The Broseley Local History Society

 

Incorporating the Wilkinson Society

 

Newsletter                                                         November 2000

 

Chairman:                  Frank Selkirk

Secretary:                 Dot Cox

Treasurer:                Steve Dewhirst

Curator:                    David Lake

Membership Sec.:                  Janet Robinson, 26 Coalport Road,

                                Broseley, Shropshire, TF12 5AZ.

                                01952 882495

Journal Editor                Neil Clarke

Newsletter Editor:                  Nick Coppin, 01952 884398

 

Meetings usually take place each month on the first Wednesday of the month at 7.30pm (unless announced otherwise). Please ensure you are in your seats by 7.30 to allow speakers a prompt start.   Indoor meetings will be held at the Broseley Social Club in the High Street unless announced otherwise. Car parking at the back.

 

Web Site: www.Broseley.org.uk              Email: steve@broseley.org.uk

 

Programme for first half of 2000/1:

Wednesday 6th December:                        Annual Dinner – details below.

Wednesday 3rd January:                        More memories of Old Broseley.

Wednesday 7th February:        The History of the Broseley Pipe Making Industry by Rex Key.

Wednesday 7th March:        Broad Glass Production in East Shropshire by Paul Luter.

Wednesday 4th April:        The Writing of Volume X of the Victoria History Of Shropshire (Borough of Wenlock) by George Baugh.

Wednesday 2nd May:        Visit to Ironbridge Power Station.

Wednesday 6th June:        Annual Wilkinson Lecture: Cultural Influences in the Life of John Wilkinson by Diana Clarke.

Wednesday 4th July:        Walk around Caughley by Stephen Perry.

No August meeting.

 

For further information, contact Neil Clarke (01952 504135)

 

Wrekin Local Studies Forum calendar of events (a local selection).

8th November        William Penny Brookes and the Modern Olympics, by Helen Cromarty, Long Warehouse, Coalbrookdale. FIGM, 433522.

7th December        Evolution and revolution, Charles Darwin of Shrewsbury, by Tony Crowe, Long Warehouse, Coalbrookdale. FIGM, 433522.

1st February        Mediaeval Whitchurch, by Madge Moran, Madeley Court School, THAS, 240287.

Annual Dinner.

This will be on Wednesday 6th December at the Woodbridge Inn, Coalport; 7.30pm for 8pm.   It will cost £9.50 per head payable to Janet Robinson by 17th November please. 

 

Menu

Starters.

Cream of Leek & Potato Soup
served with warm crusty bread

Fan of Honeydew Melon
served with a raspberry coulis

Prawn Cocktail
with brown bread and butter

Hot Garlic Mushrooms
cooked in a creamy sauce with tarragon

Main Courses.

Roast Shropshire Turkey
served with traditional accompaniments

Roast Sirloin of Beef
with Yorkshire pudding & traditional gravy

Poached Fillet of Salmon
coated with a wine and prawn sauce

Vegetarian Main Courses.

Pasta Bake
cooked in a tomato, garlic & peppers sauce, glazed with cheese

Broccoli Cheese Bake

Vegetable Lasagne

Vegetable Kiev

Desserts

Christmas Pudding with rum Sauce
or
A Selection of Sweets

Coffee and Mints.

 

The meal will be followed by ‘After Dinner Entertainment’.

Please ensure names and payment reach Janet Robinson (address above) before 17th November.  For further information, please contact Janet on 882495.

 

AGM Wednesday 4th October.

This was well attended with Neil Clarke standing in as chairman for the meeting as Frank Selkirk was away.   Committee members gave their reports and were all re-elected without contest.   John Freeman volunteered to join the Committee.

Thanks were given to our retiring President, Jack Owen.   He is to be succeeded by Mary Smith who has had us captivated at meetings with her memories of Broseley in the past.

 

The formal meeting over, the members present were entertained to a slide show and history of Madeley by Ron Miles.   It was interesting and saddening to see how a viable little town has been systematically destroyed as part of the making of Telford New Town.   While the other towns within Telford (Oakengates, Dawley and Wellington) have been marginalised, Madeley does seem to have been most spoiled.

 

Memories of Maws.

Tony Mugridge, past Chairman of this Society, is starting a brick and tile manufacturing operation at Maws Craft Centre.  The launch will be next Spring and Tony has asked Jack Owen to contact as many ex-Maws people as possible so that they can join in the occasion.   If you are ex-Maws please contact Jack on 01952 882260.

 

Really Living.

Our member, John Wilkinson of Congleton writes: “Could you please recommend any publications on how people actually lived in the period 1700-1850; their customs, diet, dress, music, famous people alive during the period, anything in fact about how they lived.”

Please contact David Lake on 01746 762813.

 

The Market Garden Girls.

RC Frampton of Chessington is researching the summer migration of Shropshire coalfield girls to the market gardens around London.  This was a custom from the 16th century to about 1927; Barrie Trinder has written on it.   Summer was busy in the market gardens; it was a quieter time in the coalfields with furnaces out of blast through lack of water and the girls were well used to carrying heavy baskets.

 

If your family history includes any of these hard working girls please contact David Lake on 01746 762813.

 

Broseley Genealogy.

Among the libraries which receive a copy of the Journal is the Society of Genealogists in London.   They have let us have a list of their library holdings for Broseley:

 

Broseley and its surroundings; being a complete history of Broseley, Willey, Barrow, Benthall & Linley; with notices of remarkable events, facts, phenomena & manufactures & containing a carefully complied index. (John Randall, 1879)

Broseley, 1901 (Ordnance Survey Map)

Broseley (Baptist Chapel): monumentals in the burial area 1755-1984; in Shropshire monumental inscriptions vol. 5.

Broseley (Birch Meadow Particular Baptists); births 1794-1835.

Broseley (Birch Meadow Particular Baptist chapel); births 1835-37; in Shropshire parish registers.

Broseley; Christenings, marriages & burials 1570-1750 & index.

Broseley; M(1) 1571-1750; Boyd’s marriage index.

Broseley: Monumentals in the church; in Broseley & its surroundings.

Ironbridge 1901 (Ordnance Survey map)

Jackfield (St Mary); monumentals in the churchyard; in Shropshire monumental inscriptions, vol 2.

Neil Clarke.

 

 

The Web

We have recently added a new section to our web site www.broseley.org.uk.  This is called Broseley Today and contains a photograph of every street in Broseley, as well as Benthall,  Jackfield, Barrow, Linley, Willey etc.

Another web site of interest is www.getmapping.com.  They are creating a Millennium Map™ which will be a bird’s eye view of the whole of the country taken from aerial photographs.  The map has reached as far north as Willey and part of Wenlock so Broseley should follow soon!