A Barnsley Historian's View

Next Monday, 12 December 2016, marks the 150th Anniversary of the firing of Oaks Colliery, when 383 Barnsley men and boys lost their lives. You can find out more about the planned commemorations on the Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership (DVLP) website. We plan to attend the Memorial Service on Sunday 11 December at the Barnsley Main site and place three wooden crosses to the OH's known relatives.

Image of the Oaks Colliery after the Explosion from the Illustrated London News
(from various sources across the web)

With so many names to research the DVLP recruited volunteers from across Barnsley to investigate each one and to eliminate duplicates from a master spreadsheet compiled from the death certificates and the various historical printed lists which have been made available online on a dedicated Oaks Colliery 1866 Disaster website. I was pleased to be one of these volunteers for a short while, although I only researched a handful of names, being rather busy with Barnsley War Memorials Project work in the run up to the Somme Commemoration. I know that other volunteers researched hundreds of names over the autumn of 2015 and into early 2016 (including those of the OH's relatives)as the names were handed out in alphabetical chunks for fairness and lack of bias. A searchable online list of all the names identified and researched can found on the DVLP website.

Snip of the OH's family tree, Oaks fatalities highlighted (created using Family Historian)

I had known that Matthew Scales and other members of his family had been killed that day for many years, but as they are a distant connection of the OH's I had not researched them particularly deeply. Looking at the family tree snip above you will see on the far left Matthew Bedford who died in 1796 at "Oaks, Barnsley". He is the OH's 6x great grandfather. He had at least four children that I know of, including the two sons shown here, Matthew b.1782 and Richard b.1789. Richard is the OH's 5x great grandfather and his daughter Sophia, b.1826 who married Alexander Charlesworth in 1851, is the OH's 4x great grandmother. For clarity I have not shown all the children of each generation.

Sophia's first cousin Jane Bedford b.1824 lost a husband,Henry Wilby, a son, Matthew Scales, and a son-in-law, John Everett on that dreadful day 12 December 1866. Given the family's close connection to the area the OH may well have other connections to the men lost that day, but these are the ones I am currently aware of.

1843 Marriage William Scales & Jane Bedford (with thanks to Find My Past - Yorkshire Marriages)

Jane Bedford married William Scales on 5 June 1843 in All Saints church at Darfield. She was just 20 years old, he was a 23 year old Coal Miner and they both lived at Ardsley. Bride, groom and both witnesses marked the register with their crosses as they were unable to sign their own names. Jane and William went on to have two children, Matthew b.1843 and Mary Ann b.1845. Sadly William Scales died in March 1847 aged 26 and is buried at Christchurch, Ardsley. Having been left with two small children to look after it is not surprising that Jane remarried within a few years.

1851 Marriage Henry Wilby & Jane Scales (with thanks to Find My Past - Yorkshire Marriages)

Her second husband was Henry Wilby, a 28 year old Labourer from Hopton in Yorkshire (which I think is near Mirfield). Jane is now 27 years old. At their marriage at St Mary's church in Worsborough Village in June 1851 both parties give their address as Stairfoot, neither bride nor groom could sign their names, but the two witnesses could. Jane and Henry had six children, but only three (William b.1855, Henry b.1858, and Tom b.1864) were still alive when Henry Wilby snr was killed in the Oaks Colliery Disaster on 12 December 1866 aged 46. He was buried at Christchurch, Ardsley on 23 December 1866. His home address is given on the DVLP list as 2 Common Side, Ardsley.

1868 Marriage George Kenyon & Jane Wilby (with thanks to Find My Past - Yorkshire Marriages)

Jane's third marriage was to George Kenyon in 1868 at Christchurch, Ardsley. She was now 44 years old, George was a 33 year old widowed tailor from Ardsley. As far as I am aware Jane had no further children. In the 1871 census George and Jane are living next door to the Black Bull pub at Stairfoot with Jane's youngest son, Tom Wilby, aged 7 living with them, Henry jnr had died in 1869 aged 11. Jane died in June 1880 aged 55 and is buried in Monk Bretton churchyard (the cemetery did not open until 1886). George Kenyon married again in December 1880.

Jane Bedford had a hard and relatively short life. She buried two husbands, five children and a granddaughter (an illegitimate child of her daughter Mary Ann Scales, born and died in 1863), but she did live to see her daughter remarry and would have enjoyed a number of other Everett, Webster and Wilby grandchildren.

1866/67 Burials at Ardsley
(from Find My Past - Yorkshire Burials)

Jane Bedford's son, Matthew Scales, b.1843, married Alice Wood on 18 October 1863 in All Saints, Darfield. He was a 19 year old Collier and she was 20. Matthew did sign his name on the marriage register as did their two witnesses, Alice had to mark a X. Matthew and Alice had two children, William Henry b.1864 (named for his grandfather and step grandfather maybe?) and Fred b.1866. Matthew Scales was killed in the Oaks Colliery Disaster on 12 December 1866 and was buried at Christchurch, Ardsley on 23 December 1866. His home address is also given as 2 Common Side, Ardsley in the DVLP listing. He was just 23 years old. He was the OH's second cousin 5x removed.

His name appears in the burial register immediately after his step-father Henry Wilby. Sadly young William Henry Scales did not long survive his father, dying in February 1867 aged just 2 and a half, his burial is listed at the foot of the same page on which his father and step-grandfather's names appear.

At least 35 men who lost their lives in the Oaks Colliery Disaster of 1866 are buried in the churchyard at Ardsley, where there is also a memorial to all the men (here's a link to a photo and an enlargement of the inscription on Geograph).

Jane Bedford's daughter, Mary Ann Scales, b.1845, married John Everett on 29 May 1864 in All Saints, Darfield. He was a 25 year old Plate Layer (a railway worker) from Toft Newton in Lincolnshire. She was 20 years old. John could sign his name, Mary Ann could not and they both lived at Ardsley. They had one child, John Henry Everett b.1865. When he was baptised at St Mary's in Barnsley on 14 December 1865 the family were living in Barnsley. John Everett was killed in the Oaks Colliery Disaster on 12 December 1866 aged 29. He was buried on 16 December 1866 at Christchurch, Ardsley. The DVLP online listing gives his home address as Union Street, Barnsley which was in the parish of St John the Baptist (in the Barebones area near the town centre).

Mary Ann Everett, widowed at 22 years of age with a one year old child, remarried on 7 Nov 1867 to Manwaring Webster at All Saints, Wakefield (now the Cathedral). He was a 22 year old Butcher, born in Southey Green or Ecclesfield in Sheffield. Both parties say they were living in Westgate in Wakefield when they married and state that they are 'of full age' rather than being specific about their ages. Mary Ann and Manwaring had moved to Monk Brettonby the 1871 census and they have at least four children that I have found.

There must be many more direct descendants of these three men alive today, but in their absence the OH and I will be honoured to lay our wooden crosses in their memory next Sunday morning.

Thank you for reading.

Over the past few days the OH and I have attended some events commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Oaks Colliery Disaster. Here are a few photos and thoughts. DVLP means Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership which is far too long a name to keep writing out!

Barnsley Main (thanks to DVLP)

The event on Sunday 11 December at the Barnsley Main site had been advertised in the Barnsley Chronicle the previous week. The idea was to place wooden crosses, similar to those used on Remembrance Sunday, near the site of the Oaks Colliery.

The OH drove us down from Cudworth. Years ago, when I could still walk long distances, we had walked around Hoyle Mill photographing various interesting sites and probable locations for his family history such as Ash Row and the filled in canal and the Barnsley Main site, and I knew that it was too far for me to walk up there from the nearest bus stop now. We arrived fairly early so we were able to park (with my blue badge displayed) opposite the site. Hot drinks and mince pies were available and the OH happily accepted a cup of coffee. The wooden crosses were arranged alphabetically in half a dozen large boxes and a helpful clergyman (Rev Dewey according to the programme of the event we were given) and several young girls found the three I had emailed to reserve. Matthew Scales, John Everett and Henry Wilby, as I explained in my post last week, are related to the OH via his 4x great grandmother Sophia Bedford.

Lovely photo of us and crosses (thanks to Peter Davies)

People were gathering and the above photo was taken by Peter Davies whom I know via the Barnsley War Memorials Project (BWMP). He takes wonderful photos of church memorials and stained glass windows and is connected to the Thurnscoe History Group as well as the People and Mining Group who are fundraising for the new Oaks Memorial sculpture which is being created by Graham Ibbeson.

One of our crosses was claimed back by some family members who were more closely related to Henry Wilby than the OH. They were just about to share their family tree with us when the speeches started!

Local MPs (via Twitter from DVLP)

After some introductory words from the Chair of the Barnsley Main Heritage Group (who seem to be so new they haven't got a website or a Facebook page to link to), Councillor Brian Mathers (who has a close interest in the history of the Oaks Colliery) and our local MPs, Dan Jarvis and Michael Dugher, the cross placing began.

I was glad I'd worn my older boots as the grass was very wet and lumpy. I've seen photos of the site during its recent tidy up by the Friends of Barnsley Main - it had been quite overgrown and lots of litter was picked.

After the OH and I planted our crosses I sought out the Wilby descendants whom we had met earlier. They had a large family tree showing Henry Wilby's parents and children and an Oaks Bible. We explained that the OH was descended from Henry Wilby's wife by her first husband, had a good discussion and exchanged email addresses, as you do. They allowed us to take some photos of the bible for this blog.

Oaks Bible inscribed to Willie Wilby (click to enlarge)

These bibles were given to all the recipients of funds from the Oaks Colliery Explosion Subscription Relief Fund. This one was inscribed to Willie Wilby, whom I knew from my own research was the OH's second cousin 5x removed, eldest son of Henry Wilby and Jane Bedford. Bill Shaw from the People and Mining group came up to speak to us and he told us he had a bible inscribed to Tom Wilby, Henry's youngest son, which he had been given by the sole surviving descendant of that line still living in this country. Fantastic coincidence! It was a real privilege to see and touch an actual item our ancestors would have held.

My Downton Abbey hat on TV!

I was asked by Stephen Miller, who had organised the DVLP's research project into the names of the men killed, if I wouldn't mind speaking to the man from the Calendar news programme who was there. The OH and I were both interviewed by the reporter, and a section of my piece was shown that evening on the news. My friend Fay managed to catch my moment of fame and you can see the full report here on YouTube. There was also coverage on the BBC Look North programme.

On Monday evening the OH and I attended the official launch of the Oaks Colliery Disaster Exhibition which is at Experience Barnsley Museum until 8 February 2017. I had been invited because I had done some research for the DVLP on some of the names of the men killed in the explosion on 12 December 1866. I had researched about a dozen names, but I know some of the other volunteers researched hundreds - great job and well done to everyone. I was sorry not to have done more but pressure from BWMP work prevented me.

The event was held upstairs in the reception rooms at the front of the Town Hall. I've been in there before, in fact one of the sections is the room where the OH and I were married twelve years ago. The room was already busy by the time we arrived (we'd had tea at the Joseph Bramah on the way so I could rest instead of having to cook and wash up) and again tea and coffee were on offer.

Tweet by John Tanner showing the packed rooms

There were the usual introductions and then an overview of the project by Stephen Miller (who has done a wonderful job). He named all the volunteers who had helped, which included myself, and explained that he'd not realised how big an undertaking the Oaks Colliery Disaster work would be. There were some poetry readings by Ian McMillan and three people who had attended a workshop to create works inspired by the Oaks Colliery Disaster. The OH commented that the man who spoke was a Barnsley CAMRA member. I sometimes think the OH knows everyone in Barnsley either via CAMRA or his work!

Presentation to the Volunteers

At the end of the Mayor's speech Stephen called all the volunteers present up to the front of the room. Now that was a surprise. The Mayor, Councillor Linda Burgess, then shook our hands and handed us each a framed commemorative list of the 383 names of the men killed in the disaster. That's me in the photo above, on the left of the row, next to receive a plaque, just hiding behind Stephen.

Afterwards we all went down to the exhibition which is in the display area next door to Barnsley Archives. There are photos of surviving miners, rescuers and widows with their stories, and some artefacts including a rather scary preserved pony's hoof! The visual recreation of the Oaks Colliery runs on a screen on the wall continually and includes a list of the names of the men killed.

It was lovely to be thanked for my contribution to the project. I'd like to thank Stephen Miller and the rest of the DVLP team for giving us the chance to do the work. When NS, one of the other volunteers, mentioned that he had a void in his life now the project was complete Stephen promised that we could go on to research other mining disasters and accidents in the DVLP area. That might take us the rest of the lifespan of the DVLP to complete!

Thanks for reading.

Barnsley being landlocked and not a particularly well known site for war industries escaped attack in WW1 from the Germans. We know a Zeppelin passed over Silkstone in November 1916, and a description of this event can be found in Tim Lynch's book "Yorkshire's War". Happily no-one was killed or injured as a consequence.

Poster from the IWM

The safety of Barnsley connected civilians who lived and worked in seaside or industrial towns, or who were undertaking journeys through theatres of war was not so readily assured.

The first civilian death that I am aware of occurred during the German bombardment of the east coast on 16 December 1914. Such an attack on British home soil was so without precedent and deaths and injuries to non-combatants, including women and children were so shocking at that time, that images based on the event were used in recruiting posters, like this one on the right.

Margaret Briggs was born in Holmfirth on 7 October 1884 according to the information recorded on her baptism register entry and in the family's census entries. She and her younger sister, Mary Ann, were baptised at the same time, 7 July 1889, at St Margaret's church in Horsforth.

Margaret's parents, Samuel b.1859 in Pontefract, and Margaret (maiden surname Meredith) b.1854 in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, married in Pontefract on 11 January 1880. Samuel's occupation at that point was as a Groom. By 1881 the couple and their three month old son, Thomas, born Wragby, were living in Avenue Cottage at Hill Top, Wragby, which is near Nostell Priory.

More children followed, Arthur in 1882 in Wragby, Margaret in 1884 in Holmfirth, Eliza in 1886 in Huddersfield, Mary Ann in 1889 in Horsforth, then George in 1892, Alice in 1896 and Jane in 1897. All the last three were born in Barnsley. I wonder who Samuel Briggs worked for? Did he change employers on several occasions or are the varied birth places of children a reflection of some other reason for moving around West Yorkshire on a frequent basis?

In 1891 the family were living at 58 Honeywell Street, Barnsley and Samuel was a Coachman. In 1901 they were at 1 Vernon Street and Margaret and Eliza, who would have been 16 and 14 years of age, are not at home. They appear to be both living in Sowerby Bridge as General Domestic Servants to a Wholesale Drysalter and a Mechanical Engineer respectively. The youngest Briggs child, Jane b.1897, had died in October 1898 aged just 10 months and was buried in Barnsley Cemetery, plot S 384. When she was baptised in January 1898 Samuel's occupation was noted as a Cabman, but in 1901 it is given as Coachman/Groom again.

The 1911 census should contain additional information about the total number of children born to a marriage and how many had died and were still alive at time the census was taken. However Samuel and Margaret did not fill in this information so we can't tell if there were any other children, or to double check if the still absent Eliza had died young. Samuel has been recorded as a Cab Driver this time, and the family are living at 11 Sherwood Street, Barnsley. The family remain at this address for quite a long time. Sherwood Street runs parallel to Pontefract Road on the way up the hill towards the Barnsley football ground (click here to see the address on Google Maps). Number 11 is a small terraced house near the top of the street which fronts straight onto the pavement.

