Hi

[SRD]

Hi, I was recommended to join here by the good people of Black Country Connections and Cradley Links. My father, Anthony Brian HINGLEY, came from the Black Country and I am interested in information regarding him and his forebears.

My grandfather was Horace James HINGLEY, he lived in Compton Road, Cradley Heath. He worked for GWR as a clerk (at Birmingham, Snowhill I think) then as a solicitors clerk in Stourbridge (I think). He was an active Mason (I think at the Rowley Regis lodge). He had a sister Milly who married Jim JOHNSON, a tool maker, they lived in Witley Avenue, Halesowen. For many years my great-grandmother (research suggests she was Lydia Sarah) lived with them in Halesowen.

My grandmother was Fanny Louise BIRCH, I understand that her family ran a bakery and had a handful of shops in the area but these were sold before I was born. She had a younger sister, Minnie, who married the firm's delivery man, Tom TANDY, who came from the countryside having been a carter for a farm, possibly at Clent, Romsley or Belbroughton. They lived in the Birch family home; High House in Lawrence Lane, Old Hill. I understand that there was an older brother too; family gossip was that he ran off with a barmaid to run a pub, anathema to the church going Birches, my grandmother never referred to him but my great-aunt, who was much more down-to-earth, did acknowledge his existence even if she knew nothing else about him.

We are a small family; my father was an only child and was killed in 1959, with no siblings or direct cousins, and I was his only child. So I am the last living member of my branch of the Hingley family. The only memories are those told me by my mother, Audrey HAINES who died in 2004.

I have a website at http://www.riverdale.org.uk/ where there are pages regarding my father and the family tree I have managed to put together with the (considerable) help of those mentioned above.

I'm looking forward to getting to know people here and, hopefully, find out a little more about my family.

[snoopysue]

Hi SRD

Welcome to the forum.
I'm sure you'll find a lot of help here

[Annie]

Hello SRD and welcome to the forum.

Annie

[mallosa]

Hi Simon and welcome!

What a lovely website you have, and great photos

[Northern Lass]

Hi Simon

Glad to have you with us

if you scroll down to the Black Country Genealogy section and pop a post in
on which ancestor you want help with we will do our best to help you.

Do we have any of yours on BCC so we can start with a link and build?

[peterd]

Hi Simon welcome to the forum

[Maths girl]

Hi Simon and welcome to the forum.

Compton Road, Cradley Heath jumped out at me from your initial post as that was where my grandparents lived from the late 1950's until the early 1970's when they died.

I also remember my aunt and mother discussing how they always got there cakes from Birches so that rang a bell too.

Hopefully we can fill in a few gaps for you too.

Maths girl

[SRD]

Hi Simon and welcome to the forum.

Compton Road, Cradley Heath jumped out at me from your initial post as that was where my grandparents lived from the late 1950's until the early 1970's when they died.

I also remember my aunt and mother discussing how they always got there cakes from Birches so that rang a bell too.

Hopefully we can fill in a few gaps for you too.

Maths girl

Have you used google street view to 'take a stroll' down Compton Road and see if you can pin point their house? My grandparents house was nearly at the corner of Sydney Road, the black and white one with the timbered porch .

[Maths girl]

Have you used google street view to 'take a stroll' down Compton Road and see if you can pin point their house? My grandparents house was nearly at the corner of Sydney Road, the black and white one with the timbered porch .

I've just tried as my grandparents lived in one of the first 2/3 semi detached houses ( a left hand one) on the left as you turn into compton road from Sydney road --- is your grandparents house still there or was it on the other side of the road where there appears to have been a new house built?

[SRD]

It may be that my great aunt and uncle Tandy moved into the one your grand-parents vacated, on street view it's the one with the scruffy green garage door. My grandparents lived 30 yards further up on the opposite (right hand side), the house is white and black timbered, red brick base, purple estate car passing by outside.

I've taken a stroll up to the 5 ways things have changed more than a little; The mews cottages near the top where Compton Road meets St Annes Road have gone, Dudley & Dowell steelworks have gone and the little pub/cafe opposite has too. I remember being in there one mid-morning having a little stiffener and watching the barman pull up pint after pint of Banks's Mild and stacking them along the bar, on the hour the factory hooter sounded and the pub was full of steel men who sank pint after pint, after 15 minutes the hooter sounded again and they were gone, the bar was full of empty glasses and the barman started gathering them up to wash them before repeating the process for midday. Along St Annes Road the parade of shops where there was a sweet shop and a ladies outfitters/haberdashers (Trude something or other worked there before moving out to the country to run a farm that had fields of daffodils), The chapel on the right where we'd go to listen to the local choral society sing Gilbert & Sullivan have all gone, the Little Pub Company pub (The Cradley Sausage Works) which had been an Ind Coope pub is now a private house, the Banks's pubs on the right have both gone and The Five Ways on the other side of the road is up for sale. Down to the right on the corner of Sydney Street and Lower High Street the Swan With Two Necks has gone as has the pub opposite the station, everywhere are estates of matchbox houses looking exactly the same. In the High Street I see Evans the chemist is still there (I quite fancied a girl who worked in there) and there's still a cafe where the hot pork sandwich shop was (fancy having a shop dedicated to providing just hot pork sandwiches with stuffing and gravy ).

[Maths girl]

The house would have been sold late 1976 and it was number 37 and I think it is the one 2 doors away from the one you say your aunt and uncle had which has now had its front wall knocked down and the garage made into an extension.

If you were ever visiting in the the mid 70's and saw a gymnast using the front wall as a beam that would have been my sister -- cartwheeling her way along!

[grangers14]

Hi SRD,
I hope you enjoy the forum and our company.
Jo