In our very wet garden today.
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Snapshot memories
My much-loved late uncle, Nigel, had this treasured but rather battered photograph that he was rightly proud of and which we were pleased to be able to digitally restore for him some years ago.
It shows him at RAF Digby, in Lincolonshire, one of our oldest RAF stations, in October 1952. Flying was stopped there in January 1953, so he must have been in one of the last trainee contingents through there.
I should have dug out more information at the time but Wikipedia added to my very limited knowledge of the base:- “Following the end of World War II Digby increasingly took on a non-flying role for RAF Technical Training Command. … Between 1948 and 1950 Digby also became home to the No.1 Initial Officer Training unit, the Aircrew Education Unit, the Aircrew Transit Unit and the Instructional Leadership Course. In 1951 No. 2 Aircrew Grading School for both potential pilots and ancillary aircrew was established at Digby using a wide range of elderly aircraft.” I think the Tiger Moth certainly qualified for the ‘elderly’ category!
I just thought I’d take the opportunity to share what was clearly a happy moment for him on this, his birthday.
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Posted in family history, History, People, Photography
Tagged aviation, family, history, photography, RAF, royal-air-force
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‘Doing their bit’
I found this little cutting stashed away in some files I was sorting: I must have seen and labelled it after mum died. It’s probably from the Telegraph and Argus.
A quick search showed that Cllr. Coughlin served in 1981-2 so I’ve pinned the date down thus far. Mum had been diagnosed with cancer so it was a cause close to home in every way, which she supported. Dad did volunteer work with them until he died suddenly in 1984. The War on Cancer charity merged with the then Cancer Research Campaign in 1999, I think, then came under the umbrella of Cancer Research UK.
It’s not an earth-shattering piece of news or ephemera, but I thought it deserved to see the light of day 40-odd years on as a thanks to all the good souls who put time and energy into improving the treatment of cancer patients and enabling more research.
Arnold Moore, the Chairman, set up the charity in 1975 after his wife’s death from cancer. He died in 2010 having helped raise millions for the cause, aided by the many hard-working volunteers and helpers, some of whom are pictured here. It struck me that most of them probably underestimated the sheer power of ‘doing their bit’.
In the difficult times we find ourselves in today, it’s also a salutory reminder that there are still so many good and generous people out there ‘doing their bit’ in the medical field and in so many others, and who also probably don’t realise how those ‘bits’ all add up to make a real difference.
It’s important, too, in that it gives hope to those of us who sometimes despair at so much of the awful news – and people – we see around us. It is good and healing for the soul to see, appreciate and celebrate those (volunteers and workers alike) who choose to go out of their way to help others and strive to make their corner of the world a bit brighter and better.
Thank you, each and every one.
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Posted in family history, Locality, People, Philosophical
Tagged Bradford, cancer, family, health, volunteers
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Great-aunt Lillian
I knew little about my great-aunt Lillian, born 140 years ago today, and to be honest, still don’t really know anything beyond the bare research, which underlines the need to talk to family about family, and more importantly, to listen when they talk!
I recall my dad and mum kept in touch with Lillian’s daughter Barbara over the years, though mainly via the Christmas card letter as I don’t recall ever meeting her. My dad would talk fondly of Barbara, who was effectively a generation older than he and had lived away from the Halifax area all her life.
Lillian was born on 1 December 1883 to Rachel (née Heptinstall) and James Normington Mills, a plumber and glazier. Lillian had 7 older sisters and an older brother, Edgar (another brother, Thomas, had died as an infant in 1871.) She would be joined by two more, younger sisters in the next 5 years, Annie Beatrice (known as Beattie, I think) and Amy Florence, my grandmother. The family was living at 36 Gibbet St, Halifax at this time. The house has gone but here’s number 38.
It seems the house might have been a victim of James’ bankruptcy in early summer 1883. By 1891 the family has moved to 63 North Parade. Lillian’s 4 eldest sisters are all in various sewing jobs – dressmaker, tailoress and two sewing machinists – a genetic talent I seem to have missed out on!