Happily I found that Eliza Briggs had moved a lot nearer to home and was living at 5 Sherwood Street, just a few doors away, in 1911. Her occupation is given as Domestic Servant, which seems a little odd in the household of a Bobbin Finisher. But maybe she was only lodging there, as the married couple listed, John and Cassandra Shaw, had five rooms (not counting their kitchen) and no children to their four year marriage to occupy their spare bedroom(s).

1911 census snip for 31 Filey Road, Scarborough (from Ancestry.co.uk)

Meanwhile Margaret has moved to Scarborough, where she is a Housemaid to a widowed Solicitor. It is a fairly grand household as there are four servants, a cook, two housemaids and a houseboy. It seems to be the same address where she was killed in 1914.

One of Margaret's sisters, Mary Ann aged 25, married on 1 August 1914, just three days before Britain declared war on Germany after their invasion of Belgium. Her new husband was John Wales, a Miner and both bride and groom give their address as 11 Sherwood Street when they marry at St Peter's church on Doncaster Road. This couple move to Normanton which may be where John originated from, before birth of their son John in early 1916. That is not so far away and I am sure they would have returned for future family events such as weddings and funerals.

In the Barnsley Chronicle of 19 December 1914 Margaret's death is reported under the headline, "East Coast Raided - Scarbro', Whitby and the Hartlepools Bombarded - Great Loss of Life - Barnsley Woman Amongst the Slain." Some young Barnsley boys were attending school in Scarborough and their thrilling escape from the town on a train to York is fully reported.

Here is what the Chronicle said about Margaret:
"Information has reached the town on Wednesday evening to say that Miss Margaret Briggs, a daughter of Mr. S. Briggs, of 11 Sherwood Street, Barnsley, was one of the victims of the German Bombardment. Miss Briggs, who was 29 years of age, was employed as a servant at "Dunollie", Filey Road, Scarborough. She was very well liked by her many friends in Barnsley, and great sympathy will be felt with her relatives. Her father is a very well-known cabman and dog fancier. From all accounts, Miss Briggs was intending very shortly to return to her home, and the tragedy is made all the more pathetic by the fact that she had already sent on some of her luggage in advance. Miss Briggs was killed on the doorstep of the house whilst taking letters from a postman who was also killed. "Dunollie" is one of the most southerly of the buildings hit in Scarborough. The shell struck the gable end of the house nearer the sea, and then appears to have dropped straight in front of the main entrance where Miss Briggs was standing."

"Dunollie" showing bomb damage (with thanks to The Rowntree Society)

In 1947 a "Dunollie House" was opened as a Rest House by Rowntrees of York for company employees suffering from stress and ill health. The above photo from their website shows the the damage sustained by the house in the bombardment in WW1. That could be the very doorstep on which Margaret was standing when she and the postman were struck down. Some of the details on their site do not tally with the information on the 1911 census, so I am being a little cautious about this. I also found a short silent film of the actual opening which shows the inside of the house and the opening ceremony in 1947.

Margaret's body was returned to her family in Barnsley and she was buried in Barnsley Cemetery on 20 December 1914 in the same plot as her baby sister Jane. There is a mystery child, John William Briggs, aged just 4 months buried in the plot in 1909 from the same 1 Vernon Street address as Jane. His General Register Office entry suggests he was illegitimate as no mother's maiden name was mentioned. I assume one of the older sisters, either Margaret, Eliza or Mary Ann was his mother.

A second of Margaret's sisters, Alice aged 19, married in June 1915, again at St Peter's church on Doncaster Road. Her husband was Albert Laughton, a 20 year old fitter and steel turner. I believe they had at least five children together before Alice's untimely death in 1923 aged just 28 years. Albert remarried again to an Ellen Watkins in the June Quarter of 1927.

1918 Absent Voters List snip showing Sherwood Street (thanks to Barnsley Archives)

The 1918 Absent Voters list gives information about men who joined the services in WW1 who were expected to be away from home for the election in December of 1918. The register has been transcribed by the Barnsley War Memorials Project and can be found online here and also in paper form on the open shelves at Barnsley Archives. Margaret's middle and younger brother are both in the services in 1918 and have given 11 Sherwood Street as their home address. Arthur is a Private in the 4th (Reserve) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment, he would have been 35 years old. George is a Bombardier in the 286th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, he would have been 26 years old. There is a Thomas Briggs enlisted in the 13th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment a couple of streets away who may be the eldest Briggs brother - but there is no definite proof. I cannot find either of the sisters' husbands listed.

The mother of the family, Margaret Briggs (nee Meredith), dies in 1919 and is buried in the family plot in Barnsley Cemetery. At least she would have know that her boys were safely home before she passed away. Husband Samuel joins her there in 1924; both were 65 years old when they died.

Snip of entry for 11 Sherwood Street in 1939 Register (thanks to Find My Past)

Just because I can and to try to finish this story off I searched for the Briggs brothers and sisters in the 1939 Register on Find My Past. There was no sign of Thomas, the eldest brother but here is proof that Arthur and George made it home safe from WW1. Arthur, aged 56, is an Air Raid Precaution warden in WW2. Both men are marked as carrying out Heavy Work (H.W.) - I believe this means they were entitled to extra ration points. Unmarried 53 year old sister Eliza is living with them, housekeeping for them maybe? What I assume is a niece, 18 years of age, presumably a daughter of their deceased sister Alice Laughton, is also living with them, maybe they took her in to help out when her mother died?

Sister Mary Ann was living in Normanton in 1939 with husband John who is now a Colliery Deputy. Living with them were son John W and one more member of the family whose details are still hidden on Find My Past (details in the 1939 Register are closed if the person died after 1991 and the record has not been unlocked by a relative submitting a death certificate). Both father and son are ARP wardens. Albert Laughton and his second wife Ellen are living at 2 Bala Street, just around the corner from Sherwood Street. He too is a Heavy Worker in a his old trade of turner and borer, which does sound fairly essential for the war effort.

I am sure the family remembered Margaret and her shocking death in the German Bombardment of Scarborough for many years and with all the Briggeses buried in Barnsley Cemetery I wonder if there is a gravestone on plot S 384 recording them? One to check when the weather gets nicer again!

Thanks for reading.

My choice when I got up today was to do a bit of work on the Imperial War Museum's War Memorials Register (I am slowly adding all of Barnsley's 640+ war memorials to their website), or to continue working my way through my ancient 'to-do' list. Put on one side in 2012 when I began researching war memorials for a talk commissioned by the Friends of Barnsley Archives I have barely touched my own family history for over four years.

Descendants of John Storey Vaux of Sunderland (I use Family Historian)

Several items on my list refer to the Vaux family of Sunderland. I am distantly related to this well known brewing family, as my first cousin 4x removed, Harriet Douglas, b.1837 in Sunderland, married John Storey Vaux in 1861. In the snip above little tags after the boxes for each person indicate which census returns I have found them. These 'flags' can be customised in Family Historian to indicate all kinds of facts, I have just added a little cannon to Ernest Vaux to show that he was a soldier prior to WW1 and a 'Tommy' symbol to show he served in WW1. Other than those two military flags this is how I found this part of my family tree this morning.It's a bit thin on the ground!

If you look at this old post about a Vaux family gravestone in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery you will see an even earlier version of this tree section which includes a previous generation of the Vaux family. There are quite a lot of Vaux's for me to research. But today's connection combines two of my favourite things - WW1 and beer!

Maxim Beer Label (from Zythum - An Ale Anthology)

This is reason that I wanted to write about one of the Vaux family today. It is a beer bottle label, possibly dating back to 1901. I wonder how many people know that the present beer name refers back to a machine gun!

Double Maxim Beer label (from Sunderland CAMRA's site)

The original beer, Maxim Ale, was apparently first produced to celebrate the return from the Boer War of my 2nd cousin 3x removed, Major Ernest Vaux.

Captain E Vaux South Africa Medal and Clasps (from Ancestry)

He had commanded Maxim guns in the 5th Imperial Yeomanry during operations in the Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Cape Colony. He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal in 1901 with clasps commemorating these campaigns, see snip above from UK Campaign Medals on Ancestry. He was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in November 1901 (from Wikipedia).

The websites I have looked at today offer slightly different stories about the origin of the 'Double' which now forms an integral part of the name. The Maxim Brewery site suggests that the beer was originally quite strong, but the strength was reduced because landlords complained their customers were falling asleep. Both this site and Zythum - An Ale Anthology do agree that the strength of the beer was doubled in 1938 and at this point the name was changed to reflect this. I wonder if the strength was originally reduced during WW1 when legislation was brought in to reduced the detrimental affect of alcohol consumption on the war effort?

Major Ernest Vaux on a cigarette card dating from the Boer War
(saved in 2012 from a now closed website)

After his return Ernest Vaux married in 1906 to the daughter of a local shipowner. I have mentioned before how my Sunderland family branchesworked and married within a close community of middle class business families. The middle names of their children frequently reflect the surnames of mothers and of other local families, maybe those of godparents or other relatives. For example Ernest's fourth child and only son was baptised Peter Douglas Ord Vaux in December 1913. Douglas will refer to his grandmother's maiden name and Ord to his mother's.

Lt-Col Ernest Vaux (from a Sunderland newspaper website)

When the Great War began in 1914 Ernest Vaux, being an experienced old soldier, stepped forward immediately. He had commanded the 7th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry since 1911. He reached Francein 19 April 1915 where he was mentioned in dispatches many times.Lieutenant Colonel Vaux was invalided home in April 1918 suffering from dysentery. He died in 1925 aged 60. You can find his page on Lives of the First World War here.

A few months ago I regaled some the OH's CAMRA colleagues with this story during a beer tasting in Maison Du Biere at Elsecar Heritage Centre after spotting a bottle of Double Maxim for sale. I've been meaning to write it down ever since.

Thanks for reading.

When a friend contacted me to say that the Wakefield Coroners' Notebooks were now available on Ancestry I must admit that my reply was, "There are not enough hours in the day!" So many new record sets appear every month now that keeping up with them for my own family history is just impossible.

Happily, when I attended a meeting of the Cudworth Local History and Heritage Group yesterday BS persuaded me to take a look, explaining that the records ran right up to 1909 and did cover Barnsley. Most of the cases seem to take place in public houses which gives a fascinating insight into the lifestyle of our ancestors - but it might take a while for me to investigate that angle of this new record set.

Snip of the start of this Coroner's Report (thanks to Ancestry)

I did a quick search for one particular death in the OH's family that I knew had been the subject of an inquest. William Henry Blackburn had been killed within six months of his marriage to Mary Ann Loveland in 1871, leaving her expecting their first child. They were the OH's 3x great grandparents and William's posthumous child, named after his father, born in July 1872, was the OH's 2x great grandfather. Mary Ann re-married three years after William's death and went on to have seven more children with her second husband Walter Jobling. I have taken a snip of the header of the report into his death so you can see the style and the old handwriting, but I have transcribed it in full below.

A snip of the report into another Blackburn death (thanks to Ancestry)

Today I started a proper search of the records looking for family names in Barnsley and soon found another unfortunate member of the same family. William's father George Blackburn, who was a witness in the investigation into his son's death, himself featured in a Coroners Report in 1879. How terribly sad for his wife, who had to give the first statement in this case. She had lost her eldest surviving son and her husband within eight years of each other.

Here are the full transcriptions of the two reports, we think sw means sworn witness, deced is short for deceased of course:

"At the house of Henry Coles the Devonshire Arms Inn Barnsley on Tuesday the 5th day of December 1871 on view of the body of William Henry Blackburn deced

George Blackburn of 22 Harbrough Terrace, Barnsley Bill Poster sw says, Deced was 20 years old & a Coalminer & my son. He was married & lived in Jumble Lane. Last Saturday he was brought to our house at his own request & by the direction of Mr Wm T G Smith. Deced complained of pain in his abdomen but was quite sensible. He died yesterday morning about a quarter past 9 o'clock. I saw him in bed at his own house last Friday morning. [signed by George Blackburn]

George Hirst of Silver Street Barnsley Coalminer sw. says, On Friday the 24th ulto deced & I began a Bank on the South side of High Stile Colliery, Barnsley. Last Friday morning about 6 o'clock we went to the Bank when Josh Bryan told us all was right. We found the shovel marked with the day of the week. Isaac Midgley was also with us. All 3 started ?? to get coal in the Thick Bed. We were holing in the low "softs" to get the "hards" or middle seam. The bank was about 12 yards wide & 12 yards up & it was fast at both ends. There was a row of wooden props about a yard from the face. The props were about a yard & a yard & a half apart. There was a level on the top side of our bank driven to the Throw about 20 yards off. Deced was between me & Midgley & had continued to work while I & Midgley were filling a corf. Suddenly about 3 yards in lenght of the "hards" fell forward & knocked deced down. He was straight out & covered with coal up to his middle. The coal was in one lump & we prized it up with sleepers. Deced could not stand. We continued to work the day out.

Isaac Midgley of Marine Row, Kingstone Place Barnsley Coalminer sw. says, I have worked in High Stile Colliery for the last 3 years. I began a Bank about 3 weeks ago. Deced & Hirst came on the 24th ulto as another man had left me. We had sprags but no set last Friday morning. We had not holed under more than a foot & that only at one end & in the middle. We had expected to have to blast the coal down. [signed Isaac Midgley]

Joseph Bryan of Spa Terrace, Barnsley Deputy Underground Viewer in High Stile Colly sw. says, Deced had no tools but was assistant to Hirst & Midgley. I examined their bank last Friday morning & found a shot had missed fire at the low end & I send them to the top end about 8 or 9 yards from a throw. About 8 o'clock last Friday morning I heard deced was injured & on going to the bank I found he was sitting on the ground & free. I took off his right boot as he complained of pain in his ankle. I saw that the ankle was slightly swollen. I hurried him to the bottom & went out with him. He began to complain of pain in his bowels as soon as he got to the top. The coal fell from a cross slip. It was all the coal undermined at that place. [signed Joseph Bryan]

Verdict. Accidentally injured.
Paid Hodgson Dewham PS £1:6:0 Persl exps" [PS = Police Sergeant]

When I first began my husband's family tree I was suspicious of William's death at twenty years of age. I was lucky enough to find a short paragraph relating the event in the Wakefield Express of 9 December 1871 at the Local Studies Library in Wakefield. I now know that that piece must have been taken from this very Coroner's Report as the wording is almost the same.

A section of William Blackburn's death certificate

I subsequently sent for William's death certificate which notes that he lived 3 days after the accident (the accident was on the Saturday and he died on the Monday) and that he died at 22 Harbrough Terrace (I think the wording of the Coroner's report doesn't make that clear).

William Henry Blackburn was buried in Barnsley Cemetery on 7 December 1871 in plot M 539 where he was later joined by his wife's second husband Walter Jobling!

Onto the second Coroner's report which concerns George Blackburn, the OH's 4x great grandfather:

"At the house of William Norman the Wood Street Hotel, Barnsley, on Thursday the 26th day of June 1879 on view of the body of George Blackburn decd.

Eliza Blackburn of No 74 Heelis Street, Barnsley, widow, sw. says, Deced was 59 years old & a Bill Poster& my husband. I insured his life on the 12th November 1877 with the United Kingdom Assurance Corporation Limited for £6:12:0 but in the name of George Blackbourn. On Saturday the 7th inst he got up early & set off to his Office & he was brought home in a Cab in the afternoon. He was carried from the Cab to his bed upstairs. He said that his back and abdomen were injured. Albert Wm Rogers came twice to see deced. Deced told me he had been riding with Rogers & expected they could get under an archway. Mr Scott attended him. Deced gradually became weaker as he could not take nourishment & he died yesterday evening about 6 o'clock.

