Basterfields and the Road to Barrow

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This article was written by Nigel Brown on Cradley Links, but I thought it was so interesting regarding the Basterfields of Halesowen I would put it on here:-

As for Barrow, my own great great grandfather Ben Attwood did exactly the
same thing at much the same time, as did scores perhaps hundreds of others
in the iron trades in Cradley and Halesowen. The reason for the exodus was a
general depression/recession in the economy and the localised relative
prosperity of the Barrow area due to the growth of steel shipbuilding. In
general they would have made the journey by train, the last leg on the new
Furness Railway. I know that at least one man named Basterfield, Benjamin
again I think, from Halesowen - a distant cousin of ours through a marriage
of Sarah Basterfield to Joseph Attwood (my 3 x great grandfather's brother)
- walked there, and his son or brother George later became a mayor of the
town.