Clara Swaddling - single woman

So who was Lily Edith's mother Clara Swaddling and where did she come from?

There was only one reference to a Clara Swaddling on the FreeBMD website. Her full name was Clara Hannah and she married William Stephen Hoile in 1903 in the Swindon district. FreeBMD is a project aimed at transcribing the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales and making them accessible via the Internet. 

By 1911 William Stephen and Clara Hannah were living in Swindon with three children Stephen Alfred George - born in 1904, Vivian Clara - born in 1907 and Eric Edwin James -born in 1909. The children were all born in Swindon but the the birthplace of their parents was not so clear. William Stephen stated that he was 37 years, his occupation was a Coal Carter and he was born in England. Clara Hannah was 36 and also born in England but a small note had been added saying "nothing else known".

So now I had an approximate year of birth, 1875. I found a reference to her on the 1901 census. A Clara H Swaddling was a 28 year old laundry maid in Little Stanmore in Middlesex and this time she was recorded as being born in Headington in Oxfordshire.

Now I had a place of birth, perhaps I would find her living at home with her parents on the 1891 census? No such luck. Poor Clara was 17 years old this time and an inmate at Margaret House, a house for the Aged Poor and for Children in Bath Road, Cheltenham. So what had happened to her parents for her to be in this institution?

If Clara was born in the Headington area perhaps she was also baptised there. I checked the Ancestry Oxfordshire baptisms and found a Clara Anna baptised on the 1st April 1874 at St Philip and St James in Oxford. The entry showed that Clara's mother was also a single woman and her name was Sarah. Their address was Plantation Road, Oxford. So would they be together on the 1881 census?

I did find them both on the 1881 census but not together. Clara was a boarder with a Elizabeth Acock in Aldates in Oxford and Sarah H, did the H stand for Hannah?, was a General Domestic Servant for an Elizabeth E. Leaf in Penge in Surrey. Her birthplace was listed as Dorchester, Oxfordshire.

On the 1871 census, two years before Clara Anna was born, Sarah was working as a servant for a George Ward and his family in the St Philip and St James parish of Oxford. By coincidence Sarah Hannah married an Alfred Ward at St Ann's Church In Tottenham in 1898. He was a 50 year old widower and she was a 43 year old spinster. They didn't have any children so Clara was her only child. Sarah's father on her marriage certificate was an Isaac Swadling. Now I knew exactly who Sarah Hannah was and where she came from. She was born in Dorchester in 1855 and her parents were Isaac and Elizabeth Swadling.

Unfortunately it seems now that Clara Anna was not the mother and Sarah was not the grandmother of Lily Edith because while I was searching for marriage of Sarah Hannah Swadling I came across the marriage of another Clara Swadling and this is more likely to be the mother of Lily Edith as this marriage took place a year after the birth in 1899 in the same church, St Mary and St John, Cowley.

So who was this Clara? The marriage certificate says her father's name was John Charles Swadling.

Lily Edith Swaddling - an illegitimate child

At the end of the blog entry I posted on Sunday 22nd January 2017 I made a reference to a family of Hoiles and a Clara Hannah. These details had come to light after a session of family history housekeeping and I was curious to find out who they were. Also written on this paperwork were the details of a baptism from one of the Oxfordshire parishes.

In the latter part of 2016 I began to research a branch of the Swadlings from Oxfordshire. I had a large amount of information on my database and began the task of creating a family tree. I was very pleased to discover that this research coincided with the addition of several Oxfordshire Parish Registers on the Ancestry website at the end of September.

As I began checking the Oxfordshire, England, Church of England, Births and Baptisms 1813 - 1915 one entry caught my eye. It stood out because there was only a mother listed as a parent.

The entry read : - Lily Edith Swaddling ( two dd's) baptised at St Mary and St John, Cowley, on the 16th August 1898 by L. C. K. Greenway. The entry also stated that Lily Edith was born on the 23rd July 1898 at 46 Hertford Street and she as the daughter of Clara Swaddling, a single woman.

On the Ancestry site there are sometimes hints of other records that might include more details about the person in the record you are looking at. On this occasion there were two other records listed. Sadly the other records referred to a death and a burial. Lily Edith was recorded in the Register of Burials for St Mary and St John, Cowley. She was entry number 1798 and listed as an infant of one month. Her place of death was 46 Hertford Street and she was buried in consecrated ground in the graveyard on the 15th September 1898. This ceremony was also performed by L. C. K. Greenway and in the remarks column of the register he also wrote "An illegitimate child".