1901 sees Lillian and 5 sisters at 14 Villiers Street. Lillian has bucked the sewing trend and is a cashier among the remaining carpet-sewers or winders and undie-stitchers.
On 18 December 1904 Lillian marries newsagent James Butterworth Blackett in Halifax. There is an announcement on p8 of the Halifax Guardian on 24 December. Their first child, Herbert, is born in 1905.
Less happily, on 6th March 1906 Lillian’s mum Rachel has a operation for gallstones. Sadly, she died on 15th March, aged 59, with cause of death given as cholelithisasis exhaustion following the operation.
Lillian and James’ second child, Barbara, arrives on 5 December 1909 and both children are christened on 16 January 1910 at St Mary’s, Halifax. Lillian’s family are living at 7 Villiers Street, (just down the road from her parental home at no 14) and they are still there in the 1911 census. Two more sons, Norman and Laurence arrive in 1911 and 1915.
Alexander P Kapp / St Mary’s Catholic Church, Halifax By Alexander P Kapp, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
The family has moved to Chester by 1921 and James is now a foreman working for W H Smith (Liverpool) . At least one more move takes them to 31 Hillcrest Avenue in Northampton, by this time, just James, Lillian and Barbara. James is a branch manager and Lillian listed in the usual format ‘Domestic duties’. Barbara is a clerk.
Lillian lives long enough to see peace return, but dies at home in Northampton on 20 December, 1945, survived by James (d.1959).
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Turn of the season – random snippets
The clocks go back tonight. This always brings to mind a surreal conversation years ago with my mother-in-law & her sister, as we drove them back home.
My m-i-l was watching a flock of birds flying overhead on their way to roost, which prompted this comment from her “Oh, the clocks go back tonight, don’t they? That must really confuse the birds – how do they manage?”
My husband managed to muffle a snort of laughter and as her comment sank in, I was close to biting the steering wheel whilst trying to think of how to respond when, as I thought, Aunty Lyd, ‘the sensible one’ (or so we assumed) saved us by exclaiming “Oh, don’t be silly, Gwen!”.
“Ah”, I mused, “a bit harsh perhaps, but Lyd’ll set her straight.”
“No, Gwen” continued Lyd, with great assurance, “you’ll see, they’ll get used to it in a few days!”
I don’t think husband or I were capable of coherent speech for the rest of the journey!
Today produced a couple of rather different memorable moments. We popped to a local gallery at Bevere to see a friend on her first day in her new studio at the Yew Trees Artist Studios there. Karen does beautiful and innovative fused glass work and we wish her every success with it. One of her lovely Kandinsky-ish pieces has been on the wall beside me for a while now and continues to delight.
The other memorable aspect was just the sheer pleasure of the emerging autumn colours as we pottered locally on the way there and back. For once, I just absorbed them rather than taking pictures. I’ll need to summon up that internal autumnal glow to see me through the coming winter months!
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Posted in Humour, Locality, People, Photography, Random, Seasonal, Uncategorized
Tagged autumn, family, Personal, photography, seasonal, time, Worcestershire
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Birthday memories
Always a family day to remember as my dad and his sister, born two years apart, shared a birthday. Remembering both of them today, I thought I’d scan a couple more photos from the family albums to mark the occasion. My lovely aunt’s photo I recall as a child, and thought it so glamorous – I still do!
Dad didn’t really have a ‘glamour’ shot to match! I don’t know the year of either of these photos, but both look pretty young, so I went with these images of before I even knew & loved them. I have a suspicion dad’s photo may mark his starting work, but that’s just a guess.
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Remembering Rachel
Ancestry popped up a birthday reminder the other day for my paternal great-grandmother, Rachel, which prompted me to collate the slightly sparse story I’ve been able to collate for her. She was born in Pontefract to Harriet and Peter Heptinstall on 2 September 1846, their eldest daughter.
The family shows up in Back George St, Bradford for the 1851 census, otherwise Rachel’s childhood and youth are spent in Pontefract.
Rachel married James Normington Mills at Ebenezer Chapel, Pontefract, on 2 December 1865.
