Minnie Taylor: School Log Book: 1890

Published: December 23, 2011    Last modified: January 12, 2017

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Minnie Taylor, School Log Book, 1890

While sifting through a box of my late father's papers (mainly old night school exercise books related to maths, physics and engineering), I came across this curious document:

It is a page out of an old school exercise book that has been photocopied, and judging by its quality, I would guess this was copied many years ago. For it to be amongst my father's papers I would surmise it must have some relevance to our family.

The most obvious facts presented by this document are as follows:

  1. The year 1890.
  2. The names of 3 individuals: Minnie Taylor, Reverend H.R. Dunlop and John H. Fielding.
  3. The name of a school: Skellingthorpe C. of E. School (Skellingthorpe Church of England School).

It being just a few days before Christmas I am rather busy on other projects but as usual curiosity got the better of me and so I decided just to spend an hour or so seeing what a few searches might unearth.

On first glance I thought the document was regarding Skellingthorpe C. of E. School but on reading the document again I realised it says "late of Skellingthorpe C. of E. School". So does this mean Minnie Taylor is a former scholar or a former teacher; I will go with the latter.

The date suggests that a good starting point might be the England and Wales Census 1891, so I carried out a few online searches.

As expected there are many Minnie Taylors in this area, compounded by the fact that Skellingthorpe is on the borders of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. I quickly moved on.

The Reverend H.R. Dunlop was more enlightening. The Reverend was the current Vicar of the Parish of Misterton. This immediately expands the geographical area but once again this is compounded by Misterton also being on the border of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

John H. Fielding I presume to be a scholar, so I would expect him to be between 7 and 12 years of age. The only exact census match sent me on rather a wild goose chase.

According to the 1891 census John H Fielding was born at Todwick, then a small village twixt Sheffield and Worksop, well out of the Misterton area. By an amazing coincidence, in the early 1960s, our family lived at Todwick. At this time Todwick was a small village with a population of around 200 people, its Church of England school having just one large room with a folding divider. At this time my father was fairly prominent socially in Todwick so of course I immediately assumed that maybe this document had come into his possession during our time at Todwick.

This document seems to suggest Minnie Taylor had opened this school in 1890 but a little research shows that the school at Todwick was opened much earlier. Also I find it difficult to believe that the Rev. H.R. Dunlop would have travelled all the way from Misterton to Todwick, quite a journey in those days, just to "examine a parcel of books".

For the time being I will go with the theory that the school is located close by to Misterton and the John H. Fielding I found is not the correct person.

I need to carry out some more structured research and hopefully I can shed some light on this mystery document.

Updates:
2011-12-28 Over Christmas I had the opportunity to show the document to my mother. She had never seen this document and was as intrigued as I myself am.

2011-12-31 I carried out further research into Minnie Taylor and found a census record of 1891 recording a Minnie TAYLOR living in the household of a King TAYLOR at Decoy Farm, Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire. Minnie TAYLOR's occupation is given as 'employed school mistress'. I have created a new article detailing this research. To view this article please click here.

2012-02-03 This is rather ironic. I carried out a search for "schools misterton notts 1890" and found a link to 'NOTTSGEN-L Archives: February 2003'. In this post:

From: "kbann3" <>
Subject: [Notts] Misterton Parish church lists of vicars/rectors/curates
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 23:21:27 -0800
is a list of all the vicars / rectors / curates of the Church of All Saints, Misterton, Nottinghamshire c.1200-1950.

Since I am unsure of copyright pertaining to this list, I will merely provide a link to the post. Suffice to say that the name of Henry Robert DUNLOP appears on this list.

The irony? Well when I visited the church in 2007 I picked up the same leaflet and made a donation in the church's collection box. Somewhere in my office under an enormous amount of clutter I already have this information, I just never realised!

To view my photographs of the Church of All Saints, Misterton, Nottinghamshire, please click here.

Family and Local History Day, Bradfield Village Hall, Sheffield

Published: November 13, 2010    Last modified: May 22, 2022
Family and Local History Day, Bradfield Village Hall

Family and Local History Day, Bradfield Village Hall, Low Bradfield, Sheffield

In this article I mentioned an upcoming event, a Family and Local History Day to be held at Bradfield Village Hall, Low Bradfield near Sheffield. Well I made the time to attend and was not disappointed. I was surprised just how many people turned out, though the fine and sunny weather may have contributed.

Many local history groups and societies were represented including the Hillsborough & Owlerton Local History Group. This stand had numerous photographs of Owlerton Green and Hillsborough. I was born at Hawksley Road on the edge of Owlerton Green and though I moved to Stannington in the mid 1950's, my maternal grandparents continued to live there until the early 1980's. I have witnessed the many changes that have taken place over the years and so seeing these photographs brought back a lot of memories.