Lionel Croft Kelynge Greenway was only 29 years old at the time of this tragic death. He had been born in Warwick, Warwickshire in 1868 and after attending Harrow, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours in Theology at Trinity College, Oxford. After graduating he became Curate at St Giles in Reading before becoming the vicar at St Mary and St John, Cowley. Lionel never married and when he died in 1943 his estate was left to his younger brother, Harry David Jones Kelynge Greenway, a retired army captain.

Poor Clara, not only had she given birth to a baby out of wedlock but her baby had died within weeks. So who was Clara Swaddling and where had she come from? But more importantly what happened to her?

The Guild of One Name Studies

I became a member of the Guild of One Name Studies in 2003 and as a member I'm expected to collect data and information related to my One name Study.

While family historians research all the names on their family tree. One-namers, as we are called, choose one surname from our family tree and try to gather as much information about our chosen name as possible. This is usually done by checking birth, marriage, death, census and church records.

The guild doesn't tell us how to carry out our study but they do offer guidelines that we can follow. They suggest that initially we find as many occurrences of the surname that we can, and this can be by county, country or worldwide. From this data we should then try and link family members together in the form of family trees.

The earliest records show that Swadling(e)s were living in Sunningwell and South Hinksey, in the county of Berkshire, England from the mid 1500's.

By the early 1600's Swadlings had moved into the county of Oxfordshire and the Greater London area in England. By the mid 1700's Swadlings had also moved into the county of Sussex, England. The migration continued and by the late 1700's and early 1800's there were Swadlings settling in the counties of Buckinghamshire and Kent. By the mid 1800's Swadlings had reached the county of Surrey but they were also exploring further afield to Australia. There are three Swadling males in Australia at this time. Two convicts and one brave man who moved his wife and young family there.

10 Year Anniversary

I can't believe that it is ten years since I attended the Guild of One Name Studies Seminar, "Publishing your One-Name Study" at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes.

I was so inspired by one of the speakers that I returned home and created my Blogger account the same day.

I just wish that they had also inspired me to write blog entries more frequently!

New Year's Resolutions

For a genealogist I'm not as organised as I should be. Over the years I've carried out thousands of hours of research on Swadling families in the United Kingdom. Most of the information I've collected has been recorded on reams of paper and then later transferred into databases or arranged into family trees. Some of these family trees are constructed of hundreds of branches and each branch will contain dozens of names.

Today there is so much data on line that family history can be researched 24/7 and we can find out all about our ancestors from the comfort of our armchair. I use two subscription websites, Ancestry and Find My Past. Both of these websites offer access to millions of records. These records include events from the cradle to the grave, such as baptism registers and probate information. Personal data has been collected for centuries. Our whereabouts have been recorded by the illegible scribble of the enumerator on a census page or in the form of a soldier's enlistment papers during wars. Even our misdemeanours or our need for a better life are recorded in convict's transportation registers or ship's passenger lists.

With so many records available to search through, it is very easy to get overloaded with data or not process the information that's collected. After nearly twenty years of researching I'm familiar with most of the branches of the English Swadlings but occasionally when I'm searching in a new set of records I may come across a Swadling I'm not familiar with. Unfortunately I'm easily distracted and my original searches are soon abandoned since I'm curious to find out who this person is and which branch they belong to. I'll copy out the details on a small scrap of paper, perhaps print off a document or two that relates to this person and then put the information to one side before continuing with my original search. Weeks or months later I'll find these scribbled notes and wonder what branch they refer to. I'll then have to spend a little time retracing my steps to remind myself of who they are.

Last week I found a printout of a page from the 1911 census for a family of Hoiles and a piece of paper headed Clara Hannah. So who was Clara Hannah and where does she come from?

Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to Swadlings everywhere.


New Year's Resolution Number 1
Get more organised!


New Year's Resolution Number 2
Try to write a new blog entry every week or at least once a month.


New Year's Resolution Number 3
Add more records to the Website


New Year's Resolution Number 4
Try to recruit more members to the Swadling DNA Project which was started last year.


But most important of them all. New Year's Resolution Number 5.
Finish all outstanding family history projects before starting anything new!


Oh no, I'm going to very busy!
 

Happy New Year

A very belated Happy New Year to all.