James, a plumber, and Rachel settled together in Halifax after their marriage; in 1871 they are living in Launceston Street (off Hanson Lane) with Polly, Helena and one-year-old Harriet, named after Rachel’s mother who had died in February 1869.
Rachel bore 12 children over the next 22 years or so; the eldest, Mary Hannah, known as Polly, was born in 1866 and the last being my grandmother, Amy Florence (known as Flossie), born in 1888. Thomas, born in 1871, sadly died aged only 6 weeks. Edgar was the only other son among the 11 surviving children. My grandma would speak fondly of Beattie, Martha, Clara and all her other siblings, but did note that her mother, when calling for her youngest, would run through all the other names before getting to Flossie!
Our next reference to the family in official records pops up on 16 May 1875 when 5 of the children are baptised: Mary Hannah, “Eleanor” (which will be Helena, presumably said with a good Yorkshire accent and a missing H), Harriet (at least she got her H!), Edgar and my namesake, Ruth. (James is also listed as James Normanton Mills, one of many name variants in the records.)
By 1881 They have moved to 36 Gibbet Street and James is listed in the census as a Master Plumber. No. 36 is now a modern business building but looking at no. 38, it looks as if this was perhaps a move up in the world from Launceston Street, which appears to be small back-to-back terrace houses.
The family is at 63 North Parade by 1891, an area with few old buildings left for comparison. This is just round the corner from Akroyd Place where Amy Florence started school aged 5, on 18 Sept. 1893. 9 Pollard Street is listed as the home address, also 63 North Parade and 8 Villiers Street.
1901 sees Rachel and James in 14 Villiers Street with 6 children still at home. Polly left for America and son Edgar went ther with his new wife Sarah Ann in 1903. The rest of the family mostly remained in the Halifax area.
Rachel died in 1906 at the age of 59 when their youngest, Flossie, was not quite 18. Rachel’s grave is at Illingworth where she lies at rest with her son-in-law Herbert Hellewell, Helena’s first husband who died young, and joined in 1927 by husband James.
Amy named her daughter (my lovely late aunt) Rachel Joyce.
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Lily, for remembrance…
Not that I do, actually. Remember Lily, that is. She was one of my lovely great-aunts and she died suddenly, aged 62, when I was just 3.
Lily was born 128 years ago today to Sarah (née Helliwell) and Frank Marsden, both aged 24 and living then in Cowper Street, off Claremount Road in Northowram ward, Halifax.
Working out where that is, I realise we would have passed just beneath the site of Cowper Street when I occasionally succeeded in pestering my dad to divert from the main road as we were driving back from Halifax, up on to New Bank and down the narrow lane called The Incline – just because it was steep and fun for a small child! (Not so much fun for dad rejoining the busy main road by Shibden Hall!).
By 1901 the family is at 62 Lister Lane and Lily has a nicely rhyming little brother, Willie. In the following year they have a family photograph taken along with the Foster family – thanks to my great-aunt Dora for labelling the picture in the album! Dora is the camera-shy baby on Sarah’s knee mid-front row, so the date will be ca 1902. Lily is standing behind Sarah and Willie looking direly cute in a sailor suit in front of Frank and next to the euphonously named Lister Foster.
I did a bit of hunting and discovered that John Foster was a fruiterer/greengrocer, like Frank. Whether they were partners at some point or rivals, I don’t know! In 1901 John, Eveline (Evelyn), Lister and Doris May are shown living at 38 King Cross Street.
Sisters Hilda and Florrie come along in 1904 and 1906 and by 1911, Lily and the enlarged family are living in 38, St Mary St, Halifax, Yorkshire on the census date, 2 April. Aged 15, Lily was a sewing machinist, specialising in underwear – no pretensions to ‘lingerie’, it seems!
By 19 June, 1921 Amy, 8 and Lena, now 4, have completed the family, who now live at 41 Stirling Street. Lily, 25, is still a sewing machinist but we know now that she is still sewing ‘undies’, working at Croft Myl Manufacturing Co. in West Parade, as is her sister Hilda, my grandma, now aged 17. Calderdale Companion has this as a later name for Harella, so perhaps it reverted to a previous name? Another little mystery to track down…
As an aside, Croftmyl/Croft Myl later became the home of fashion firm Harella which moved to Halifax in the 1940s and grew to be a huge exporter of fashions across the world. Harella was the second biggest exporter of ladies’ clothes in the 1960s and was apparently unique in having “live” models for its garments for inspection by the factory’s head passer. Models had to try on coats and lined suit jackets to be inspected – as well as model heavy winter garments in the heat of the summer and lighter clothing in the winter months.