Albert William Rogers of No 16 Easton Street, Exmouth Street, Clerkenwell, Groom sw. says, I am in the service of Mr. James W Myers the proprietor of a Circus. On the 7th inst. I came from Doncaster with a covered carriage & a pair of horses. The carriage is a Bill posting conveyance. Deced met me outside the Town about 1/2 past 2 o'clock & told me he had been sent by the Agent in advance to show me where to put up. He then got up to the front seat alongside of me. The seat is level with the top of the van. He first took me to his Office & wanted me to take some bills out of the Van. I told him it would be better to wait until the horses were put up as rain was falling fast. I did not know anything about Barnsley. By deced's directions I drove up Graham's Orchard & across Shambles Street into an entry which he subsequently said was the Windmill Yard & I pulled back & went round & up the next entry & asked him whether we could get through the archway. He replied, "O Yes". There was plenty of height at the entrance. Being up hill & steep the horses began to pull & I saw that the archway became lower. I told deced to put his head down & he did so. We passed under one beam but on getting to the next beam I felt myself fast & stopd the horses & backed a bit. Some men lifted deced down & assisted him into the kitchen of the Old White Bear Inn & I followed. He complained of pain in his back. He drank some brandy & then I returned to my horses. He appeared to be sober but not very active. He was helped by two men into a Cab & then driven away. He seemed to be rather better when he left. [signed Albert W Rogers]

Jane the wife of Joseph Asquith of No 33 Wood Street, Barnsley, Stonemason's Laborer, sw. says, I have known deced many years. I saw him in a chair at his own house in the afternoon. His sons carried him in the chair upstairs & I helped to put him to bed. I have frequently seen him since. Last night I washed & laid out his body which had become very thin. There was not any external mark of injury.

Verdict Accidentally injured
Paid Wm Mansfield PS £1:0:6 Persl exps."

1889 snip of area described in the testimony

The map snip to the right is from an 1889 town plan of Barnsley. It shows the exit from the top of Graham's Orchard at the bottom right adjacent to the Lord Nelson Inn (the shaded X indicates an archway or entrance on the ground floor). Opposite and a little way up Shambles Street (which crosses the map at the bottom) looking to the left is the entrance to the Windmill Inn Yard. The next entrance along is beside the White Bear Inn.

It is tricky to interpret the testimony of the driver of the van, Albert Rogers, but I think it means that he entered the Windmill Inn Yard, drove straight through exiting onto Westgate (at the top of the map snip) then turned his van round and entered the Old White Bear Yard from Westgate. The entrance at the front of the Old White Bear was far too low for anyone to expect a horse and cart to enter. There is a photo of that stretch of Shambles Street on YOCOCO, Barnsley Council's photo archive, looking down from the Sovereign Inn next door to the Old White Bear. Of course I could be wrong and he just started to enter the Windmill Inn Yard, pulled up and tried to enter the Old White Bear Yard at the front! At least the pub was handy for a quick snifter of brandy after the accident.

We can see that George and Eliza had moved from Harbrough Terrace to Heelis Street between the deaths of William Henry in 1871 and George in 1879. The testimony of the neighbour mentions George being carried upstairs by his sons. I only know of one son, James Blackburn, alive at this time, but the other man could have been his son-in-law William Hinchliffe.

George was buried in Barnsley Cemetery on 29 June 1879 in plot M 538, adjacent to his son's burial plot. Three little Hinchliffe grandchildren share the plot with him and finally Eliza his wife, who had married to a chap called Thomas Ashurst eight years after George's death, joins him there in 1902 at the age of 74 years. I am not aware of a gravestone on either plot.

Who knows what else I will find in these Coroner's reports? You certainly get a lot of information in them and I am so glad I was persuaded to take some time and have a look!

Thank you for reading.

The weather on New Year's Day was dreadful here in Barnsley. It chucked it down all day, no good for anything but staying in and eating up Christmas leftovers! Happily on the extra Bank Holiday Monday the sun came out and of course I asked the OH if we could visit a cemetery.

We believe that each and everyone of the 8 million who served during WW1 deserves to be remembered.

One of my tasks as a volunteer for the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website is to add 'Life Stories' for men who were missed off the initial upload of Medal Index Cards back in 2014. This is usually because they didn't serve abroad and therefore were not entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal. One source of information for these men is the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's website (CWGC), listing allcasualties of WW1 and WW2 buried and commemorated in the UK (and overseas, but that is not relevant to this discussion).

For the past few months I have been working my way through a Google doc spreadsheet of all the CWGC burials in Yorkshire. I checked all the ones in Barnsley as part of the Barnsley War Memorials Project, and now I have moved onto nearby Yorkshire towns and villages that I am familiar with, Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and Wakefield. I recently completed the checks on Conisborough cemetery where there are seven WW1 CWGC burials (and ten WW2 CWGC burials) and found just one man to add, a Private Thomas Lifsey who, despite enlisting in the York and Lancaster Regiment was transferred to the Labour Corps and did not serve overseas. This may have been due to his age, he was 39 years old, or his health.

Co-incidentally my own great grand parents are buried in Conisbrough Cemetery. Many of the families to which I am related (Hall, Fiddler, Russell) had come down to Yorkshire from Durham in the late 1920s and early 1930s looking for work. My own grandfather was away in the army serving in India at the time and remained based in Langley Park, Durham. Although there are a Fiddler and two Halls commemorated on the WW1 war memorial in Conisbrough (which did give me a tingle when I first spotted them), they are not related. My family were still in Durham during the First World War.

My fiche reader!

Because I have been at this family history lark for a very long time I have my own fiche reader (a Christmas present from the OH many years ago) and thanks to a relative (my second cousin's husband JB) I also have a copy of the burial registers for Conisbrough Cemetery on fiche from 1900 to 1951 (the postmark on the envelope they arrived in is November 1999!).

I must have looked up John Edward and Mary Hall's burials back then as the dates are recorded in my family tree, however the detail of the grave plot references was not. I can only imagine that this was because 1999 was a long time before I was using Family Historianon my computer and I hadn't been able to include grave plot references in my early basic family history computer program.

So I had to get the fiche reader plugged in and do some old fashioned looking up before the OH and I set out for Conisbrough. John Edward Hall died in 1929 and Mary in 1950, both are buried in plot F 290. William Davies, the husband of their eldest surviving daughter Elizabeth Jane, died in 1944, and Elizabeth herself in 1959 (I couldn't look her up as the fiche I have only go up to 1951), and he is buried in plot J 118. There could be other family members buried in Conisbrough, but I have done very little work on this part of my family tree for many, many years.

Photo of Cemetery plan (January 2017)

Being an efficient sort of person I printed off a list of all the CWGC burials in the cemetery and added the information for my relatives at the bottom. I added a photo of the cemetery plan found on the 'Find a Grave' site and we headed out.

The first thing that we discovered on arrival was that the plan I had printed was out of date! There was a nice new plaque on the front of the cemetery chapel, see right. Happily it did not affect our searches, but it is useful to know that the cemetery has been extended, that strip on the left A-D Ext was not on the photo I had.

We began to look for F 290, my great grandparents, and found that many of the gravestones did not have a number on them. The stone masons had been very efficient in adding their own name and details (advertising!), but had not included a plot number reference like I've seen in many other cemeteries. Happily some of the more modern stones DID have numbers and, I expect partly due to the current popularity of family history, there were modern stones dotted around amongst the older plots. The burial plots numbering was odd too, instead of running from one grave to the one along side, the way you would walk along a row, in Conisbrough they run from one grave to the one at its foot and so on. Which did confuse us for a while. A helpful dog walker referred us to the side of the house at the cemetery gates which we had driven right past where there was a huge plan of the burial plots on the wall facing the road. We couldn't get a photo of that as it was in a glass case which had a lot of condensation on the inside and in the shade too. Maybe we can visit again in the summer?

Paying my respects at plot F 290, the red clipboard marks the plot

With the help of the plan we were able to find the plots for my great grandparents and my great uncle (and his wife I expect). Sadly they were both just grass, but I said'hello' all the same. It's odd that I've been in Yorkshire since 1979 and have only just been to visit members of my own family ... but I didn't know they were there until I had a family and a job to keep me occupied!

CWGC gravestones for Lifsey, Sewell and Rowe

The 17 CWGC burials were easier to find in the main as the stones have a distinctive colour and shape which you can usually spot at some distance across a cemetery. The winter sun caused the OH a few problems taking the photos until we worked out where I could stand to cast a useful shadow. A dark photo is easier to brighten up when you get home than a one with a glare right across it. Someone had placed wooden crosses with regimental badges at most of the stones we found, some had poppies and cards from relatives which was very touching. I guess that is the advantage of looking around a cemetery just a few weeks after Remembrance Sunday.

Fallen gravestone & tree

The only problem we had was with one WW1 chap whose grave has apparently been overtaken by a huge tree (see left) - the little wooden cross at the head of the fallen stone suggested our counting of the plots was correct.

This should be the resting place of Gunner Leonard Hinchliffe. According to the additional documents on the CWGC site Gunner Hinchliffe never had a CWGC gravestone, instead his plot was marked with a P.M. (private memorial). I wonder if there are any schemes whereby his grave, as the recognised burial place of a soldier, could be rescued?

It was a lovely afternoon out, cold and frosty and a bit slippery underfoot as the sun got lower, but we mainly achieved what we had set out to do. We found my relatives and photographed the CWGC stones.

We rounded off the visit by calling to see the Conisbrough War Memorial, but it was getting darker and we did not take any photos. You can find a list of the men on this memorial and the one at nearby Denaby Main online at the site for the Conisbrough and Denaby Main Local History group. There are some good pictures of the Conisbrough war memorial on War Memorials Online. Detailed information about the WW2 men remembered can be found on the Doncaster War Memorials site (which has sister sites covering Barnsley, Sheffield and Rotherham in WW2).

Today I have been adding the photos to Lives of the First World War (and tweeting about the men). I have grouped the men into a new Conisbrough and Denaby Main community to make it easy to find them again.

Thanks for reading.

The OH and I happily confess to liking Strictly, in fact my birthday treat in a couple of weeks is the live show in Sheffield, but we don't watch The Choir or any other reality shows. However when hundreds of local people were inspired to dance through our town last summer it wasn't something we were going to miss. BBC2 showed the first episode of 'Our Dancing Town' last night and Twitter exploded about it locally this morning. We watched on catch up tonight (Ok, I had sneaked an earlier view this afternoon while the OH was at work, and I teared up both times).

Look to the left of the presenter's paper, see the poppy cross!

The whole thing started off well for us when the OH spotted our Battle of Jutland tribute on the steps of Barnsley War Memorial in the establishing shots. The OH had laid a poppy cross for me with attached list of names of Barnsley men lost at the end of May 2016, the 100th anniversary of the battle. It managed to stay on the memorial well into July despite getting very wet and the ink running eventually.

We really enjoyed the whole programme, but I wasn't able to find many reviews or much background information online. I do so like knowing what I'm watching! It was fun spotting the 'Full Monty' like cuts from one part of Barnsley to somewhere miles away as well. For example Nick from Woody's chip shop was in town one minute and up in Monk Bretton the next, admittedly behind another branch of his family's firm. Dave Cherry managed to whisk Steve Elias, the presenter, from Worsbrough Bank End to Barnsley Main quite quickly too!

Idid some screen shots off iPlayer later after much Googling trying to find out who the various groups were. I wasn't hugely successful I'm afraid but maybe people can add comments to this post and tell me!

Symbolic handshake by Glassworker and Miner

The actual performance began with the Old Silkstone Brass Band playing in front of the war memorial outside Barnsley Town Hall. The Barnsley coat of arms has a miner and a glassblower as the supporters, so the above handshake represents that. I guess finding a living linen weaver would have been a bit more difficult, a trade also represented on the shield of the coat of arms by shuttles from the looms.

The tableau in front of the Town Hall

I do think the view of our Town Hall and War Memorial looking up Regent Street is quite perfectly formed!

Rebel, Rebel

The young man from the RMC Theatre Company, Danny, was superb. The police were great sports too, joining in and allowing the whole thing to take over several streets that day. It was surprisingly difficult to find out who the theatre group were, but the sponsorship from Danny's father's firm MAS Staffing visible on the polo shirts and some comments on their Twitter account helped me out. None of my attempts at screen shots do credit to the next bit of the dance featuring RMC ... I do recommend you watch it on YouTube.

Halfway down Regent Street another group join in

I don't know who these youngsters in blue were. Were they the ones rehearsing in the Lamproom Theatre earlier in the programme? Then we had the ballroom dancers and baton twirling ladies, neither group featured in the main programme so again I have no clue who they are. At the bottom of Regent Street lots of ladies in brightly coloured t-shirts joined in, maybe the ballet dancers? Behind them I could just see a kicking chorus line too. Who knows?

Must mention the Sword Dancers (Barnsley Longsword) too!

Including the elderly couple from the Barnsley Independent Alzheimer's and Dementia Support group was more special to me for the gentleman than his wife Joan the tap dancing lady, great fun though she was throughout. He reminded me of our visit to Beamish in May when the OH"s mum and I happily joined in some singing for people with dementia in the old Silver Band Hall. It was great fun and wonderful to see everyone having a good time.

Next we got the rugby ladies, with some New Zealand haka style stomping, very powerful. I wonder if they were the only sports team in Barnsley who responded? Go ladies! Then they passed, literally, to ...

Nick from Woody's chip shop and the Line Dancers

I think Nick from the chippy was my favourite. He was trying so hard, and he did look really happy as he was getting better at the routine in the practice. The screen shot above just catches the Line Dancing ladies coming in. Despite being in from the beginning and being shown practicing a lot their actual dance was hidden when the RMC youngsters came back in just after this.

Some brilliant moves!

The combination of Nick and the RMC troupe was fantastic. Maybe he could join up with them for some more relaxed dancing experience, he's got the skills, he just needs a bit of Danny's confidence to brush off on him!

Love the scooters and the acrobatics

I remember some lads at my school being into Northern Soul in the 70s. Giving my age away here! I am in awe of the athletic ability of the chap in the white t-shirt and blue jeans. That lady in orange at the front was bounding about impressively too. There was a bit of a gap between the Soulies and the Brass Band around the corner by the new market hall, and not being a football fan I didn't snip Toby Tyke.

Our new market hall being built on the left, note the half demolished bridge above

Loved it as RMC, Nick and the soulies pelted past the band to get into position in front of the bus station though. Everyone together now and Joan got her lift from the body builders as the camera swung upward into a huge overhead shot.

Over 250 people took part apparently

That was great fun. I wish I'd known about it when they were doing it. Oh and Barnsley Archives staff Michael and Gill appeared in a meeting earlier on, but no dancing Archive assistants materialised I'm afraid!

I'll add some more links to this post as I identify more of the groups involved. Now go and watch the full programme, while it's still on iPlayer. You won't regret it!

It will be obvious from the title of my blog that I live in Barnsley, but you may have wondered why I have a sailing ship on the header as well as an old view of our street. Many of my own ancestors, who were mostly from Sunderland, Newcastle, and parts of Cumbria were involved with ships and sailing in the 19th and early 20th centuries. So when I discovered a new mariner in my extended family yesterday my interest was caught straight away. It may take me more than one blog post to tell this story, so I'll start at the beginning.