I am in the process of setting up a website for my one name study. This is a slow process but if you have connections in Kent, Berkshire and Warwickshire you might find it interesting.

I will post a link in the next few weeks.

52 ancestors in 52 weeks # 9 Violet Elizabeth and Louisa Swaddling

At the end of February I once again visited the Wolfson Centre at the Library of Birmingham. This time I was looking for the marriage in 1906 of a Louisa Swaddling and the marriage in 1907 of a Violet Swaddling. There was a possibility that Louisa and Violet were related as you may have noticed that the Swadling is spelt with two DD’s instead of one. This isn’t a mistake. The most common spelling of Swadling is Swadling but over the years it has also been spelt with an extra D. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was not uncommon for an extra E to be added at the end or the G to be missed off all together.

It also seemed that St James, Aston Park was a popular church for visiting Swadlings. Although I was unable to find a marriage there for Louisa is 1906, I did find the certificate for a marriage on the 7^th January 1907 between Violet Elizabeth Swadling and Robert Brown Greatrix.

The certificate stated that Violet Elizabeth was 26, which meant that she had been born around 1880, and her abode at the time of the marriage was 42 Potters Hill, Aston. Her father’s name was James and he was employed as a Ladder maker. Robert was 23 years old and was living at 24 Potters Hill, Aston. He was employed as a coachman and his father was called Richard and he was also a coachman. The witnesses at the wedding were William John Quarterman and Rose Adams.

By 1911 Violet and Robert had set up home in Yardley and from the census information I found out that Violet had been born in Rotherhithe in London. I checked the 1881 census and found her living with her parents James and Elizabeth at 170 Evelyn Street in London. James was a Wood Turner and Ladder maker who had been born in Woolwich in Kent in 1856 and Elizabeth had been born in Portsmouth in Hampshire in 1850.

Violet Elizabeth Swaddling was born on the 10^th July 1879 and baptised on the 4^th of July 1883 at St Barnabus Rotherhithe. At the bottom of the previous page in the register was an entry for the baptism of a Louisa Swaddling. Her parents were also James and Elizabeth Swaddling and her date of birth was the 27^th April 1881. Both of the girls were residing at 5 Osprey Street at the time of their baptism so they were definitely sisters.

In the spring of 1891 Violet, her mother Elizabeth and sister Louisa had moved from London and were now living in Holland Road, Aston Manor on the outskirts of Birmingham. Her father James was employed as a Travelling Advertising Agent and he was residing in Wellington Street in Barnsley, Yorkshire on the night the 1891 census was taken. I have been unable to find any other references for James after this.

In 1901 Violet was working as a domestic cook and was employed by George Blakemore the Licenced Victualler at the Red Lion Inn in the village of Knowle near Solihull. Elizabeth and Louisa were still in Aston Manor. Elizabeth was working as a charwoman and Louisa who was now 19 years old and working as a cycle chain driller.

When Violet married she left her job with George Blakemore and she and Robert set up home in Yardley, south of Birmingham.  She became pregnant very soon after her marriage and gave birth to twins, Robert Brown and Violet Sarah on the 27^th December 1907. They were baptised at St Edburgha church in Yardley on the 22^nd January 1908. Early in 1909 Violet gave birth to another daughter Ida and she was also baptised at St Edburgha on the 14^th February.

By the spring of 1911 Robert and Violet had moved from Yardley to 138 Avon Row in Warwick and Violet gave birth to another daughter Louisa on the 20th May 1911.

The War in Europe began in the autumn of 1914 and army records show that Private 15482 Robert Brown Greatrix enlisted on the 30^th October 1915 with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He only served 130 days before being discharged on the 8^th March 1916. The reason for his discharge was, “not being likely to become an efficient soldier”. This seemed a strange reason as I am sure many new recruits weren’t efficient – being competent or capable – in their new career.

After his discharge Robert returned to the family home in Warwick. In late 1916 Violet found out that she was pregnant again. Another son John William was born in June 1917. Violet became pregnant again in the summer of 1920 just days before she was about to give birth the family suffered a shattering blow. John William died on the 2^nd of March at the age of 3 years and 8 months at the Warneford Hospital. The only reference I can find for The Warneford Hospital was that it was in Oxford and listed as a Hospital for mental disorders and provided private treatment and care of mental patients. I have checked the Internet and can only find information referring to adult patients being admitted there. So what was John William doing there? Had he been born with a cognitive disability or had he sustained an injury so that he required hospital admission and care for a period of time? Only his death certificate will say for sure. He was buried on the 8^th of March at the Warwick Cemetery. Within a week of the funeral Violet went into labour and gave birth to a daughter Gwendoline Mary on the 14^th March.

