Advertisement circa 1899 Motorcycle Manufacturers Of Nuneaton By Peter Lee, (see article on page 7)

NUNEATON AND NORTH WARWICKSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Member of the Federation of Family History Societies http://www.nnwfhs.org.uk

JOURNAL OCTOBER 2005

Price £1.50 (first copy free to members) Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal Page 1

CONTENTS PAGE NNWFHS Committee 1 Sad Loss of a Dear Friend and Society Member - Alva King 2 NNWFHS Diary - A Report From The Chairman, Peter Lee 3 In Perspective: Trying To Set The Record Straight - By Brian Mitchell 4 The Motorcycle Manufacturers Of Nuneaton - By Peter Lee 7 Your Letters 8 North Warwickshire Railwaymen - By Rail to Rapper’s Hole- By Peter Lee 9 Christmas Is Coming 12 Beginners Start Here 13 Old Chilvers Coton Streets, Lanes and Lost Locations - By Peter Lee 13 Get Netted 14 Notice Board 15 New Members/ Interests 16 Existing Members’ Change Of Details 17 Publications 18

NNWFHS COMMITTEE

CHAIRMAN PETER LEE, P O Box 2282, Nuneaton, Warwicks CV116ZT Tel: (024) 7638 1090 Email: [email protected]

INDEXING PROJECTS CO-ORDINATOR CAROLYN BOSS, Nuneaton Library, Church Street, Nuneaton, & VICE CHAIR Warwickshire CV11 4DR Tel: (024) 7638 4027

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY JOHN PARTON, 6 Windmill Rd, Atherstone, Warwickshire CV9 1HP Tel: (01827) 713938 Email: [email protected]

TREASURER & CELIA PARTON, 6 Windmill Rd, Atherstone, Warwickshire CV91HP NORTH WARWICKSHIRE CO-ORDINATOR Tel: (01827) 713938 Email: [email protected]

JOURNAL & PUBLICATIONS EDITOR PAT BOUCHER, 33 Buttermere Ave, Nuneaton,Warwicks CV11 6ET & MICROFICHE LENDING LIBRARIAN Tel: (024) 7638 3488 Email: [email protected]

PUBLICATIONS MANAGER ROBERT BUTLER, 16 Dovecote Close, Solihull, West Midlands B91 2EP Tel 0121 743 8526 Email: [email protected]

WEBSITE MANAGER BILL BOSWELL, 21 Randle Road, Stockingford, Nuneaton,Warwicks CV10 8HR Tel: (024) 7634 3596 Email: [email protected]

COMMITTEE ALAN F COOK Tel (mobile): 07813615522 Email: [email protected]

COMMITTEE JACQUI SIMKINS, Langley Mill Farm Sutton Coldfield W Midlands B75 7HR Tel: (0121) 311 0455 Email: [email protected]

COMMITTEE VAL PICKARD, 108 Lister Road, Atherstone, Warwicks CV9 3DF Tel: (01827) 711863 Email: [email protected]

COMMITTEE LINDA BODEN, 45 Grove Road, Atherstone, Warwicks, CV9 1DJ Tel: (01827) 709015 Email: [email protected]

NORTH AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVE HARLOW G FARMER, 7101 Bay Front Dr. #124 Annapolis, MD 21403 USA. Email: [email protected] Page 2 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal

Sad Loss of a Dear Friend and Society Member

Alva King 1.4.1939—25.9.2005

I was devastated to hear of the sad death of one of this Society’s longest serving and most stalwart members, Alva King. It was so sudden and took everyone completely by surprise. Alva had been disabled for some years and a recent operation to improve one knee looked as though it had been successful. Alva was certainly looking forward to a more mobile future: everything looked so promising. Sadly she had a stroke on Saturday September 25th and died on Sunday 26th.

Alva was the kind of committee member who forms the backbone of every successful society. She was quiet, tireless, and worked very hard, and above all she delivered. I remember with great fondness what she said to me: “Now I’ve got time on my hands, I’ll type anything for you”; and she did. Alva has typed most of the publications produced by our society: burial records, censuses, the 1901 Nuneaton census now on our web site plus indexing of burial records. She typed and typed and typed. Not only for us but also for the Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry, Pickard’s Pink Pages website for Warwickshire genealogy and for the WAP project to make Warwickshire census transcriptions freely available on the web: she typed and typed and typed.

Alva had been working with Pat in the Nuneaton Registrar’s Office indexing their records and had been busy in-putting at the Register Office only a few days before she suffered the stroke. Alva was a vital part of our indexing team: thoroughly indexing, then checking, then, of course, typing. She had recently completed typing the 1912 street directory of Bedworth and was working on the transcription of the Nuneaton Diary of 1810-1845: a very difficult task working between old transcriptions, images of the original diary and modern typescript. The work she has done is prodigious and overwhelming: all done with a quiet sense of purpose and a commitment born out of passion for local history. I remember chuckling with her at some of the goings on in the Nuneaton Diary. She found it so very interesting and it was as though she could not wait to get on with things that would soon see the light of day as one of our publications.

To most people Alva was quiet, jovial and did not make a fuss. She was a good friend, fellow enthusiast and a vital cog that has kept this society ticking. We have had our ups and downs, but Alva kept going regardless. We will all miss her for her huge contributions to local and family history over many years. How can we express our feelings: words seem inadequate at this time.

Our heartfelt condolences go to her husband, Charlie, and the family.

Peter Lee

At the time of going to press, a book of remembrance is open via Pickard’s Pink Pages where friends can record a short message. Please add your message. Go to http://www.hunimex.com/warwick/ or http://www.expage.com/alvaking Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal Page 3 NnwFHs Diary A Report From The Chairman, Peter Lee I felt reasonably under whelmed recently to be told that original information. Warwickshire County Council wish to appoint someone who is to carry out a project related to the oral history of local Another thing that came out of the meeting was an entire lack industries in Nuneaton and Bedworth, at a cost to the council of understanding of the purpose of carrying out an oral taxpayer of £50,000. I have no reason to generally criticise history like this. Oral history as part of the entire picture is the County Council over their heritage activities; they run the very important, but it must not be seen as the whole picture, it County Records Office, and our local libraries. Our needs to be balanced with context. Not only is the relationship with Nuneaton and Atherstone library is information provided not over when it’s over. You do not excellent. Their facilities are first class and our involvement produce an oral history and say that is that. The data needs with them with our regular family history workshops both to be made available and commented upon and looked fundamental to our strength as a Society. But I have seen into further. The strength that we have as a society is that these initiatives before when the local council, through their there are various methods of accessing information for the municipally run museums service, have appointed heritage general public, as well as members, and that new records are out reach officers. I am not sure what these people have constantly being added to the old. (This open access nearly actually done, but little of their work is apparent to the always results in membership for us as a happy by-product). general public. In the early days these new people turn up We have the web site, with masses of material (and links to blinking out of the sunlight with a degree in something or other good local web sites) which can be delved into other and ask all sorts of ill thought out questions and after worldwide, the newsletter, meetings, workshops, local and having wasted some of my valuable time with them they go family history open days, and the information service we off and nothing seems to happen. I am critical of Nuneaton provide free of charge. (We only charge for photocopying, a Museum on the basis that in all my 40 odd years involved in modest amount for time taken delving into archives but then local history I have not had many meaningful dealings with only when acceptable information is handed over). them of any kind, and they only seem to want to know me when they are changing displays to cadge a few photographs, For this to be of interest to me there must be this interactivity or bits of information. The local history material in there throughout the project and even after it has finished, so that it might provide an hours entertainment for someone visiting can be added to and enhanced way into the future. I would the Borough for the first time. The building is pleasant, light imagine that such an idea is way beyond the comprehension and clean; and you can get a nice cup of tea and a sticky bun, and attention span of our local elected representatives. but the local history information amounts to little more than a few sides of A4 paper in terms of value to a researcher. We My comments are I will believe it when I see it! I have been have no idea of what they hold as a resource, and distinctly here before and have the tea shirt! In the meantime the get the impression that if asked they themselves would not be NNWFHS continues to provide family historians in our area prepared to give you the information. with what they want, as evidenced by the growing and satisfied membership. Against this background then I wait with baited breath to see what this £50,000 is to be spent on. At the meeting which W. C.C. libraries service held I was generally in agreement with my friend John Burton, President of the Bedworth Society, who said he felt aggrieved that such a large sum of money was being made available when Societies such as his, and of course the Nuneaton Society and the Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society, have been doing this work for years unpaid and to a large extent unknown both to the libraries service and the local council. I felt it all the more remarkable that a local councillor who attended the same NNWFHS meeting thought that something ought to be done on the HELPLINE history of an old clay pit at Whittleford. He had no idea of the wealth of information now out in the public domain on Haunchwood Brick & Tile, and the vast amount of Peter Lee information that exists on this subject. The only problem is (024) 7638 1090 that you have to physically do things to access this 6.30 - 8.00pm information like I did many years ago. This is not pub talk Mon to Sat you need to carry out research, but I suppose our local councillors expect you to hand over the fruits of your research Or email: free gratis to some highly paid “heritage outreach officer” [email protected] who will eventually render down that down to an amorphous lump of paperwork, which will never see the light of day, or alternatively be lodged at the library as a pale shadow of the Page 4 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal

