Cricket Team, two wedding photographs, six miners coming off shift at the Plant Pit, a teacher and his assistant with nine lads with spades on an allotment and a family of husband and wife with 8 daughters and one son (does this ring a bell with anyone’s family tree that’s local around the 1911 census?!)

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO ……by Mike Belcher
31st July 1964 A story on the sewage disposal works at Cheslyn Hay.
31st July 1964 More on the pavilion in the village recreation ground.
31st July 1964 Problems with the Cheslyn Hay Salem Methodist Schoolrooms.
31st July 1964 Proposals for an area of four and a half acres of land at the corner of Mill Lane and Lodge Lane.
31st July 1964 A road accident in Cheslyn Hay.
1st August 1914 The seventeenth Annual Flower Show in connection with the Cheslyn Hay Horticultural Society took place with a full sports and athletics meeting at the Barn Flat Grounds. All races, winners together with the runners ups and those placed are named.
1st August 1914 The farewell sermon of Rev W J Teague.
MEMORIES From Don Savage who recalls many memories of cricket, the Isolation Hospital, the ‘wooden huts’ and Dr Tomkinson.
TONY MYTTON We have just received more sad news that another member has sadly passed away this month. After attending Pinfold Lane School Tony went to Rugeley Grammar School before settling into a career with Bowmakers where he toured the world, but his heart remained in Cheslyn Hay staying here until 1976 when he moved to Penkridge, but was a regular visitor to our Exhibitions. He was aged just 74.
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net