I had been contacted by a reader of one of my blog posts who is 'kind of' related to me via marriage. He had sent me some of his family information and hoped that it would be of use to me filling in a few more details about one of my family lines. Back in April 2013 I wrote two posts about the Batemans and the Butterfields who were originally from the Bradford area but who moved up to Durham for a time in the mid 19th century. One man, my 4x great grandfather William Bateman, stayed in Durham but the rest of his family seem to have drifted back to the Bradford and Huddersfield area over the following 20 years.

Family tree snip showing children, their spouses and dates

Draft tree for Sarah Butterfield's children

William's niece, Sarah Butterfield, was born in Bradford in 1836. By the time the family moved up to Durham she already had one illegitimate son, William Henry Butterfield, also born in Bradford, and while living in North Bitchburn, Durham in 1859, she had a second child out of wedlock, John Thomas Butterfield. That makes him my second cousin four times removed. Remember him, he is important for the story of the connection to the new mariner!

Sarah marries a William Fenton a few months later which suggests he could be John Thomas' father, or maybe just a chap who was kind enough to take on two step-sons and a wife of proven fertility. They have at least four more children together (see left) whose birthplaces seem to demonstrate the timeline and direction of Sarah's return to Yorkshire.

Joseph Fenton was born in Crook in Durham (the same place my own grandfather was born in 1905 which isn't surprising as Grandad Hutton was descended from William Bateman) in around 1867. Herbert Enoch Fenton was born on the outskirts of Wakefield in 1870, and the last two children Priscilla and Ernest were born in Gildersome, which lies between Leeds and Bradford.

Oddly the census returns tell a slightly different story. In 1861 Sarah, although listed under her married name of Fenton, is living with her parents in Gildersome! Her two illegitimate sons are listed as the grandsons of Miles Butterfield, the head of the household and Sarah's father. In 1871 Sarah and William Fenton are back together along with William, John, Joseph and Herbert, who are all listed as William's sons. To my surprise the family is in Royston, just a few miles from Barnsley! William Fenton is a coal miner and the two older boys are both 'Labourer in coal mine'. Somewhere along the line Sarah has returned to Durham, met up with William Fenton again and has their eldest son in Crook nearly seven years after their marriage. Then the family move down to Yorkshire together. I double checked on the new GRO online birth indexes which give mother's maiden name right back to the start of registration in 1837, but I can find no children born to the couple (I searched on Fenton, mmn Butterfield from 1858 to 1870) before Joseph in the third quarter of 1866.

I can't imagine what was going on, it seems very strange to marry someone in 1859 and live apart for six or seven years ... maybe Sarah was just visiting her parents in 1861, but if that was the case why no children with William until 1866, it's not as if Sarah had any problem getting pregnant as far as we can tell!

Fenton, Herbert Enoch mmn Butterfield b. Q2 1870 Hemsworth

Herbert Fenton's GRO birth index entry showing mmn Butterfield

Herbert Fenton was registered in the Hemsworth Registration District in 1870, which I expected, as his place of birth generally given as Nostell or Walton in Yorkshire. Priscilla Cassandra Emily (!) is registered in Bramley in 1873, this is the RD which covers Gildersome. Ernest is registered in Wakefield in 1876. I did have to tweek the dates on my family tree once I had confirmed these births as calculating the children's ages from the census returns had given me dates a year or so out.

As I had expected from what I already knew of the Butterfield family I can find no baptisms and only a couple of marriages for any of Sarah's children on Ancestry in the West Yorkshire Parish Records. The Butterfields tended towards Non-Conformity in their worship and few of those vital records are available online yet.

The Fenton family in the 1881 census in Cumberland, from Ancestry

I was even more surprised at the address for the family in the 1881 census, the one with the slightly misleading ages for the children shown above. They are living at Crosby Villas, Crosscannonby, near Cockermouth in Cumberland, which has taken us back to another area from which a branch of my own family originate. This is about 150 miles from their last address in Royston, near Barnsley. William Fenton is still a Coal Miner, it says 'Do' for ditto here and I've cut off the family above, sorry. Sarah's two older sons are no longer living with them.

I knew that William Henry Butterfield had married in 1873 and that by 1881 he had at least two children with Elizabeth (nee Abbott). When I searched for them in the census I found Elizabeth with the children in Gildersome living at the same address as a lady I assume is her widowed mother, Sarah Abbott aged 45. William is not at home and I can't find him in the 1881 census at all. William and Elizabeth don't have another child together until late 1884 in Leeds which does make me a little suspicious, but in 1891 the family is all together again living in Hunslet, just south of Leeds. Sadly following the births of three more children, making eight in total, Elizabeth dies in 1898. The siblings are living together without parents in 1901, with sister Florence as the head of the household. William has vanished again but turns up in 1905 when he is buried at Gildersome alongside his wife.

The widowed Sarah Fenton and family in Morley in 1891, from Ancestry

Meanwhile Sarah Fenton (nee Butterfield) is having her own turn of bad luck as William Fenton dies somewhere between 1881 and 1891. She is living in Morley, near Leeds in 1891 as a widow with her three younger children, Herbert, Priscilla (who is now going by Emily) and Ernest. She has a Grocery and Confectionery shop, maybe at home, 16 Albert Road, and all three children are working and no doubt contributing money to the family income. I do like the idea of a little shop, I guess there might be some way of finding out how long she had the business, maybe from the Electoral Rolls or the rate books. But I'd have to go to Morley to find out which might be a bit far for me these days.

Snip from the 1929 Godfrey map of Grimethorpe

By 1901 Sarah has moved again and here is where she gets really local to me. She and a 12 year old grand-daughter, Ethel Butterfield, one of William Henry's brood, are living at Turners Row in Grimethorpe. This appears to have been next to the Grimethorpe Hotel (sadly now demolished) in the centre of the village. They also have four lodgers living with them, all coal miners, reflecting the new development of the area as collieries were sunk. According to the blurb on the back of my copy of the 1929 Alan Godfrey map of Grimethorpe in 1901 the village was so new that three of the six streets were only known as 'One Street', 'Two Street' and 'Three Street'. The census runs from Joseph Street, past the Post Office and the Grimethorpe Hotel into Turners Row which runs for four pages before turning into Freeman's Square. Maybe someone more local than me can place the address more precisely? By 1929 the village was apparently four times the size and on my map I can see the new estates to the north and south of the area shown above.

Sarah's Fenton children have married by now, but most of the family seems to like to live near her and each other. In 1891 her eldest son Joseph, who married an Irish girl called Rosina in Cumberland in 1888, was living with his wife in Aspatria about five miles from where his parents had lived in 1881. However by 1901 the pair and their five children have moved to Kinsley, just north of Hemsworth, just five miles from his mum in Grimethorpe. Judging by the birthplaces of their children they passed through Morley along the way.

Herbert Enoch Fenton married Sarah Annie in 1900 somewhere in the Dewsbury area and is living on Shaftsbury Terrace in Hemsworth in 1901, half a mile nearer his mum than his brother! Priscilla or Emily married Percy Lumsden in 1893 in Morley in one of the few Church of England ceremonies the family seem to partake in. From the looks of the links on Ancestry Percy and Priscilla emigrate to New Zealand - sadly I only have a UK subscription so I can't look those records up. Finally Ernest who married Jane in Morley in 1898 is living in Manston near Leeds in 1901 but has moved to ... [de de, de duh! 'fanfare'] ... Grimethorpe by 1911!

In the most recent census we can access, 1911, now aged 75, my cousin Sarah, having enjoyed a brief marriage with a gentleman called Edwin Bashforth between October 1901 and his death in the second quarter of 1910, is living with her son Herbert in South Elmsall. He is a Fish and Potato Fryer working on his own account at 207 Dearne Street. He is sufficiently well off to have a domestic servant living in.

Burial record for Sarah Bashforth, formerly Fenton, nee Butterfield

Sarah dies on 25 February 1915 at Westfield Road, Hemsworth aged 78. I was able to find her burial record on the Wakefield Council's brilliant website. It might not be fully indexed but it is completely free!

There must be Fentons still around here who are descended from Sarah and her children. They will be my very distant cousins, what a strange thought! One of Herbert's children, Clement Enoch Fenton, aged seven in the 1911 census, was even born in Cudworth where we now live. It's a very, very small world.

Oh, and if you were wondering what had happened to John Thomas Butterfield, whom we left in 1871 in Royston, you'll have to wait for my next post, this one is quite long enough for now.

Thank you for reading.

I suppose you could say that I have two major hobbies, history and beer. I have been a CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) member since 1992 and I have been researching family history for nearly as long. About four years ago I really started getting interested in the First World War and I have been a supporter of the Barnsley War Memorials Project (BWMP) since it began in early 2014. Their project to index all the war time (August 1914 - March 1919) issues of the Barnsley Chronicle has almost reached a successful conclusion with just a couple of months worth of issues yet to be transcribed. I have contributed a few issues, in between my other WW1 volunteer work for the Imperial War Museum (IWM), mainly because I find indexing a nice calming and yet fascinating job.

Barnsley Chronicle 30 October 1915
with thanks to Barnsley Archives

Today I was looking the 30 October 1915 issue of the Barnsley Chronicle (with thanks to Barnsley Archives for letting the BWMP have access to the digital version) and amongst a gallery of photos of fallen soldiers on the front page I spotted a familiar name. The soldier was a Private Kilner and his picture was very clear.

As the years progress and the numbers of casualties increase the images get smaller and grainier (is that a word?) but in 1915 the newspaper still managed to print nice clear photos - depending on what they had been given by the families I suppose.

There are Kilners from Mapplewell and Smithies in the OH's family tree - a connection by marriage and marriage again admittedly, but I traced them years ago idly wondering if there was a link to the Kilner family of the famous jar. Who, as revealed on 'Who Do You Think You Are?' a few years ago, are related to Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame.

I searched for other mentions of Private Kilner and found that a piece reporting his death was apparently in the previous issue of the newspaper, 23 October 1915. The index the BWMP is creatingis being made available as a printed copy on the open shelves of Barnsley Archives and the Project have also supplied the Archives with a searchable digital version. The index just gives a few words about each entry for a serviceman or woman, but I could see that John William Kilner was from Chapeltown, so probably not a relative of the OH's relatives.

J W Kilner is listed on Chapeltown War Memorial

Having invested a little time in this soldier I didn't want to let him go until I'd found out more about him. There is a really good website for Sheffield Soldiers in WW1 and Sheffield Memorials, so I looked Pte Kilner up on that. Sure enough he is remembered on the memorial in Chapeltown Park. I also looked him up on Lives of the First World War, only to discover that I had already remembered him as a Barnsley connected soldier! He had apparently attended Barnsley Holgate Grammar School and is remembered on the Old Boys memorial which is now in the Cooper Art Gallery in Barnsley.

I have a copy of the recent book, 'Great Sacrifice', about the men and boys remembered on the Grammar School memorial, so I looked up John William Kilner. In 1911 John's father, William Kilner, was the landlord of the White Horse Hotel in Market Place, Chapeltown. Ah, ha! Now there is a pub involved in the story I am getting very interested. The piece from the 23 October issue of the Chronicle has been fully transcribed in the book and William Savage, sanitary inspector of Barnsley, which sounds quite important, is mentioned as the soldier's uncle. So John William was quite connected to Barnsley despite my disappointment in him not being another branch for the OH's family tree.

But is he not?

As it happens there are also Savages in the OH's family. I met his great-uncle by marriage, who is a Savage, at a family gathering and I did some work on his line for him following a lovely chat at that meeting. The Savage family came to Barnsley from Newark in Nottinghamshire, in the early 19th century and set up as Linen weavers. Before long they had expanded into more into the business end of things, becoming warehousemen and linen factors. In 1864 George Savage was the Inspector of Nuisances in Barnsley (what a lovely title!) There is a lot more about the Savage family in a little book by the Barnsley Family History Society called 'Moving Lives'. Once I had completed my calculations it turned out that Pte Kilner was the OH's great-uncle's 3rd cousin once removed!

I have found a photo of the White Horse Hotel in Chapeltown. I have asked for permission to use it on my blog, but in the meantime here is a link to the picture on the Ecclesfield District Archives. If I get permission I might write more about the Kilners and the Savages their links to another pub in the Chapeltown area.

Leaving you on that hopeful note - thanks for reading!

I generally start a blog post with an idea for a story from my family history, my reading or something I've seen on television. I hardly ever have a plan and often I use the process of writing about my family history to help me identify what I know and what I don't know about a family. Those are the posts I tag as 'Research Methods' because I write about the places I have looked, the searches I have done and what I have or haven't found. They do tend to be a bit long and rambling, but I hope you find them useful.

However every now and then I write for an hour or so and realise I haven't told the story I started off with. Rather than continue rambling on I will finish the post saying that a sequel is likely. And I might I nip back to the beginning of the post and edit the introductory paragraph to make more sense, given what I have actually written!

The last post I published was one of those instances - I began to write about Private John William Kilner from Chapeltown and then realised that I needed more time to explain his family.At the end of the that post I mentioned that I had found a picture online of the White Horse Hotel where he and his family lived in Chapeltown. I have now been given permission to use the photo on my blog (my thanks to Christine at the Ecclesfield District Archive for helping me with this).

Railway Bridge, White Horse Hotel and Wagon & Horses pub in Chapeltown Market Place
(photo with permission from the Chapeltown & High Green Archive)

The White Horse Hotel is the low building nearest to the railway bridge. It has the look of railway offices or related buildings, I am not a railway historian, but from its position I imagine it must post date the railway line as it is too close to have been built around. If you are at all familiar with Chapeltown you will know that the Wagon and Horses, the white painted building on the right of the picture above, is now a Wetherspoons pub and is a much larger, probably early 20th century, building. Between that pub and the railway bridge there are modern shop units backing onto ASDA, dating from the 1970s or 80s I guess.

Chapeltown today (from Google Maps)

The market place is now a large busy roundabout and road traffic signs block the view whichever way you look.

The Kilner family have close links to two pubs in the Chapeltown and High Green area. In 1851 the great grandfather of my soldier was a butcher and inn keeper at High Green. William Kilner (b.1806) was listed as a butcher only in 1841 so running a pub was a new business for him. By 1861 the pub is being run by his son James Kilner (b.1833) and it has a name, the White Hart Inn. I found an interesting account in the Sheffield Independent dated 30 March 1861. It seems that William became bankrupt in 1860, but had managed to transfer his property to James some years before the declaration of the bankruptcy. The authorities were taking a very dim view of this and were trying to work out if it had been a legal transfer or not.

1855 map of High Green, Sheffield (from National Library of Scotland)

I was able to find the White Hart Inn on an old map on the National Library of Scotland website. The area is very rural with more housing in Mortomley than High Green.

Sadly a Google search of the area now suggests that housing has covered the place where the White Hart once stood. A photo in the Picture Sheffield collection shows a modern style pub called the White Hart at 101 Wortley Road in the 1970s or 80s.

James Kilner remains at the White Hart Inn in 1871, his children now include William aged 7 (b.1864). William plans to becomes a butcher like his father and grandfather and in 1881 he is living and working as an apprentice with his uncle John Kilner (b.1819) in Wortley. John is the local butcher, grocer, draper and runs the post office, he employes two men and 3 boys, including William.

Family history is a like a jigsaw puzzle, why would William be living with his uncle in 1881, why not learning his trade from his father James in High Green? Well, sadly, James had passed away, aged just 45. I was able to find the index to his Probate record on Ancestry.

"18 November 1878 - The Will of James Kilner late of High Green in the Parish of Ecclesfield in the County of York Licensed Victualler who ided 6 October 1878 at High Green was proved at Wakefield by William Kilner of Wortley in the said County Butcher and Grocer and William Hague of High Green Cordwainer the Executors."