In Perspective: Trying To Set The Record Straight By Brian Mitchell Not as easy as it sounds - especially lost” places this raid on the night of edited by Winston G. Ramsey, the when researching events during World 4th/early hours of 5th June 1941. target that night was Birmingham not War Two (hereafter WW2)! Coventry and there were two He111 Memories, suffused with emotion - The raid, though, was not actually on aircraft lost. Indeed, the casualty list for heightened joy or grief - are far more Coventry that night. The main attacks the Midlands shows that only 2 died at powerful than the stark details of facts. on that city during the period of the Coventry (see the table below). Two booklets which have recently been Blitz (which early June 1941 is just published to mark the 60th Anniversary outside) are generally regarded as The Atherstone News of June 6th is of VE Day (along with two others follows: laudably vague: “a district in the West published in the last decade or so) have Date No of Bombers Civilians Killed Midlands was bombed on Wednesday provided me with an opportunity to 14.11.1940 400 - night and a number of people were 8.4.1941 300 - highlight one particular event which I 10.4.1941 200 1, 159 killed and injured. Some houses researched well over a year ago and to received direct hits and in one house a try to set the record straight. Wartime It is interesting to note that of the major mother, daughter and granddaughter newspapers are of little use because of Luftwaffe night attacks between 7th were killed. An evacuee child was the pressing need to keep information September 1940 and 16 May 1941, another of Hitler’s victims.” The three secret - if walls have ears then based on German figures, in which at female victims referred to were from newspapers would be the full monty! least 100 tons of bombs were dropped Rose Cottage, Carts Lane: Eliza Cart, There are other sources - the on target, Coventry had only 2 and yet her daughter Nellie Cart and Ann Commonwealth War Graves perhaps unsurprisingly, the memory of Atkins her mother. My Great Commission’s (CWGC’s) database of the Coventry Blitz hereabouts remains Grandfather John Chetwynd’s older the Civilian Dead and also the incident the strongest. Contrast these selected brother, Eli lived at Ivy Cottage next slips of messages written at the time statistics from Appendix B of The door and Eliza Cart had sued him at the which came in from air raid wardens Night Blitz 1940-1941 by John Ray: County Court for £2 damages to her and the emergency services. But some Holly hedge - it was the lead story in details in these do not match precisely Target No of Major Attacks Tonnage of the Atherstone News of February 17, with other sources e.g. information HE dropped 1939! Talk about the leylandii wars’ of passed on erroneously but with the best London 71 18,291 today! His death was noted in Mr of intentions in the heat of the moment Birmingham 8 1,852 Gayton’s diary on April 11th, 1940. He is written down and therefore likely to Coventry 2 818 was 89. be taken later as fact. The first quotation I should like to comment on Indeed, Manchester, Hull, Portsmouth The Nuneaton Observer with further from one of the booklets is as follows: and Southampton each had one major time to prepare a report provides more attack more to contend with - although detail, but it claims that three bombers “The night Coventry was bombed, the it must be said that the two raids on were brought down. It describes the German planes roared overhead. I Coventry taken together dropped 130- Midlands as being “the centre of the lived at Baddesley, just past the 240 tonnage of High Explosives more night attacks ….which ranged from the Maypole Pub. Carts Lane was hit and a than the three attacks on any of the North-West to the South-East, but few lives were lost. Most of the people other four aforementioned cities! which were not on a heavy scale .… ran up to the Common for shelter. The Raiders came in from various quarters bombs ware dropping from the skies. The first serious raid of the Blitz on in some force for the attack on the The planes were going around in half- Coventry is referred to in the second of Midlands but damage was nowhere circle in the vicinity of Carts Lane and the two recent publications, Goodbye to extensive…. high explosive and Maypole Lane. Huge craters ware 1940, the wartime diary of W. H. incendiary bombs were scattered at made in the fields opposite G a y t o n ' s Gayton, edited by Annette Sweet random on town and country areas Bakery. We were petrified.” Iris (2005). He was, of course, the baker in alike...” Albrighton from Goodnight Maypole Lane referred to in the Sweetheart: The Home Front - 2nd previous quotation. On Friday The details below are taken from the World War 1939-1945 Memories by November 15th he noted that hundreds CWGC database to create a table: Christine Jenking (2005). were killed at Coventry the previous night and continues “Thousands Area Victims & Locality leaving there today. A lot come to This describes very effectively what Atherstone RDC, 17 Baddesley and Grendon.” There are was probably the worst air raid of Warwickshire many examples of the bombing of WW2 for Grendon, certainly in terms Darlaston UD, 11 at five houses in of casualties and the memory is clearly London, Birmingham and Coventry as well as places closer to home from mid Staffordshire Lowe Ave not diminished over sixty years later. Tamworth RDC, 4 at two buildings in Although Baddesley is referred to, June 1940 onwards but it isn’t until Wednesday November 20th that he Warwickshire Tamworth Rd, Carts Lane, Maypole Lane and Kingsbury Gayton’s Bakery are all in Grendon and refers to “air raids last night from 8 p. Birmingham CB, 4 at Louisa Terrace, there were actually no fatalities from m. to 5 a.m. Incendiary bombs dropped Warwickshire Wharton St, Nechells the bombing itself as far as Baddesley over Grendon 1st time.” The next day

was concerned. One Baddesley man, “Bombs dropped close by tonight.” though, did die that night and his story Coventry CB, 2 at the same house, will be dealt with later. The reference As for the raid of 4th/5th June, 1941, Warwickshire Harrington Rd to Carts Lane where “a few lives were according to The Blitz: Then and Now (Continued on page 5) Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal Page 5

