discokermit
Well-Known Member
at least it felt like we got all the wheels off.
all roads lead to sedgley
- Thread starter discokermit
- Start date
discokermit
Well-Known Member
the canal in that pic running from left to right next to the railway line is where my great grandad worked his boat, from the steelworks that you can just see a bit of in the top left, to birmingham off to the right.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
the site of my second scooter crash! it was wet, i had a vespa fifty special and was on my way from bilston to work in dudley. i went under the railway bridge, top left then went to turn right to cross the bridge over the canal (where the white vehicle is crossing) too fast for the conditions and slid into the bridge rail. lesson learned.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
all these beautiful little country villages are stock full of the cunts whos ancestors had their noses up the arse of the local aristo and assisted them getting rid of the riff raff when people became less use to them than sheep.
mauvais
on reddit or something
There's a lot more photos on BFA, especially in industrial concentrations to the north. For whatever reason between about 1920 and mid-1940s they took loads of industrial sites. Some of the photography, monochrome aside, is as good quality as anything you'd get now.
It's got a searchable map - Search > Map | Britain From Above - and all those blue pins within individual images are annotations someone has added. It's not immediately apparent but they display the title at the top.
It's got a searchable map - Search > Map | Britain From Above - and all those blue pins within individual images are annotations someone has added. It's not immediately apparent but they display the title at the top.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
first off, you have lost me a days searching with those photos but i needed a break so ta.
second, what you say here was something i hadnt thought about before but now cant stop thinking about. not only do the streets remain but the footpaths became roads. even recently.
could it be cultural? ive noticed massive differences compared to birmingham, which sounds more like manchester. bourgeoise in big hats and nice suits, organised politically, thinking themselves very progressive like those lunar society wankers, possibly religious nonconformists (quakers etc.) grabbing power off and enveloping smaller towns in their orbit.
the black country seemed to be more like the wild west, as long as the earl of dudley got his cut of what you dug up, (which he did cos it was his blokes you sold it to on their terms) nobody gave a shit. a lot of the arrivals here were squatters, the deal being you could come here, pitch a tent or even build a shanty you scraped together out of the clay and then you start digging, turning the earl, or whoever into a rich man instead of him sitting on a load of useless rock.
its obv more complicated than that. bilston, for instance, was mainly copyhold land and as the copyhold courts hadnt sat for hundreds of years the ownership was dubious so anyone could squat there no problem and nobody to pay. you still got fucked though.
could it be topographical? the black country is on one scale fairly flat plateu surrounded by hills but when you get close in almost everywhere has been mined or quarried to one degree or another. there are pits, pools, banks, cuts, mounds and heaps all over the place and the road and footpaths have tended to go around or along them. this ties in with the cultural aspect.
this has deffo got me pondering.
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mauvais
on reddit or something
To answer that I would have to understand a lot more about both Manchester & Midlands history than I do.
I went back to look at this re: Manchester and it's not as simple as I thought. Lots of streets do survive, but lots don't.
This, of Beswick in East Manchester, is a good example of 'not'.
I think it was the product of what became unsanitary, low-quality housing - after very heavy industry in these areas like steam locomotive manufacture departed in a short space of time post-war - turning into effectively 'slum clearance' and not being replaced at all until much later. Now some is residential and some is space-consuming 'industrial' parks and warehouses or grand projects like Man City's stadium.
As I say, it's mixed even in these places. When looking at the history of the more affluent suburbs, streets generally survived as you would expect. But often when I've gone looking for specific places in more working class locations, they're all gone, for a variety of reasons. One I tried to find in Stockport is now beneath a bypass.
I went back to look at this re: Manchester and it's not as simple as I thought. Lots of streets do survive, but lots don't.
This, of Beswick in East Manchester, is a good example of 'not'.
I think it was the product of what became unsanitary, low-quality housing - after very heavy industry in these areas like steam locomotive manufacture departed in a short space of time post-war - turning into effectively 'slum clearance' and not being replaced at all until much later. Now some is residential and some is space-consuming 'industrial' parks and warehouses or grand projects like Man City's stadium.
As I say, it's mixed even in these places. When looking at the history of the more affluent suburbs, streets generally survived as you would expect. But often when I've gone looking for specific places in more working class locations, they're all gone, for a variety of reasons. One I tried to find in Stockport is now beneath a bypass.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
anyways sedgley is a limestone hillat the northern end of a series of limestone hills. in woodsetton there is a hill called "wrens nest". originally it was called "wrosne" which was old english or summat for a link in a chain or a bead in a string of beads. which it kinda is.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
that does look like brum, big long streets of houses. thing is though the black country had just as bad if not worse sanitation, its only river is more of a brook. everyone drew from wells that were poisoned from mineworkings and no sewers. the cess pits all leaked into the water table and gave everyone cholera. thing was nobody gave a shit.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
mauvais
check this out, squatters houses near me (just to the right of where it says rough hills). you can tell they are squatters houses because of the layout, but i read years ago they were anyway.
now see on the map now, the council houses are all built on the same "plan" and the roads even follow the footpaths. like myrtle street and craven street.
check this out, squatters houses near me (just to the right of where it says rough hills). you can tell they are squatters houses because of the layout, but i read years ago they were anyway.
now see on the map now, the council houses are all built on the same "plan" and the roads even follow the footpaths. like myrtle street and craven street.