In 1930 Robert Brown junior married Doris Simpson and in 1931 they had a daughter Betty. Sadly she died when she was only a few weeks old. A second daughter was born in 1938. Doris died in 1944 at the age of 40 and Robert remarried in 1946. After his death in 1975 his widow Ethel remarried and died in 1993.

Robert Brown Greatrix died on the Wednesday 14^th September 1932 at his home at 138 Avon Street Warwick. He was only 49 years old and had retired through ill health as a Motor Cleaner prior to his death. His burial took place four days later at 2.30 on the Saturday afternoon. Canon Beibity conducted the ceremony. Probate on his estate was granted in London on the 8^th November and valued at £184 7s 6d which he left to his widow Violet Elizabeth.

Ida and Louisa Greatrix both married in the summer of 1935. They married two brothers Geoffrey John and Edward Frank Bullman. On the General Register Office indexes there were two children born to a Bullman and Greatrix marriage. Unfortunately I am unable to work out if they were Ida’s or Louisa’s children.

Edward Frank Bullman had been living at 33 Thomas Landsdail Street Coventry before he was admitted to the Municipal Hospital Southend Essex. He died in hospital on the 5^th August 1944. The probate to his estate was granted in Birmingham and he left £586 to his widow Louisa. She remarried in 1946 and died in 1999 in the Coventry area.

Ida was only 51 years old when she also died in the Coventry area in 1960. Her husband Geoffrey John Bullman died in June 1991 at the age of 82.

Violet Sarah married in 1937 and died at the age of 51 in 1971. She and her husband remained childless.

The youngest daughter Gwendoline Mary married Thomas Nicholson in 1945 and they had three children. Gwendoline died at the age of 83 in 2005.

Violet Elizabeth Greatrix died on Friday 24^th June 1955 at her home in Kenilworth Road Leamington Spa. She was 75 years old. She was buried near to her husband in Warwick Cemetery on Wednesday 9^th June at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The Revered Goodwin conducted the funeral ceremony. 

Although I couldn’t find a marriage for Louisa at St James, I did find her on the 1911 census. She was the wife of a William John Quarterman. If you remember he was one of the witnesses at her sister’s marriage in 1907.

Louisa gave birth to a son, William, on the 7^th February 1907. Another son James was born on the 27^th February 1909 but he died when he was only a few months old. William junior married Annette Burley in 1928 and they had two daughters.

Louisa died in Birmingham in 1925. She was only 44 years old. William John Quarterman also died in Birmingham five years later. He was only 46 years old.

Violet and Louisa’s mother Elizabeth died in early 1912 at the age of 60. I’m not sure what happened to James as I was unable to find any further information about him after he was in Yorkshire in 1891.

52 Ancestors in 52 weeks # 8 Harry Swadling

On the 15^th February 2014 I attended a Guild of One-Name Studies Seminar in Telford in Shropshire. The seminar was entitled One-Name Studies – The Next Generation. The speakers were aged between 16 and 40 and the programme included each speaker explaining how they had began their One-Name Study and how they collected data using today’s technology.

It was during the first presentation that I learned about this challenge. What a brilliant idea I thought. I was certainly one of the many number of bloggers who didn’t post on their blogs on a regular basis. Well that’s not actually true. I did post on a regular basis – once a year, every New Year.

One speaker entitled her presentation  - the Name Collector and she explained a little about her study and why she had started it. She went on to tell the assembled group which web sites and software that she used to collect her data.

A far cry from when I began researching my family history in 1999 when the Internet or the World Wide Web was in its infancy. The Church of Latter Day Saints sponsored the only Internet based family history site with their online line search service called the International Genealogical Index.

Other options were to visit your local county records office or if you were lucky the largest library in each county to check little pieces of plastic covered in thousands of names on a projector like machine that magnified the images. I remember sitting at a microfiche reader in September 1999 trying to find the marriage of my paternal grandparents at the Old Birmingham Library on these little bits of plastic. Once the marriage details were found. I then had to write a cheque and send a request for the certificate to the register office where the marriage had been registered. That process would take over a week!

