Deakins Cetral Stores was next to Deakins Buildings on the A5 Watling Street. Photo courtesy Gill Gaiser.
The Mavis Woodhouse material featured here recently has certainly spawned some interesting tangents, one of the most interesting of which was the conversation the sprung up in the comments to the Fred Shingler Film a couple of weeks ago, between Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler and Gill Gaiser.
Gill (a Deakin herself) pointed out she had lots of material on the family she’d previously written, and has very generously sent me copies for publication on the blog; the three chapters she’s sent me are a bit big for individual articles, so I’ve made them into downloadable PDF file for people to read.
You can download them at the foot of the post.
These are wonderfully well-write, fascinating works and very high quality historical research; It’s a pleasure and honour to be able to feature them here.
I’m hugely thankful to Gill for her wonderful and fascinating contribution, and I hope the debate continues; I’ve forwarded all the relevant information too, as Peter had some stuff to send Gill too.
There’s so much going on at the moment I need a secretary I think…
Gill wrote:
Hi Bob
As Martin Littler mentioned in his post, he and I communicated about Brownhills in the past but I lost his email address – likely when i changed computers – if it is possible either to forward his current address to me or to ask him to contact me I would really appreciate that. [Done – Bob]
I will attach the three chapters from my ‘book-in-the-making’ [Mines, Methodists and Music] about the 2 Jonahs and John Henry. They are quite long – John Henry runs to 24 pages; Jonah Sr. to 15 pages and Jonah Jr. to 20 pages and I am sure you will just want to take snippets from them which you think are appropriate and of interest. There are names and dates for younger folks who are still living so I would not want facts included which might identify them as I’m sure you understand without their permission. No problem with identifying my sister and I though! In between chapters are for the wives of the 3 J’s.
There is also a photograph of Central/Deakins Stores taken about 1916 which might be of interest. People in that photo are Jonah Sr and Jane nee Shingler and almost hiding behind Jonah is Esther Hassall nee Shingler – mother of Ethel in the movie. In front is Charlie Deakin [born 1900], Jonah Jr. [born 1906] and Samuel Shingler [1850-1930] father of Jane and Esther and grandfather to Ethel]
I have also written about my own childhood which would be sort of contemporary with Mavis Woodhouse – she being just a few years older than me. The period from 1939-49 is included and runs to 14 pages. You can let me know if that is of any interest.
Sincerely,
Gill
You can download the chapters at the three links below: they’re all small files so should download quickly. They’re PDF files so you may need Adobe Reader if they don’t load, but everyone has that these days I think.