NNWFHS JOURNAL January 2011

The village that moved – and built

a new church How & why Baddesley Ensor moved south. Full story on page 15

This gravestone can be found in the derelict churchyard of the old village of Baddesley Ensor. The only access now is by footpath over fields. Nothing remains of the church and this is about the only legible monument left.

Interestingly Lydia Evans died in 1855 so was buried here (to join her husband) after the old church had closed and the new one had opened.

Old grave stones in Atherstone t

NUNEATON AND NORTH WARWICKSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY JOURNAL www.nnwfhs.org.uk January 2011 Price £2 (first copy free to members)

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The opinions expressed in articles in the Journal are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or of NNWFHS. Contents

Copyright notice. Editorial, obituary Page 2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be Chairman’s report Page 3 reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any Beware the certificate Page 4 form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recorded or otherwise without the prior written permission of the The FH Researchers Song Page 5 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society. We are not legally married! Shock- Horror!!! Irregular marriages at Bentley Page 5 Personal data. Growing up in Ansley in the 40s & 50s Page 8

The Society holds personal data on our members – identity and Morgan’s Hotel & Dining Rooms Page 10 contact details provided on application and renewal forms. Ye Old Nag’s Head Page 11 Under the Data Protection Act 1998 we can hold sufficient data to Important message about the members’ interests database Page 12 run the Society, but no more. The data must also be accurate, New member – contact and interests Page 12 kept up to date and not held for longer than necessary. To comply with the Act we will hold documents supporting current membership. This will usually be the last completed application North Warwickshire Pages Page 13 or renewal form. Earlier documentation will be destroyed. In the Atherstone churchyard Page 13 event of a member not renewing by the due date, previous Baddesley day Page 14 documents will be held for a further four months in case of late renewal. Baddesley Ensor’s two churches Page 15 For ease of administration, an up to date copy of your personal data will be held on an electronic database with your consent. It Astley church – wall paintings Page 17 will be assumed that you agree to this unless you tell us The smoke room at the Old Crystal Palace Page 18 otherwise. If you do not agree to us holding such data electronically please contact the Membership Secretary. Data Book reviews Page 20 held electronically will be subject to the same retention policy as Elliott get-together Page 20 clerical data. Publications Page 21 Tuttle Hill windmill Back cover ii

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Editorial networking (management more to family history than We are now some months into speak for making useful collecting names for the family our new regime for meetings. contacts) and finding out what tree! The meetings at the Chilvers other people can offer (and Coton Heritage Centre have what you can do for other Jacqui organized a ‘local’ quiz been very well attended and I people). for us all to display our varying think everyone who has levels of ignorance, and we all attended has found them very Below are a couple of pictures had a good natter. A good time enjoyable. Not only have we taken at the Christmas social at was had by all. had interesting presentations, the Heritage Centre. Food was but we have had the abundant and we entertained If you have not already been to opportunity to talk to other each other with a version of a meeting at the Heritage members free from the tyranny ‘show and tell’ where members Centre make it your New Year of Ancestry on a computer. produced a piece of family resolution to come along and These meetings are a memorabilia and explained the join in. wonderful opportunity for story behind it. There really is

Jacqui in foghorn inquisitor mode. At least I Carol and Kate show off our new banner. Now recognised George Eliot! when we hold an external event our presence will be clearly signposted. So much better than improvised sheets of A4 paper stuck to trees and lamp-posts.

Obituary Sadly I must report the death of Ray Clay in December 2010. Many of you will remember Ray as the Journal editor. He had learned desk-top publishing in order to produce a newsletter for the Alzheimer’s Society. He nursed his wife, who had Alzheimer’s disease for some years, and following her death used his desk-top publishing expertise to produce our Journal. He will be missed.

Journal submissions. Contributions to the Journal are welcome. These can be of any length, (but if you submit something the size of ‘War and Peace’ the editor reserves the right to trim it a bit). Also any hints or tips you have picked up in your researches – let others benefit from your experience. Pictures to accompany articles are always welcome. If possible these should be scanned at 300dpi. If dpi means nothing to you, don’t worry, just scan it and send it in.

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Chairman’s report County Records Office open big! They did not call it the days at various locations Premier Line for nothing. It was

throughout the County. These the largest company in the I wish you all a very happy New were great days out. I met a lot world. They made virtually Year and hope it provides a of lovely people all fired with everything for the running of wealth of break throughs and the same enthusiasm as we the business in house either at great possibilities in your had in our area. Not only was it Crewe, Wolverton or onward researches. We started very good for networking it was Earlestown in Lancashire. the last year with a few very useful for getting ideas. There is a famous photograph concerns. The web site was How other Societies displayed of a pile of raw material brilliant, the journal excellent, stacked in front of but attendances at our the locomotive into library sessions were which it had been dropping. There were transformed. It was a a number of reasons, fabulous business. not least the cost, to Railway staff in those the attendees due to days were “Railway the ever increasing Servants” and proud charges imposed by of it. In addition it Warwickshire County was a ruthlessly Council on us. So a efficient organisation change of tack was which made vast called for and we re- profits. This is an located some of our added opportunity for meetings to the family history within Chilvers Coton our area because Heritage Centre. This their researches. Buying their local railway staff history can seems to have worked. publications sometimes simply be shared with the L.N.W.R.S Numbers at meetings are because they were so well at Nuneaton station and made increasing again, and I must researched and entertaining to available for research at their thank Carol Hughes and Pat read. And many of the open days. Joint ventures like Boucher for their great efforts attendees were very this bring new audiences and in sorting out our revised knowledgeable about their opportunities for us to arrangements. The next year particular districts with a wealth encourage new membership. will be one of consolidation in of contacts. I hope to work with the area of meetings. Warwickshire County Council Finally a word of apology to

