all roads lead to sedgley

[discokermit]

this is a thread to put my stuff relating to my family history. within it are stories of rural poverty and how the black country working class was built.

within all this the nine hamlets (sedgley, gospel end, cotwall end, upper gornal, lower gornal, ettingshall, bradley coseley and woodsetton) of sedgley are quite important, so far i have found ancestors going back to 1700 in sedgley. ettingshall is where i live now, where both my parents lived, my grand parents and great grandparents all lived here also.
this will save me spamming other threads. anybody feel free to chip in but try and keep it on a black country history theme. ta.

 

[discokermit]

this is my third great grandfather and mother, simeon and sarah richards and their children, including my second great grandfather timothy.
as you can see, simeon is an iron puddler.
they lived in swan village, tipton, which borders woodsetton. also known at the time as coseley moor.

simeon richards grandad was the earliest i can find so far in this line of the family, benjamin richards, born in 1760 in coseley.

 

[discokermit]

this is my moms side, john and lizzie stanley, of number two, furnace parade, tipton. (near woodsetton). john is a coal miner (and my third great grandfather) who died quite young

 

[discokermit]

moms side again, ben and emma sefton. he a chainmakers striker (gie it sum ommer!) and his son a labourer. dudley.

 

[discokermit]

at one point i thought i had some posh farmers in penkridge in the family, one who got married in lichfield cathedral but it was a mistake and they were miners from shropshire.

 

[discokermit]

sam and sarah webb, he born in 1795 in dudley, she 1802. sam senior, my fourth great grandad, the bricklayer. sam junior, my third g g, a blacksmith. also good to see sams sibling is an "engine fitter", my original trade. makes me feel at home.
funny to see so many strikers and ommerers. i used to get called lightning every time i used a hammer because i never struck twice in the same place! lol!

 

[discokermit]

this is the record of my third great grandfathers brother thomas haines/haynes aka tustin, being sentenced to transportation.

 

[discokermit]

the family were from blockley in worcestershire. impoverished by the enclosure of common land. toms father had left blockley to live in broadway, worcestershire, where he married, had a child then got legally forced to return to blockley by the magistrates because they were too poor. toms grandfather and uncle had been arrested for stealing sheep along with two others. they were aquitted at trial but the other two got hanged. eventually toms brother john, my third great grandfather moved to rushall nr walsall to become a miner. there he met lizzie hadley from sedgley and they settled in ettingshall.

 

[mauvais]

I've been on holiday to Blockley (it was in Worcs, it's in Glos now) a few times, and the wider area a few more. I'd get kicked out for being too poor these days.

 

[discokermit]

so far, out of hundreds of ancestors, i have found one who wasnt a manual worker. one of my great grandfathers reached the lofty position of weighbridge clerk.

 

[discokermit]

I've been on holiday to Blockley a few times, and the wider area a few more. I'd get kicked out for being too poor these days.

blockley is where they got kicked to. broadway is the place they got kicked out of. "the jewel of the cotswolds!" . twats.

 

[mauvais]

You probably know this but did you know you can look up old maps in the NLS? Like this of Blockley from 1883 which is about as far back as the good, high detail ones go: View: Worcestershire LVII.8 (Blockley; Chipping Campden) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952

I got my dad looking at these, he's been able to marry up records of where some of his relatives lived in the now demolished areas of industrial Manchester with more meaningful maps and sometimes even aerial photos.

 

[platinumsage]

Similar to my family, I have two branches from Staffordshire before they all met up in London, from Dilhorne/Kingsley and Aston/Eccleshall. All working class too, although one was a tenant farmer of 37 acres.

 

[discokermit]

You probably know this but did you know you can look up old maps in the NLS? Like this of Blockley from 1883 which is about as far back as the good, high detail ones go: View: Worcestershire LVII.8 (Blockley; Chipping Campden) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952

after the treeing will come the mapping. ta!

 

[discokermit]

i looked on the map and for such a tiny place i was directly related to the haynes, toms, handy and jobson families there. mad.

 

[mauvais]

Shout if you want a hand on the mapping, the NLS tool is really good but takes a bit of figuring out, plus I love a 'where the fuck was X?' mystery.

 

[discokermit]

so far i have three family lines coming from shropshire, one from worcestershire. the thing with shropshire is after all the trees around here had been burned for charcoal by the seventeen seventies a lot of the industry moved to ironbridge and didnt come back until smelting iron with coal was invented (by dud dudley, of woodsetton, sedgley!), so i dont know if they followed the work there and back.

 

[discokermit]

my great great grandad william jones, the "roadman". lol! crossed with labourer written over it. dunno what thats about.
my great grandad jasper eli jones there as well and my g g grandmother lizzie tong from radnorshire. this branch of the family knocked around shropshire/herefordshire/radnorshire until they turned up here, the last of the arrivals in 1911 or so.

 

[platinumsage]

so far i have three family lines coming from shropshire, one from worcestershire. the thing with shropshire is after all the trees around here had been burned for charcoal by the seventeen seventies a lot of the industry moved to ironbridge and didnt come back until smelting iron with coal was invented (by dud dudley, of woodsetton, sedgley!), so i dont know if they followed the work there and back.