His widow Sarah is still living in High Green in one of a set of sixteen houses called 'Kilners Houses' in the census of 1881. She is living on her own means in 1891 suggesting a pension or investments that are giving her enough to live on.

1894 map of High Green (from National Library of Scotland)

There are also groups listed on the 1881 census in High Green called Darwins Houses, Chambers Houses, Briggs Houses, Bamforths Houses and many more, suggesting a lot of locally funded building had been carried out in the area in the past few years. Many of the houses are lived in by coal miners. We can't see the names of the rows in the map snip above from 1894 but we can see how many more houses there are compared to 1855. If James Kilner had invested in providing houses for the men coming to work in the new mines that would have given the family some financial security and provided Sarah with money to live on after James'early death.

1891 marriage of William Kilner and Mary Savage in Barnsley

On 5 April 1891 William Kilner, the young butcher, last seen living with his uncle in Wortley, marries Mary Savage, daughter of John Savage, Inn Keeper, in St Mary's church in Barnsley. In 1871 John Savage had been the Market Toll Collector in Barnsley, following the family tradition of service to the borough. Oddly in 1891 he is the landlord of the White Hart in High Green!

I haven't a clue (yet!) what is going on in John Savage's life. He is still, apparently, married but not living with his wife. There is a widowed housekeeper and four other servants in the pub including three 'Professional Pianists'. The only family member living with him is his grandson Percival Savage aged 9. Note to self: revisit this family sometime.

So I don't know how William met Mary, maybe when her father took on the White Hart, maybe during the course of his work as a butcher he moved to Barnsley. They both give Doncaster Road in Barnsley as their address, but that could have been the address of a relative (probably that of her brother William Savage the assistant Sanitary Inspector) for the sake of convenience for the marriage.

By 1901 William and Mary Kilner are settled in the White Horse Hotel in Market Place, Chapeltown. They have two children, John William aged 8, who becomes our soldier, and Annie aged 5. There are also two servants in the house. The family are still in the pub in 1911 and as we know, still there in 1915 when John's death is reported in the Barnsley Chronicle (see previous post).

I left this post in draft form for several days, but now I've decided to post it anyway. I think I've answered my own questions about how the Savages and the Kilners interact and the information about the pubs in Chapeltown was interesting, if incidental. My thanks again to the Chapeltown & High Green Archive for permission to use the White Horse Hotel image.

Back to my WW1 soldiers, lots to do and never enough time to do it!

Thanks for reading.

Last night I received an email from a lady who had read some of my blog posts, probably specifically this one about William Lewin that I wrote nearly four years ago. I had known that the OH's great grandmother Edith Alice's first step father had died in 1901 but I had been unable to find out why or where at the time. My correspondent told me that he had drowned in the Tinsley Canal and in her second email she sent a newspaper cutting.

Tuesday 23 April 1901 Yorkshire Telegraph and Star

Henry's address fits with the address I found the family at in the 1901 census, No 10 Court 1, Doncaster Road, Wath on Dearne. Nash Row was the name given to a long street of houses built just south of Manvers Main Colliery No.2 pit between 1868 (when the shaft was first sunk) and 1881 (when apparently 246 people were living there). My information comes from the back of my Manvers Main 1901 Alan Godfrey map. There are a lot more Yorkshire records online now than there were four years ago so I was quickly able to find Henry's burial on 25 April 190 at Wath on Dearne in the Yorkshire Burials on Find My Past. It didn't tell me anything more than the newspaper report had done though I was inspired to search the rest of the FMP records for any other mentions of the Lewin family. Nope, nothing relevant except a marriage I already had.

Minnie Lewin remarries within the year to Albert Green (later George Albert Green) at St Margaret's parish church in Swinton. Her address in March 1902 is 35 Temperance Terrace which is less than two miles away. I already had this certificate having sent for it many years ago (2009) when I was first trying to sort out the problem of Edith Alice and her mum. Now available as part of my FMP subscription!

1911 census snip for the Green Family at 5 Packman Road, West Melton (from Ancestry)

By 1911 Minnie and George Albert Green are at 5 Packman Road in West Melton, about three miles from Swinton in the Barnsley direction. Living with them are Alice Lewin (who is actually Edith Alice Pagett, born before Minnie's marriage to Henry), Ada Lewin (Minnie's only legitimate child with Henry Lewin), Maud Elizabeth (born in the December quarter of 1902 in Swinton), Minnie (birth registered March quarter 1905 in West Melton) and Richard Albert Green (born March quarter 1910 in West Melton). Confusingly George states that they have been married for 15 years, which is a fib, as they only married in 1902! He also declares that they have lost one child, whom I know was George Albert Green, who was born and died in 1907.

I had previously been able to find George and Minnie in the Electoral Rolls in Barnsley after the First World War. They were living at 28 Albion Road, Stairfoot in 1919 and 1930. In the intervening four years the 1939 Register has been released on Find My Past so today I followed them up on that as well. Their address on 29 September 1939 was 8 Lambert Walk, Kendray, Barnsley. George was a Retired Boiler Fireman and both his and and Minnie's birth dates are given, details I hadn't had before.

Minnie died in 1941 and George in 1945 and both are buried in plot E 251 at Ardsley Cemetery. The OH and I once went out there to take a look but sadly there is no headstone marking their grave.

Well, that has nicely tidied up the OH's connection to the Lewin family but in the process I did a lot more digging around to find out more about Henry and his first wife and it was very complicated to say the least. More later!

When I first found Minnie Pagett marrying Henry Lewin in 1898 I probably believed what it said on their marriage certificate.

1898 marriage of Henry and Minnie at Wakefield Cathedral

I added it to the OH's family tree in 2009 after my great break-through which I related in my two posts about his great grandmother Edith Alice, here and here. Henry Lewin is 37 years old and says he is a bachelor, Minnie is 26 years old and says she is a widow. Odd now I look back at it that an older unmarried man would marry a young single mother . My theory was that Minnie said she was a widow to explain the babe in arms that was Edith Alice, no more than two months old at the time.

1891 census for Stanley Common, Derbyshire (thanks to Ancestry)

Since then I have worked out that Henry was fibbing too! He had been married long enough to produce two sons, William and Albert, who are living with him and his first wife Jane in Stanley, Derbyshire in 1891. This means that when Henry married Minnie he had at least two small sons for her to take care of in addition to her own child. That makes more sense actually, I assumed for a long time that Jane had recently passed away in 1898 and that Henry had remarried to obtain a housekeeper and child care. But why did he say he was a bachelor?

Following the email from a Lewin relative the other night I started looking back into Henry's history. As he is not a direct ancestor of the OH this is not something that I had done before. My correspondent noted that Henry and Jane had married in 1887 in Wales ... Oh dear, I had them down as marrying in early 1888 in Nottingham because, as you can see above both say they were born in Hertfordshire and William was not born until late 1888. I had missed the clue that William was born in Wales!

1887 index entry from FreeBMD

So this is the marriage I should have put in the OH's tree. Henry's first wife's surname at the time of this marriage was Symons.

I was able to cross check this using the new online GRO indexes. William James Lewin was born in the September quarter of 1888 in the Neath Registration District and his mother's maiden name was Symons. Great, a match, well done me!

Sadly things do not continue as straightforwardly. Searching using the criteria of surname Lewin and Symons as the mother's maiden name I found a boy, George Henry, born in the Merthyr Tydfil District in Q4 1889 and another, William John, born in the Penzance District in Q2 1891. Umm, probably not both the family I am looking for as they wouldn't have two sons called William. It seems there was another Lewin/Symons marriage in Yarmouth in 1884. I must take that into account.

A child called George Henry Lewin dies in the Pontypool District in Q4 1896 aged 7 years (or possibly months, you have to be careful with the GRO indexes as this can be an error with the transcriptions). But no, FreeBMD concurs, he was 7 years old. So where was he in 1891 when Henry and Jane were in Derbyshire? Staying with grandparents or other relatives maybe. A search of the 1891 census on Ancestry has not turned up any stray 2 year old children called George Lewin, so I am a bit baffled by this.

We also know that Henry and Jane have a 9 month old son in the 1891 census, Albert E Lewin born in Derbyshire in 1890, but I didn't find him in my search with Symons as mother's maiden name.

1890 GRO index entry for Albert E Lewin born in Derbyshire

Ah, here he is. The only record that fits is for Albert Edward Lewin, born Q3 1890 in the Shardlow District, mother's maiden name James! Err .... what, this can't be right. To check this I went back to first principles and looked at the actual images of the pages of the 1887 GRO marriage indexes to make sure there wasn't a misprint in the Volume and Number. But no, both Henry Lewin and Jane Symons are Q3 Pontypridd 11a 597 as FreeBMD states. Two Jane James do get married in Wales that quarter, but neither in Pontypridd.

Does this mean Henry married two girls called Jane? One called Symons and one called James? There is no evidence on FreeBMD that Henry Lewin ever married anyone with the surname James but it could have been her maiden name and Symons was a married name. They then declared Symons for William by mistake and put it right for the rest of the children. Or really bad handwriting! Ok, there are no Jane James born in Hertfordshire in 1867 or thereabouts so the stated birthplace on the 1891 census must have been an enthusiastic ditto mark. There are lots born in Wales, far too many guess which is the right one. I couldn't find a Jane James marrying anyone called Symons.

A selection of Online trees for Henry Lewin

Sometimes when I get really stuck I start looking at other people's family trees on Ancestry. You should never depend on other people's research until you have double checked it for yourself, but a clue or a point in the right direction can often break down a brick wall. There are at least ten uploaded family trees for Henry Lewin born 1861 in Hertfordshire and they all have him marrying Jane James in 1887. How can they all have ignored the evidence of the marriage indexes? And why has no-one sent for the certificate!

Each tree of the trees shown here have Henry marrying Jane James in 1887 and Minnie Paget in 1898. They are all a little confused by Minnie's two Lewin daughters (I'm not surprised) as seen on the 1901 census. Three of the trees show that Henry and Jane have five children scattered across England and each tree shows all their exact birth dates but doesn't give sources for these. So somebody somewhere knows more than they are sharing online. Then suddenly Jane apparently remarries in September 1898 to a Joseph Traunter in Warwickshire and goes off to have more children by him, while Henry is simultaneously getting set up with Minnie in Wakefield. It is impossible to see which of these trees is the original, they are so similar they must have copied each other. I suppose with a slightly shady tree (ha!) like this the family members are probably being cautious about sharing official documents.

So, let's look at the other purported Lewin children:
Eliza born in 1892 in Durham - supported by the GRO which gives us an Eliza Lewin born in Q2 1892 in the Stockton District mmn James
Alice born in 1894 in Nottinghamshire - there's an Alice Lewin born in Basford District in Q4 1894 mmn Symonds according to the GRO.
Arthur born in 1896 Coventry - could be the Arthur born in Tamworth District in Q4 1896 mmn Simonds. Tamworth was on the border with Warwickshire and could have included some parts of Coventry. There is another Arthur born Q1 1896 in the Coventry District but he clearly turns up in 1911 still in Coventry with parents Alfred George Lewin and Margaret.

CWGC gravestone for A Lewin in Pontefract Cemetery
(from an Ancestry Online Tree)

The search for Arthur Lewin born 1896 turned up links to a CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) gravestone picture from Pontefract Cemetery. It gives details a man in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry who died on 12 October 1916 aged 20. You know how I like a WW1 soldier, so I do hope he's related!

That takes me back to the email I got from the OH's distant relative. She mentioned that Albert Edward Lewin was killed at the Somme in 1916. I had not previously taken any notice of Albert (b.1890 in Derbyshire) as he doesn't appear on the 1901 census in Wath on Dearne after Henry is married to Minnie although older brother William does.

Arthur Lewin's CWGC entry

A search of the CWGC index for these two names gives a few clues. Arthur Lewin's entry tells us quite plainly that his mother was Jane Traunter (formerly Lewin) and his father was the late Harry Lewin. This fits with the entries on the online trees which state that Jane Lewin remarried to Joseph Traunter.

Albert Edward Lewin's CWGC entry

Albert Edward's entry is not so helpful. But it does partially confirm what my correspondent said.

Striking out now to try to find out how Jane (Symons or James, later Traunter or Tranter) managed to get herself from Derbyshire to Castleford via another marriage in Warwickshire.

1911 census snip for 18 Wainwright Yard, Castleford (from Ancestry)

In 1911 she is living at 18 Wainwright Yard in Castleford with Arthur Lewin born in Tamworth, Warwickshire in 1896/7 , which fits the CWGC record. She says she is 44 years old, which makes her born in 1867 which tallies with the 1891 census. She was born in Inurthys (?) Glamorgan. She has been married for 13 years, so that agrees with the Online Tree suggestions of 1898. She has had six children to this marriage but only two are still alive. Other children in the household are eighteen year old Eliza Lewin, born in Trimedon, Durham (fits the other children mentioned by the online trees), twelve year old Clara Traunter born in Bedworth, Warwickshire and five year old Walter Traunter, born in Castleford.

I was able to find an entry on FreeBMD for a Jane James marrying Joseph Tranter in Q3 1898 in Foleshill District, which is in Warwickshire and contains Bedworth where Clara was born in Q1 1899.

1901 census snip for 12 Nicholson Street, Castleford (from Ancestry)

Backtracking to 1901, which was quite a task, I found this entry for the O'Riley family. The names and ages of the children and their birth counties fit with the 1911 census, plus we have Albert Edward, born in Derbyshire and Alice born in 1894/5 in Nottinghamshire also present. I had commented that he wasn't with Henry Lewin in 1901 - because he was with his mum in Castleford.

Jane now gives her age as 40 and says she was born in Cardiff, which is in Glamorgan. But who on earth is Michael O'Riley, aged 54 and born in Ireland, to whom she is apparently married? And where has Joseph Tra(u)nter gone? Was this just an alias? The age of the man matches the age of Joseph Traunter at his death in 1928 when he was buried from Paradise Gardens (the name for the workhouse in Pontefract). Jane Traunter is living in an Alms House in 1939 in Micklegate, Pontefract and dies from there in 1945.

Bearing in mind that divorce was really not often possible for working people in the 1890s it seems that both Henry Lewin and Jane Lewin (nee Symons or James) may have been committing bigamy. Note that I say 'may'; if anyone has proof of a different version of this story please, please get in touch. As there are so many Online Trees I assume there are lots of descendants of Henry, Jane, and Joseph who are all trying to resolve these questions.

I became interested in this man's family and his story when I began to add his war memorial gravestone to the Imperial War Museum's War Memorial Register.

Halton family memorial
in Barnsley Cemetery

The family gravestone is unusually elaborate and wordy for Barnsley Cemetery. It seems that Thomas' father Matthew Corri Halton was the mayor of Barnsley from 1892 to 1894 and had been a doctor in the town since 1868, marrying a local girl, Lucy Ann Allen here in 1876.

His section of the inscription reads, "Of Your Charity / Pray For The Soul Of / Lieutenant Surgeon Matthew C.S. Halton / M.D., J.P. / Late mayor of Barnsley / Born June 3rd 1843 / Died March 7th 1899 / R.I.P. / Jesus. Mercy. Mary. Help."

An obituary for Matthew in the British Medical Journal (25 March 1899) explained that he was originally from Mullingar, Ireland and his father had been the organist in the Catholic Cathedral there for fifty years. The family were living in Church Street in Barnsley in the 1881 and 1891 census returns. He died of influenza complicated by pneumonia leaving his wife, Lucy, two sons, Thomas and Patrick and a daughter Mary.