How things have changed. I can now carry out research without leaving my comfort of my own home. I use two main sites Find My Past and Ancestry to find data. Admittedly they are pay to view sites but in my option well worth the money. Also on line are many free view sites. FreeBMD is just one of these.

So I have decided for this week’s ancestors I am going to only use the Internet to research the family of an unknown Swadling. But how was I going to choose the ancestor? I put the name Swadling into google search engine and my blog and Guild of One-Name Study profile came up together with information about living Swadlings. Not an option as I’m not prepared to write about living Swadlings as I don’t have their permission to do so. So I then put Swadling family into google search and came up with many references to the names of Swadlings but this time the articles included data that had been published by family members. Also not an option as this is someone else’s research. So how was I going to pick a suitable candidate? I decided to pick a name from the General Register Office birth registrations listed on the FreeBMD website which anyone can search for free. And the lucky victim, I mean candidate, is Harry Swadling. So by just using the Internet I will hopefully find out who his family were and what happened to him?

Harry’s birth was registered in the Marylebone registration district of London in the December quarter of 1858 which meant that he was born between September and December of that year.

In 1861 at the age of two Harry was living in Marylebone with his parents Henry aged 42, who was employed as a stoker at the Marylebone Baths, and his mother Priscilla age 38. His father was born in London but his mother’s birthplace was not listed. Harry had three older sisters, Sarah aged 15 and Dinah Mary aged 13 who had both been born in Sydenham in Kent and Emma aged 7 who had been born in Marylebone.

I checked some of the London parish registers and found that Henry and Priscilla Tinson had married at St Mary’s Paddington Green on the 15 July 1845. I also found out that Harry had two other siblings who had died before he was born. Elizabeth Martha and Richard.

By 1871 Harry was working as an Errand Boy and living at home with his widowed mother Priscilla and his two older sisters Sarah and Emma. His sister Dinah Mary had died in 1863 and his father Henry had died in 1866. Also boarding at the property was William Coe, Harry’s future brother in law. There was also a mysterious grandchild of Priscilla’s called William Hoileg aged 2 listed as living at them. I have been unable to establish who this child’s parents are.

Emma married William Robert Coe just a week after the census was taken and it looks like they may have immigrated to New Zealand. Sarah married William Whittick in 1874, a widower 15 years her senior and they had several children.

On the 1881 census, Henry Swadling, was a servant at St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics on City Road London. His mother was now living with Sarah and William.

On the 6^th August 1882 Harry married Annie White at St Mary Bryanston Square and they had two sons, Henry Richard born in 1883 and Edward George born in 1884. Edward George died when he was only a few months.

In 1891 Henry, Annie and Henry Richard were living in Chapel Street, Marylebone and Harry was employed as a Porter at Mansions. I assume that this could have been a hotel. By 1901 Harry and his family had now moved to Paddington but he was still working as a mansions porter. Henry was employed as a Builders Clerk. Harry’s mother Priscilla was still living with his sister Sarah and several of her children. Sarah was now also a widow.

Henry Richard married Mary Dorothy Calcutt in 1906 in and they had three children Henry Richard Charles, Edward Griffiths and Leslie, who died at the age of ten in 1920. In 1911 Henry was working as a moneylender’s clerk and the family were living in Fulham. Harry and Annie were living in Kensington in 1911 and were employed as servants by a widow Mrs Eleanor Sickert.  Harry was listed as a manservant and Annie was a housemaid, which seemed a strange occupation for a 60 year old? Harry’s mother Priscilla died just after the census was taken at the age of 89. 

Henry Richard Charles married but it looks like he and his wife Frances were unable to have any children. He died at the age of 77 in 1984.

Edward Griffiths married Ethel and they had one daughter Sylvia. Edward Griffiths died at the age of 82 in 1994. Sylvia was the last Swadling on this family tree. She married and had three children.

As for Harry, he and Annie were living a 9 Horbury Crescent, Kensington in 1930 but I’m not sure what happened to him after that. Annie died in 1937 at the age of 85.

So that’s the family history for Harry Swadling with all the information courtesy of the Internet.

52 ancestors 52 weeks # 7 James Swadling

Periodically the pay per view family history websites offer free access weekends. One such offer gave me the opportunity to search the British Newspapers 1710 – 1953.

Imagine my surprise when I found two articles that included references to my great grandfather James Swadling. I eagerly opened the documents. What had been written about him? What? He had been arrested and remanded on charges of embezzlement! No it couldn’t be true.