One of my lines moved to Ironbridge, and married into the Evans/Jones crew there who i’m guessing came from Wales. Brickmaker‘s Assistant aged 12, makes a change from agricultural labourer I suppose.

 

[discokermit]

One of my lines moved to Ironbridge, and married into the Evans/Jones crew there who i’m guessing came from Wales. Brickmaker‘s Assistant aged 12, makes a change from agricultural labourer I suppose.

i reckon ironbridge would be massive conduit as central wales was cleared of people.

 

[discokermit]

if you look on this old map of hurst hill, opposite the methodist church there is a little alleyway off the main rd, running parallel with it. my nan and grandad were neighbours there. my great grandad was licensee of a pub there for a few years then passed it on to my other great grandad. so thats my nan and grandad and all four of their parents in that tiny alley.







if you look on the modern map you can see the remnant of the alley and the methodist chapel is still there. go north a teensy bit and you see watton close. i live opposite that.
also, manor primary school in the top right of the map is about two hundred or so yards from where my third great nan and grandad lived along with my second great nan and grandad.

 

[discokermit]

this is meadow lane, top right,





i live just to the left of where it says clay pit under the word woodcross.

this is where the haynes lived with their son in law sam webb,

 

[lizzieloo]

this is the record of my third great grandfathers brother thomas haines/haynes aka tustin, being sentenced to transportation.


View attachment 238850

I know a Tustin from those parts, he lived at Caggy's yard same time as us. Was your "Tustin" just an alias or do you have them in your tree?

 

[discokermit]

I know a Tustin from those parts, he lived at Caggy's yard same time as us. Was your "Tustin" just an alias or do you have them in your tree?

yes, turns out tustin was his moms maiden name. he was born out of wedlock, then his parents got married leaving him the only one in his immediate family named tustin. his parents married after he was born.
i bet they didnt like that in broadway, worcestershire. the wankers.

 

[discokermit]

I know a Tustin from those parts, he lived at Caggy's yard same time as us. Was your "Tustin" just an alias or do you have them in your tree?

i have got eight generations of tustin on my tree now. the family lived for generations in blockley. im back to richard tusten, born in 1568.

 

[platinumsage]

I'd recommend, if you can afford it, paying £7 a pop for pdf death certificates for people who died from their teens to their forties from 1837 onwards to find out the cause of death. All sorts of accidents and incidents can show up.

 

[mauvais]

this is meadow lane, top right,


i live just to the left of where it says clay pit under the word woodcross.

this is where the haynes lived with their son in law sam webb,

Here's a few higher detail (OS 25 inch) maps:

1884: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952
1901: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952
1913: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952
1938: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952

You can Alt-click and get a transparency control that allows you to see a modern map behind it.

Big differences between the last two links. But it's surprising to me that in such an industrial area, the streets you've talked about seemingly remain to this day. In East Manchester for example, whole areas got wiped from the map with only arterial roads surviving.

Now if you're interested in later periods, like the 30s and 40s, you can look at Britain From Above.

You need a (free) account to view things in detail, but here is Meadow Lane in 1946, the third blue marker up from the bottom. This is zoomed in, there is more of this image available.

Link: EAW001260 ENGLAND (1946). The industrial and residential area at Deepfields and Lady Moor, Bilston, 1946 | Britain From Above

 

[discokermit]

I'd recommend, if you can afford it, paying £7 a pop for pdf death certificates for people who died from their teens to their forties from 1837 onwards to find out the cause of death. All sorts of accidents and incidents can show up.

ta! im way too far down this rabbit hole as it is. after the tree i want to map the families and their movements and see if i can tie it in with stuff like local enclosures of land and recessions etc.

 

[planetgeli]

I've been on holiday to Blockley (it was in Worcs, it's in Glos now) a few times, and the wider area a few more. I'd get kicked out for being too poor these days.

I spent a birthday in a cottage in Blockley. There's a petrol station on the main road just before the village. I went in only for directions and I swear the attendant had her hand under the counter on some panic button the whole time I was in there.

 

[discokermit]

Here's a few higher detail (OS 25 inch) maps:

1884: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952
1901: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952
1913: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952
1938: View: Staffordshire LXVII.3 (Coseley; Sedgley) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952

You can Alt-click and get a transparency control that allows you to see a modern map behind it.

Big differences between the last two links. But it's surprising to me that in such an industrial area, the streets you've talked about seemingly remain to this day. In East Manchester for example, whole areas got wiped from the map with only arterial roads surviving.

Now if you're interested in later periods, like the 30s and 40s, you can look at Britain From Above.

You need a (free) account to view things in detail, but here is Meadow Lane in 1946, the third blue marker up from the bottom. This is zoomed in, there is more of this image available.

Link: EAW001260 ENGLAND (1946). The industrial and residential area at Deepfields and Lady Moor, Bilston, 1946 | Britain From Above

View attachment 238970

thats. brilliant! ta!

the canal bridge, top centre, is where in 1987 i got all four wheels of my morris marina off the floor by going over it at sixty. i landed on the opposite side of the road due to the bend. luckily it was three in the morning. my mate, martin from gornal nearly shit himself.