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

HS-MYS-110

EVENTS There is a Military History Show at the Cannock Chase Museum at Brindley Heath this weekend – 17th &18th August.
OUR SALEM BASE is open every Tuesday from 10am – 3pm. All welcome. Last week we received a visitor, Angela Rustidge, from the south coast, who kindly dropped in to identify one of the Mystery Photographs, MYS 110, shown on our website as that of her mother Mrs Wright with Betty Kingston and baby Carol. This week we look forward to meeting Jenni (nee Homeshaw) from Australia who is also researching her Homeshaw roots as well.
REQUESTS
RESPONSES More information has been forthcoming from our researchers on the Joseph Stokes request. He was born 2 Jan 1894 and Andrew has traced him to Isaac Stokes and Priscilla Candell on our database and encloses a Pedigree Chart going back to George Whitehouse and Lucy Brindley on Joseph’s mother’s side. Andrew also adds that the Joseph Stokes in WW II is the son of Harry Stokes (b1882 son of Henry Stokes and Hannah Tuft) and Alice Ada Bird Hawkins (b1889 daughter of Godfrey Dorrington Hawkins and Matilda Bird) and they married in 1907 at St Mark’s.
David emails from Canada offering his help as he is working on the same lines and states ‘Jack would be John Plant who married Amy Stokes in 1921. As for Hawkins – Henry Stokes married Alice Hawkins so that may be the connection to the Hawkins family. Henry and Alice were the parents of Walter that she mentions. I would have to guess on Lizzie at this point as I do not have the document to prove anything, however if Marion has a date of the marriage I could easily confirm my suspicion. While the Stokes are in the Brough line they come back into the Whitehouse line when my great uncle married one of Joseph’s sisters.
With reference to the war records, Jean says that there are a few Joseph Stokes on the war records but they do not match up, but there is a Joseph Kempson Stokes of 18 Hill Street, Cheslyn Hay. But Jon, our Military Researcher, emails ‘I’ve looked at his Medal Index Card and his number is 214108 but no mention of /515. The number suggests he went into the army quite late in the war joining up late April/early May 1918 and 515 would relate to the 515th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery. Of note in Sept 1918 it was commanded by Prime Minister Lloyd George’s son, Gwilym. In this month it was joined by 2nd Lieutenant George Mallory who perished on Mount Everest with Sandy Irvine in 1924, so it is very possible that Joseph knew a famous mountaineer!
Finally Vi answers the enquiry of the maiden name of Walter C Stokes’s wife. He married Phyllis Skitt in Cannock in 1933.
Jenni emails her thanks to John Astbury from Melbourne for his information on George Homeshaw (b1844) being brought up as a Persehouse and adds ‘When I return to Hobart I can recheck James Homeshaw’s will of 1876 because he was a very fair man and I think there is a Pursehouse involved somewhere. James had a son with Hannah, named George (b1848) whose son George Robert Homeshaw was my grandfather.’ Jenni then provides us with a full Homeshaw family tree from 1799.
NEW PHOTOGRAPHS Football photographs of Hawkins FC in 1978 and Cannock Schoolboys with captain John Bailey, Cheslyn Hay Table Tennis Club photographs with Mark & Simon Robinson, Steven Atherton, Gary Murphy and Andy Stuart and one of the Over 60s Club in 1976.
ARCHIVE ADDITIONS/ARTEFACTS/DONATIONS OLD NEWSPAPERS researched by Dave Washington Copies available at £1 per report. This week covers the last newspaper reports of 1910 including the court cases involving Edward John Glover, William Kendall, George & Helen Boycott and Richard Burton. Also the tragic death of Henry Dawkins, and stories of Ernest Whitehouse, Harry Jones, Albert Dawkins and F & R Altree.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 50/100 YEARS AGO ……by Mike Belcher
17th August 1963 The death occurred on Sunday of Reginald Clarence Pee, of 3 Coppice Lane, Cheslyn Hay. While on h oliday with his wife at Weston-Super-Mare, Mr Pee was taken to hospital, where he died. The funeral took place at Salem Methodist Church , Cheslyn Hay, on Thursday. Mr Pee leaves a wife, son, daughter and two granddaughters.
17th August 1963 ‘Glancing Back 25 Years to 13 August 1938’ Twenty-six badges and certificates were presented to Air Raid Precautions trainees at a meeting in a room at Salem Methodist Church, on Thursday by Mr A D Dallow (Clerk to Cannock Rural District Council). Mr Joseph Baker, who presided, said that he had a number of conflicting emotions such as he had felt when passing the war memorial. It seemed that the world had not learned a great deal from the last war. After two thousand years of war it was still necessary to have such meetings as that. Mr Dallow, in presenting the badges, said that the Rural District Council welcomed the co-operation of the Parish Council. He had a difficult job arranging for 18 parishes. He was delighted so many had passed out, as he knew it entailed a lot of hard work.
16th August 1913 Recently the King of Burgunda has been on a visit to Birmingham, and he took advantage of visiting places of interest in the district. His Majesty seems particularly interested in the works which surround the big Midland city. On Wednesday there was considerable interest observable at the Rosemary Tileries, Cheslyn Hay, when the King made a flying visit and inspect these flourishing works. His Majesty was accompanied by three of his Chiefs and his Tutor and had been to Walsall where he inspected the hame, chain and cart-gear manufactories’ of Messrs J Wheway and son. On arrival at the Rosemary Works, His Majesty was heartily welcomed by Mr A R Knox, who was accompanied by Rev W Rowley O’Keefe. The Royal parties were conducted by the courtesy of Mr Knox throughout the Tileries and they expressed their greatest satisfaction at the inspection. There was one kiln that contained 125,000 tiles, which was being opened just as the Royal guests arrived.
A pleasing feature of the visit was a boy named Whitehouse who was dared to make a salute to the King as he passed by in his carriage. The boy did so, in true military style, and as His Highness passed he noticed the boy, and returned the salute, and then handed the boy in a graceful manner, half-a-crown. His Majesty then went with the Manager around the various kilns and after inspecting the works he expressed his appreciation of what he had observed. He remarked that the work was carried on in a systematic manner and he was quite pleased with the visit.

On leaving the Royal guests expressed their pleasure at the courtesy of the Manager, Mr Knox and thanked him for the information offered respecting the Tileries, for he, the King said he had not seen a better Tile Works. It may be added that His Majesty is of an extremely retiring disposition. He shows a lively interest in motors and informed the party they were much used in Uganda as the main roads were in good condition. Two of the Chiefs spoke English fluently, but the other one could not do so. The visit was most successful from a business point of view.

16th August 1913 On Friday last, one of the oldest citizens passed away, Mrs Elizabeth Bullivant, who has resided in High Street for over 50 years. Deceased who was widely known, has been ailing and practically kept to her bed since last Easter. There are not many citizens who did not know her for she is stated to be one of the oldest citizens in the township. The remains of the old lady were laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon at the Great Wyrley cemetery when the Rev S Edalji performed the service.

16th August 1913 A serious accident occurred on Wednesday evening to a little girl named Annie Huxley along the line leading from the Great Wyrley Colliery to the Churchbridge Works. The girl who is but six years old was seen along the line when the tubs were going along and although the driver of the horse shouted to the child one of the tubs came into contact with the child’s arm and badly injured it.
It was deemed necessary to convey the little girl to Wolverhampton Hospital where on arrival it was found necessary to have the arm amputated. It may be added that the driver did his utmost to prevent the accident but he could not get to the unfortunate child in time to save her.
MEMORIES
GENERAL NEWS
trevor.cheslynhayhistory@talktalk.net