The one element of curating this blog that never ceases to astound me is the willingness with which people donate their free time and skill to further research the subjects presented. Last week, you’ll surely recall, there was a huge amount of interest in the story and history of Goblins Pit, Goblins Pit Wood, and the Derry family who lived there. This tiny hamlet, just on the Green Lane between Walsall Wood and Shelfield, seems to have a really engaging history and an important place in the development of Bullings Heath and the wider Walsall Wood.
Research dynamo Andy Dennis – a man of many talents to whom I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude – has put in an immense amount of work and drawn up a diagram of the known history of the Derrys and the houses at Goblins Pit. It’s wonderful, and you may want to download it and print it. It’s quite a big image.
An astounding and thorough piece of research from Andy Dennis - click for a larger version - you may wish to download and print, or zoom in.
Andy also kindly downloaded the further instalments of ‘The Poor Widow’s Offering’ Which I have combined into a handy, download and print PDF file for your perusal. Download it from the below link (it’s 3.3 megabytes in size, so it may take a while on a slow connection):
The Poor Widow’s Offering: further instalments 3.5MB
Andy had the following to say:
Hello Bob
As promised, further episodes of the Charles Derry story. I’m not sure how interested people will be as the narrative is increasingly swamped by an account of his developing faith and leanings toward the Latter Day Saints.
I have also found various other related bits of information about his family and will forward when I’ve tidied it up. If nothing else, it will at least help some people in the USA who are trying to trace their ancestors through Charles and his brother George.
Andy
I reiterate – I’m massively grateful to Andy for his wonderful contributions, on a whole range of stuff. His input on the Tesco planning issue was also calm, informed, and worthy of wider attention. Cheers old chap, I owe you a pint.
The Poor Widow's Offering - not quite a literary great, but remarkable when you consider how limited the writers' education must have been. A genuinely odd bit of local history.