Lucy Halton passed away herself in 1902 from the house in Hopwood Street where she had been living with Thomas and Mary in 1901. Her occupation was given as 'Living on own means' and she left £4,600 when she died.

Her portion of the inscription reads, "Also of Your Charity / Pray for the Repose / of the Soul of / His Beloved Wife / Lucy Ann / Born March 21st 1848 / Died June 4th 1902 / R.I.P. / Jesus. Mercy. Mary. Help."

Patrick had already left home and in 1901 was living with his uncle Michael Halton, who was also a doctor, in Leigh in Lancashire. Patrick's occupation in the census is given as Medical Student. He must not have found this career to his taste as in the 1911 census, after his marriage in 1909 to a Manchester girl Mary McDonnell, his occupation is given as Clerk to a Coal Merchant. The recently married couple don't yet have any children, but lodging with them is Patrick's brother Thomas, now aged 33, a 'Gentleman with private means'. The house at 9 Princess Road South, Moss Side, Manchester had seven rooms and is where Patrick and Mary were still living in December 1915 when he attested, although by then children Patrick (b.Dec 1911) and Mary (b.May 1913) had joined the family. Patrick was not mobilised, probably due to his age (he was 37 years old in 1915) until July 1917 when he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Private, presumably being able to put his earlier medical training to good use. By then he had a third child, Matthew (b.Jan 1916). His records show that he attended some courses of training to be a medical orderly and that he was smart and efficient in this role.

Thomas William Halton's army service records do not appear to have survived, but we know that he initially joined the Lancashire Fusiliers (Service no.30956) and was then transferred to the Labour Corps (Service no.276853). He may have knocked a couple of years off his age when he enlisted as we know he was baptised at the Holy Rood Church in Barnsley in May 1877, yet his Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry states that his age at death in 1918 was only 39 years (suggesting he gave a birth date in 1879).

The inscription on the family gravestone shown above states that Thomas was 'accidentally killed in France April 24th 1918'. Little more can be gleaned from the additional documents on the CWGC site which say that he died of 'accidental injuries'. There is nothing in the Barnsley newspapers about his death, but that is not surprising as he and his brother had been based in Manchester for some years by this time.

However his sister Mary Magdalen Halton had married locally to Harold Henry Dransfield, a Brewer, in August 1910 and was living in Darton in 1911. I am surprised there wasn't a death notice in the local newspaper at least. In 1939 Harold and Mary are living at 22 Paddock Road in Darton and Harold is a retired Moulder of Iron and Steel. They have one son, Richard (b.1911) who is an Engineers General Turner. Mary and Harold die in Darton in 1950 in their 70s within a few days of each other and are buried in the churchyard there.

Patrick Halton pays 6 shillings and 1 penny (or at least agrees to pay, as I understand not everyone was charged) for a personal citation at the foot of Thomas' CWGC gravestone in Guarbecque Churchyard in France. Matching the style of the family stone in Barnsley Cemetery it reads 'R.I.P. Jesus Mercy, Mary Help". By this time Patrick's address was 255 Princess Road, Moss Side, Manchester.

Death Notice from the Manchester Evening News 1 May 1918 (thanks to Find My Past Newspapers)

Patrick must also have put the above death notice in his local newspaper. Although it does confirm that Thomas remained in Manchester up to the time of his enlistment (tallying with his entry on Soldiers Died in the Great War) it still doesn't give any more information about his death. In 1939 Patrick and Mary are still living at the same address in Manchester. Patrick is now a Kitchen Clerk in a Restaurant and his two sons, Patrick and Matthew are both Insurance Agents. His youngest son, Phillip (b.1922) is blanked out in the 1939 Register on Find My Past as he may still be alive. We know that Patrick snr dies in 1942 as he is also buried in the family plot in Barnsley Cemetery.

His inscription reads, "Also Patrick Allen / Dearly beloved husband / of Mary Halton / and son of / Dr Matthew C.S. Halton / born June 23rd 1878 / died Feby 3rd 1942 / Jesus. Mercy. Mary. Help."

Thomas William Halton left a will and his effects amounted to £2551 8s 3d. His executor was an accountant, William Peckett Moulton, who was also named on his entry in the Army Register of Soldiers' Effects.

A Google search of his name gave me a hit on the Derbyshire War Memorials site. Thomas is remembered at Mount St Mary's College in Spinkhill in Derbyshire, which was a Jesuit school in the 19th century. It is about 25 miles from Barnsley so Thomas must have been a boarder. There is no other information about his schooling on the site however.

He does not appear to have ever married and is not noted as having any particular occupation in any census return in which he appears. All in all he's still quite a mystery.

Thomas William Halton on Lives of the First World War
Patrick Allen Halton on Lives of the First World War

On Saturday I was double checking the last few 'Orphans' on the huge list of WW1 casualties the Barnsley War Memorials Project (BWMP) have accumulated over the past three and a bit years against my particular interest, the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website. I am no longer on the Committee of the Project but I couldn't possibly stop researching the men (and women) just yet and I fully support the Project's current campaign to develop and print a Roll of Honour naming all the men by November 2018. Many of the Project volunteers are currently working on trying to solve mystery names on the various war memorials and on other aspects of data checking before compiling the final version of the Roll of Honour.

Orphan names are those of men who were killed in WW1 who were either born in Barnsley or who demonstrably lived here at the time of their enlistment into the armed services but who are not named on any of the 649 war memorials found in the borough.

Harold Peart's SDWG index entry from Ancestry

Many men enlisted in Barnsley from other parts of the county, travelling from Sheffield and Wakefield and even further afield to do so. Soldiers Died in the Great War (SDGW) includes a line to tell you where men enlisted but that doesn't mean that I can take it for granted they actually lived in the borough at the time. Sometimes a line for Residence is included, but for Corporal Harold Peart, above, this has not been shown. Other problems around the SDGW dataset include mis-spelling of Barnsley and the surrounding villages, inclusion of areas such as Woolley and Wath in Barnsley (they were part of Barnsley in the early 1900s but are not any more) and especially for officers, the total lack of useful information!

A report on Harold Peart's death from the Barnsley Chronicle 23 November 1918
with thanks to Barnsley Archives

A search of the local newspapers for mentions of the man can often help. The BWMP have recently completed an index to the Barnsley Chronicle from August 1914 to March 1919 which is available at Barnsley Archives. It makes looking up a name very easy and you can often find multiple mentions of a man and trace their war time career through the newspaper reports. Other local newspapers, the Barnsley Independent and the South Yorkshire Times, are also available at Barnsley Archives on microfilm and other Yorkshire newspapers can be found on the British Newspaper Archive or on Find My Past. Harold Peart's death was reported in the Barnsley Chronicle in late November 1918 and the article helpfully states that the family lived at 3 Newton Street, Barnsley and that Harold had worked locally before his enlistment. As he was only 22 and unmarried I think it is fairly safe to assume that he still lived at home with his parents when he enlisted. The article also gives confirmation of Harold's Military Medal which was noted in the SDGW entry although I could see no reference to this in the Chronicle index for the previous year.

A further check is provided by the 1918 Absent Voters' List, also transcribed by the BWMP and available on the open shelves at Barnsley Archives.

Ward PD No Surname Forenames Street House No Service No Rank Battalion Regiment
West 13P 4010 Peart Harold Newton Street 3 2333 Pte 1/5 Y & L

This confirms that Harold's last known address was the family home at 3 Newton Street.

Newton Street runs off Summer Lane onto Farrar Street and is on the same side of the town centre as Cranbrook Street where I found the Peart family in the 1911 census. At that time Harold's mother Mary Elizabeth was still alive having had eight children, three of whom had died before the census was taken. I can find burials for two of these children in Barnsley Cemetery, Colin in 1910 aged 4 months and Elsie aged 8 months in 1912, both from 48 Cranbrook Street but their mother is not buried with them. The index to burials in Barnsley Cemetery is also available at Barnsley Archives - it is a great place to visit if you are doing your family history, with so many more local resources than are available online! Sadly the grave plots mentioned in the two children's burials appear to be 'pauper graves' as all the burials are around the same dates. FreeBMD tells us that Mary Elizabeth died in 1913 aged just 36. So where is she buried? Harold's father Wilfred did not pass away until 1960 and he is not buried in Barnsley Cemetery either. With a family of young children to support I was not surprised to find him remarrying in 1918, somewhere in the Barnsley area. His second wife, Mary Ann is buried in Barnsley Cemetery in 1937 from 3 Newton Street, aged 70.

When I see a man is not remembered on a Barnsley memorial my next thought is to search the place where he was born. In the case of Harold Peart I was lucky to find a list of names on the Thorpe Hesley war memorial on the Genuki website. A H Peart is included on the list which could be Harold. In an attempt to find some good pictures of the war memorial at the Holy Trinity church in Thorpe Hesley I came across the church's own Flickr account. What a wonderful resource! There were pictures of all kinds of social and religious event in the area going back a number of years including several Remembrance Sunday services. I was intrigued to see that the congregation, including Scouts, Guides and Brownies all paraded through the village on these occasions to another memorial for a second wreath laying. So much so that I got the OH to take me up to Thorpe Hesley yesterday to have a look at the two memorials.

Holy Trinity

The soldier on top of the memorial outside the church reminds me of the one at Dodworth in Barnsley, the detail of his uniform and rifle are quite amazing. And those look like shell cases surrounding the base! H Peart is named on the right hand side of the pillar.

It looks well cared for, although the soldier could do with a little cleaning as he is a bit greenish.

Flanders Court

The second memorial is at Flanders Court, a little housing development higher up in the village. It consists of two stone plaques laid down in a brick paving frame, it is set at a slight incline but sadly the names are already weathering. According to the entry for this memorial on the War Memorial Register there are 212 names listed of men from the village who served in WW1. H Peart MM is named near the foot of the middle column of names. This is a rare and special kind of memorial as most list only the men who lost their lives. A passing resident was able to tell us that the plaques had been saved from the nearby Mechanics' Institute, which, to my surprise, was still standing. She told us that the building could not be demolished as it was listed (which was not substantiated by a search of Rotherham Council's website; the cottages beside it are but not the old Institute) but that the new owners had not wanted the enormous Roll of Honour. (Click on the OH's pictures to see them enlarged.)

Former Mechanics' Institute Thorpe Hesley

In the picture above taken from Thorpe Street, you can see a large centrally positioned stone frame which we guessed had been the original position of the Roll of Honour. It now contains an advertisement for the occupiers of the building. To the left is a gennel (alleyway) leading to the Housing Association development Flanders Court (built in 1988) where the Roll of Honour now lies.

I think that the inclusion of a Military Medal citation on the Roll of Honour strongly suggests that the H Peart listed on this and the church war memorial are the same Harold who lived in Barnsley. There was another H Peart who was awarded the Military Medal, but he survived the war.

The Peart family appear to move from Thorpe Hesley to Barnsley between the the birth of the youngest child shown on the 1911 census, Miriam b.1907 and the birth of Colin in Barnsley in 1909. The three children already lost by 1911 are Eva, b.1904 in Thorpe Hesley, Josiah b.1905 in Thorpe Hesley (both buried in Thorpe Hesley) and Colin b.1909 in Barnsley. Subsequently Elsie b.1911 dies in Barnsley in 1912 and a further child Arthur John is born in 1913 who survives. It could be this last child who contributes to his mother's death. She bore ten children in total between 1896 and 1913.

It seems that despite the move the family still retained ties to Thorpe Hesley as I found the burial of Mary Elizabeth Peart aged 36 recorded in the church there on 1 July 1913. This is undoubtedly Harold's mother. It would be nice to think that she rejoined her two little lost babies there.

Harold, meanwhile, is buried in York Cemetery, Haspres, Northern France in plot D.4. His headstone bears no family citation but probably does record his Military Medal.

Harold Peart's Lives of the First World War page

First published in November 2016 in Barnsley CAMRA's BAR magazine

As part of a project to Remember all of Barnsley’s WW1 servicemen and women last year the Barnsley War Memorials Project transcribed the 1918 Absent Voters’ List which gives the names and military details of over 6,000 men from Barnsley who served in the war, most of whom came home safely. Two thirds of service records from WW1 were destroyed in the blitz in WW2 so this listing is often the only clue we have to these men’s time in the armed forces. A copy of the transcription can be found in Barnsley Archives where you can also view the original document on request. Pubs are not named in the Voters’ List but if on checking the address in the 1911 census the occupation of the residents suggests the pub trade the Tasker Trust website is the next place to call to find a photo of a lost pub.

The Moorhouse brothers, Ben and Henry appear in the Absent Voters’ list at 274 Doncaster Road. Ben is listed as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers and Henry as a Lance Corporal in the 4th Reserve Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Trying to find Ben on the Lives of the First World War website the only match available was a Captain Ben Moorhouse – but checking his Medal Index Card confirmed his home address as above, so he had been promoted quite rapidly. Only men who served abroad have medal cards and nothing could be found for Henry, suggesting he served his time entirely in the UK.

Pinder Oaks Hotel copyright the Tasker Trust

In the 1911 census no. 274 Doncaster Road is named as the Pindar Oaks Hotel, and is the home of the Moorhouse family headed by George Henry Moorhouse, occupation beerhouse keeper, aged 38, married to Sarah, with five surviving children (a baby, Walter, died in 1897 aged just 3 months) living at home along with a niece, a servant girl and a visitor. His son Ben is 16 years old and ‘assisting in the business’, whilst Henry is 14 years old and is an apprentice joiner.

On the Tasker Trust website a search for the pub brings back this picture and a list of occupants covering one hundred years.

The first licensee listed was John Harper in 1872, then Henry Moorhouse took over in 1883. A quick search of local newspapers on the Find My Past website returns a few mentions of Henry at the pub. In September 1883 the York Herald reports that H Moorhouse of the Pinder Oaks Hotel, Measbro’ Dyke, offered £15 in prizes for a Pigeon Flying Leger which was advertised as the largest competition to take place in South Yorkshire for some time. The birds flew from Doncaster Railway Station to their own cotes at Ardsley and Barnsley. Henry advertises a Grocer’s Shop and House to let at Barugh Green in the Barnsley Chronicle in 1885, which could have been the family’s previous home. Henry died in June 1898 aged 66 and is buried in Barnsley Cemetery. The pub passed to his widow Betty and then on her retirement in 1908 to their son George Henry Moorhouse, who had previously been a Pork Butcher at 260 Doncaster Road. Betty dies in 1922 aged 84 and is buried with her husband. In 1929 George Henry and his wife Sarah retire to a nice new semi-detached house in Doncaster and their son Henry Moorhouse jnr, who had been the KOYLI soldier in WW1, takes over the pub very briefly until his death in October 1929 aged just 33. The next name listed on the Tasker site is Elsie Moorhouse, who is Henry jnr’s widow. The pub passes out of the family in 1932 with five more licensees until its closure in 1972.

Top of Portland Street (from Google Maps)

A picture from a similar viewpoint on Google Maps today shows new housing on Portland Street has replaced the pub.

The 49 year tenure of the Moorhouse family at the Pindar Oaks Hotel was not their only connection to the pub trade. Tracing the family backwards through the census returns before their arrival on Doncaster Road I found that they were at the Spencers Arms at Barugh in 1881. Henry Moorhouse snr, born 1833 in Hepworth, nr Holmfirth, is listed as a Beer Seller. Henry and his family were in Barugh at an unnamed establishment in 1871, where he was listed as a Miner and Publican. A newspaper cutting from 1869 mentions Henry Moorhouse applying for a spirit licence for a beerhouse in Ardsley, which was refused, but with a watching brief for the next year. In 1861 they were living at Low Hill, Higham and Henry’s occupation was solely as a Miner. The family appear to have progressed from a modest background and worked their way up by taking on various pub businesses and expanding over the years.