to see if we as a society can those who have emailed me A big concern is the future of help to protect these very recently and not had a reply. I Warwickshire County Council’s important services now that the discovered the other day three record office and the library Government has imposed emails from family history service. Swingeing drastic budget cut backs. correspondents in my spam Government cuts will put these box I did not know I had peripheral (but vitally important Every year I go to the London received, tucked away with all services) to the main function & North Western Railway the other rubbish trapped in of the county authority, under (1846-1923) luncheon at there. They had been there for pressure. In my experience Crewe, and I was pleased to months, and wondered if there both of these points of delivery learn that the L.N.W.R. Society were more which have been are not as good as they used to are in the process of finalising inadvertently deleted. If you be in the old days. From my the paperwork to take over have not had a reply from me experience they seem to have some rooms at Nuneaton lately please email me or write become more bureaucratic and station for their railway study snail mail, or phone. less passionate about the centre. The L.N.W.R. was the Sometimes the old ways are services they provide. I recall biggest employer in Nuneaton the best! for many years attending in its day, in fact everything Friends of Warwickshire about the undertaking was –

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Beware the certificate! But the biggest muddle so far with a note to see the later unearthed during civil entry, to explain his double- As a transcriber, I have not registration has been at entries or to avoid filling in the “done” that many registers Curdworth. The Revd William three slots in the second compared to some…but the Wakefield was in office for register with new marriages. more I work on post-1837 some 58 years, and for a Chaos. Anyone who ordered a marriage registers, the more goodly few his record keeping copy certificate was likely to aware I am becoming of the left much to be desired. I had a end up with a secondary entry possible differences between battle with his deteriorating and not the original – two of the registration services copy scrawl and relied heavily on the these originals showed actual register and that held as part of signatures; where a couple signatures for bride and groom. the church deposit at the made their mark I was archives. The introduction of seriously struggling with mal- It was time to consult the civil registration was supposed formed letters. This was how I County Registrar. The to make the registration of life came to check some of the registration services staff have events more accurate, but marriages against the carefully examined the some of us are beginning to Warwickshire Registrar’s online registers they hold against the wonder if this is actually so. listing and discovered a serious findings we made in the church anomaly. registers. They agree that the In theory, and backed up by apparently earlier entries in assurances from GRO, the two On the demise of Revd their register are copies, all in marriage registers written up at Wakefield, there was a three- the hand of the incumbent and the time of each marriage entry gap left in the church without actual signatures. should be identical. We would marriage register. At first I They have made notes in their all accept minor differences – thought this was to make a register and anyone ordering perhaps I signed as J. Simkins clean start, but I soon certificates will now get the on one and as Jacqui Simkins discovered there was a original one despite it on the other. But have you discrepancy in the numbering appearing later in the register. considered that the differences of marriage entries between The three affected marriages at could be critical to your the two registers. Eventually I Curdworth are: research? enlisted help from a fellow transcriber; we plodded Thomas SILVESTER to There is an example in Newton through all online entries from Rebecca Ann HUGHES Regis where the vicar has 1862 to 1875. It transpired that 13 October 1863 entered a surname as three marriages were shown GRIMLEY, but the signatures twice in the online listing with John WRIGHT (x) to Hannah are clearly GRUNDY (Grundy different register numbers. SHILTON (x) is correct). The GRO index How could this be? The 22 October 1863 shows GRIMLEY – as the vicar inputters were known to wrote in his quarterly return to NNWFHS as reliable souls! George HILL to Mary Ann the registrar. The North And there was a three-number ROBINSON Warwickshire Registrars’ online variation in all the marriages 25 October 1863 index shows GRUNDY – did from 1867 until 1875. After their register show GRUNDY, some thought and analysis, I The other variation in or did they realise there was was fairly confident that the numbering will only affect your “clerical error”? vicar had somehow turned over order if you stipulate an entry several pages in one register number from the church Then there was the marriage at and had not noticed till three register, rather than that found Burton Hastings where the marriages had taken place. in the online listing for the bride appeared only where she When he noticed, he county registration services. signed the register. That came proceeded to copy those three Once completed and fully after many years, and several marriages into the earlier blank checked, our published vicars, of messy records. sections that matched the transcription for Curdworth will second register. But he failed be made available to the North to rule through the duplicates Warwickshire Registrars and,

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for this parish, we will show the entry numbers from the church The Family History Researcher’s song register plus those from the (contributed by K Kondakor-Smith) online listing during the affected period. To be sung to the tune of ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen’

If ordering marriage certificates the best advice we can offer is that you check the church copy, usually held at the county record office, against the registration services’ copy certificate that you have purchased. You may then need to think carefully about your next action, but if any discrepancy is for a church in NNWFHS area, do please let us know so that we can make an appropriate comment when we transcribe/publish the register for that church.