(Continued from page 4) crossed the field without any opposition Nuneaton, aged 53. The report of his Small meat, no doubt, when contrasted or hindrance for all those years. My funeral at Baddesley Churchyard in the with any night of the Coventry Blitz, Great Grandfather, Edward Mitchell, Atherstone News stated that he was but a dog’s breakfast of destruction for father of the defendant, said he had respected in the village and district. local communities to face and the bitter lived there for 23 years, his wife had pill of death to swallow afterwards. In for 50 and her father, who if he had I have not been able to obtain any Atherstone RDC, 17 lives were lost: 8 lived “would have been 90” that year precise information from the message at the Shortwoods, Dordon (3 of the (1923) had used it all his life. Her slips about what happened at the Geary family, 4 of the Egan and a local father was Thomas Walker, one of the cottages that night and there is some A. R. P warden, John Chetwynd); 9 at three Enginemen who worked the pump confusion over who lived where. Grendon - 6 of these at Wood Cottages at Baddesley Colliery during the period According to the Atherstone News and 3 at Carts Lane. A question in of the Disaster in May 1882. He died in Arthur Albrighton had lived at No. 1 Around Kingsbury by the Kingsbury 1900 but he was born in 1833 and it has Grendon Wood in 1938 but on the 1939 Historical Society (undated but pub. been possible to trace the existence of electoral roll, his wife lived at No.2 1980s) asks “Did you know that in the three cottages at Grendon Wood even whereas on the CWGC database she early hours of June 5th, 1941, 3 adults prior to this, thanks to A List of the lived at No.2 in June 1941 but the and 1 child were killed by enemy action Poor of the Parish of Grendon, 21st announcement of her death in the when a landmine exploded on the grass December, 1826, compiled by Atherstone News states she lived at No. verge of the present service road in (presumably) the Rector of the day 1, Woodside; the 1939 electoral roll has Tamworth Road opposite the alley to (which, if so, would have been Francis Alfred and Maggie living at No. 3 the library?” Smith, who was there from 1793 to Grendon Wood Cottages but the 1837) - an early form of making CWGC database has Alfred living at Being born just over seven years after poverty history, I suppose! The No. 3 Woodside Cottages, Grendon in the war ended and ten to twelve after inhabitants of all 3 cottages are on this June 1941. Ada and Sidney Gardner the period of bombing, I was always list including Thomas’ parents, John were listed in 1939 at Wood Cottages intrigued by the stories I was told as a and Sarah Walker and their 3 children. but in 1941 at Woodside Cottages. child in the late 1950s and early 1960s The 1841 census states that John was Woodside is, of course, the name of the of WW2 which seemed to me a long Engineer at the Colliery. An older lane alongside the site of Baddesley time ago but it was then still fresh in brother William and his wife, childless School on Grendon Common where the memories of family and village: in 1826, occupied one of the other 2 there were (and still are) houses but it amongst these were the night the cottages. My Great Grandmother (by seems that “Grendon Wood” and craters or “bombholes” were made in marriage) died in 1924, the year after Woodside” were interchangeable and Grendon Wood, where I used to walk this Petty Sessions case and my Great referred to the same cottages at the end and play, some of which were still quite Grandfather four years later, but his of Nixon’s Lane further down Maypole capacious; cowering “under the sister-in-law (who died in 1934); his Lane. Nowadays, the school near there stairhole”; the night the incendiaries son, Sidney; his son’s wife and their is also called “Woodside”. were put out “up the wood” and the daughter, Eva (my Great Uncle and cottages which used to stand at its edge Aunts) continued to live there until The cottages received a direct hit and where my grandfather dwelt when Michaelmas 1937, two years before two members of the Gardner family young and which were bombed “in the WW2, when they moved to a new were killed - mother and son - as well war”. house built at the bottom of Slacky as Jane and Alfred Aibrighton. Two Lane on land where my Grandfather evacuees were also killed at While researching something else, I had established a Poultry Farm (now “Woodside - a 12 year old boy from serendipitously came upon the report of the Riddings Farm Fishery) around the Erdington, Birmingham and a 13 year a case in the Petty Sessions column of end of 1925. old girl from Dagenham, Essex. Indeed, the Atherstone News of May 4th 1923, 6 of the 17 who died that night were which provided invaluable detail. My The Merevale Estate records show that children aged 4, 5, 7, 10, 12 and 13. Great Uncle, Sidney Mitchell, who was the cottages were purchased by W. F. The cottages were never rebuilt. The then living in one of the Grendon Wood S. Dugdale Esq on 24th June, 1932 Carts are buried at Grendon Cottages was taken to petty sessions by from Messrs. Thurlow and Slack. At Churchyard, the Gardners and Jane Mr. W. W. King who had bought the the outbreak of war, the occupants of Albrighton at Baddesley and Alfred at land adjoining Grendon Wood when the three Wood cottages were the Wilnecote. His wife was from there and the Chetwynd Estate came up for sale Gardner family; Alfred & Maggie and it is where they married in 1934. 1 in 1911. The cottages appear to have Jane Mary Gertrude Albrighton. Alfred presume that, having been made been purchased by Mr. Thomas Slack. was the son of William Albrighton and homeless, she returned to live with her Mr. King accused the family of Elizabeth nee Mitchell who lived at parents, so she had her husband buried damaging grass by walking across his Little Brum. She was my Great nearby. The Atherstone News has a field, which he claimed had no right of Grandfather Edward’s sister. Jane was report of the funeral and a lengthy list way for persons living in the cottages. the wife of the late Arthur Albrighton, of mourners, bearers and those who After being heard, the case was William’s brother. Jane and her sent floral tributes - amongst whom dismissed: a right of way was proved nephew, Alfred, were ‘Wood Sawyers’ were my Great Uncle and Aunts “Sid, by long usage. The occupants of the at the time. Arthur, her husband, was a Ethel and Eva”. other two cottages who had lived there miner but he had died on the 31st for ‘13 or 14’ and ‘55’ years March, 1938 in the General Hospital, respectively testified that they had (Continued on page 6) Page 6 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal

(Continued from page 5) quoted in The Big School. A Now, consider the following memory Celebration: (which I have, unfortunately, had to A Family Historian’s * 9th June. 1941: Air raid slight abridge): “One memorable night I damage to school. One child killed. remember... when the Germans Lament [Yet no fatalities are listed between 4th bombed Coventry. It was a particularly June 1941 and 25th June, 1942 in a If you have ever tried to ‘do your heavy raid the Common suddenly document (CR1499) at WRO listing family history’ you will know how became lit up with a ring of Incendiary bomb damage 25th June 1940-5th June, addictive it can become, So I thought bombs... It was decided we should 1943.] you may be amused to read the move away into the field, now Meadow *9th July, 1941: Poor attendance following seen in a family history Gardens, to quickly get away from the owing to disturbed night. Children magazine some years ago, author anon! heat..... We lay flat on the ground in a spent the night under hedges in fields. ditch when suddenly a searchlight [N. B. The Minutes of the War Damage I’ve been doing my family history for swept across the sky. We saw a plane Emergency Committee for Atherstone more than thirty years, caught in its beam and immediately Rural District Council states “Slight Diligently tracing my illustrious there was a roar and a bomb was forebears, damage and no casualties” relating to dropped on the houses at Allens Row.” From Peterhead to Peterborough, ‘Air Raid 9th July, 1941’.] J. Sharrott nee Chetwynd from The Big Pendle to Penzance, *18th July, 1942 Constant air raids. School. A Celebration, produced by My merry band of ancestors has led me [CR1499 lists no records.] Annette Sweet (published July 2001). quite a dance.

As an aside, twice there is a reference The reference to Allens Row again There are cooks from Kent and guards here to Mr Foster, the Headmaster, seems to place this as a memory of the from Gwent dying in February 1941. But Mr Gayton raid in the early hours of June 5th, and chimney sweeps from Chester noted his death on 22nd December, 1941. However, In the book Low There’s even one daft fisherman lived 1940 and I have seen the entry in the all his life in Leicester Seams and High Vistas by the late Mr Baddesley burial register for 26th There’s no one rich or famous, no, not Albert Fretwell (Heart of Albion Press, December. even well-to-do, 1994) is his sketch of Allens Row Though a second cousin twice removed cottages and the caption below it reads Although on a national level this was a once played in goal for Crewe. “The end two were demolished by a small scale attack, the messages show bomb on May 6th, 1942.” This is an considerable local disruption to utility I’ve haunted Record Offices from error because the message slip dated services such as water, electricity, Gillingham to Jarrow, 3.20 a.m. on 5th June, 1941 states “two telephone wires and gas mains (e.g. at The little grey cells of my mind would cottages at AlIens Row demolished the Shortwoods, Dordon) as well as the humble Hercule Poirot. some casualties including some I’ve deciphered bad handwriting that movement of traffic (Waste Lane was trapped”. A later handwritten message would shame a three-year-old, blocked by a tree, the A5/Watling at 6.38 a.m. explains “casualties And brought the black sheep of the Street at Swan Farm was blocked and include some people killed but no family back into the fold. traffic was diverted off this stretch at information of number.” I have not, Spon Lane and via Birch Coppice), however, been able to establish any My bride of just three minutes I left widespread fires (e.g. at the Lynch, fatalities at Allens Row. The date of standing at the church, Polesworth), unexploded HEBs (at 18. the raid is also given incorrectly As I nipped into the graveyard for a 22 next day there were four Class D elsewhere in this book viz, “Mr Walker spot of quick research. and three unclassified HEBs whose died of a heart attack in his air raid Eventually I found an uncle sixty years positions were known) as well as deceased - shelter, during an air raid on May 5th, people made homeless (about 205 at It was far more satisfying than a silly 1941.” There is a window in the west Tamworth Road, Kingsbury alone). wedding feast. wall of the interior of Grendon Church Many local farms had HEBs or oil “in loving memory of Albert Walker, a bombs or a basket of incendiaries After three whole weeks of wedded faithful and devoted warden born 27 dropped on them. Numbers of people bliss, my wife became despondent. April 1875, died 5 June 1941.” The were injured or trapped, apart from She named the Public Record Office as Atherstone News of June 13th, 1941 those who died. The summary of this the co-respondent. reported the death of the “Baddesley event the following day reads as I didn’t even notice when she packed Butcher” for 40 years who had retired follows: “Atherstone sub-district report her bags and went - through ill health 3 years before. The I was looking for great grandad’s will that approx 50 HEBs and 1,000 Rector of Grendon Church, the Rev. A. who’d died in Stoke on Trent. incendiaries were dropped during the C. Crawley-Boevey paid tribute to the night in that area. 10 houses were great services he had rendered to that But now my thirty-year obsession is completely demolished, 5 will have to church and how greatly he would be lying in the bin. be demolished, approx 50 badly missed. He was buried, though, at Last Tuesday week I heard some news damaged & 300 slightly damaged.” Baddesley Church. that made me jack it in,

