16
Oct
2008
Mary Shaw-Hellier
Mary Shaw Hellier was born on 27 February 1801, the third daughter of James Shaw-Hellier of Wombourne. She was baptized at St Thomas’s Dudley on 21 April 1801. Continue reading →
09
Oct
2008
Edith Ogden
Mary Isabel Edith Ogden was born in Allahabad, India on 23 January 1874. Her mother, Charlotte Edith Ogden (nee Warburton) apparently died in childbirth and her father, serving in the British Infantry in India, had her shipped back to her mother’s uncle Charles Richard Ogden Evans in Wolverhampton. Continue reading →
09
Oct
2008
Wolverhampton Volunteers
The Wolverhampton Rifle Volunteer Corps was set up in 1859 in response to the possibilities of war with France. Henry Evans and his cousin Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier were among the volunteers. Continue reading →
09
Oct
2008
Frances Anne Dimmack
Frances Anne Dimmack was the only surviving child of Edward Bagnall Dimmack, a wealthy iron founder. She was born in Bilston in 1834 and baptised at the Independent church in Oxford Street, Bilston. In 1854, she married Henry John Marten an acquaintance of her father, who was eventually to become his full business partner. In her short life she had seven children before dying at the age of 28, twelve days after giving birth to her youngest child, Frank. Continue reading →
08
Oct
2008
Thomas Bradney Shaw Hellier
Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier was born on 2 Oct 1836 and was effectively the last of the Shaw-Hellier line when he died in Italy on 23 Dec 1910. Continue reading →
06
Oct
2008
Beacon Lodge
Beacon Lodge was owned by the Downing family as a shooting lodge from about 1910 to 1940. It stands in a remote place on the Welsh Borders about two miles west of Llangunllo station. It is now a ruin. The track that now passes by the house is on the Owen Glendower trail and the lodge presents a welcome staging post for walkers following the path. Continue reading →
06
Oct
2008
Elizabeth Jane Treleaven
Elizabeth Jane Treleaven, known as Ginny, was born at 23 Claremont Street in Plymouth in 1854. Her father, George Treleaven, was a Ropemaker in the Royal Navy. Continue reading →
03
Oct
2008
Hannah Pitt Showell
Hannah Pitt Showell was born in Oldbury on 2 Mar 1855. She was the eldest of thirteen children of Walter Showell and his wife Sarah (née Hartill). Her father was a successful brewery owner in the town of Oldbury. Continue reading →
03
Oct
2008
Margaret Sarah Chiswick
Margaret Sarah Chiswick was born in Poplar on 29 Sep 1851 the eldest daughter of Daniel Chiswick and Margaret Lucas. Her father was a cooper, whose family had practised the trade in Bethnal Green for more than a century. Continue reading →
02
Oct
2008
William Edmund Downing
William Edmund Downing was born in Smethwick in 1849 the second son of William Downing and his first wife Emma Clifton. His mother died when he was only 2. Both he and his elder brother, George, went into the family business as Maltsters. Continue reading →
01
Oct
2008
Charles Richard Ogden Evans
Charles Richard Ogden Evans was born in Canada in 1824, the second son of Thomas Evans and Harriet Ogden. Continue reading →
01
Oct
2008
Florence Eliza Marten
Florence Eliza Marten was born on 8 May 1858, the second daughter of Henry John Marten and his first wife Frances Anne Dimmack. She was brought up in the family home at Penn Hall, near Wolverhampton, moving first to Parkfield House, Penn Fields and then to ‘The Birches‘ in Codsall in about 1875. Continue reading →
30
Sep
2008
Henry Edwin Palmer
Henry Edwin Palmer was born on 28 Sep 1858 the youngest son of Charles Palmer, a naval signalman based in Plymouth. At the age of 21 he married Elizabeth Jane Treleaven (Ginny) up in London – even though she too was from Plymouth. Continue reading →
24
Sep
2008
James Shaw-Hellier
James Shaw-Hellier was born in Dudley in 1759 the eldest son of Thomas Shaw, the perpetual curate of Claverley and vicar of St John’s Wolverhampton. In 1786 his father inherited the estates of Sir Samuel Hellier and changed their name to Shaw-Hellier. The family then moved to the Wodehouse in Wombourne. Continue reading →
24
Sep
2008
Richard Evans
Richard Evans was probably born in the Old Bell Inn, Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton in 1768. He was the eldest son of John and Mary Evans. His father died when he was 15 and he was brought up by his mother who continued to run and expand the Inn business. The Wolverhampton Chronicle records in particular the acquisition of the Red Lion Inn. Continue reading →
24
Sep
2008
Pendeford Hall
Pendeford Hall was owned by the Fowler family but was rented by Richard Evans, and then by his son from about 1820-1858. The Wolverhampton Local History site gives a full history of the building. Continue reading →
15
Sep
2008
William Downing, Smethwick Maltster, 1821-1901
William Downing was born on 19 Apr 1821, the eldest surviving son of George and Elizabeth Downing. He took up the family trade of maltster in the West Midlands and was to oversee the expansion of the business from his birth place in Smethwick to take in concerns down the Severn in Gloucester under his sons. Continue reading →
11
Sep
2008
Edward Bagnall Dimmack
Edward Bagnall Dimmack was born in Bilston in 1808 the son of Jeremiah Dimmack and Jane Bagnall. Both his parents’ families had been caught up in the heart of the iron, coal and steel revolution that swept this area of the West Midlands from 1750-1800. Jane Bagnall was descended from a junior line of the wealthy Bagnalls of Broseley. The Dimmacks had worked in the Iron founding industry since its inception. Continue reading →
11
Sep
2008
Robert Giles Marten
Robert Giles Marten was born in 1792, the eldest son of Robert Humphrey Marten. It would be fair to say that he lived his life in the shadow of his father, unfortunately dying three months before him at the age of 47 in 1839. Continue reading →
05
Sep
2008
Wolverhampton Chronicle
Extracts from the paper Continue reading →