Grace Grover trained as a professional contralto singer. Her life unfolded through a number of dramatic twists and turns through two World Wars from life as a professional singer, a wife and mother, a YMCA officer, army welfare officer and public speaker.
Read MoreLost Fortune to Fortunes Shared
The London to Brighton railway line opened in 1841 bringing many opportunities to the seaside town of Brighton. Many labourers sought work in the town and the London Brighton & South Coast Company became a major employer. William Turner was one such labourer who tragically met his death at Brighton railway terminus.
Read MoreCrossing the Line
Hagar Barnsley Nock was born on 13 November 1901. She lived for three days.
Her story is one of a life cut short due to a tragic and fatal mistake.
Read MoreUnread Words, Unseen Danger
My great grandfather was born with the name Samuel Barnsley Nock but over time used Barnsley as his surname. Where did the name Barnsley Nock come from? It transpired that Barnsley Nock was a name peculiar to certain areas of the Black Country during the 19th and 20th centuries that could be traced back to one marriage in 1801.
Read MoreThe Barnsley Nocks
Elizabeth Newell was born in rural Montgomeryshire into a family that laboured in agriculture and flannel weaving. In her early twenties, she came to Wolverhampton. Three of her brothers followed her and settled in the town. Elizabeth met and married William Beddows, a sawyer of timber. William later established a very successful timber merchants business providing his family with a level of prosperity not experienced by Elizabeth in her childhood.
Read MoreFrom Wales to Wolverhampton
Charged and imprisoned for one month for ‘riot and tumult’, William Haney was a minor player in a huge undocumented event. The election riots of 1874 occurred across the borough of Dudley and Haney's prison sentence revealed an intriguing story of violence, intimidation and hostility as well as contemporary attitudes to the Earl of Dudley and his influence.
Read MoreThe Castle Around Our Necks
Shadrach Edge was born in Stourbridge in 1853. As a young man, he emigrated to Australia. He mined for gold without success but began to buy and sell sheep becoming a wealthy land owner and grazier in Queensland. He claimed a blessing from a Chinese man brought about his change of fortune.
Read MoreA Chinese Blessing
On a winter’s Saturday morning in 1901, the body of a young woman was found in the Stourbridge canal at Bowen’s wharf near Brierley Hill. The search for Lily Kent had been going on for three days.
Read MoreLet Me Be Forgotten Forever
Thomas Jeavons of Dudley was convicted of the crime of stealing stockings at Stafford Assizes in 1821 when he was 20 years old. Sentenced to 7 years' transportation, he arrived in Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land in May 1822.
Read MoreFarewell to Old England Forever
Joseph Hipkiss was a habitual petty thief from around the age of 15. Working on fairs, he travelled around various towns leading a vagrant lifestyle and serving sentences in various prisons. As his crimes became more severe and violent, he was in prison from 1903-1909 and 1912-1914 just before the outbreak of the First World War.
Read MoreA Swarthy Native from Staffordshire
Ralph Edge and his son Samuel ran a stone and earthenware pottery on Brettell Lane next to the Stourbridge Canal near Brierley Hill in the Black Country in the 18th and 19th centuries. Ralph learnt his trade in the Potteries and possibly introduced new methods of pottery making to an area that was rather known for making pots for the glass industry.
Read MorePotters On The Edge
Florence Maud Williams joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service in 1915. Mentioned in despatches in 1918, she served in Rouen, at 64 Casualty Clearing Station during the Third Battle of Ypres, and at 32 Stationary Hospital in Wimereux.
Read MoreFrom Wednesfield to Battlefield