My darling aged mother, who is not Truly, a night never to be forgotten - There were other notable raids. These long for this earth, even for those of us who were not born. are taken from the logbook of the Casually informed me they’d adopted me at birth! Infants School on the Common and Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal Page 7

The Motorcycle Manufacturers of Nuneaton By Peter Lee For over 60 years the cities of Coventry steam engines. Having "served his It was at this time that he turned his and Birmingham were the home of the time" he went to work as an improver attention to a motorised bicycle at a British motorcycle industry. Many with the great Coventry cycle time when there were only three firms famous names originated in our manufacturer Starley Brothers. in making internal combustion engines in neighbouring city of Coventry. Coventry. It was J.K.Starley, of course, Coventry. Suddenly Mr. Birch sprung Examples include: Swift, Rudge, Royal who produced the forerunner of our his motorcycle on an unsuspecting Eagle, Francis Barnett, Lea-Francis, cycles today, the safety bicycle. It was world. It was a 2HP machine, little Singer, Rover, Montgomery, Invicta, here in this heady atmosphere of great different from his ordinary cycle except Humber, and Premier. These and many innovation, mass production, and cycle that the crank was replaced by a motor more were all familiar to our engineering that laid the foundation for and the rider used the pedals to start the grandfathers. Then of course there was John Birch. He then moved to machine by pedalling furiously until it the giant of the business, Triumph, a Sheffield, to further his career, working coughed into life. name which is still carried on today, in a railway carriage works, however, albeit in our neighbouring town of he wanted to return home to do Apparently there were three things Hinckley. It is not commonly known, something for himself and it was in about the "George Eliot" which made however, that this once great industry Windmill Lane in Foleshill, in premises early manufacturing history: Firstly the spilled over into the adjacent towns in loaned to him by his father, in 1888 he position of the engine. In 1903 the Warwickshire. Kenilworth, for set about the task of building his first machine won the First Class Diploma example, where the "Kenilworth" pedal cycle. for reliability and the design was taken motorcycle was made between 1919- up by most manufacturers and adopted 1924 , Warwick, where the "Marlow" universally. Secondly the fact that the was produced between 1920 and 22. engine was built into the frame and The 1920's were the great days of the were not independent of each other, industry. and, thirdly, the low tension magneto. This detail eventually superseded the It is not well known that Nuneaton was battery type ignition. It was, indeed, home to some pioneering motorcycle well ahead of its time. The registered manufacturers. And what an interesting design of the "George Eliot" was sold lot they were too! in 1903 to a firm then specialising in sewing machines, later to make The most obscure Nuneaton maker I motorcycles, Bradbury's of Oldham. have so far discovered was Herbert The Bradbury motorbike was in fact a Wale, cycle dealer, of No. 7 Queens copy of the "George Eliot". However, Road, Nuneaton who registered a bike despite this sale, Mr. Birch continued to of his own make in 1905, registration manufacture his own machine in no: AC510. Whether this was a one off Nuneaton. In July 1904 Mr. J.N.Birch for Mr. Wale's personal use, built for a and Mr. F.W.Marston rode one of them customer, or if there were more than from John o Groats to Lands End. From one I cannot say. In those days it was Nuneaton to Bristol they were common practice to buy the bits you John North Birch. accompanied by Mr. T.Pallett of needed in Coventry or Birmingham and Edward Street and Mr. R. Randall of cobble it all together. One manufacturer His engineering abilities were Croft Road, also on "George Eliot" even built his frame out of timber! incredible. Apparently about the only motorcycles. parts of his bicycle that he did not An example of the motorbike made by manufacture himself were the rubber Although it was not uncommon in Carters of Bond Gate has survived and cushion tyres! From this little workshop those days for people to ride from I believe is still in the Museum of he invented his oil retaining hub, an Lands End to John O' Groats in the Technology in Leicester. This was idea which was taken up by the trade early cars and motorcycles of their era, known as the Colonial and was in and some sixty years later universally it is a fine testimony that the "George production between 1911 and 1913. used in cycle production. He made his Eliot" made it over those twisting Again it is not known how many were own spokes and even rolled his own uneven, pot-holed and dusty roads, made, but two were known to have rims! His "Foleshill" cycle was before the days of tarmac! In 1905 survived until recent years. developed and became very popular. John North Birch emigrated to New One of his customers were the famous Zealand, leaving the business in the Ever heard of the "George Eliot" Dennis brothers of Guildford. One of hands of his brother Harold who motorbike? I suspect not. Our story the brothers wives caused a sensation continued to manufacture the "George starts in Foleshill. It was there that John riding a "Foleshill" bike in her Eliot" cycle until he retired through ill North Birch was born in 1865, one of bloomers! Later on, of course, Dennis's health in 1925. Rumour has it that in eleven children, three of whom died in made their own motorcycle and later addition to his remarkable development infancy. He was the eldest son of a still, commercial vehicles. Dennis, of the "George Eliot" motorcycle that Foleshill ribbon manufacturer, but he today, of course, is a very well known he was also responsible for the design showed no interest in that trade, name of vehicle manufacturer. In of the "Fairy" Motorcycle (an opposed although the manual dexterity of the 1898, for some reason, Mr. Birch twin with automatic inlet and outlet ribbon weavers must have rubbed off transferred his business to Princes valves), and that he sold the patents to on this child in his chosen profession as Street, Nuneaton and renamed his bike Douglas Bros. of Bristol. The result of an engineer. As a lad he was always the "George Eliot" . In Princes Street he this was the Douglas motorbike. He said to be "Tinkering with something". employed some twenty people was also responsible for the Birch He started his career with a firm of including his brothers Harold and Fred. Motor Wheel used in Singer engineers in Coventry who produced (Continued on page 8) Page 8 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal

(Continued from page 7) motorcycles Another rumour has it that he designed the huge twelve inch naval YOUR LETTERS guns at Woolwich Arsenal. This is not so far fetched as it seems because when Far away ancestors he went to New Zealand he designed and built a number of types of 25lb. G'day from sunny Queensland in Australia. shells for the New Zealand Army Just want to say thank you for having such an informative website. I spent during the First World War. In 1905 the construction of the motorcycle ceased some considerable time reading up on the history whilst there. I then found but Mr. Birch embarked on another an ancestor in St Nicholas parish church, Harriet Ames aged 5. For people fascinating career and in true like me, so far away from our ancestors birth place, your website is a God enterprising style was the first man to send. build a motorcar in that pioneering Thanks once again country, so far away from his old home Joy Illguth in Nuneaton. In February 1905 he left [email protected] Nuneaton for New Zealand, leaving behind his wife and children, telling them he would return in five years. *************** Such was his pioneering spirit, he never Kerbstones Removed returned to his adopted Warwickshire town, and his family never saw him Dear NNWFHS again, although he did correspond with I am wondering if anybody there can tell me what “kerbs removed” actually them on a regular basis. means. I came across the reference on your website when searching for my husbands ancestors. We recently visited Chilvers Coton (from When Mr. Birch arrived in New Zealand he immediately set about Australia) and found the grave of my husband’s grandparents William applying his engineering talent to this Horace and Jane French. We are aware that there are more of his embryonic country. He was the first relatives buried there and some of his family names appear on your person to build a motor car entirely website under the heading - Index to Kerbs Removed 1987. made in New Zealand, the "Carlton" I would appreciate any help on what this term means. and this car still survives being now Many Thanks almost completely restored out there, if Alison not already complete, by the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand at Gisbourne. He was also responsible for another car Dear Alison known as the "Marlborough". I can help you a bit on this one. Years ago many of the graves in Chilvers Coton churchyard had a headstone and a perimeter set of kerbs (in fact I A writer for the Nuneaton Chronicle think some still do). Often these kerbs were also engraved with the names visited "Birch & Co." builders of the of additional members of the family interred therein. George Elite cycle in August 1908 and reported on his observations: He commented on the cabinet they had for However, when the churchyard was completely full the local authority took baking the japanned frames, the it over from the parish council which changed the way the graveyard was immense bath for nickel plating. The looked after. I remember years ago that the churchyard looked pretty portable air cooled petrol engine called unkempt as the grass was not cut very often and many of the grave, with "The Farmers Friend" which they had their headstones and rectangular set of kerb stones, were over-run with just introduced. Remarkable for its blackberry bushes, nettles and weeds. I guess this was due to the hard simplicity of construction, its pressed parish coffers only being able to afford a man and a scythe who interchangeability of parts and its utility of usage for the many jobs farmers had a full time job trying to keep up with the tidying up of the whole could find for such an invention. graveyard and maybe had the job of gravedigger on top!