It is a case of “buyer beware” as all may not be quite as it first appears. JS serve the extensive area with a found in the registers of dispersed congregation of Shustoke. ---ooOoo--- farmers, labourers, estate workers and, later, miners. On consecration in 1837 St We are not legally married! The church was closed in 1967 John was a chapel-of-ease and Shock – Horror!! and demolished in 1972 as the thereby enabled tower was reputedly becoming ecclesiastically to carry out Irregular marriages at unstable due to subsidence baptism and burial; however it Bentley from the underground coal did also hold marriages for workings. The burial ground which, after the introduction of By Jacqui Simkins remains but many stones have civil registration, a licence was disappeared or been moved to required from the GRO for The building of St John the the perimeter; the last burial those churches that did not Evangelist at Bentley in north was in 1982 with some 429 have the “grandfather’s rights” Warwickshire was started in burials from 1838. There is an of the ancient parishes, or were 1836 and the church was interesting booklet published in not fully-fledged parishes of the consecrated in August 1837 as 1999 written by Canon Peter Church of England. In 1837 the a chapel-of-ease for residents Buckler, OBE, about the church civil registration services issued of Bentley, some two hundred at Bentley. “registration stock” which years after Dugdale had included two identical marriage reported that the previous The mother church was St registers to be completed at chapel, Holy Trinity, was in a Cuthbert at Shustoke. Bentley time of marriage and retained ruinous state. St John the was a detached part of that by the church until full. Evangelist, standing on high parish until 1958, when the “Registration stock” also ground on the road from ecclesiastical area of Bentley included a requirement for Furnace End to Atherstone, was joined with Merevale. each church to make a and opposite the public house, Baptism, marriage and burial quarterly return of its marriages was a red brick church records prior to the opening of to the local civil registration consisting of chancel, nave and St John are therefore to be officer. Bentley was issued tower. The building was to with this registration stock.

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NNWFHS purchased a copy of The first indication in the which this is a transcription: And whereas it is registers that all was not well expedient under the was 1873. A note in the The Act circumstances aforesaid to marriage register at Shustoke, remove all doubts touching alongside a marriage of Chapter 17 the validity of the marriages Bentley residents, reads: AN ACT to render valid so solemnized in the said "Learning from Mr Hooper (the Marriages heretofore church or chapel: Registrar) that marriages solemnized in the Chapel of solemnized at Bentley Chapel Ease called Saint John the Be it therefore enacted were illegal, this marriage was Evangelist, at Bentley, in by the Queen’s most solemnized at Shustoke the parish of Shustock in the Excellent Majesty, by and Church. HDH"[HDH being county of Warwick. (8th with the advice and consent Revd H Donald Hill, the June 1874) of the Lords Spiritual and incumbent]. Temporal, and Commons, in WHEREAS the church this present Parliament A little later there is an entry or chapel known as Saint assembled, and by the made in the Bentley register, John the Evangelist, at authority of the same, as which reads: Bentley, in the parish of follows: "Memorandum: The marriages Shustock in the county of recorded in these duplicate Warwick and diocese of 1. All banns of registers were illegally Worcester, was on the matrimony and solemnized at the Church of St twenty-second day of marriages published John, Bentley and in respect of August one thousand eight or solemnized which an Act of Parliament was hundred and thirty-seven before the passing passed on 8th June 1874 (37 duly consecrated for the of this Act in the Vic: Ch:17) to render them performance of divine church or chapel valid. These registers are service, but no authority has known as Saint John therefore discontinued at this ever been given by the the Evangelist, at point by direction of the bishop of the said diocese, Bentley, in the Registrar General and the or otherwise, for the parish of Shustock other duplicate Register has publication of banns and aforesaid, shall be been placed in the custody of solemnization of marriages as valid as if the the Superintendent Registrar of therein: same had been the Atherstone Registration published or District." And whereas divers solemnized in a marriages have nevertheless church duly It took forty-four marriages and been solemnized in the said consecrated and some thirty-seven years for church or chapel under an licensed for erroneous impression on the marriages. someone to realise things were Margin entry to above: not quite as they should be! part of the ministers thereof, Marriages heretofore The regular churchgoers of that by virtue of the solemnized in Chapel of Saint John the Evangelist to Bentley must have become consecration of the said be valid. aware of the situation – but did church or chapel, or couples realise the implication otherwise, marriages might 2. No minister who that they were not, in the eyes be lawfully solemnized has solemnized any of civil law, legally married therein; and entries of the of the said even though they had been said marriages so marriages shall be through a full and correct solemnized have from time liable to any marriage ceremony according to time been made in the ecclesiastical to the rites of the Church of register books kept either at censure, or to any England? To correct matters the said church or chapel, or other proceedings or the Act was passed and at the parish church of penalties Shustock aforesaid: whatsoever, by

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reason of his having Act for Bentley was not the matter to light? so solemnized the uncommon though it might be same respectively. an interesting research project There are no further marriages Margin entry to above: to explore the numbers of at Bentley until the 1940s. Minister officiating not liable to censure. marriages conducted in some Although the church copy of places before the civil this later register has not been 3. The registers of the authorities realised things were deposited with the county marriages so not according to civil law and record office (and its solemnized, or therefore legalisation Acts were whereabouts are unknown), the copies of such necessary! What does seem registration services copy of registers, shall be odd is that the Act blames the register has been lodged received in all entirely the ecclesiastical with the local registrar. courts of law and authorities for allowing the equity as evidence marriages to take place in the A full transcription of the of such marriages newly erected church at Bentley “illegal” marriages will respectively, in the Bentley but the margin be published in due course same manner as instruction that the officiating along with those of post-1837 registers of minister was not liable to Shustoke as part of the NoWMI marriages in parish censure at least let the poor project. The booklet will churches, or copies minister off the hook! include information about the thereof, are by law Governmental buck passing illegal marriages and the Act to receivable in seems to be nothing new!! It legalise them. evidence. took a good many years – and Margin entry to above: a lot of marriages – before the If anyone can find the missing Registers of such marriages to registration services realised Bentley church register of be evidence. Ends. Bentley church was not marriages from 1940s through licensed for marriages. Was it to closure in 1967, do please the arrival of a new registrar in contact NNWFHS so that these According to a staff member at north Warwickshire or some marriages can be included in the Parliamentary archives, this other occurrence that brought the transcription.

Bentley church. Picture courtesy of Vic Spencer whose father took the photograph.