While discussing with one of the ladies from this stand some of the photographs of Owlerton Green, she happened to mentioned she lived on one of the nearby streets. I in turn mentioned I was born at Hawksley Road whereupon she remarked that her colleague lived on a street whose houses backed on to where I was born. As soon as she mentioned her colleagues name I immediately realised this was a member of a family whom I had not seen for probably 30 or 40 years.

Needless to say I had a long chat with this lady and since she has lived on this same street all her life she is a mind of information regarding local families and people I had not seen since my childhood. For reasons of privacy I will withhold names, but it is sufficient to say meeting this lady made the day very worthwhile indeed.

I ordered some copies of the photographs of Owlerton Green which a couple of weeks later duly arrived. I am not sure who may own the copyright of these photographs but I may try and obtain permission to publish them on this website.

I chatted with the people from the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery stand and purchased the CD:

Wardsend Cemetery, Monumental Inscriptions

The Friends of Bradfield Archives were very welcoming and I spent some considerable time working my way through the Bradfield Parish Register indices, searching for ASHFORTH and RIDAL. They also had a plan of the graveyard at the Church of Saint Nicholas at nearby High Bradfield. Several years ago I located this headstone:

John Ashforth died 1768 and William Ashforth died 1825 - Headstone

though according to the plans there are several others to be found. I made a rough sketch of their locations and will search for these others at a later date.

From the Sheffield & District Family History Society I purchased the following CDs:

Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Sheffield Cathedral, Baptism Records 1813-1875
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Sheffield Cathedral, Baptism Index 1752-1812
Sheffield Marriage Indexes

Time passed very quickly and after some 4 hours we finally departed, but not before taking a few photographs of Low Bradfield. All in all a very worthwhile day and one I can thoroughly recommend.

I now need to make some time in order to sort through all this research material.

Wardsend Cemetery: The guiding spirit of George Waller

Published: October 30, 2010    Last modified: January 21, 2017

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Headstone left - Albert Ashforth, Harry Renwick, Frank Renwick
Headstone right - Harry, Emily and George Waller

Last Sunday, during my visit to the Family and Local History Day at Bradfield, I chatted with a couple of representatives from Friends of Wardsend Cemetery. I was already aware of their forthcoming tour of Wardsend Cemetery and confirming this would probably be the final tour of the year, I promised myself to try and make time to attend.

After a few days of rather poor weather I woke early Saturday to find a gloriously sunny morning. Grabbing my camera and walking boots I set off to Sheffield, travelling via Bradfield in order to admire the outstanding autumnal colours of Langsett, Midhope and Broomhead moors.

I arrived in Sheffield a little early so with time to spare I decided to take a walk through Hillsborough Park, something I have not done for well over 20 years.

The Friends of Wardsend Cemetery website advises to travel by way of Livesey Street. Not being sure which was Livesey Street I cast my mind back nearly 50 years and took the only route I know of from Owlerton to the cemetery, this is the route we took when we would cycle down to what we called 'the meadows'. Here we would play at 'dirt tracking' i.e. cycling at high speed over waste land near the river, then jamming on the brakes, including our feet, and sliding to a halt. This created huge clouds of dust and of course a great loss of rubber tread and leather sole, not that we cared! Of course the one with the longest skid trail went off with a greatly inflated ego and more often that not, a few cuts and bruises.

This was in fact Livesey Street. The old stone arched bridge that had been washed away in the floods of 2007 has been replaced with a much inferior modern bridge, totally out of keeping with the character of the Victorian cemetery. Still at least now we can cross the river.

I could see a group of people standing the other side of the river, a couple of whom I recognised from the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery stand at the Family and Local History Day the previous week. So along with about 15 others, I set off through the mud to a place I had not visited in over 50 years.

The guides were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and considering the state of the cemetery fairly essential. Since the lower cemetery is now woodland, with ivy, rhododendron and Japanese knotweed attempting to cover everything in sight, it is not easy to find one's way around the various sections.

Eventually we made our way over the railway to the newer section of the cemetery. Here bracken replaces trees, and the gloom of the lower cemetery lifts a little.

One of our guides drew our attention to a couple of graves with history attached. One of these graves is that of George Waller, a local gentleman killed in the Balby railway disaster of 1947. Below is a British Pathé newsreel showing the aftermath of the disaster:

18 Die, 70 Hurt In Doncaster Train Crash

Since we were about to return to our starting point I decided to take a few photographs of George Waller's headstone. As I did so, I scanned some of the surrounding headstones. Imagine my surprise when my eyes settled on a headstone just a couple of metres away and I saw the name 'RENWICK'. Closer inspection also revealed the name of 'ALBERT ASHFORTH'. Both these are family names, indeed I have mentioned them several times on this website.