As far as we know there are no "George When the council were made responsible for its maintenance, as they Eliot" cycles or motorcycles in have to by law once the graveyard is full to capacity, they brought in a existence today, but wouldn't it be more robust maintenance regime and insisted in using a powered mower wonderful to find one. A tribute to a which the man could ride on. This was impractical with all these kerb Nuneaton industry which died out some 70 years ago. stones in the way so they arranged to have them removed. (I think grave owners were consulted but, of course, most often no-one was found to My thanks go to my brother, Mr. Jim "own" the graves so they could just get permission from the church - those Lee of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club, that objected kept their kerb stones) Mr. Michael Worthington-Williams, Motoring Historian and Journalist, and Once the kerbs were removed it was an easier job to zip through the Dr. Barry Goalby, Mr. John North churchyard cutting the grass on their power mower, so the grass was kept Birch's grandson for their for help in preparing this article. If you have any down better than it had been for years. memories of any of the motorbikes mentioned, or indeed the golden years Regards of motorcycling in Nuneaton please let Peter Lee me know.

Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal Page 9

North Warwickshire Railwaymen - By Rail to Rapper’s Hole The Story of the Ansley Hall Branch Railway By Peter Lee

Over the years a lot of people have In effect a branch line was designed to the Ansley Hall and Oldbury estates, asked me where the name “Rapper’s go between the Midland’s main line comprised of 11 coal seams, five seams Hole” came from. The best explanation from Birmingham to Derby at of ironstone, and it was intended to I have heard came from my friend Alan Kingsbury junction and over a high and fully utilise the local brick clay as well. Cook who said that the mining term steeply graded branch to Stockingford The Ansley estate had been in the “Rapper” was used to describe the station on its Leicester to Birmingham Ludford family since the 13th century knocking made by a miner when he line. This would enable it to tap into came through marriage to the was trapped in a roof fall, a not unusual valuable coal traffic emanating from Newdigates who sold the mineral occurrence in the coal mines, to help coalmines in the area. These were rights. Coal winding started in 1874. his rescuers locate him. Of course as effectively served as well by the L.N. The earliest output must have gone out the knocking grew weaker and then W.R. off its Trent Valley main line, but by road on a limited scale until the died out they feared the worst. So I the Midland Route was more tortuous Stockingford branch was completed in suspect that ‘Rapper’s Hole’ stems and required heavy civil engineering 1876. However, the remoteness of the from such an incident which effected a work. Later the L.N.W.R. also intended colliery and indifferent management family who lived in those cottages to encroach on Midland traffic by must have been a problem. It was not which took their name from it, a completing the Griff Branch which it until Mr. W.G.Phillips took over in psychological impact of sufficient had extended in 1881 and they wished 1880 that the business became a magnitude for the name to stick but to draw traffic from the Stockingford success. now sadly lost on most people in the area by building a stretch of railway area. In the nineteenth century this area from the end of the Griff branch near The Midland’s branches from was known Stockingford Common, or what is now the Cherry Tree pub on Kingsbury Junction to Baxterley Park more often referred to simply as the Haunchwood Road, that road under (Baddesley) was four and three quarter “Common” or “Middle Common”. bridge and take a cut through to join up miles long and faced the Ansley Hall Early in the 1900’s three of the four with the Ansley Hall branch. If these branch to Stockingford across the fields cottages at Rapper’s Hole were schemes had been completed rail traffic about three miles distant through occupied by Henry Drinkwater the could have bypassed Nuneaton Bentley woods and this line then was Stockingford loco shed master, Walter completely and a train entering the two and three quarter miles long down Hirons, the winding engineman at single line at Kingsbury could have to Stockingford including one fearsome Stockingford (Drybread) Colliery and emerged at Griff Junction in one run. grade of 1 in 20. Had the section Gordon Ensor, a farmer. Although they between Green’s siding at the end of do not appear in contemporary street Looking back now it seems obvious the Ansley Hall branch and Baxterley directories being “out on a limb” such a scheme would have been a waste Park been completed it would have amongst the miry fields of of money but at the time the thinking been a very pretty line indeed as it Stockingford fields. was based on how the rival companies would have been cut through Bentley could grab their share of what was a Woods. Again it was not to be. This article is about a little known lucrative market and feed it over their Moderating forces were at work. Act of stretch of railway about which so little system quickly. Thereby reducing the Parliament sanctioned both these lines has been written to make it virtually handling hazards of intervening in 1873. unknown to most local people. shunting yards. As far as the Griff Although at the time it was built it was branch it made perfect sense since any Construction commenced on the part of some grand vision on behalf of L.N.W.R. traffic from the Stockingford Ansley Hall branch in 1873. The the Midland Railway to get around the collieries had to be gained by running contractor was John Bayliss who, at back of their great rival’s, The London powers over its rival’s lines and then that time, had extensive contracts on & North Western Railway’s territory. everything sorted in Nuneaton’s the M.R. including work on the Settle In the early 1870’s these companies overstretched marshalling yards. This & Carlisle line. By 4th January 1876 were engaged in a commercial war caused delays due to conflicting Bayliss’s contract at Stockingford was carving out additional revenue for movements at Nuneaton crossing the using one steam loco, eight horses and themselves by tapping each other’s Trent Valley main line whereas simply 81 men. The first section of line was traffic wherever possible to some hauling it down the Griff branch and brought into use on 3rd April 1876. This extent this went beyond the company’s then on to Coventry avoided that part served the sidings at Stockingford commercial interests. The rivalry got conflict and could easily remove one or Colliery although it had been worked so bad in the 1870’s, with an two days from each wagon’s revenue for a few months prior to its official increasingly frantic pace to build new earning round trip. In the event it was opening by the contractor’s loco. The lines that both railway companies had not to be. official Midland Railway opening date to call a halt to stop them getting into was 5th September 1876. financial difficulties. Amongst others The prize for the M.R. was obvious. On locally, the Ansley Hall (or the line of the railway two large It was single line throughout. It was a Stockingford branch as it was more colliery companies had been very busy line serving three collieries correctly known) was a legacy and established. The Stockingford Colliery and four brickyards, and at one time a truncated symbol of what might have Co. later to be known as Drybread as stone quarry. (Messrs. Ireland & been, a cut off route around the back of early as 1855 when the first mineral Knight). Its heyday was the first thirty Nuneaton and Atherstone cutting out leases were let. The Ansley Hall Coal years of the twentieth century. From the the need for the Midland to go through & Iron Co. Ltd. was a grandiose start the two principal sources of traffic Birmingham and taking mineral traffic scheme, which was established on 25th were Ansley Hall and Stockingford south via Coventry. October 1873 with 2800 acres covering (Continued on page 10) Page 10 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal