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Growing up in Ansley in valley about ½ mile from the which she sold. I never minded the 40s and 50s main village and eventually a fetching that for grandma but small hamlet of cottages, farms there was little crust left on the By Joan Stocker and a school had grown up loaf by the time I got it home. around it. There was even a There was a settlement at small sweet shop there, Ruth’s shop on the other hand Ansley when the Domesday opposite the war memorial. was light, airy and modern and Book was compiled, for William Mrs. Poole owned it and it was Ruth smiled at us. My 1, in 1086. The land was always a good place to buy grandmother went to Ruth’s owned by Lady Godiva and the refreshments whilst waiting for every Friday afternoon at 2pm village then known as Hanslei. the bus into Birmingham. to do the week’s shopping. The Normans must have taken There was also the fish and a liking to the area and there is The village also boasted a chip shop which we frequented evidence of their architecture in Congregational Chapel which in the evenings before we had the village church of St. was kept alive by Mr Pickett to be back indoors. The Lawrence. and Mr Jeffcote. The old chapel threepenny bag of chips was building seemed enormous given to us in a cone of The village in which I grew up with its upstairs balcony and newspaper and we loved to in the 50s and 60s was large stove in the middle of the drink the vinegar from the considerably larger than when room but it was used mainly for bottom after the chips had the Normans arrived, and was Sunday School after the new gone! a mixture of small, two up, two chapel had been built at the down, weaving cottages, side of it. There were a large On Monday mornings a slightly larger terraces of number of children who went to butcher’s van came into the houses built to accommodate the Sunday School and the village from Stockingford. The the influx of miners at the turn highlight of our year was when women put the world to rights of the century, some tied we sang solo at “The Sermons” and caught up with the gossip cottages and a few homes that held in the new chapel. whilst they waited to be served. had been built in the 30s. The The butcher’s attraction for me majority of homes still had The village then was pretty well was the faggots which he sold. outdoor toilets, a tin bath on the self sufficient, which was just I would stand with my wall in the yard and the kitchen as well as the buses were grandmother and pester for a sink doubled up as a infrequent and housewives faggot which I could share with washbasin. Nearly all of these mostly used them on Saturday my friend, and we’d sit on the dwellings were built either side to go “down the market”. We kerb and tuck in. of the one road, Birmingham had three grocery shops, Road, which extended from Alice’s, Ruth’s and one very Mr. Bruntlet, who kept the farm Ansley Corner (locally known small shop selling mainly dry at the corner, delivered milk as “the Turn”, to Church End ingredients. each day. He brought it to the where the school and church Alice had a shop opposite the house and ladled it into a jug were located. There were also rec. She was a rather severe which was covered with a some dwellings in Arley Lane lady who, each day, trundled a saucer and left on the and on the road out to Galley large, hairy cat to and from her doorstep. However the Co-op Common. Most of the families home to the shop. The shop eventually took over the milk had been in the village for was dark and dismal inside and round and we had to buy green several generations and family puss was always sitting on the checks to leave out to pay for history and background was counter. I never saw Alice the milk. common knowledge amongst smile and she told us children neighbours. off as soon as we opened her The village also had its own Unlike many villages, there door! She sold vinegar from a bakery, owned and run by was no green and the school large barrel in the corner of the Sammy Moore. We children and church were not physically shop, and I often had to take a would stand watching the flour at the heart of the community. jug there to get some for my being delivered and then get The Anglican church of St. grandma. Alice’s saving grace high on the smell of freshly Lawrence had been built in a was the lovely crusty bread

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baked bread when we came banks though we never prescribed a medicine he also home from Sunday School. touched them. In the spring we dispensed it for the patient and picked bunches of cowslips it was fascinating to watch as In the centre of the village was and dog daisies (something he used the contents of various a shop which, to a child, was which would be frowned upon bottles to make up the like Aladdin’s cave. It was today.) In the summer one of medicine. One of his twin sons Scraggs the Post Office and our treats was to dig up pig later joined him in the practice. sweet shop where there nuts, in the woods, and eat seemed to be every sweet in them. Arley Brook was our Those days, following the war, the world. The problem was seaside during the summer were happy, carefree days for that sweets, like many things, months and we’d paddle in we children. Most of our time, were rationed and it was very there all afternoon. when we were not in school, difficult choosing a week’s was spent outdoors. We knew ration! Scraggs also had a The winters seemed to be what time we had to be back wonderful selection of pop kept much harder 60 or 70 years for meals, and if we were late on the floor under the window ago and my earliest memories there was always one of the ledge. of the village were of the snow adults around to tell us that our of 1947. Buses were unable to parents were calling us and Apart from the food which get up the Sandholes into the we’d better hurry or we’d be in could be obtained in the shops village, which was virtually cut trouble. It’s amazing how many there was always someone off. Prisoners of War from a hours we spent playing with no who had a glut of something on camp at Astley were marched thought of sweets. Until the mid the allotment and gave it to through Ansley to work on the 50’s they were just not their neighbours. However the farms at the bottom of the available. We didn’t do too old allotments eventually village, and in clearing the badly though as we could disappeared, in the mid 50s, to snow en route they sculpted a usually find blackberries in the make room for a new housing large frigate from the deep autumn and scrumping was fun estate to house miners from snow. It was made at the side as long as you weren’t caught! the North East of England. The of the road opposite the post new allotments were office and had turrets, guns When I drive through the established in the meadow or and steps and we children had village now I’m taken back to medda as it was locally known. a wonderful time playing on our the sights and sounds of my The meadow was lined with boat. It was probably not as big happy childhood. I ‘ve retained some old oak trees and, after a as it seemed to me, a 4year old the images of the miners high wind, I often accompanied at the time, but I remember cycling down the road at the my grandma to gather kindling looking up at it and it seemed end of a shift and covered in which had fallen from the trees to reach the sky. coal dust and the sound of the and which was used to light the “bull” sounding for the next fire. We collected the sticks in The village doctor, Dr. Cowan, shift. Dr. Cowan’s wooden grandma’s apron which was was rather a dour Scotsman, surgery is still there in my mind made especially for the job with a heart of gold, who lived and I can still see the hops from an old potato sack! This in Arley but held surgeries in growing up the telegraph pole afternoon jaunt my Ansley too. The surgery was on the old allotments opposite grandmother referred to as held in a large, wooden Ruth’s shop, before the estate “going stickin’”. building erected in the grounds was built. It was this Ansley of a house about half way which played such a large part As children we spent hours down the village. Dr. Cowan during those important, climbing trees or playing hide stood no nonsense and most of formative years. and seek in the hay field. We the villagers were in awe of him searched for birds‘ nests in the and, I suspect, rather hedgerows and on the railway frightened of him. If he

