Searching for Redshaw roots

[totally leics]

Correction to previous message.    Sally, that John Redshaw is, as you're probably aware the grandfather. I'm now told Adam Redshaw is the gt grandfather, but the rest stands as true.

[Michael Dixon]

 Maybe my own experience of living in a colliery village ( Bebside, near Blyth) might provide a clue why John R Redshaw lived in the home of ( I am avoiding the term "brought up by") his granny.

On 1901 census, column 7 records number of rooms occupied in the house.

The six Redshaws in Long Row South,Radcliffe,  had ONE room.
Widow Jane and three others in Stobswood Colliery had TWO rooms. Maybe she could have even taken young Adam in as well !

My cousin as a child in late 1940 was accommodated by a childless aunt. I myself left my crowded family's house to live with my granny .  All to do with space.

Michael Dixon

[totally leics]

Thanks Michael,

           One of the great things about this type of research is not only tracing family lines, but finding out more about how people lived their lives and how choices are made sometimes through necessities. Having traced some of my own family homes , and knowing how many there were in the family unit I often wonder how they fitted in though I freely admit as far as I know they never needed to cope with just one or two rooms. It all helps make our ancestors far more than just names doesn't it?   TL

[Michael Dixon]

 I lived in a "miner's cottage" from my birth in 1941 . It really was a hovel, infested with mice, concrete floors, leaking roof, no water (tap 50 yards down back lane), no electricity and an outside "earth closet" also mice infested.

But we had gas and plenty of coal.  The house had 2 up 2 down. Parents slept in front room, so front door was never used/opened. We "lived" in the kitchen  Upstairs two brothers in one bedroom, widowed grannie and I shared bed in other bedroom ( Oh dear just remembered- me a serial bed-wetter- Sorry Grannie- I think they used a protective sheet made from bits of a barrage balloon lol )

 When Bebside pit died in 1953, we were rehoused to modern housing ( two flushing toilets) and old pit village totally demolished.

 My brothers and I used to wonder at our father when he used to bemoan the  coldness of new estate, wishing to be back in the friendly old place... crazy man.


Michael Dixon

[Ruskie]

Michael that is fascinating. 
I hope they have preserved some of the old miner'c cottages. They are of great historical significance. I know about Beamish, but would like to see a preserved (not renovated) mining village. Do any exist?

[Michael Dixon]

 Ruskie,

 Well the houses of my birth-colliery were literally demolished. I do not know of any preserved miners homes.

 In the 1870s, a reporter of a Newcastle newspaper visited a colliery village every week for nearly two years. Articles called "Our Colliery Villages", painting a picture of mining village life.

 First article was on Seghill Colliery... Fred111 posted a recent request for info on Seghill housing.... I am about to post some quotes in reply... you may find the reporters observations and views of interest.

Michael

[Ruskie]

(Sorry for going a bit off topic totally leics)

Thanks Michael, yes, I will have a look at the Seghill post. I vaguely remember reading something about reports of the families living in colliery housing - I wonder if it was "Our Colliery Villages" that you mention. It spoke in a fair amount of detail about the lives of the people.

It is a shame that no miner's cottages have been preserved. I imagine it would have been an interesting and educational school trip/tourist drawcard especially if a whole village and mine had also been preserved and tours could be taken (I think there is a mine is Wales? where this is possible).

It's the kind of thing I would love to visit to see how my mining ancestors lived. 

[Michael Dixon]

( ditto apologies to totally leics)

 The Northumberland County Record Office shares a complex that is within the colliery yard of Woodhorn Pit, with stables, wheel house, lamp house etc.

MD

[totally leics]

No apologies needed folks, am finding all this background information equally interesting.