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Albert Ashforth, Harry Renwick, Frank Renwick

Well to say I was staggered by my good fortune is very much an understatement. Early in our tour I had come to the conclusion that trying to find a family grave in these conditions and in the time available was going to be nigh on impossible, but here was one of them.

The full inscription reads:

In Loving Memory Of
Albert Ashforth,
Died March 13th 1912, Aged 34 Years.
Also Harry Renwick,
Died March 25th 1934, Aged 24 Years.
Also Frank Renwick,
Died Jan. 15th 1949, Aged 33 Years.

Not wanting to lose the group I took some photographs, memorised the location and moved on. Later as the tour came to an end and the group dispersed, I re-traced my steps, back up the hill and over the railway in order to get a GPS fix on the location of the grave.

Being on my own now, I really thought it too dangerous to explore very far off the paths. I heeded the warnings of the guides about suddenly plunging into collapsed graves and decided it would be better to wait and explore at a later date, possibly in mid winter when all the vegetation has died back.

So this day turned out to be very profitable indeed.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery for organising these tours and express my appreciation of their determination in keeping the years of neglect at Wardsend Cemetery in the public spotlight.

Strolling back under the beautiful autumnal sun I could not resist walking along Owlerton Green, then past my place of birth on Hawksley Road before once again entering Hillsborough Park. How the park has changed, except perhaps for the horse chestnut trees. These magnificent specimens are still standing and still producing fine 'conkers', long may they do so.

Notes:
I am not sure if re-visiting places from one's childhood is good for the soul. Most of the changes are terribly depressing, a total lack of purpose other than financial in planning decisions together with the destruction of community makes one wonder what all this will be like after another 50 years. Witness the complete obliteration of Owlerton Green by Swann-Morton Ltd.

I took numerous photographs at Wardsend Cemetery though I have not had the time to sort through and process them. Over the next couple of weeks I will endeavour to accomplish this task and add them to my Gallery.

Updates:
2012-02-27 After many months I finally found the time to upload the photographs of Wardsend Cemetery to the Gallery. To view the photographs please click here.

2015-03-04 I came across a link to the Railways Archive and this Accident at Doncaster on 9th August 1947 article about the train crash mentioned above.

Ivy Dixon, Alice Dixon and Charles Edward Dixon

Published: October 18, 2010    Last modified: January 12, 2017

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Back: Alice Dixon 1899-1959 and Charles Edward Dixon 1898-1917
Front: Ivy Jacklin (née Ivy Dixon 1901-1983)

Recently I scanned and uploaded to the gallery more photographs from our family collection. The photograph illustrating this article was provided by my aunt and has been scanned from a photographic copy of an original, hence it is a little 'grainy'.

This photograph features my paternal grandmother Ivy JACKLIN (née Ivy DIXON) 1901-1983, her sister Alice DIXON 1899-1959, and brother Charles Edward DIXON 1898-1917. These were the children of Samuel DIXON 1869-1906 and Mary Maria DIXON (née Mary Maria MAPLETHORPE) 1878-1964.

Ivy JACKLIN (née Ivy DIXON) 1901-1983 my paternal grandmother was born at the village of Upton (Upton-cum-Kexby), Lincolnshire on the 5th of October 1901. Her father Samuel DIXON 1869-1906 was born at Horncastle, Lincolnshire in 1869. Her mother Mary Maria MAPLETHORPE 1878-1964 (sometimes spelt MABLETHORPE) was born at the village of Upton (Upton-cum-Kexby), Lincolnshire during 1878. Ivy DIXON 1901-1983 was the youngest of the three children, Charles Edward DIXON 1898-1917 being born at Marton, Lincolnshire, during March 1898, and Alice DIXON 1899-1959 born at Upton (Upton-cum-Kexby), Lincolnshire during December 1899.

Samuel DIXON 1869-1906 died of Tuberculosis on the 20th of November 1906 at Upton (Upton-cum-Kexby), my grandmother being only 5 years of age.

Mary Maria MAPLETHORPE 1878-1964 eventually married again, her second husband being Joseph CARTER 1872-1959, born 1872 at Sunk Island, Hull, East Yorkshire. They were married in June 1913.

Ivy experienced several sad events during her life:

1) Samuel her father died aged 37 when Ivy was just 5 years of age.
2) Ivy was 15 years of age when her brother Charles Edward died during World War I. To read more about this event please click here.
3) Wilfred JACKLIN 1926-1926 her 2nd child and my father's younger brother died shortly after birth in December 1926.