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MORGAN’S HOTEL and DINING ROOMS

by Peter Lee Morgan’s Hotel and Dining Rooms used to stand in Queens Road, No. 3 to be exact. The Dining and Tea Rooms offered accommodation for local visitors to the town within a few yards of the Market Place where the proprietor Mr. James Birt Morgan also ran the Castle Hotel

Mr. Morgan died in March 1920 aged 59. I would date this picture sometime after 1909 when the premises to the right, the former Crystal Palace public house, were demolished. The site is still open in this view and had not yet been filled up with new shops. On the left is the retail outlet of a once well known local corn and provender merchant – Ryder Betts, whose old warehouse the Market Place*. Everything hairdresser’s emporium. The caused a ruffle of interest when on the left hand side was year would be about 1909 and I it was discovered intact a few cleared away in 1909 to allow would think the photo was years ago, but has now the roadway to be opened up. taken to record this aspect of disappeared again behind new The chap on the right with the Queens Road soon to change shops. The gateway leading to white pinny on is, I believe, so dramatically. the storehouse can be seen William Bennett (1868-1927), * More on the Crystal Palace on here. This photo came to me standing outside his page 18. Ed. from Nita Pearson one of James Birt Morgan’s descendents. The source of the picture was another relative of Mr. Morgan’s in South Africa. So you never know what might turn up next in our quest for “old Nuneaton”.

The picture on the right shows the bottom of Queens Road as it passed through to the Market Place when the old Crystal Palace Pub got in the way. The smoke room was at the back of the buildings to the left. The Crystal itself is the one that is to the left of the opening into

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YE OLD NAGS HEAD

by Peter Lee

Like many townsfolk I was sad to see the demolition of the Nags Head public house last year in Queens Road, but my sadness was tempered by the knowledge that in old Nuneaton terms it was a mere newcomer compared with this old local pub. In fact this is believed to be the Nags Head as well. Not its immediate predecessor but the one before that! The late local historian Fred Phillips gave me the picture with indication that it was the Nags Head of old. A close examination of the lettering on the pub sign over the door reveals the name James ? who is evidently the landlord but the rest is too blurred to read. A quick look in my 1901 street directory revealed the landlord to be James Dewis. Could that be him standing in the doorway replete with bowler hat? I cannot say for sure. Unfortunately this is not the original but a copy of it. If anyone knows the history of James Dewis, or has the original of this photo I would be ribbons when our ancestors what is now the road opposite pleased to hear from them. It relied on the ribbon trade as Barclays Bank and the row of could be that the bowler-hatted the staple form of income. shops alongside. Coventry man is the James Dewis (1867- Their week’s work was in that Street is much altered from 1903) who died as a relatively cart, and the money they those days. The road was very young man. In his mid thirties. earned no doubt disappeared narrow then before it was So there must be a tragic story into the various landlord’s opened out to get vehicles attached to his tenancy of the money bar takings as many an through. We forget that before pub. However despite that, this old weaver was very the ring road was built traffic is a lovely image of a very old improvident when it came to through the town had to come fashioned drinking spending his or her hard down Coventry Street and establishment. One of the earned wages on ale. Very through the Market Place. But many in or close to the Market often to the detriment of their the old Nags Head seen here Place. The Nags Head was an families. was pulled down earlier than important place in its day that, as the first steps were because a horse and cart set This Nags Head was in taken to get a little room for out from here for Coventry Coventry Street and would horse and cart traffic which was every week carrying silk have stood in the middle of just as much a problem as the

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later internal combustion Dear Members given will not be included) and engined vehicles were to that those surnames should be become. I estimate demolition Prior to publication of this the ones for which you already took place about 1895 and a year's Members' Surnames have information (for at least a new pub, also called the Nags Interests, our database was generation or family group) that Head was erected in its place. given a thorough overhaul and you are willing to share with This was built on a very we have tried to standardise other members/ researchers. confined site, and by 1927 the the way the entries are listed. brewery who owned it, Salt & The Members' Interests is not Co of Burton on Trent, were Because of this, some entries the best place to list ancestors looking for another location so in the publication and/ or on the for whom you are merely they could expand. At that time searchable database on the ‘looking'. Any entries which some thought went into website may not look exactly were obviously merely potential places around the as you submitted them or may searching for a single individual town, which would benefit from have been deleted if have been deleted from the a pub as it had a catchment considered unsuitable for database and the member area of streets insufficiently inclusion. If you find any errors should have been informed. If served by hostelries. A location or omissions please contact: Dr you have a 'brick wall' with about half way along Queens Carole Eales, NNWFHS which you require help, you Road was chosen. In 1929 our Membership Secretary, 5 Jay can forward the details either to recently demolished Nags Lane, Aston, Sheffield, South John Parton (for inclusion in Head was completed and its Yorkshire, S26 2GP or email the help wanted section of the immediate predecessor taken her via the contacts section of quarterly journal) or to Pat down. the website Boucher for inclusion on the www.nnwfhs.org.uk help wanted section of the ---ooOoo--- website). You can also use our Please remember, when limited research service or help A message about the submitting surname interests, lines (details in the journal/ Members’ Interests database that you should submit website). surnames only (any forenames