(Continued from page 9) “Drybread” or Nuneaton Colliery (in There were approximately 200 (Drybread) Colliery, both pits were in 1908 at least from working timetable of railwaymen stationed on the Midland production from the early 1870’s and that date) as only this movement was Railway and about half of those would their entire output was sent out by rail, scheduled to serve these sidings daily. have been involved on the Stockingford as there was no connecting canal This shunt must have meant full ones in freight traffic. service. The gradient of the line was and empties out on the same trip such that it limited the amount of working. The empties being returned Our trip would start a Midland standard wagons, which could be taken, loaded up the branch for filling by the next 0-6-0, for many years the preferred down the line. The limit was twelve train after being sorted in Stockingford engine for this traffic. After the loaded for the section beyond Chapel yard. It arrived back there at 10.30am, Annett’s Key was handed over and the End sidings and twenty-six empties half an hour before the next Midland starter signal for the branch was off the back up the line to Ansley Hall pit. In train was despatched up the branch. engine crew were on their own. the days before Stockingford Drybread Comprised of coal empties the M.R. Shortly after entering the branch a colliery closed in 1928 the loads hauled trip left at 11am. It completed its siding went off to Messrs. Stanley from there, on the lower section, would journey at 12 noon returning from there Brothers Ltd. Nuneaton (New) Colliery have been less restrictive, as the at 12.50pm, and arriving back at the (sunk in 1900 and closed 1922). This gradients were not so formidable. junction at 2pm. The next trip was a L. firm had opened their new pit after its N.W.R. train despatched from older colliery (locally referred to as In its last days two eight hour shifts Nuneaton Trent Valley down sidings at Nuneaton (Old) Colliery) was worked were worked by Stockingford loco men 3pm reaching Stanley’s Nuneaton out by 1899. A very old pit with each day allowing four trips up the Colliery sidings at 3.50pm. Nuneaton mineral leases let as early as 1730. In branch daily bringing 48 loaded coal Colliery was the termination of that its later years Nuneaton (Old) Colliery wagons down from Ansley Hall particular working so it must have been was served by sidings from the end of Colliery. traffic dedicated to that firm’s business the Griff Branch from 1881-1899 when and did not venture beyond Rappers the pit closed and the short set of A Tour f the Line Hole. Again these were empties, at sidings up to it was dismantled. The In 1908 the official working timetable 2.55pm. The L.N.W.R. train set off “New” colliery was shunted by one of revealed that the first train of the day, from Nuneaton and a M.R. engine had Stanley’s own locos – probably the comprised of mineral empties, left removed full coal wagons from the Manning Wardle engine named Stockingford sidings at 4.50am and siding at Stanleys. “Boleside” thought to have been bought reached Ansley Hall sidings at 5.15am. new by Barnes and Beckett contractors A fairly rapid affair compared with The Midland tripped empties up to on the Ashby & Nuneaton Joint line later workings during the day. This first Ansley Hall at 5.20pm arriving at 6pm. contract in 1872, and sold on by them train was hauled by a M.R. loco. It The L.N.W.R. left with its full load after their contract was completed in returned from Ansley Hall 10 minutes from Stanleys back to Trent Valley at 1873. (It also may have been used by later (5.25am) arriving back in 5.45pm. The final empties train of the the contractor for the Stockingford Stockingford yard at 6.05am with a full day was the L.N.W.R. working at 9pm branch from 1873 onwards for the consignment where a spot of shunting which arrived at Ansley Hall at 11pm, construction of the line). arranged these wagons to be taken out returning from there at 11.45pm not over the M.R. system to the colliery getting back to its base at Trent Valley It was named after the residence in company’s customers. An hour later a until 1.30pm. with another full load of Scotland of one of the directors of train of mineral empties left the L.N.W. coal. Stanley Brothers. A Scottish lawyer R. down sidings at Nuneaton at 6.30am. called William Rutherford. It took a quarter of an hour to reach the The nearly 24-hour schedule of work signal for the Stockingford branch. on this branch paid testimony to the In this case a raft of coal empties with Given the right of way it reached its value of the traffic, and the long work the name NUNEATON in large white destination at Ansley Hall one hour rosters of the train crews. letters on a black background would be later! An average speed of four and placed inside the colliery sidings to be three quarter miles per hour. It spent a For most of the history of drawn to the coal screens by Stanley’s leisurely half an hour shunting in Stockingford’s branch’s the usual shunting engine. Nuneaton colliery had Drybread colliery sidings. This might motive power was one of the M.R’s a few hundred of these wagons have been due to the shunting large complement of six coupled tender purchased on the hire purchase system operations at Drybread being carried engines. For general freight haulage for a cost of a few shillings a week out by Clydesdale horses (the colliery they had nothing bigger. Stockingford each. Beyond Nuneaton (New) Colliery kept twelve) rather than a steam yards were shunted by one of these sidings the Midland loco would re- shunting engine. This colliery did not engines of the double or single frame attach the brake van and proceed with possess a shunting loco for its whole variety for many years. I guess in those its empties passing beneath a rather tall period of operation. (1872-1928) days, for the Edwardian trainspotter, decrepit looking bridge which. This Stockingford was a tedious place bridge was shored up with a bulky The L.N.W.R train was locked up at the because the motive power to be found timber framework to stop it collapsing top of the branch for two hours until its on local freight duties was unchanged due to its being undermined by colliery descent at 9.30am, a trip that took an year in year out. In fact because of the subsidence. After the branch closed the hour. The only train to stop at the rather flimsy nature of the bridges only old bridge was taken down and a Chapel End sidings was this one, these six-coupled engines were allowed slender steel structure replaced it. (serving Ireland and Knight’s siding up the Stockingford branch to Ansley and the Premier Artificial Stone Works) Hall pit right up the branch’s closure Not far beyond Rappers Hole we which rather suggests that coal for almost to the end in 1961. I say almost passed over a boarded crossing then we production and steam raising on these because in the last years of the 50’s the encountered the headshunt for the sites was brought down from Ansley LMS designed Ivatt 4F 2-6-0’s were Stockingford Drybread Colliery Hall colliery rather than tripped up allowed due to their low axle loading. sidings. Like Nuneaton New Colliery from other local collieries, such as the (Continued on page 11) Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal Page 11

(Continued from page 10) Jee’s brickyard whilst other sidings draw out and run around its train with Stockingford too had its own wagons went off to the works of the Premier the engine at the front for the return emblazoned with the letters Artificial Stone Co. Ltd. at Moorwood. journey to Stockingford. Ansley Hall STOCKINGFORD, but unlike When this siding was first built it had quite an extensive brick business, Nuneaton (New) colliery all it’s served a wharf of a narrow gauge rope which survived the end of the colliery. shunting was said to have been carried worked tramway, which traversed to a The bricks were marketed as “Ansley out by huge “Clydesdale” horses. quarry face where hard stone was Halls” by the National Coal Board Although there has been some extracted from the 1880’s onwards. amongst a portfolio of bricks sold suggestion in recent years that Known officially as Ireland & Knight’s throughout the country. Drybread too had its old steam engines. siding. The firm did not do very well No records of them have been found, with this material – referred to as The bricks were manufactured from pit and they do not seem to have survived debris by a unique system for that th “Rotted Diorite in Shale” – because of into the 20 century. After the pit shut its poor quality. They later traded with period of a continuous kiln, which in 1928 several dumb buffered better success at Mancetter Quarries never cooled. Its single chamber held STOCKINGFORD wagons were where they established a substantial 13,000 bricks each of which yielded parked in the sidings gathering saplings business selling hard diorite stone one and a half pounds of moisture. At and grass growing from the inutrient extensively used for railway ballast, one time 300,000 were being produced innards of the wagon’s timber body, road setts, sewage bed filter media and in a week. gaining what nourishment the plants road building materials. When the th could from the coal slurry mixed with Premier Stone took over the Moorwood Ansley Hall Colliery closed on 30 dust which had accumulated over the quarry during the 1890’s Nuneaton and October 1959 and the branch remained years. At one time “Drybread” had a Stockingford’s new streets were open just a few more months to remove brickyard, which produced substantial marching out into the countryside so 40,000 tons of stock coal. The N.C.B. quantities of semi-engineering bricks, their poor stone found use in product’s brickyard ceased production in which reached London by rail. For such as concrete window lintels, door December 1969. By this time all their many years Stockingford Colliery the steps, paving stones, kerbs and the brick products were delivered by road.

London Metropolitan Board of Works other uses for which concrete is specified brick products. The brickyard The section of railway between the extensively used. If there was a needed colliery and Chapel End was lifted in was capable of producing 80,000 bricks for a train to work inside this complex a week in nine kilns. The brickyard 1963. the curvature meant a loud squealing ceased operations about 1894 and the noise from wagon flanges could be The return journey to the “Ford” was a kilns and brick sheds with their heard over a wide area of Chapel End. lively experience, as with all brakes connecting rail sidings and three 30 Most of the traffic here was coal pinned down on the wagons, the loco horsepower steam engines lay derelict inwards to serve the concrete making with its own feeble brakes would do its for many years thereafter. 650,000 plants and the kilns of Jee’s brickyard best to hold everything in check. The bricks were held in stock at the time of where engineering bricks were made at down grade was such that the whole the sale. In 1894 the colliery was said one time. Although Jee’s kilns went out entourage would get a fair turn of speed to be capable of producing 1000 tons of of use by the first decade of the 1900’s up despite everything being “jammed coal a week. During this period it was the yard itself with a derelict rusty on” so the crew were thankful for a a rather poor financial business being stationary engine stood grim and slight up grade just near Rapper’s Hole re-formed as a limited company several desolate for many years, and the tall bridge to slow everything down before times before being sold to Sir William works chimney stood alone into the the signal coming off the branch was Chayter of Bishop Auckland in Durham mid 1950’s. encountered. In the 40’s Nuneaton loco about the turn of the century. Because shed had imported four ex Lancashire of the Chayter connection several Beyond these sidings the branch set out & Yorkshire 0-6-0’s for this job. They families of Durham miners came to the on a steep climb up to Ansley Hall pit. were good engines for the uphill but Stockingford area. There was a grade here of one in down hill they made the crews very