I did wonder why Ben Moorhouse, being the elder son, had not taken over the Pindar Oaks Hotel in 1929 when his father retired. It seems that obtaining a commission in the Royal Engineers during the war changed his life. He had enlisted early in the war, first arriving in France in October 1915. He was commissioned in September 1917 and would have had some special training as a ‘temporary gentleman’ as part of this. After the war he took a B.Eng Degree whilst still living at the Pindar Oaks Hotel.

He married Phyllis Crossland, daughter of the Registrar at Barnsley Cemetery in 1924 giving his occupation as Engineer; his brother Henry had married her sister Elsie in 1920. He had finished his Electrical Engineering degree by 1927 because by then he and Phyllis had moved to a new semi-detached house in Osbaldwick near York. In 1939 he is a Works Manager for a firm of Chocolate and Confectionary Manufacturers in York (maybe Terry’s?). The Moorhouse family’s journey from coal miners to professionals had continued, helped along the way by Ben’s experiences in the First World War. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to take on the family pub!

Two weeks ago the OH and I called in at the cemetery on Haugh Road, Rawmarsh. It is a bit out of our local area, but we were on the way back from the Parkgate Shopping precinct in Rotherham, and I can't resist some WW1 gravestone potential! Little were we to know that just a short while afterwards I would be taken very ill and spend the next few days in and out of hospital.

It is only now that I've finally been able to concentrate enough to start processing the pictures we took that afternoon, and I can still only use my tablet in short bursts. I haven't turned my laptop on to do research yet. Happily the temptation of these photos is helping me overcome some of my tiredness, and hopefully I'm now on the mend.

Fergus Law's grave at Rawmarsh Cemetery

This is the CWGC gravestone of Fergus Law, born 1883 in Barnsley, died of wounds in May 1917 in a military hospital in Epsom, Surrey. Follow the link to his page on the IWM site Lives of the First World War where you will find a photo of Fergus from the Barnsley Chronicle (with thanks to Barnsley Archives). He was a Private in the 2nd/5th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment, one of the Territorial battalions.

The family citation at the foot of the stone reads, "Some Time We'll Understand." I must confess it made me tear up a little at the time to read that sentiment. Yes, I expect the loss of a loved one in his prime is very difficult to come to terms with. Fergus would have been around 34 years old, although the CWGC have his age as 39 for some reason.

But who requested that message?

Citation instructions and contact details - CWGC website

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) recently added sone additional documents to their site which give more information on the graves and gravestones listed. On Fergus Law's page the document above tells us that his citation was billed to a Mrs F Smith of Upper Haugh, Rawmarsh. As I understand it despite a request for payment at three and a half pence per letter and space, six shillings and five pence in this case, families and/or next of kin were not obliged to pay if they could not afford it.

1911 census for 60 Upper Haugh, Rawmarsh (from Ancestry.co.uk)

In 1911 Fergus Law was a lodger in the Smith household at 60 Upper Haugh, Rawmarsh. He is a 27 year old Iron Moulder. None of the detail of the Smith family suggests a kin connection, so I can only assume he was a genuine, unrelated lodger. He must have had a very good impression of the family for Mrs Smith to be his named sole legatee. This is confirmed on the Army Register of Soldiers' Effects which can be seen on Ancestry. In the report of his death in the Barnsley Chronicle on 30 June 1917 it notes that he had worked at the Low Stubbin Colliery in Rawmarsh before enlisting. His entry in Soldiers Died in the Great War tell us that he enlisted in Rotherham.

Fergus was born in Barnsley, probably on Waltham Street off Sheffield Road in the autumn of 1883. His parents were Fergus Law (b.1841) and his wife Sarah Ann (nee Tingle, b.1850). They had married on 4 September 1871 at St John's church in the Barebones area of Barnsley. There were seven children born to the couple, two of whom died before the 1911 census (I have identified one as Fred Law who died aged 18 months in 1877) and all three of their surviving sons served in the Great War. Fergus, as we know, died of wounds in May 1917, Walter, who served in the KOYLI, was killed in action in December 1917 and Arthur, who served with the Royal Engineers, survived the war. Both Walter and Arthur had Fergus as a middle name which does make for some confusion in their records! In addition both Fergus and Walter have O'Connor as a middle name.

Baptism in the St Peter's District of St Mary's Church, Barnsley 3rd February1884 (from Ancestry.co.uk)

Feargus O'Connor (1794-1855) was an Irish Chartist, who led a movement to try to provide smallholdings for the working classes. His name was obviously well known to the Law family for them to give it or part of it to their sons.

Fergus and Walter Law are both remembered on the additional name panel below the main war memorial in St Peter's Church on Doncaster Road in Barnsley. These names were added in November 1921 after the main memorial was dedicated in June of that year.

Fergus Law senior had predeceased his sons in October 1914 and is buried in plot R 222 in Barnsley Cemetery. His widow Sarah, still living on Waltham Street, died in 1922 and is buried in the same plot. This makes me wonder why Fergus jnr was buried in Rawmarsh, not in the family plot in Barnsley? Brother Arthur died in 1946 and was also buried in R 222.

Walter Law had married Bertha Dewsnap in 1910 and when he left her a widow in 1917 she had four children. One of the Law daughters, Eva, also married and had at least eight children with her husband William Walton. So there are probably Law descendants in Barnsley today. I wonder if they know about their WW1 ancestors?

Some days I tend to 'go off down a rabbit hole' in my WW1 soldiers research. That's what one of my colleagues on the Remote Volunteers team for the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website calls it when we get distracted by a particular man or woman and spend hours on them instead of getting on with our standard work.

At the moment I am fluctuating between Tweeting a few details of each Barnsley connected man who fell during the Battle of Third Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele, on the 100th anniversary of the day they died, and trying to research a batch of men buried in France between 31 July 1917 and 2 November 1917 to see if any of them might have been wounded in Belgium, but transported to a hospital in France before they died.

The Passchendaele at Home project is a similar initiative. They are asking schools and community groups to look for men buried in the UK who were wounded at 3rd Ypres. I have checked 15 Barnsley men who might have fulfilled these criteria, but only one seems to fit. He is buried at Darfield, so I have passed his name onto the Friends of Darfield Churchyard who are going to take up the research and hopefully carry out some form of commemoration on the 100th anniversary of his death in September this year.

So far, out of my list of 44 Barnsley men buried in France I have ruled out 16. It is a complicated process requiring you to find out where his battalion was serving when he was wounded. The Long, Long Trail website is particularly useful for this as it lists which Division a battalion was in at any particular time and then you can cross reference that with the battles in which each Division was involved.

Yesterday morning I started work on Private Arthur Walton 13/671 in the 2nd Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment at his death in France on 8 September 1917. He is buried in St Patrick's Cemetery at Loos. We think he is the man remembered on the Roll of Honour at the Wesleyan Methodist Church at Stairfoot, Barnsley and on the WW1 memorial plaque in Christ Church, Ardsley. The date given on the RoH is one day out (September 9th 1917), but the Battalion fits and he is the only Arthur Walton in the Y&L to die any time around September 1917.

Enlarged snip from the Stairfoot Wesleyan Methodist RoH

In addition I have discovered that Spence Walton, named below Arthur on the RoH, did definitely live at 24 Industry Road, Stairfoot in 1915. He is named in the Electoral Register at that address. Industry Road is immediately adjacent to the Wesleyan Chapel on old maps of the area. Spence also served in the York and Lancaster Regiment, Private 3/3864 in the 8th Battalion at the time his medals were awarded, which tallies with the detail on the RoH, although he seems to have become a Lance Corporal. I assume Spence asked for Arthur's name to be included on the RoH.

Arthur Walton's Service Records have not survived, but I suspect that he initially enlisted in the 13th Battalion Y&L at Barnsley (Soldiers Died in the Great War says he enlisted at Barnsley) and then was transferred to the 2nd Battalion, possibly after being wounded or sick and having some time away from the front line. The Long, Long Trail website says that the 2nd Battalion Y&L were in the 6th Division and in 1917 the took part in the Battle of Hill 70 (near Loos on 15th to 25th August 1917) and the Cambrai operations (20th November 1917 to 30th December 1917). Neither of these were part of the Battle of 3rd Ypres in Flanders, and neither took place during the time period in which we are interested so Arthur's death, "By Aerial Torpedo", if you are having trouble reading the rather fuzzy snip above, must have been a random occurrence whilst his battalion was working at or near the front, maybe in support or on transport duties.

Arthur's wife Eliza (nee Fisher) had remarried by the time her details are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Arthur and Eliza had married in Castleford on 26th March 1910 and had one child, John Thomas Walton, aged 7 months, listed in the 1911 census. It seems likely that four other Walton children born in Pontefract with the mother's maiden name Fisher, also belonged to the couple. These were George Arthur Walton b.1912, Martha Ann Walton b.1913, Arthur Walton b.1914 and David Walton b.1916. As Eliza was left a widow with up to four small children it is no surprise to me that she remarried so quickly. She and Joseph Garforth married in Q4 1918 in the Pontefract Registration District.

The location of Hill 70 does fit with Arthur being buried at Loos in September 1917. So not a Passchendaele man then. Tick him off the list and move on.

Well, that was the plan, but along the way I had become quite involved in finding out about Spence Walton and his connection to Barnsley.

The older generation of the Walton family were living in Castleford in the 1891 and 1901 census returns. Harry Walton (of full age) and Annie Wright (aged 17), had married on 12th April 1879 at Drax Parish Church in the Selby Registration District. Their first child Spence, was born in the same Quarter, also in Selby RD. He was baptised on 6th July (when a birth date of 8th June is noted) at Carlton near Selby. So a bit of a hurried marriage then!

Snip of the 1901 census for Harry Walton's family in Castleford

By 1901 Harry and Annie have 8 children living with them at 26 Chapel Street in Castleford. Harry is a Colliery Surface Man, eldest son Spence, aged 21, is a Coal Miner Hewer and Arthur, aged 14, has no occupation declared. There must have been great changes for the family over the next ten years as in the 1911 census Harry Walton is a widower declaring he is the uncle of the householder, Robert Wright, at 2 St Michael's Place, Rotherham. A relative of his wife's maybe? Harry only has one child living with him, his second youngest daughter Martha, now aged 18.

I have found a possible death for an Annie Walton, in 1905 in Castleford but her age at death is out by two years compared to the ages given on the census returns for Harry's wife. A final child to the couple may have been born and died aged 8 months as I have found the burial record for a Harry Walton in Castleford New Cemetery (while I was looking for Annie) in MQ 1902 which tallies with the birth of a child of the same name, with mother's maiden name Wright in Q3 1901. Having had at least nine children (and there may have been more who died young) it is not surprising that Annie was only in her 40s when she died.

Hopefully Annie was able to enjoy the marriage of her eldest son in 1901.

Spence Walton had married Emma Caroline Legg on 12 May 1901 in Castleford. In the 1911 census they are living at 4 Granville Street, Cutsyke, Castleford and despite being married 10 years only declare one child, a daughter, Emily who appears to have been born BEFORE their marriage as she is 13 years old at this point. The birth place of Emma and her daughter are both Fareham in Hampshire, so maybe Emily is Emma's illegitimate daughter and Spence has adopted her.

I do know that when Emily Beatrice Walton, aged 19, gets married in Darfield Parish Church on Christmas Day 1916 to James E Garner, she declares her father to be Spence Walton, who is at that time "On Active Service". A search of the electoral registers shows that Spence was registered at 34 New Street in Darfield in 1918, when he was listed as an Absent Voter (Naval or Military).

Sadly the Ardsley Cemetery burial registers show that Spence's wife Emma was buried on 26 September 1915 from 24 Industry Road. In the same grave is a 10 month child, Harold Walton, buried on 11 September 1915 from the same address. Had Spence and Emma had a child together at last, only to see him die in infancy? Without finding a birth registration that fits it is impossible to say. The only Harold Walton that is born in the area is an illegitimate child in the Rotherham RD in Q4 1914. Could this be a child of Emily Beatrice Walton who would have been about 17 years old at the time? Also in the grave is a James Spence Garner, aged 23 months, buried from 26 New Street in Darfield in March 1919. This must be a child of Emily and her husband James Garner.

Earlier I used the 1915 Electoral Register earlier to show that Spence Walton was at 24 Industry Road in Stairfoot in 1915. Interestingly at 18 Industry Road in the same year the occupant is a Thomas Walton. Spence and Arthur had a brother Thomas who fell between them in age. Could this be the same man?

A Thomas Walton whose father's name was Harry, married Elizabeth Firth on 25th June 1905 at All Saints Church, in Castleford. In 1911 they living at 10 High Street, High Town, Castleford and have two children, Lillie aged 5 and Harry aged 2. This last seems to confirm that I have the correct family. The census notes that little Harry was born in Rotherham and a search of the Yorkshire Baptisms on Find My Past turned up a record for Harry Walton born 11 June 1908, baptised 5th July, son of Thomas and Elizabeth living at 4 Charles Street. Thomas' occupation was Miner. Unfortunately Barnsley baptisms beyond 1910 are not available online so I cannot check whether three births registered in Barnsley between 1914 and 1920 to surname Walton, mother's maiden name Firth are for this couple, but they do seem to fit especially as the child born in 1914 is named Thomas (for his father?)

Two snips from the 1918 Electoral Register for Darfield (from Ancestry & FMP)

In the 1918 Electoral Register for Darfield on Ancestry I was able to find a Thomas and Elizabeth Walton living at 34 New Street. Previously in a different section of the 1918 Electoral Register, which I had found on Find My Past, I had discovered Spence Walton registered as living at 34 New Street, Darfield and absent from home as a Naval or Military voter. (I am assuming the MN instead of the usual NM is a typo as I can find no mention of that abbreviation at the start of the volume.) So the two brothers Walton appear to be living at the same address in Darfield in 1918, or at least Spence is registered to the address at which his brother lives. Bearing in mind that his wife had passed away in 1915 and that his only child had married in 1916, maybe Spence had no particular home address of his own by then.

So, to conclude, this rabbit hole was very deep and it took me most of yesterday to dig myself out of it! Arthur Walton somehow made his way from Castleford to Barnsley where we know at least one of his brothers (Spence) was living in 1915. The 13th Y&L recruited in Barnsley in the autumn of 1914 but did not go overseas until the end of 1915, arriving in France in April 1916. As Arthur and Eliza appear to have a child born in late 1916 (David b.Q4 1916) that suggests Arthur was at home sometime in early 1916. (Dare I say it? If it was his child - sorry but I have to keep my mind open about these things.) We know Arthur transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Y&L before his death in September 1917; transfers often happened after a period away from the original battalion, usually through wounds or sickness. This could be when Arthur was in England in early 1916. I have shown proof that his brothers Spence and Thomas were both registered in Darfield in 1918, and probably both lived on Industry Road in Stairfoot in 1915. The names for the Stairfoot Wesleyan Roll of Honour were collected in 1917 (first version, see newspaper cutting) and probably updated in 1918 and it includes men who survived the war. It seems reasonable that when approached (or when the family became aware of the appeal for names) either Spence or Thomas may have asked that Arthur be included in the RoH, especially as he enlisted in a Barnsley Battalion, in Barnsley.

Thank you for reading - writing this all out has, as usual, helped me to focus my thoughts on Arthur Walton's life and family and I am pleased that I have discovered a possible reason why he is remembered on two memorials in Barnsley.