Updates:
2016-10-30 In my original post I attributed details of another Joseph CARTER. The details are now attributed to the correct Joseph CARTER.

Hannah Jacklin and the unknown grandfather

Published: October 12, 2010    Last modified: May 21, 2022
Unknown grandfather Photograph courtesy of ARG

Unknown grandfather
Photograph courtesy of ARG

The sudden re-kindling of my interest in the JACKLIN line of my family and the reason for my previous two articles has been brought about by an email I received via this website. The email was sent by a descendant of the family of James GUNN and Hannah JACKLIN 1874-1934 and opens up a little of the history of one of my gg grandfather's daughters.

"Hannah left home when she was about 14-15 years of age and went to live with her brother Jabez in Edmonton, London. She met my great grandfather James GUNN and married him aged 18 on the 26th of April 1891 in Enfield Middlesex. His father was Jacob GUNN, her father was Daniel JACKLIN 1842-1897. The two witnesses are Arthur JACKLIN and Jessie JACKLIN (who made her mark).
I have a copy of this certificate and a photo of an unknown grandfather with two children and a child on his lap. I am assured by my father this is part of our JACKLIN family but he cannot remember which man it is, he is 90 now, and his memory is not what it was. You may use them as you see fit. You never know somebody might put a name to the people in the photo." -  ARG

Hannah JACKLIN 1874-1934 is a daughter of my gg grandparents Daniel JACKLIN 1842-1897 and Lydia JACKLIN (née Lydia PEARCE 1843-1922) and sister of Daniel JACKLIN 1862-1953 (my great grandfather) and Jabez JACKLIN 1868-Deceased mentioned in the text above.

I have done very little research on my JACKLIN line so when I received this email and studied its contents I immediately remembered the family tree of Aunt Grace's that I found while sifting through the family papers earlier this year.

I always find it quite exciting when a person contacts me and suddenly with one email opens up a whole new vista on a part of the family I would never get to research during this lifetime.

So hopefully fate will intervene and someone out there will browse these pages and recognise a person in the accompanying photograph and put names to faces.

I will transcribe the marriage certificate of James GUNN and Hannah JACKLIN 1874-1934 and add it to the certificates folder.

The two witnesses to Hannah and Jame's marriage, Arthur JACKLIN and Jessie JACKLIN may require some research, at this moment in time I haven't a clue as to their place in the family tree.

Emily Grace Pearce 1899-1987 and Rosalie Faith Pearce 1902-1958

Published: October 10, 2010    Last modified: May 21, 2022

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Emily Grace Pearce 1899-Deceased

Daniel JACKLIN 1842-1897 and Lydia PEARCE 1843-1922 married on Christmas Eve, 1864 at Orwell, Cambridgeshire. This marriage produced 5 children:

  1. Daniel JACKLIN 1862-1953 my great grandfather
  2. George JACKLIN 1866-Deceased
  3. Jabez JACKLIN 1868-Deceased
  4. Emily JACKLIN 1871-1951
  5. Hannah JACKLIN 1874-1934

Emily JACKLIN 1871-1951 married Henry PEARCE 1881-1933 in 1899 at Royston which borders on the counties of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. This marriage produced 3 children:

  1. Emily Grace PEARCE 1899-1987
  2. Rosalie Faith PEARCE 1902-1958
  3. Harry Stanley PEARCE 1904-Deceased

Though I do not remember having met either Emily Grace known to the family as Aunt Grace or Rosalie Faith known as Aunt Rose, my mother remembers visiting Aunt Grace at her home in Whaddon.

Questioning my mother about the sisters I was able to glean the following:
Emily Grace PEARCE 1899-1987 was an undergraduate at Jesus College Cambridge and later the headmistress at Pontefract and District Girls School, Pontefract, Yorkshire which closed I think in the 1950's.
Rosalie Faith PEARCE 1902-1958 was a teacher and possibly headmistress at Whaddon Church of England School, Whaddon, Cambridgeshire. This closed I think in the 1930's and eventually became the village hall.

I have not been able to substantiate any of these claims despite much searching of various websites.

Neither sister ever married and Aunt Grace eventually retired from teaching and retired to a large house on the edge of Whaddon village. I know less about Aunt Rose so it would be really nice if someone that remembers the sisters would contact me through this site.

I have yet to determine when and where the two sisters passed away but Aunt Grace was certainly alive in 1981. I probably need to speak with my late father's sister, since she probably had the most contact with Grace and Rose.

Updates:
2012-02-13 I recently came across this article on the Meldreth History website.

