Sankeys at Burntwood.

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Hi All,
 I have a Thomas Sankey, born 1812 Woodhouses, he then stayed in the surrounding area until his death in 1879. His children seemed to follow in his footsteps as he was a farmer.
 On the 1861 census he is farming at Hill Farm, and in 1871 he is at Sankeys Farm, after he dies the children are always at Woodhouses.
What I wanted to know is, is there any old maps that I would be able to locate Sankeys Farm on, I know that there is a Sankeys Corner which was named after the farm and was on one corner of it.
 Also where would he have been likely to have been buried.
 Thanking every one in advance.
Regards
Anne

[mshrmh]

Hi Anne,
There are some old maps on the Staffs "Past Tracks" website
http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/GIS/default.asp?reset=1
Haven't checked your area, but you may find something there.
GENUKI has a page for Burntwood
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/STS/Burntwood/index.html
which refers to Christ Church and also has links to a local history website for the area
If you haven't come across it before this site has lots of transcriptions of MIs from Staffs & some surrounding area - many done by Alf Beard ("Alf" on Rootschat) - always worth a search
http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/search_form.html

[anner]

Hi mshrmh,
I will certainly have a look at the links. Hopefully something will come up.
Regards
Anne

[handm]

Hello,
Have you tried www.old-maps.co.uk as there are often several maps for an area, dating back to the late 1800s, and the ones with 1:10560 scale have zoom facilities etc.
From the home page, click on the left hand box that refers to the gazeteer and this takes you to the county lists.

I have found the site very useful for tracing 'lost' sites.

Handm

[anner]

Hi handm and mshrmh,
 I have looked at the links that you have both put on for me (thank you both) and I found Thomas sankey on one of the documents on the "staffspasttrack" so he was definately there. It states that he wasnt an owner farmer. Now my problem is, why would he call a farm after his surname if he wasnt an owner. I have also looked at the map site, I cannot find Sankey farm, but did find the one he was farming previous to that "Hill Farm". Thomas' children were all to do with farms and his son Edward is farming at Sandfield, Thomas jnr, and William being farm Bailiffs.
A bit more googling and rummaging needed I think.

Regards
Anne.

[mshrmh]

Hi Anne - just a thought re the farm name - maybe he was the tenant of a relative - eg his father or uncle. The dates you mention are too late for the tithe maps - I wonder whether Staffs Archives would have anything that is of use? I realise you're not local, but it might be worth a good dig in their online catalogue (incomplete at 80% of their holdings) or seeing if they could suggest anything via e-mail or a phone call. I know they have various old maps at Stafford so they may be able to help.

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Hi mshrmh,
 i will do that anything is worth a try. and I am sure that I found his parents on the IGI so will have another look and see if I can find them on a census. I should have thought of that one before.
He could have been a relative of someone, I never even thought of that. Also I was thinking that if he was known locally, the farm could have been referred to as "Sankeys Farm" and it just stuck. Just a thought.
Regards
Anne.

[mshrmh]

Hi Anne - I had a brainwave - there's a history site online that has a lot of interesting stuff on Staffs
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/
When I searched on Burntwood there's a specific mention of Thomas Sankey, Sankey's Corner & Bridge Cross Farm - I suspect there might be a copyright issue if I quoted directly so the link to the page is
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42356&strquery=burntwood
and it is the paragraph starting "Several farms were formed after the 1861 inclosure. Bridge Cross farm "...
There's also maps on that site (haven't looked at them, myself).

[anner]

Hi mshrmh,
 I found that site earlier and found Thomas on there, I was really pleased to see that both places were mentioned as it falls in line with the info I have.

Regards
Anne.