twenty, reputedly the steepest of any nervous because of their poor braking. Shortly after depositing some wagons branch line in Warwickshire. It It was sometimes too much for them to in Stockingford sidings the train with certainly made the engine bark as it do to be stopped by the adverse grade its remaining empties moved off and dealt with its remaining empties on the at ‘Rappers Hole’. Many a passed over the first over road bridge at hill. On reaching the top the line Stockingford crew has looked Plough Hill Road, and a few yards levelled out and after a few hundred anxiously at the signal at the end of the beyond that Coleshill Road. Both these yards on the flat crossed Ridge Lane by branch to see if it was off, because if it bridges were built on the M.R.’s a substantial bridge. Beyond here it was had been at danger they imagined a minimal construction principle. This on embankment but the branch ended messy pile up in Stockingford goods had a direct bearing on the company’s abruptly in the middle of nowhere at a yard. almost universal use of small engines set of sidings known as “Green’s with their low axle weights right to the Sidings”. If you know the lie of the I have never heard of this actually very end of its existence. land you can detect that it was intended happening although someone did, I to go further and faced the M.R.’s understand, find his engine trundling Kingsbury branch across the fields and towards the siding with Stockingford As the train ground over the last road through Bentley Woods a few miles goods shed at the end of it before bridge over the A47 road to Coleshill, a away. Here tracks crossed the bridge finally coming to rest with the loco set of points was encountered. The and finished at buffer stops. The train actually inside the shed building. sidings here were known as “Chapel has to set back into the pit sidings. The End Sidings” and were put in some colliery’s own shunting locos would Towards the end of Stockingford shed’s time after 1890. The tight radiused set take the wagons of the main line loco. independent life in September 1931 of sidings off to the right was soon A little shunting ensued resulting in several ancient double frame Kirtley 0- passed. Chapel End sidings saw little twelve full wagons being attached to 6-0 locomotives could be found use after 1920. One spur latterly served the M.R. engine which would then (Continued on page 12) Page 12 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal

“stored” in the shed: Nrs. 2768, 2771, Stockingford depot was built and locally as when a railway strike 2772 and 2809 were recorded by opened on 5th November 1903. The occurred in 1911, 80 railwaymen visiting railway enthusiasts that month. loco shed closed on 5th November struck at Stockingford alone. 1932. In the summer, a trip up the branch Right at the end of the practical life of was an idyllic and peaceful experience. A regular driver was Arthur Smart, the branch the National Coal Board There appeared to be little urgency and he was on the branch tripper for built extensive workshops at Ansley about the whole proceedings. After a many years. Other Stockingford Hall, which cost £400,000 when it little light shunting the engine could be drivers and railwaymen that spring to opened in June 1959. It had an parked up at some convenient spot and mind were Les. Sharpe, Wilf Harris extensively equipped repair shop for amongst the murmuring of and Arnold Dunkeley, Arthur Gibson re-building steam locomotives but bumblebees, and the chirping of (made redundant in 1932 aged 20). within a year they could no longer crickets in the long grass, crews could Other names include Herbert reach the workshops by rail as the dabble in a spot of rabbiting. The Reynolds, and Elijah, David and branch was shut down. The last proceeds ending up trussed up to the Joseph King, J. Wormleighton, and internal shunting engine at Ansley cab roof before the return trip. On one William Wright. After the sub-shed Hall, appropriately named “Ansley of these excursions a Nuneaton closed in 1932 engine crews continued Hall” was sent to Binley Colliery, driver – Charlie Butler – lost part of to sign on in the Stockingford booking Coventry in February 1960. his foot when the shotgun he had with office. Some drivers and fitters were him accidentally went off. Charlie sent “down the valley” (to the Trent At the end, after the rest of the branch ended up on light duties in Nuneaton Valley line loco shed at Nuneaton). was lifted, a long siding was left goods shed after that. It was an Others went away to Saltley, which reached Rapper’s Hole Bridge unfortunate experience for Charlie as Birmingham and back to Wigston or and was the last section of the he had been on the footplate the night Leicester. branch’s main line and this survived a of the Coventry blitz (November 1940) few more years until Stockingford when one or two bombs dropped in Stockingford station signal box also sidings were finally closed in June Nuneaton goods yard one of which closed in 1932 and the box lad was 1967. Shortly after a contract was let decapitated his young fireman. Reg. Fowler who was made redundant to demolish the sidings and loco shed Something Charlie never got over. that year. Another regular signalman which was cleared away during was Arthur Parr. September and October 1967 after In Midland Railway days a lot of remaining virtually unused and crews were transferred from M.R. Nr. You can gauge the extent of derelict for over thirty years. 11 loco depot Wigston shed when the employment the railway provided Christmas Is Coming!

It happens every year but some still get caught napping. What do you want this year? Have you dropped hints yet? And what are you getting for your ancestor-hunting friends? We hope the following ideas, which start from a couple of pounds, will in- spire your shopping:

Publications available from NNWFHS – if you do not have them all on your shelf of resources, you should have! They are not expensive and can save you endless trips to library, etc.

Publications by family or local history groups in other areas where your ancestors lived – again, you may find some gems. If you are not a member of those societies, you can often find their publications available on www.genfair.com, which works like a family history fair on the web.

A diary: some of the family history magazines produce diaries for the hobby; the IHGS also produce a very useful one: you can order this by post.

Census: subscriptions are available to the main census websites and some also do batches of credits. The 1901 census from The National Archives has tokens you can buy from the Society that can be used by anyone with access to a computer. There are a number of companies selling census, county-by-county, on CD: some are better than others (price is not necessarily the guide!) and anyone using a particular county’s census on a regular basis may find this a preferable purchase to a subscription.

Books about occupations: we have looked at some in previous Journals. Books about periods in time or life in town, country, or on the big estates can be enlightening and often a “good read”, too.

For anyone who has just got started and is now thoroughly bitten by the genealogy bug, how about a good guide like Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber?

Items NOT to buy are the done-for-you family tree packs based on a surname: I cannot name names…one was given to me last year by a member of my husband’s family. They had purchased it (perhaps on basis of “if that’s all it takes, why is she spending so much time on it”…!). All the expensive pack contained was a general history of the surname, a template poster for filling in your family tree details, and lists: lists very similar to those that are available on-line, in phone books, on IGI… but without any references of course. All expensively packaged. Just stay away from these unless you SEE the goods first and feel it will be useful.

Enjoy your gift giving: the cost is not important; it is the giving that counts. Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal Page 13

Beginners Start Here First and foremost, word of advice: do not embark on Avoid hang-ups. Do not dismiss variations in spelling as research if you will find it upsetting to discover illegitimacy, “not being your line”…even SMITH has variants. Someone bigamy (only the well-to-do could afford divorce prior to baptised Martha may always have been known at Patty! 1937), poverty, criminality or insanity in your family. Most Check a reliable surnames reference book for information families have a skeleton - somewhere. about your surname: most are derived from occupations, places, patronymic relationships or simply from nicknames. Search attics and memories. Talk to all your relatives and close family friends. Borrow or make copies of all available Computers or not. You can do your research without using a birth, marriage and death certificates, notices of events, computer. However, a number of indexes are only available memorial cards, etc. Try to establish ages, dates of birth, etc on-line: indexes can save a lot of hard slog tracking people from existing family members. Everyone will have pieces to a place. Computers with relevant software can be of information useful to you. Carefully note everything you efficient in storing your material and enabling you to are told – even if you think it is a myth! produce records for yourself and family members. If you trawl the web, be aware that not all data is genuine. Be organised from the start. Take a ring binder and keep adding sheets. Use a family sheet or record card to log the Clubs and classes. You have done the right thing in joining basic facts (if you use a computer database, make a printed the family history society! Societies local to you provide a copy). Open a new binder for each new line. Keep those network of like-minded people for support and advice; copy certificates safely filed. Devise a system so you can societies in the area of your research can be invaluable for locate your information and sources. distance help. If attending classes, check they are led by genuine family history researchers: a class should teach you Start with yourself and work backwards. Work generation HOW to conduct your research, not do it for you and should by generation, making sure you have checked information introduce you to a wide range of sources and resources. against original sources and thoroughly proved each link. Record the source reference as well as the information. Books…and materials. There are a few all-encompassing, excellent reference books for those setting out in family Select the branch. To research all lines of your ancestry will history. There are smaller booklets dealing with specific swamp you. Set out to go as far down one line as you can – topics and many published indexes in local areas. There will decide now whether that is to be your maternal or paternal come a time when you need to know more about the area line. When you come to a total brickwall, then is the time to where your ancestors lived – local history publications are explore another line. Remember, each generation multiplies useful aids. If you have old photographs or documents, seek the lines working backwards. specialist advice on their storage.