The first article published in the Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper dated Sunday 13^th October 1895 stated that “A well know official named James Swadling, in the employ of the Patent Shaft Company, was today charged with embezzling money belonging to his employers. It had been the prisoner’s duty to pay the wages at collieries belonging to the company, and an examination of accounts showed that he had appropriated considerable sums of money. Prisoner was remanded. His arrest caused a concaternation in the town.” 

The second, much shorter, article was published in the Birmingham Daily Post dated Monday 14^th October 1895 and headed CHARGE OF EMBEZZLEMENT. It continued, “At a special court, on Saturday, James Swadling, of Windmill Street, Wednesbury, was remanded until tomorrow on a charge of embezzling sums of money, the property of his late employers, the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company”.

I was in shock. My great grandfather embezzling money? It couldn’t be true! I searched in vain for further articles about the case but there were no other references. So what was the outcome? Surely he was innocent and it was a mistake. But how could I find out about the case?

In October last year I managed to get in touch with members of the Wednesbury family history society and a gentleman named Ian offered to check out the records at his local library the next time he was there. I eagerly awaited his findings.

On the 10^th February 2014 the wait was over. I received a letter from Ian. He included a photocopy of an article he had found entitled FRAUD BY A WEDNESBURY CLERK in the Midland Advertiser dated Saturday 19^th October 1895. So I was about to find out the truth.

As I read the article it appeared that James had attended the Police Court in Wednesbury before the Stipendiary or Magistrate on the charge of embezzling two sums of money from his employers. He was employed as a pay clerk and would go to Millfield Colliery near Wednesbury every Saturday and pay the men’s wages. His modus operandi or habit of working his crime was to add up the columns in the pay book and make the totals greater than they were while he was preparing the wages for the men. Sometimes it would be five shillings and sometimes it would be ten shillings and this money he would keep for himself. Although this had been happening for a couple of years or so the prosecution only extended over two fortnights ending the 14^th and 28^th of September when the deficiencies of £2 and 10 shillings and £4 and 5 shillings were shown. When he was asked about the discrepancies in his pay book. He explained how he had acquired the money. It transpired that James had formed the habit of attending horse racing and practising betting.

James had been employed by the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company for twenty years and was a trusted employee. The company stated that this betrayal of their trust deserved severe punishment and they wanted the case dealt with as quickly as it could but they wanted sufficient punishment that would then deter others from further offences.

James pleaded guilty to the charges and read a statement to the effect that his difficulties began with the breaking up of his home, owing to becoming surety or guarantor for a friend. He took the first 10s when he found he was short of money and when it wasn’t detected he had taken more money from time to time. He deeply regretted that he had given less consideration to the Company and his wife and children than he had given to others and asked the magistrate to deal with him under the First Offenders Act. This act enabled a magistrate to place a guilty person on probation and not give them a prison sentence. Unfortunately for James the magistrate didn’t give him a suspended sentence and probation. He sent him to gaol for four calendar months with hard labour.

I may never find out where James was incarcerated but I do know what might have happened to him while he was in goal. He might have become one of the many prisoners who were used as cheap labour and involved in manual tasks such as digging in quarries or helping with road building. The ethos behind manual labour was to teach prisoner the value of hard work, to stop prisoners being idle, remove the temptation for them to get into mischief and deter them from committing further crimes.

He would possibly have been segregated from the other prisoners and more serious form of punishment could have been the treadmill or the crank handle. Both were laborious and seemed to serve no purpose. The treadmill was a set of revolving steps, placed in the cell, that the prisoner would walk on for many hours at a time only stopping for a few minutes rest periodically. The crank handle was also placed in the cell and the prisoner would sit for hours just turning the handle

Over the years I have often wondered why some of my ancestors had moved from one place to another. In 1901 James and his wife Emily and their family were living at 82 Willes Street, Winson Green a suburb of Birmingham. Had his brush with the law or the shame of his crime been the reason why James left Wednesbury. Or had he been incarcerated at Winson Green prison on Winson Green Road in Birmingham and been granted probation for being a model prison but had to stay close by. Or was it just coincidence that he moved to a house that was only one and half miles from Winson Green Prison? That I will never know but what I do know is that James and his family stayed in the Winson Green area for over thirty years until he and Emily went to live with their youngest daughter Dora when they could now longer look after themselves.