Hednesford Road Brownhills West – nowadays, the building on the right is the Thai Lanna restaurant, but back then was The Wilkin Inn, affectionately known as The Monkey. This is a scene Charles and Catherine would recognise. Image from ‘Memories of Old Brownhills’ By Clarice Mayo and Geoff Harrington.
It’s about time we got back to some local history here, so here’s a nice one for the family historians and archive diggers for a wet spring weekend. So sorry for the lack of posts lately: I am very busy with work and not possessed of the energy I was ten years ago, sadly
Reader Pat Ward has been in touch, looking for some help untangling her family tree, which has Brownhills West and Shire Oak connections.
I’ll let Pat explain:
Dear Bob,
I wonder if any of your readers could help me please.
My cousin Max is researching the family tree, but he has not been able to find anything out about the brothers and sisters of our Grandfather Charles Aldridge who was born 5th March 1882 at Norton Canes.
His father was Robert Aldridge Born 1851 at Penkridge.
My grandfather was married to Catherine Caulton who came from Shire Oaks, Brownhills.
When they married they moved in with Catherine’s mother in Hednesford Road, Brownhills where they had four children and then moved to Coventry with three of their children and leaving behind with her grandmother my mother Evelyn and after moving to Coventry had eleven more children.
Pat Ward
Nw, perhaps the old hands can help a bit here as the name Charles Aldridge sounds very familiar, and I can’t put my finger on why: So I’m wondering if any of the blog elders here can enlighten me.
It would be most excellent if we could help Pat and Max find out more about their family and I’m sure readers will do their best to rise to the challenge.
Thanks to Pat for an interesting enquiry.
If you can help, please do: Either comment here, mail me on BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com or whisper in my ear on social media. Thanks to everyone for their patience in the face of my apparent lethargy!
Hednesford Road looking into the camera from the photo at the top of the article: It was, back then, a street of dense housing and a tightly. knit community of it’s own, quite distinct from the rest of Brownhills. From ‘Memories of BrownhillsPast’ by Clarice Mayo and Geoff Harrington.