I tried to find him in BMD but can't. his name was Sam (he died a few years back in Kingswinford), but now I'm wondering if that really was his name, not uncommon with bikers on the boatyard, not sure I ever really knew anyone's real name
discokermit
Well-Known Member
even the names myrtle street and craven street stand out from the council names the other streets that have filled in the space. black country, where the squatters name the roads they are on myrtle and craven and it just carries on through history.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
mad news, part of my moms family comes from radnorshire, so does part of my dads. even here in the land of the inbreeding our families had a headstart. lol.
my great grandad married my great granny named richards from sedgley. his dad married a daughter of a daughter of a richards from sedgley as well. yikes!
my great grandad married my great granny named richards from sedgley. his dad married a daughter of a daughter of a richards from sedgley as well. yikes!
discokermit
Well-Known Member
Orang Utan is my great great great grandfather!
born in church stretton in 1840?
married in ludlow?
died in clun?
or faked death and carried on living as an immortal but couldnt be bothered to think up a new name? hmm.
born in church stretton in 1840?
married in ludlow?
died in clun?
or faked death and carried on living as an immortal but couldnt be bothered to think up a new name? hmm.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
cannot say how made up i am i got a grandad bobby t.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Shh, don’t tell anyone!
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
I was worried about my ggg-grandad William Thorley from Dilhorne in Staffs who married a Hannah Thorley. Turns out William has three generations of John Thorley's behind him and Hannah has three generations of George Thorley's, so they are at least fourth cousins. They're all from Dilhorne which was tiny so perhaps they kept track of these things to some extent.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
i think they kept very good track the further back you go. doing this has made me realise a little bit the power of the church in those days and its role as an arm of the state.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
its noticable that almost all my grandmother have unpaid domestic duties as their job, ie housewife. today i found my third great grandmother, mary sefton, was a nailer, proving the women could swing an ommer as good as the men. and almost certainly better than me.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Interesting thread discokermit. It’s always fascinating to find out how our families found their way to the Black Country. My dads side can be traced back to Yorkshire and moved to the Black Country about 250 years ago to work in the mines. My mom was Irish (and in Brum).
In terms of migration patterns - and correlation to industrial development - I’d say the first waves were mainly from the north and also rural labourers from Worcester, Shropshire, Ireland and Staffordshire forced into the urban districts for work (mainly iron and coal).
Great thread...
In terms of migration patterns - and correlation to industrial development - I’d say the first waves were mainly from the north and also rural labourers from Worcester, Shropshire, Ireland and Staffordshire forced into the urban districts for work (mainly iron and coal).
Great thread...
discokermit
Well-Known Member
thats how its looking so far with me, though non from the north, mainly shropshire with some worcestershire and herefordshire which considering the importance of the river severn in those times doesnt surprise me much. some of the shropshire lot came into shropshire from montgomeryshire and some from radnorshire. coal mining seems to be what most of my earlier ones did with the ironwork coming later.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
anyway, my plans have changed somewhat since the beginning of the thread. now this is just the first part of my plan to utterly destroy various little hamlets in various shires beginning with broadway in worcestershire. after this is completed, or concurrently, ill play it by ear, i shall be tracking down the entire offspring of broadway justices of the peace, richard hudson and thomas beale cooper esq who i shall assasinate one by one. then i will track down the offspring of broadway church wardens, wardens of the poor etc and do the same until my lust for blood and vengeance has been sated.
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Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
i hope you won't omit hackney's broadway market
discokermit
Well-Known Member
you got any hudson/beale cooper in you?
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
discokermit
Well-Known Member
more churchwarden.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
its weird, i had no idea of the emotional toll of doing your family history. its all stuff i had already guessed at but to see it confirmed is something else. and the people who didnt even have names now are not only names but ive seen them born, baptised, married and died. ive seen where they lived and how they worked. they have not only become people but my people. my grandparents.
ive been hit with five hundred years of love and three hundred and fifty years of burning furious anger in about two days.
ive been hit with five hundred years of love and three hundred and fifty years of burning furious anger in about two days.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I found out an ancestor was transported to Oz for stealing a bag of nails and beating the Mayor of Plymouth with sticks and I fucking love that.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
ive loved it that all my ancestors were working class and before there was a working class, agricultural labourers. its still upsetting to see them go from dying at seventy/eighty generation after generation to dying in their thirties and forties over the space of a generation or two though. the english working class was made by the theft of others. assisted by the wankers who then employed them.
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