OLD CHILVERS COTON STREETS, LANES and LOST LOCATIONS By Peter Lee Bonds Yard, off Heath End Road, the Nuneaton side. A couple of canal arm known as the Griff Arm of the Coventry Canal. A rows of tenement cottages which probably disappeared about 1930. beautiful setting only disturbed by the clip clop of horses pulling Bowed Lane, off Heath End Road. Still extant. More modern barges along the brown canal. houses have replaced the old cottages which used to stand there, Scrivener’s Yard, two rows of court cottages at the back of the and a newer pub – the Hare & Hounds has replaced the former of- George & Dragon Public House in Wash Lane. Built in the 1820’s fashioned victual ling establishment. by Joseph Scrivener (1793-1859) the rope maker – hence the Rope Bridge Street, still there. The Bridge was the bridge over the Walk which stretched a long distance from the back of these Coventry canal, so it must have been called something else before cottages? A later rope maker was Charles Phillimore, whose the canal was cut in the late 18th century. daughter occupied the shop next door to the George & Dragon. The Bull Ring, on its historic site was probably the centre of Sea Lane, there were a number of track-ways and lanes which led village life, and had a bull baiting ring for the amusement of our off Heath End across to Nuneaton town, and this was one of them. unwashed ancestors. It was a track with a few cottages still extant in the 1830’s but had Canalside, as its name suggests, next to Coton Wharf in Bridge disappeared from the street directories by the late 19th century. Street. Why it was called Sea Lane I cannot tell other than it might have Church End, the end of the village adjacent to the parish church led in the direction of Seaswood, and had some connection with opposite the old School (now Avenue Road). that name. College Street, named after the College of the Poor (the Chilvers Sheepsfoot End, next to the Sheepsfoot Inn, an old ale house near Coton workhouse) which stood in that road. the first milestone on the Coton Road. The Sheepsfoot Inn had long Coton Lawn, a few cottages on the Arbury estate. gone the end of the 19th century. Coton Road, the road that led from Coventry Street in Nuneaton Town End, the end of Chilvers Coton next to the Nuneaton parish town centre to Chilvers Coton. It was mostly open on the River boundary where Coton Road crossed the parish boundary into Anker side until the 1890’s with Coventry Street. several large houses on the opposite side and courts at the back Virgin’s End. At the corner of Coventry Road and College Street with names such as Daulman’s Row etc. Built by the family called stood a shrine to the Virgin Mary. This was probably for the benefit Daulman of course. of a few Catholics which inhabited the village at that time. Close Griff, the hamlet of Griff which still stands a miraculous survivor by stood the Virgin’s Inn. Both shrine and Inn disappeared about in a modernising world with the old inn the Griffin and George 1850-60. An event which might have been co-incidental with the Eliot’s House – Griff House, now a hotel. It was once more opening of the first Catholic Church in Coton Road. populous than it is today. Wash Lane, now Queens Road formed the boundary of Chilvers Heath End, the road that led from the Bull Ring up to Coton and Nuneaton Parish, and got its name from being flooded Stockingford now Heath End Road. Once the cottages were fairly on a regular basis from brooks which ran down each side. These sprinkled along its length and in the scrubby fields either side. So if were later culverted but continue to run to this day underground. your ancestor lived at Heath End he might have lived in a cottage The Woodlands, a stretch of wooded ground including Red-Deeps some distance from the main track way. along the Coventry Road from Virgin’s End to Griff. Red Deeps, a picturesque stretch of ground, woodlands and the Page 14 Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal

GET NETTED

If you do not have or use a computer at with information from county counties, parishes and other home, you really ought to pop along to registrars’ indexes. administrative areas for genealogists. your local library and seek some www.warwickshire.gov.uk www.jimella.nildram.co.uk/counties. assistance in using one of their on-line Nuneaton & North Warwickshire htm computers. There are websites which FHS: website for the society, with The next site will help you with the have indexes available which you useful links. www.nnwfhs.org.uk cannot access in any other format. This value of money. It also is a fascinating is a lit of some frequently used Historical Directories: website by site giving all sorts of financially- websites: not exhaustive by any means! Leicester University featuring many old related information, from Greek directories. labourers wages to the world Free to use sites: population in the Year 0 (170million!) www.historicaldirectories.org

Genuki Links to sources and Access to Archives is a website www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/ information for genealogy in England, featuring indexed material for many current/howmuch.html Wales, Scotland & Irish research. archives: www.genuki.org.uk Now a mixed bag for those with police www.a2a.org.uk ancestors. Firstly, for the Metropolitan Pickard’s Pink Pages Warwickshire Immigration: searchable archive of Police, try: www.policeorders.co.uk sources with links to other sites. photographs, maps and database: Includes useful guide for beginners. I’ve never seen more warnings on any www.movinghere.org.uk web site than on this one. The next site www.hunimex.com/warwick http://www.lostcousins.com Register can best be described as a massive British Genealogy: website of lucky dip - with railway, police army resources and information plus free to see if anyone else is searching and World War information www. discussion forums for counties, places your family surnames. lightage.demon.co.uk/ The next and specialist topics. police site doesn’t contain information www.british-genealogy.com/ Pay-to-view sites: on individuals, but it does give lots of some have free index contacts to find a site containing useful Rootsweb: portal for all Rootsweb sites including mailing lists: http://lists. 1837Online Index of births, marriages information www.policehistorysociety. and deaths. www.1837online.com co.uk/ rootsweb.com/

Family Search Site for the Church of bmdindex Index of births, marriages This site deals with the history of the Latter Day Saints’ genealogical data and deaths – part of on-line facility Metropolitan Police, and includes a (IGI, 1881 census, etc). Use this site operated by S&N Genealogy company. fascinating Roll of Honour giving www.bmdindex.co.uk citation about policemen who died on also to locate list of material available for purchase on CD. 1901 Census with free surname search. duty: www.met.police.uk/history/ www.familysearch.org www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk This next site contains masses of links to other police sites, and could well IGI Batch Numbers: useful if you want FamilyHistoryOn-line Compilation give you that elusive site you are to blanket-search a parish from IGI for site with access to resources from a looking for: www.nepolicehistory. a surname. number of Family History Societies. homestead.com/links.html More http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb. Free surname search. information that you will ever need com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers. www.familyhistoryonline.net about the history of policing in the htm DocumentsOnline Access to a number UK - since 450AD - is in: www.scc. FreeBMD Transcriptions of the of sources, free surname search, rutgers.edu/policebiblio/chronology. indexes for births, marriages and deaths includes pre-1858 wills, WW1 medal html Also don’t forget the Transport Freebmd.rootsweb.com cards, etc. Police, whose website is at: www.btp. www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk police.uk/ FreeCen Searchable census material for England and Wales compiled by Ancestry.com World-wide pay-to-view Lastly, one for those with clergyman volunteers. site with access to wide range of ancestors: www.theclergydatabase. Freecen.rootsweb.com documents many of which are available org.uk Census piece numbers: add the place, elsewhere in printed form. the year and the census series (HO/RG www.ancestry.com

etc). www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk . www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov. uk/default.asp Once you have registered and bought WANTED 30 credits for £6, each image of BMD, Commonwealth War Graves census etc: uses 6 credits, very good DEAD (OR ALIVE) Commission On-line version of the value. FOR THE NEXT Debt of Honour of Britain’s war-dead including civilians. If all else fails: NNWFHS JOURNAL www.cwgc.org.uk Google A useful search engine! www. Articles about your ancestors, Link site for local registration indexes google.co.uk on-line: a site providing lists of all family photos, items for our notice local and country registrars’ areas I am grateful to the editor of the FHSC board and help wanted/ offered putting indexes on line. journal for allowing publication of the section etc. www.ukbmd.org.uk following list of websites.

Warwickshire BMD Registrations: site A site containing good explanations of Start writing NOW!!!