These are copies of actual correspondence received by the Family 9. I am mailing you my aunt and uncle and 3 of their children. History Department in Salt Lake City. 10. Enclosed please find my Grandmother. I have worked on her for 30 years without success. Now see what you can do! 1. Our 2nd great-grandfather was found dead crossing the plains in 11. I have a hard time finding myself in London. If I were there I was the library. very small and cannot be found. 2. He and his daughter are listed as not being born. 12. This family had 7 nephews that I am unable to find. If you know 3. I would like to find out if I have any living relatives or dead who they are, please add them to the list. relatives or ancestors in my family. 13. We lost our Grandmother, will you please send us a copy? 4. Will you send me a list of all the Dripps in your library? 14. Will you please send me the name of my first wife? I have 5. My Grandfather died at the age of 3. forgotten her name. 6. We are sending you 5 children in a separate envelope. 15. A 14-year-old boy wrote: "I do not want you to do my research for 7. Documentation: Family Bible in possession of Aunt Merle until the me. Will you please send me all of the material on the Welch line, in the tornado hit Topeka, Kansas. Now only the Good Lord knows where it U.S., England and Scotland countries? I will do the research." is. 16. I would like to know how many descendants I really have? 8. The wife of #22 could not be found. Somebody suggested that she might have been stillborn--what do you think? Contributed by Val Pickard

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The North Warwickshire Pages By Celia Parton

ATHERSTONE CHURCHYARD By Celia Parton

In the last journal I wrote an article about Atherstone Church in which I said that there was no churchyard because of the lack of ground around the church. Mike Trye, who worked on the HART project and contributed to the book published in 2008 “Atherstone A Pleasantly Placed Town” has now informed me that according to a map of 1888 there were actually two grave yards, one church. The cross from the top friars and placing them in this to the west and another to the is missing but the inscription communal grave took place at south of the church (see map). which is in Latin relates to the the same time. re-burial of the bones of the This information leads to friars who once occupied the Sources used: The History of further questions, when did friary. Atherstone. Watts and these burials take place, how Winyard. many people were buried there In 1375, Ralph, Lord Bassett of and why were they buried next Drayton founded an to Atherstone church and not Augustinian friary for 12 men, taken to Mancetter for burial? and again according to the old These burials must have taken map the friary was on the site place before 1888 and of Atherstone Hall demolished presumably prior to 1870 when in the 1960s. The chancel of the cemetery at Sheepy road the present church was their was opened. chapel. The friary existed until the dissolution of the The Atherstone burials register monasteries in 1538. In almost starts from 1870. This is a 200 years there must have mystery which needs further been many burials, presumably research. Does anybody have in ground surrounding the any further knowledge about friary. The date on the these burials? If so, please let gravestone is 1849, which is me know. when the church was being rebuilt and extended. The damaged gravestone on the north Also there is one existing Presumably the work of side of the church. gravestone to the north of the recovering the bones of the HIC SUNT IN FOSSA MONASTIUM AUGUSTINIUM OSSA The stone is dated 1849

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Baddesley Day

By Celia Parton

On Saturday, 2nd October we held our annual North Warwickshire Family and Local History day. This year it was held at Baddesley Ensor church hall. Fortunately the weather was fine and sunny all day unlike the day before and the day after which were wet and windy.

I know our chairman, Peter Lee, had a good day as someone brought in an old Roger Court in deep discussion with Peter Lee photograph of the old Crystal I met an interesting man who with my Sunday School class) Palace inn at Nuneaton which was the great grandson of the and parish magazines and had been found on the back of former village policeman at village newsletters. This display a painting. [More of this on page Baddesley. In 1875 he was had originally been put on for 18. Ed.] tragically drowned whilst the installation of the new vicar searching for stolen watches in of Baddesley at the beginning One of our members Pat Orme the river Tame. He was trying of September. The new vicar came up from Warwick with a to find where the old police was one of the visitors who display of her family house, where his grandfather came and looked round. memorabilia and after chatting was born, was located. together we realised that we Although attendances were were related through the Day The church was open all day down on last year, we had a family. and Annette Sweet, wife of the steady trickle of people all church warden and a keen through the day and those who Another member Roger Court local historian had put on a came took a keen interest in came down from Leeds and display inside the church of old the displays and stayed and brought some of his family photographs of Baddesley, chatted with many people, so it memorabilia and he enjoyed particularly relating to church was a good day. chatting to local people. events of the past (including one of myself aged about 5

Jacqui Simkins with Pat Orme The new Vicar meets some parishioners 14

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BADDESLEY ENSOR’S TWO CHURCHES

By Celia Parton

Organising the Baddesley day was great for me because I was going back home. I was born only a stone’s throw away from St Nicholas Church in a place called Little Brum which is actually just over the parish The old church CEP boundary in Grendon. My parents are buried in the mine close to the old church was developed and the main churchyard and I have spent which must have affected the Baddesley pit was sunk in many hours after tending to my foundations. The spoil heap for 1850. When this became fully parent’s grave wandering this pit is still there and is operational all the other small around the churchyard finding known as the “Bunny Banks”, pits were closed with the the gravestones of many of my because of the rabbits that exception of Speedwell pit ancestors. used to live there. The rabbits which was kept open and used were all killed off by for drainage purposes. The current church is relatively myxomatosis in the 1950s so modern being built in 1846, but when I played there with my The population of Baddesley there was a much older one at friend during the long summer increased as more men came the other end of Hill Top which holidays, the rabbits had gone to work at the coal mines and was the site of the original and it was a lovely grassy so new houses were built medieval village. bank. It’s now overgrown by nearer to where the pits were trees and shrubs. and so by the 18th century the The original church was built close to the boundary with Polesworth, which runs along the Penmire Brook. Baddesley was formerly in the parish of Polesworth and a piece of land was given by the nuns of Polesworth on which to build a church. This early church was also dedicated to St Nicholas. It is not known exactly when it was built but we do know what it looked like thanks to a drawing from the Aylesford collection which can be found The old in a Victorian History of church England. graveyard