The 1939 register has Lily, Dora and Willie still at Stirling Street but the register itself gives us a clue as to things to come for Lily. No change in the job, but the later change of surname tells us her next big step.
On 23 December 1943, at the age of 48, Lily married Ernest Wilson in Wesley Chapel, Halifax. He was a 61-year-old widower who worked as a shop assistant at a plumbers’ merchant. He lived at 22, Ashbourne Grove, Halifax, which later seemed to inherit the ‘family hub’ status that Stirling Street held for many years. Ernest had been married to Lily Sutcliffe in April 1906; he was then an iron worker and she a worsted weaver but they had later become ‘chapel-keepers’ firstly for Wesley Chapel (they are living at 32 Waterhouse Street next to the chapel below left in the 1911 census) and later moved to 13 Chapel Lane, next to the Salterhebble United Methodist Free Chapel (later Christadelphian, 1965) – below right. Presumably Lily and Ernest were then still caretaking and it was her death in 1931 that led to his move to Ashbourne Grove.
On the marriage certificate ‘our’ Lily was an Overalls machinist, a sign of wartime changes. They lived at Ashbourne Grove and both were, I gather, active members of Wesley Chapel (possibly how they met? I believe Lily played piano for the Boys’ Brigade PE routines as my mum later did at Ebenezer. Lily and Ernest did not have very long to enjoy their marriage, as Ernest sadly died in 1948.
Lily continued to live at 22 Ashbourne Grove and Dora came to live with her, as later did Hilary, their niece, for most of the year when her guardians (my parents) were working in West Africa, joining them when they came home on leave, as she was still at secondary school. Hilary recalls the sisters holding chapel ‘Busy Bee’ meetings in the front room, entailing sewing, knitting, tatting or other crafts and no doubt a good bit of gossip that helped earn Dora the family nickname of ‘Eyes and ears of the world’! Hilary would be designated teamaker and server
The one tale I know about Lily and me is from my mum, who had been getting a bit desperate because I wouldn’t stop crying but happily found that her aunt Lily had the knack, despite not having children of her own, and could settle me down pretty well instantly. (I suspect mum was more than tempted to leave me with Lily!)
It was Hilary, still only a teenager, who found Lily on that morning in 1958; Hilary had been cooking a leisurely Saturday morning breakfast of gammon as a treat, and went to fetch Lily but found she had passed away peacefully on the sofa in front of the fire.
As it’s almost no longer the anniversary I will stop and publish this now! I hope to find more personal tales of Lily to add.
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Posted in family history, Locality, People
Tagged Boys' Brigade, chapel, family, Halifax, Marsden, Personal
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On this day…
I had an email from a cousin a few days ago with the following message about a little discovery he’d made.
“Now we know where our parents were 66 years ago! See attached picture of a signed beer mat from the Black Horse in Gate Helmsley.
Signed by R.J. Fort, J. Dobson, D.J. Dobson, Lord Jack Fort DSO! as well as their friends Pam and “Mac” Mathieson who lived further down The Back Lane in Gate Helmsley.”
Indeed, they were at the Black Horse on 17th June 1957, Jean & David (my parents), David’s sister Joyce and her husband Jack, with their friends. It’s just a daft little bit of ephemera, but it made me smile. It is a pleasure to have it on record and to remember them today on what must have been a very convivial evening – and it certainly reflects Uncle Jack’s humour!
It only occurred belatedly to me to wonder where we 3 kids were! We’re guessing that Gran might have been staying and pressed into service!
I’ve since ferreted out a couple of slide scans of my aunt, uncle and cousins (not forgetting Jill the dog) that must be from around the time of this cheery (and beery!) meet-up.
Random Thoughts 