This morning I read, with interest, a Guardian item on the difficulties one lady was having with her bank over her use of both maiden and married names.

The Guardian 28 August 2017

My case is slightly different, however my names have caused me some difficulties over the years, and more particularly in the last few weeks.

I am commonly known by my middle name, and have been all my life. Why my parents chose to register my name (and have me baptised) as A. L. and then called me L. is a mystery, my 79 year old mum cannot remember any particular reason for their decision. The only places where I am accustomed to being addressed as A. are hospitals and the Student Loans Company (with whom I have an even more complex name problem at the moment). Even my GP calls me L. by the simple expedient of underlining that name on my notes or more recently by entering my preferred name in a field for that purpose on their computer system.

A few years ago I started to give talks to small church and community groups on local and family history. I used L. (surname) on my leaflets and my blog advertising my talks. I was frequently paid by cheque, and often these cheques had been made out in advance because of difficulties within the group in getting multiple signatories together. This meant that it was difficult to ask for a cheque to be rewritten if it was directed to me as L. (surname) rather than A. (surname). Sadly, due to my progressively worsening health, I can no longer give the talks as I cannot guarantee being well enough on a particular day to fulfill my commitments. I do miss the social interaction and the stimulus of having to prepare new material.

Santander refused to accept cheques written to me as L. (surname) a few years ago, despite my joint bank account with my husband being in my full name and my driving licence, with photo id also displaying my full name. I now pay cheques in my middle name into my individual Post Office account, set up (after some struggle) when I left work due to my ill health and needed an accessible bank near our home. Because the Post Office staff in the little suburb where we live recognise me and accept my explanation for the occasional cheque directed to L. (surname) I have had no problems with these cheques being returned.

I now ask my mum to write cheques to us in my husband's name rather than mine (she has an old fashioned conviction that a man should always appear to pay in restaurants even though it is her intention to remburse us as soon as she gets home) in order to avoid difficulties with Santander. She always calls me L. and writing a cheque to me as A. seems a bit odd and unnecessary to her. I even request that any Christmas gift cheques are addressed to him to avoid the possibility of them being returned. It does make me feel very much like an adjunct to my husband. Which is ironic considering the situation with my surname.

My difficulties with the Student Loans Company revolve around my surname rather than my forenames. I confess that I just let them call me A. It is easier.

In 1985 I married for the first time, in 1992 I divorced and changed my name to my mother's maiden name, carefully chosen to have meaning to me, but to be different to both my maiden and married names. In 2004 I remarried but kept my own name with my second husband's full agreement. One of my reasons for this was that my professional qualification was in my chosen name, and my subsequent Open University study and qualifications were all in that name.

I did have a passport for a period while I was working and could afford to go on holidays abroad, which was obtained in 2002 in my chosen name. I do not remember having any difficulty getting that. I had old passports in my maiden and married names which presumably served to confirm my identity. Unfortunately for me this passport has long expired. Apparently the reason I was able to get Student Finance for my PGCE in 2011 without any difficulty (I was trying to retrain as an IT teacher to the elderly, a job that might have allowed me to continue working part-time) was because my passport was then still in date,

This year's application for Student Finance to do a Distance Learning MA in the History of Britain and the First World War with the University of Wolverhampton, has been rejected because I no longer have a valid passport. I have provided my birth certificate and my statutory declaration (my name change document from 1992), but now they want my marriage certificate from 1985 as well. They do not care a fig that I am married to an entirely different man now as I did not take his name. A suitably qualified friend has filled out the necessary form to confirm I am who my birth certificate says I am, but this is apparently not enough.

I was told, during a long phone call (whilst being addressed as A.), that they need me to prove the link between my birth name and my first married name. This, despite me having the same account with them as I had when I first applied for Student Finance during my Radiography training (1990-1993) under my first married name, and having shown both my birth certificate and marriage certificate to the admin staff at the then North Trent School of Radiography (which, ironically changed its name twice whilst I was there, firstly to the Sheffield City Polytechnic and then to the Sheffield Hallam University!) From the dates I give you can deduce that I divorced and chose my current name whilst undertaking that study, and having informed all the necessary authorities my final certificate was issued in my chosen name. The same one I now have and retained on my second marriage to avoid difficulties!

The Student Finance people can apparently see that I had a passport in 2011, that I was called by a different name when I first registered with them in 1990, and that I have now produced my birth certificate to them on at least three separate occasions. I have also supported both my children's applications to them for their respective university study, using the same account reference. This will have involved providing them with financial information and details of my employment.

I have sent away for a copy of my 1985 marriage certificate, which has cost me £9.25. It will not arrive in the post for another week. Then I have to send it to the Student Finance people and wait goodness knows how long for them to cogitate on it.

Names. Do we own them? Even if we choose them ourselves in order to demonstrate a break with the past they still come with all the baggage of our previous history. Why is a passport so superior a document for proving who you are? I have had my photo id driving licence for many years and that is accepted as final by most institutions. But not the Student Finance people of course.

I don't write blog posts very often these days, but this situation has me very annoyed. This post will serve as a record of the situation that I can look back on in years to come and laugh. Well, I can always hope.

Thank you for reading, I welcome comments, but I do moderate them to avoid spam so they might take a day or so to appear.

For the last month I have been attempting to Tweet links to the Imperial War Museum's website, the Lives of the First World War along with appropriate photos of the men or of memorials where they are Remembered, for each of the 221 Barnsley men who lost their lives in the Battles of Third Ypres. I am hoping to Tweet most of the names on the 100th anniversary of the day the individual man fell. Although the whole campaign is now often called Passchendaele that name actually specifically refers to two battles towards the end of the period covered. For more information I suggest you go to the Long, Long Trail website's very comprehensive page on the Battles.

Community Page on Lives of The First World War

I have created a Community on Lives to gather together all these men's stories. As a past volunteer for the Barnsley War Memorials Project I have access to their constantly updated master spreadsheet, which will be the basis for the forthcoming WW1 Roll of Honour. This provided me with the names, regiments and service numbers of the 221 men who fell or were assumed to have fallen between 31 July 1917 and 10 November 1917.

The Barnsley War Memorials Project are also very fortunate to have been given privileged access to the Barnsley Chronicle from August 1914 to the end of 1918 as part of their mini-project to index all mentions of soldiers in the newspapers. This project has now been completed thanks to the efforts of over a dozen volunteers from all over South Yorkshire. The resulting index is available at Barnsley Archives, in both paper format and as a series of searchable spreadsheets. Permission was also given for photos of the men from the Barnsley Chronicle and the other local newspapers with Barnsley coverage to be used in the Roll of Honour project and on Lives of the First World War. Transcripts of some obituaries and death notices can also be found on Lives, but if you want the images of those for your ancestors you will need to visit Barnsley Archives yourself (please do, they need our support to keep operating the hours they are currently open) and search the index for the reference before printing out your own image from the digital copies of the Barnsley Chronicle. Only 55p an A4 sheet last time I visited, a bargain!

The Barnsley Independent and South Yorkshire Times are also available, on microfilm and un-indexed I'm afraid, but if you know the date of death of your WW1 ancestor it is relatively easy to go to the right part of the newspapers to do a search. If you check the Chronicle index first you may get an idea of when news of your ancestor's death reached Barnsley. It could sometimes takes months for the families to be informed that a man was now officially presumed dead, rather than missing. Copies of articles from these newspapers can also be printed out.

Map of the Battle of Poelcapelle (from the FFFAIF blog)

The Battle of Poelcapelle

I has shocked to find that out of the 221 Barnsley connected men who fell during the Battles of Third Ypres 46 of them were lost on one day, 9 October 1917. This was the Battle of Poelcapelle. You can find a detailed description on Wikipedia. It was the classic attack through heavy mud, with too little artillery support to create an effective creeping barrage which in any case soon became too fast for the advancing soldiers to keep up with.

The majority of Barnsley's soldiers in this Battle were from the 1st/4th, 1st/5th and 6th Battalions of the York and Lancaster Regiment, who were in the 49th (West Riding) Division, II Anzac Corps and the 11th (Northern) Division, XVIII Corps. In the map above you can see these two Corps are in the centre of the advance. Ten of the fallen were in the 1st/5th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment who were also in the 49th (West Riding) Division.

Tyne Cot Memorial from the CWGC

All but three of the 46 of the Barnsley men lost on 9 October 1917 are remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial. This means that they have no known grave. Two of the exceptions, who were each buried in cemeteries behind the British lines, are noted as having died of wounds, suggesting they had been injured prior to the 9th and did not take part in this particular battle. The remains of the third man, John Costello, were found after the war, identified by his disc, and reburied in Cement House Cemetery near Langemarck along with a number of unidentified men found nearby.

The OH and I visited Tyne Cot in 2009. The long memorial wall sweeps around the top of the site and commemorates nearly 35,000 men who fell in the Ypres salient after 17 August 1917. Men who fell prior to this date are remembered on the Menin Gate.

I hope I will at least be able to add some family detail, plus photos and transcriptions from the Barnsley Chronicle where available, to each of these 46 men before the centenary of their deaths in October. However it is unlikely that I will be able to Tweet them all individually on the day as I would have wished, there are just too many. But I will share my list and with the information on that anyone can look up their stories on Lives of the First World War and their commemorative information on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

The IWM website - Lives of the First World War

Did your WW1 ancestor serve in any of the Battalions I have mentioned? Why not look them up on Lives of the First World War and add your family stories and photos to the site.It is absolutely free to use to add this kind of thing, the paywall only comes into play if you want to search the records they have made available, and if you have a subscription to Ancestry or Find My Past you probably have access to these already or you could access them for free in Barnsley (Ancestry) and Sheffield (Find My Past) libraries. It is not just men who were killed who are Remembered on Lives, anyone who was affected by the war may already be included. If your soldier, sailor, airman, nurse, munitions worker or civilian casualty or other WW1 ancestor is not yet named on the site you can ask for them to be added by submitting a request to the Support Forum.

Lest We Forget.

Barnsley Chronicle Friday 13th October 2017

Last Friday the new Barnsley East MP Stephanie Peacock wrote in our local newspaper, the Barnsley Chronicle, that she was adding her name to the list of people calling for the rollout of Universal credit to be halted. I hadn't realised until then that it had being rolled out here, being lucky enough to have a husband earning a living wage. But this morning I saw a horrendous tweet from a local parish councillor referring to the benefit. It seems that people must apply online, and at the end of that process (which took the councillor one hour and 25 minutes to complete on behalf of his non IT literate local resident) the person claiming has to ring a Premium rate phone number, up to 45p a minute, to book an appointment.

What planet are the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) living on?

I am aware, from my own experiences in Barnsley helping with Adult Education IT classes, that a substantial portion of the population are unable to use a computer even if they were able to access one. I taught a range of people from young unemployed and women in their 30s who had a poor educational background to elderly pensioners who wanted to learn so they could keep in touch with family by email or Skype. Most of these classes now attract a high fee, only the very basic short course 'Computing for the Terrified' is still free to people on certain benefits. Even pensioners have to pay part or all of the fees for Adult Education classes following Council funding cuts a few years ago.

I am 56 years old and learned to use a PC when my children started school in the 90s. But that was with the help of friends and word processing classes at Sheffield College, happily free to an aspiring young single mum on benefits. I still don't have one of those fantastical mobile phones, although I am writing this on a tablet computer connected to our wi-fi whilst lying in bed (the last few days I have been in a lot of pain, causing disturbed sleep and a higher than usual intake of painkillers). A significant number of people who attended school before the use of computers was widespread, let's say ANYONE OVER 40, will have no idea how to use one.

Another few examples - I occasionally attend a local history group at Cudworth 'Resource Centre'. Or Library to the rest of us! The members of the group are mostly very elderly yet motivated, so a self-selected group of people more likely than others their age to try new things. They attend regularly for a chat and a cup of tea. Only three or four of the fifteen regular attendees ever use the group's desktop PC. After a lot of initial teething problems with the new Council wi-fi, which requires use of a mobile phone to get a code to log in, they manage to log the PC onto the web most weeks. A straw poll around the table earlier this year showed that about half the members had a mobile phone (but some of those did not carry them about) with a few having a tablet and wi-fi at home, usually set up for them by concerned children or grandchildren. The rest had no interest in modern technology, in fact some were vehemently opposed to its use. These people will, therefore, always require help to access online facilities.

Recently a drop in day was advertised at the Library (Resource Centre pah!) for people wanting to learn more about Council online services. I turned up and found no actual advisors in attendance. I was directed to one of the library PCs to fill out some kind of form! Nearby was one of our Councillors who had also attended expecting to be shown the ropes by a real person. What use would that session have been to most of my history group colleagues? And yet access to many Council services is now only available online. Don't even get me started about ordering a new bin when yours has been stolen! To top it all the Benefits Advice service has just been closed in Cudworth Library! I hope they are not just referring people to Citizens Advice, because they are already swamped with work.

Finally - In order to allow the history group members to participate in a consultation exercise about the Library last year I had to ask the staff for paper forms. These should apparently have been readily available, in fact I had to beg for them from staff who had been told to only hand them out in exceptional circumstances. People were expected to book a session on one of the Library computers and fill in the online questionnaire. If they could have been persuaded to do this, not at all a given, it would have taken me hours (or days!) to coach twelve people to have the skills to answer the questions online. As it was they filled in the forms during the tea break of their normal meeting and then went back to business happy that they had been able to have a say in the consultation.

I know that older people are not (yet) required to apply for Universal Credit, but many of the problems I have described will apply to younger educationally disadvantaged people like those I met whilst helping at the Adult Education classes. Consider too, that to have turned up and enrolled at an IT class requires firstly knowledge of the classes' existence, the confidence to apply and self-motivation to attend, let alone overcoming the cost implications. So those people I met were the tip of the iceberg!

I was inspired to write this post by reading this post on Twitter a couple of hours ago. Kevin is going to keep tabs on this family's claim and see how long it takes them to actally receive a payment.

Posted on Twitter 16 October 2016

It is a disgrace. We need to keep supplying MPs like Steph and councillors like Kevin with more examples of the shambles our benefit systems are in so they can continue to fight for us.

Thank you for reading.

Oaks Colliery Disaster 150th Anniversary - our family connections

Review of our Oaks Colliery Disaster Anniversary experience

WW1 Women's Stories - Margaret Briggs, housemaid, killed at Scarborough 16 December 1914

The Meaning Behind a Beer Name - Double Maxim Beer and my cousin Ernest Vaux

A Series of Unfortunate Accidents - two Blackburns from Barnsley in the Wakefield Coroners' Notebooks

New Year wander around a crispy Conisborough Cemetery

Positive Barnsley - 'Our Dancing Town' BBC2

Sarah Butterfield - discovering my distant cousin lived in Grimethorpe in 1901 !

John William Kilner killed WW1 - Connections to the White Horse Hotel Chapeltown

Over the Boundary - Kilner Family Connections to Pubs in Chapeltown, Sheffield

A New Light on the Lewin family

What Happens to Jane Lewin? Died or Divorced or Something Else?

WW1 Soldier's Story - Thomas William Halton

WW1 Soldier's Story - Harold Peart and the Thorpe Hesley War Memorials

The Moorhouse Family and the Pindar Oaks Hotel

WW1 Soldier's Story - Fergus O'Connor Law Buried at Rawmarsh

World War One Soldiers' Story - Arthur and Spence Walton

When your Name is Not your Name?

Battle of Poelcapelle, 9 October 1917

Universal Credit Rolled Out in Barnsley Reveals Problems with Accessibility