"Miss R Pearce (teacher) is to be congratulated on the excellence of this performance, being a “past master” in the handling of puppets." - The Herts and Cambs Reporter and Royston Crow

Meldreth is a village close to Orwell and Whaddon.

Emily Grace Pearce: Jacklin Family Tree

Published: October 8, 2010    Last modified: February 5, 2017
Jacklin Family Tree Daniel Jacklin 1842-1897 and Lydia Jacklin (née Lydia Pearce) 1843-1922

Jacklin Family Tree
Daniel Jacklin 1842-1897 and Lydia Jacklin (née Lydia Pearce) 1843-1922

In March 2010 my mother decided to sell the family home of 40 years and move into a more manageable apartment. The result of this decision was of course the obligatory emptying of the attic and other nooks and crannies. During this process many artefacts and documents that had not seen the light of day for many a year were unearthed then passed to me for safe keeping.

Several weeks later I was sorting through an old cardboard suitcase that contained many of the smaller items including numerous envelopes containing correspondence and newspaper clippings. I eventually came across an envelope containing a single sheet of folded paper. On unfolding the paper I realised someone had sketched a family tree showing JACKLIN line descendants beginning with my great great grandparents Daniel JACKLIN 1842-1897 and Lydia Jacklin (née Lydia PEARCE) 1843-1922 and ending at 1981, the date I believe the document was created. Notes detailing those that were known to have passed away and the whereabouts of some of the living had been added.

This family tree had been sketched out with blue ink on paper and posted to my parents in 1981. I am fairly certain of the date since the postmark is clearly legible and the document has been folded to fit the length of the envelope. Though very few dates and surnames are available it may prove invaluable in researching branches of our family tree.

I mentioned this to my mother and she confirmed that the document had been created by Emily Grace PEARCE 1899-1987 otherwise known as Aunt Grace from Whaddon, Cambridgeshire.

Daniel and Lydia JACKLIN had 5 children:

Daniel JACKLIN 1862-1953
George JACKLIN 1866-Deceased
Jabez JACKLIN 1868-Deceased
Emily JACKLIN 1871-1951
Hannah JACKLIN 1874-1934

Daniel was born at Orwell. George, Jabez, Emily and Hannah were born at Whaddon.

I have scanned the document and added it to my gallery though to preserve the privacy of known living people I have intentionally only provided a thumbnail of the original image. Anyone wishing to see the full size document should contact me using my contact form.

Eleanor (Ellen) Ashforth (née Eleanor Tomlinson 1855-1943): Death Certificate

Published: September 21, 2010    Last modified: November 19, 2016

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Eleanor 'Ellen' Ashforth (née Ellen Tomlinson 1855-1943)

I received today from Sheffield Register Office the Death Certificate for my gg grandmother Eleanor (Ellen) ASHFORTH (née Ellen TOMLINSON 1855-1943). Eleanor died on the 10th July 1943 at 41 Burton Street, Sheffield. It records Eleanor as the widow of William Henry ASHFORTH 1873-1926 and the signature of the informant as J. Renwich (this should actually be J. Renwick). Jessie RENWICK (née Jessie ASHFORTH 1908-1982) is one of Eleanor's children.

To view my transcription of her Death Certificate please click here.

Frank Ashforth, Arras Memorial, Faubourg d'Amiens British Cemetery, Arras

Published: September 16, 2010    Last modified: May 22, 2022

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Arras Memorial, Faubourg d'Amiens British Cemetery, Arras, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France: F. Ashforth

During our recent visit to France and in order to visit some of the many war memorials located in this region we spent a few days camped at Boiry-Notre-Dame, 10km east of Arras, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

The Arras Memorial at the Faubourg d'Amiens British Cemetery at Arras commemorates the 34,785 soldiers of the forces of the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand, with no known grave, who died in the Arras region between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918. One of these soldiers was Frank Stuart ASHFORTH 1892-1918, my great great uncle.

William Henry Ashforth, The Missing of the Somme, Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval

Published: September 16, 2010    Last modified: November 14, 2016

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The Missing of the Somme, Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Picardie, France: W.H. Ashforth

During June and July 2010 we visited Burgundy, France but broke our journey at Arras in order to spend a few days visiting the memorials dedicated to the missing of the Somme. So after many years of wishing to, I finally made time to visit the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

On a summers day with perfect weather it was hard to imagine the horrors that took place across this beautiful landscape and distressing to surmise how William Henry ASHFORTH 1896-1916, my great uncle, met his death.

This beautifully maintained memorial rises defiantly above the French landscape only needing the inscription of 73,367 names to instantly bring home the horrors man politicians can inflict on man.