It was Norman in style and looked very similar to the village must have existed as it church at Shuttington. The Gradually as the small pits does today which is some parish records date from 1688. became worked out new pits distance away from the old Baddesley is a village that were opened and gradually village. moved due to coal mining they moved up the hill until activities. There was actually a technology for deep mining

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This is the main reason why a new church was built and the old one demolished. Also it was small, not big enough to cater for the growing population, and it was falling into disrepair. The Baddesley parish register show that my great grandmother’s marriage to Robert Dingley in 1832 actually took place at Merevale owing to Baddesley church being under repair.

There was also competition from the non-conformists. Both the Methodists and the Relics of the old church – Baddesley porch, Church House and Congregationalists had window arch at the base of the tower of the new church. meeting places right in the heart of Baddesley Village. The House but when they were throne by visiting relatives, the bishop granted a faculty for a demolished the archway was Glover family of Baxterley Hall. new church in 1845. Mr rescued and is now at the foot As this is less than a mile away William Dugdale, as Lord of the of the clock tower of the new from the old Baddesley Church Manor, gave a piece of land at church. it is quite likely that he could Hill Top close to the village. He have preached from this pulpit. had just completed the building The Norman archway around By 1996, the numbers of a new hall at Merevale and the door was bought by worshipping at the Methodist the architect, Mr Henry Clutton, Abraham Bracebridge of Chapel had declined and it was responsible for the completion Atherstone Hall. Atherstone decided to combine the two of that building, was asked to church was being extended at chapels, thus forming the design the new church. this time and the archway was United Reform Church and placed around the rear services were to be held at the Funds were raised, mainly entrance, which was used as a nearby Congregational Chapel. from the local community and private entrance by the The Methodist Chapel was put work began. The Bishop of Bracebridge family, Atherstone up for sale and the Latimer Worcester (this was before the Hall being situated immediately pulpit was returned to formation of the diocese of behind Atherstone church. It Baddesley church. The United Birmingham) dedicated the can still be seen there today. Reform Church closed last new church in 1846. year. A new church was being built Most of the bricks and masonry at Attleborough and they All that is left now of the from the old church was purchased the font. This was medieval village is the old transported to the village and in use for a few years before a churchyard. The gravestones used to build Church House. new one was purchased and still remain, some being still This is situated on the opposite the Baddesley one confined to legible but it is now overgrown side of the common to the old the churchyard. with bracken and brambles. Maypole pit, where today there is a winding wheel memorial to Finally, the pulpit was bought Changes to the village continue all the men who worked in the by the Methodists and placed to happen. Coal mining has Baddesley pits. It is now a in their Chapel at the top of now completely gone, private house but was for many Keys Hill. It is known as the Baddesley pit closed in 1989, years a shop and off-licence. Latimer Pulpit after Bishop so Baddesley is now mainly Latimer who was burned at the residential. The men of One of the window arches was stake in 1555. It is believed Baddesley commute to nearby set over an entry in a row of that he tried to keep out of sight towns and villages to work cottages adjoining Church after Queen Mary came to the instead of “going to the pit”.

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Other landmarks have disappeared, my old school was demolished a few years ago to make way for a modern housing development. There is now only one pub, the Red Lion, remaining. The other ancient public house in the village was The Maypole. The old one was demolished and a new one built on the site in the early 1960s but this has also gone now and there is more new housing on the site.

However, Baddesley does still have its ancient common and the residents have set up an Map: C & J organisation to take care of the Greenwood 1820 common for future generations and restore some of its ancient features. They have a website This map dated 1820 shows Baddesley Ensor and the old church North West of the at clump of buildings on Baddesley Heath that became the nucleus of the ‘new’ www.friendsofbaddesleycomm village. Both Baddesley and Baxterley windmills are shown. Further south the map on.org.uk shows both Baxterley Hall and Baxterley Old Hall. Sources used: Low Seams and High Vistas by Albert Fretwell

Astley Church wall paintings

Astley church have just finished the restoration of its wall paintings. These were originally painted when the present church was built in 1607-8 but deteriorated over the next 400 years due to rainwater getting into the walls. Donations and a grant from English Heritage have enabled the restoration.

Kate Keens

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THE SMOKE ROOM at the OLD CRYSTAL PALACE INN By Peter Lee

Every now and again scene of many soirees in the The story of the Crystal Palace something comes across my Good Old Days of Nuneaton Inn is a long one, so my article local history horizon, which town. I say “famous” with some this week only deals with a thrills and excites me to such qualification because up to this short episode in its career. In an extent I cannot get it out of point I know of one other 1863 the Hare & Squirrel public my mind. One such “Eureka” person who is alive today- house was kept by Ebenezer moment happened recently Victor Welland-who knows Brown (1828-1905), which he when I attended the Baddesley about it and appreciates its is said to have bought for £290. Ensor Family History Day. history. It was well known Eb. Brown was a colourful before 1909 when the pub was character who went on to make A fellow there, David Floyd, demolished, but the old timers a considerable fortune out of asked me if I knew where this who enjoyed being entertained the pubs he ran in Nuneaton. photo was taken. It referred to there have now all gone. Every The Hare & Squirrel appears to the “Smoke Room” at the last one of them. So hopefully I be his first venture. In 1871, co- Crystal Palace, Inn, Nuneaton. can now pass on to you some incidentally the year his father He did not know where the pub of the drama formerly attached Thomas Brown died, Eb. was. Could I tell him? Of to this very Victorian Brown starts to turn the Hare & course, I knew straight away, establishment. Squirrel into a kind of music and by crikey this was the hall. In that year he called it the famous Smoke Room. The Crystal Palace which was

