Category Brierley Hill

19th Century Working Lives, Australia, Brierley Hill, Crime & Punishment

A Labourer’s Life on 3 Continents

Jonas Bolton was an illiterate labourer born on an area known as the Delph in Brierley Hill in the Black Country at the beginning of the 19th century. He was transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) after stabbing a neighbour in a fight and remarkably returned to his family in England after his sentence was completed. In his 60s, he emigrated with his wife and daughter's family to the United States.

Blog, Brierley Hill, Groves, Jeavons, Round Oak Steel Works, World War 1

The Groves at Round Oak

William Groves was the gate watchman at Round Oak Iron and Steel Works in Brierley Hill for over 50 years and his sons followed their father to work at the company. The Groves family exemplify the extent of the impact that Round Oak had on the local community.

19th Century Working Lives, Askins, Blog, Brierley Hill, Coal Mining, Pratt, Skidmore

Virgins End – When Satan Stood on Brierley Hill

Known locally as the “fold”, Virgins End in Brierley Hill remained an unmade road “of mid-19th century cottages” well into the 20th century. It developed behind South Street Baptist Church after the church was builit in 1854. Many members of my family lived on Virgins End for a number of generations.

Brierley Hill, Crime & Punishment, Dudley, Old Hill, Quarry Bank

The Castle Around Our Necks

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.

19th Century Working Lives, Brierley Hill, Domestic Service, Edge, Kent, Quarry Bank

Let Me Be Forgotten Forever

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.

Amblecote, Brierley Hill, Edge, Pottery, The Potteries

Potters On The Edge

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.

19th Century Working Lives, Amblecote, Brierley Hill, Coal Mining, Crime & Punishment, Skidmore

Killed in a Coal Pit

My great great grandfather's brother, John Skidmore, was just 13 years old when he was killed with four others in a coal mining accident at Clattershall Colliery, located between Stourbridge and Brierley Hill in the Black Country. How did the accident happen? Was anybody held accountable?