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probably due to a large multi one bookshop and Nuneaton 1840) the couple moved to her facetted crystal ball which he Institute but that was it. In home town and took over the installed hanging from the addition your day was often Crystal. Annie was well suited ceiling which glistened and limited by daylight. There was to run a music hall. She was a sparkled to such an extent that not much fun trying to read by stage artiste of some our Nuneaton ancestors, not candlelight or oil lamp. Then reputation. Under her stage having witnessed anything like suddenly along comes the name Amy Beaumont she trod it before, must have been Crystal Palace, with lively acts the boards throughout the fascinated and be-dazzled by on a Friday and Saturday night. country with a fine singing it. The Victorian equivalent of a Lady singers, jugglers, voice. This was her second laser light show. I often speciality acts, bawdy marriage. In the 1870’s and speculate whether a modest comedians, piano recitals and 1880’s contemporary press bequest in his father’s will accompaniments etc. It was all reports confirm her abilities as funded this enhancement of very new, risqué and exciting. It a performer. Probably she Eb. Brown’s investment. It is was also thrilling and sparkling, pursued her career whilst her very hard to realise today when and lit by gas! In a dreary old husband ran the pub. The things to do bombard our town like Nuneaton this Nuneaton Chronicle of June 3rd thoughts and senses, from the became the focus of the town’s 1892 reported: “New smoke TV and the internet, sports, aspirational nightlife. Not room opened at the Crystal musical nights out, bingo, quiz everyone could get in. It was Palace by Mr. & Mrs. Wrighton. night, many many publications probably the resort of town’s Piano to provide musical of all kinds and clubs, that trade’s people, shopkeepers, entertainment. Opened on May sometimes we are incapable of and factory owners. Those of 31st. Mrs. Wrighton sang grasping the lack of social and modest, but sufficient means. “Goodbye Sweetheart”. leisure opportunities our The labouring classes had to ancestors had in 1871. They be content with the beer house In 1895 Frederick Wrighton were mostly poor, illiterate, whereas the better off gentry died prematurely after a short ignorant and bored. The resort entertained each other at home illness. Annie carried on alone. of the grownups was the pub or not wishing to mix with the riff- In 1896 it was reported in the alehouse where alcohol stilled raff in the pub. Nuneaton Chronicle: “Mrs. an enquiring mind, and the Wrighton has opened her new kids, the streets and jitties. Sometime in the 1870’s, Smoke Room with Lunch Bar Their games were coarse and certainly after 1874 Eb. Brown as a Bohemian Lunch Club at homemade. left the Crystal Palace and the Crystal Palace”. So, from moved to the Castle Inn just the look of it this is the new There were no recreation across the road, and the pub Smoke Room where our ground or sports halls, and the was then occupied by George ancestors loved to hear their only sports facility was at the Taylor (one of Nuneaton’s landlady sing, and enjoy all the Newdigate Arms where cricket victualling Taylor’s – a local other contemporary acts of the was played. Nuneaton did have family which was well known day. You can imagine seeing it at one time the annual football locally for their involvement in through a fog of smoke from game still favoured in the pub trade) then by 1881 the pipes and cigarettes, packed Atherstone but this barbaric Crystal Palace was let to with our venerable ancestors sport was only carried out on Frederick Charles Wrighton enjoying a great night out in one day a year. The middle (1843-1895). It seems probable down town old Nuneaton. classes could read and write that Mr. Wrighton had married but access to books was very in 1880 and through his wife’s Thanks to David Floyd for the limited in a provincial town like Annie’s connection to photograph. Nuneaton. There was a Nuneaton (she was born in subscription library, at least Bond Street on 10th August

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Reviews - Two more picture books from the ‘Through Time’ series.

Amberley Publishing Plc. Amberley Publishing Plc. ISBN 978-1-84868-999-2 ISBN 978-1-4456-0159-5 Price £14.99 Price £14.99

Both of these books are lavishly illustrated with views old and new, many in colour, chronicling how things have changed in the last 130 years or so, or in many cases how things have changed very little. The book on Coventry is particularly relevant this year as we remember that night 70 years ago when on the 14th November 1940 the Luftwaffe devastated much of Coventry. This book gives us some insight into the heritage that was lost in a single night. Both books also cover some of the adjacent villages and towns. Collecting local post-cards is starting to get expensive now (a card of Polesworth was sold recently on ebay for £73) so these books are a cost-effective way of collecting albeit at second hand.

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nuneaton and north warwickshire family History Society journal

The Tuttle Hill windmill was, and is, a local landmark. It was built in 1821 on the site of an earlier flour mill dating from the 1720s. It originally had four sails, but was rebuilt after storm damage in 1905 and given iron machinery and five sails. On the 9th January 1936 a severe storm destroyed one of the sails and the mill was forced to stop working. The miller, Thomas Wright, died on the 7th March 1936 – it is said of a broken heart due to the loss of his beloved mill. On the 8th June 1936 an electric motor was installed and the mill continued under electric power until its final closure in February 1976.

When under wind power it was the last working windmill in Nuneaton Borough, and one of the last in Warwickshire.

22 Windmillfield Atherstone