Suffer the Children: tears with fears for hypocrisy in austerity

Back in October 2010 when Mike Bird was in charge of Walsall Council, he and his party thought it might be a great idea to close libraries. Mike was even quoted as saying  'People can download books, we don't have to have bricks and mortar to give people access to reading materials any more'. Contrast this to the events in the last few months during the no overall control Labour administration budget consultation exercise. At the full council meeting on 12 January this year Mike tabled a motion to save two libraries, Pheasey  (which happens to be in our former leader's ward) and his best tory mates ward, Streetly. The motion failed but Mike lived to fight this cause another day and that day came two weeks ago at the council meeting where the budget for 2015/16 was decided.

Labour had a problem at that meeting. They're in charge of the council but don't have an overall majority and so a deal with the devil in the form of Mike Bird's Tories had to be done in order for the budget to be passed. The deal was done and Mike got a reprieve for the libraries but also involved with the deal was garden waste collection savings and street cleaning savings. What stuck in the throat following the meeting was this exchange of tweets:

I'm not quite sure what has happened to democracy in Walsall but it doesn't live here any more.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy that the libraries were saved from closure at least for the next 12 months. As can be seen from my earlier blog I don't agree with any library being closed but it is amazing how the opinion of a politician can be changed, nay completely overturned when it is advantageous to the individual concerned. Or perhaps I'm being a little ungenerous and Mike Bird did find his own road to Damascus running right through the Pheasey.

The enormous cuts that our local council has to make are forced upon them by the current coalition government and their now failed austerity policies. One of the mantras that Cameron and his cronies has used is that it is unfair to saddle our young people of today with the debts of their seniors, way into the future. We have to pay now so that our children don't have to. Yet their austerity policies mean that our children and young people are paying very dearly today despite all protestations. In Walsall they are paying whilst they are in still in the cradle.

Children's Centres are to close. These centres provide a myriad of support to parents and children including advice on multiple child centred problems, before and after school clubs, nursery education, playgroups, legal help, space for parents to meet and consult with child health and care professionals who may be based on the other side of the borough, in fact they were designed to be a one stop centre for anything to do with families; all facilities under one roof. To many they are a life changing and life saving service. Now they are gone.

All youth centres in Walsall apart from one are to close including the one that I have previously written about so much; Aldridge Manor. I'll not go into all the arguments again as to why this is such a backward step but it makes me weep that the only youth services in Aldridge will be provided by churches. Some young people, my own included, are not interested in the God focussed reflection time or in a club that is entirely based upon worship. 

These are the head-liners although you would be hard pressed to find any headlines about the loss of these important and vital services, children aren't part of the electorate and so don't really count but there are other cuts to many services for children such as: short breaks for children with disabilities, reducing the use of taxis for children in care (and the much maligned and so nearly in special measures whilst Bird was in charge, Walsall's Children's Services as a whole isn't out of the woods yet)  reducing expenditure on school bus passes and restricting the eligibility for Special Needs transport, reductions in career advice, support and guidance.

It's OK though because the bins will be emptied, our garden waste will be carried away for 8 months of the year, no parking charges will be imposed in local town centres and the streets will be cleaned. Is this what we've come to? Are bins, street cleaning and free parking more important than services for our children and young people? Labour got bad advice with regard to identifying areas for cuts and charges and then used that bad advice as a basis for their consultation. Consultation is good. Consultation with options based on poor advice is not worth the effort that went into it.

The children and young people of Walsall are being ignored and are paying now for austerity and all the political parties involved in setting this years budget bear responsibility for that.

Wonderful Walsall

 I've said it before and I'm saying it again, I like where I live and I'm proud to say where I come from. Walsall and its composite towns has many minuses and I'll shout about those as loudly as anyone else but it also has some incredible plus points and I'll shout more loudly about those.

Despite all the budgetary cuts over recent years Walsall's crown jewels remain its local nature reserves and green spaces. Yes, there appears to have been a rise in anti social behaviour and yes, some of the local nature reserves seem less (to me) to be pro actively managed and more prone to a sticking plaster approach but they are managing to survive more or less in tact at present. We'll have to see how things pan put as the cuts bite deeper.

I walked from Rushall today through Park Lime Pits, along the canal, up through Hayhead Wood and The Dingle into Aldridge. I still marvel at the blessed peace that for the majority part, envelopes this walk. After all these years I still cannot get over the fact that most of the walk is about 2 miles from the centre of Walsall Town.

The walk encompasses an area that was once heavily industrial, dealing in the mining of limestone, fullers earth and ironstone, hence the building of the canal to transport the raw materials. There were also many lime kilns and here and there you can still spot a mound or the remains of brick walls that once stood witness to industrial processing.

Mother Nature has now reclaimed her bounty to share with us once again. It isn't stunning or even beautiful countryside but it is lovely countryside within an urban borough and it is ours to enjoy whilst we can.

On the walk I witnessed three buzzards circling over heard and heard two green woodpeckers calling to one another. There was no sign of the lapwings that come to nest at Lime Pits Farm each year but there's still time for them to arrive. I saw a plethora of other birds including two little owls near Riddians Bridge, a grey wagtail in The Dingle and tree creepers in Hayhead Wood. We are blessed with good bird watching right in the heart of the borough.

I did notice that the canal looked particularly murky today and there was a layer of something not quite nice, thick at Daw End but gradually thinning out the closer I got to Longwood Bridge. Normally the canal is very clear on this stretch and I often marvel at the size of the fish as do the herons but there were no herons today, which is highly unusual. The angling isn't good down there are the moment so I'm told and I did reflect on whether whatever is happening right by the canal in Winterley Lane might be having unwanted consequences on the canal ecology and environment. I shall be investigating this further!

The walk gave me time for gentle reflection and thought aided by the fact that I only encountered three other people throughout, a blessing that only comes from taking this walk on a weekday when the children are at school. At any other time it can be busy with local people enjoying this free and wonderful resource.

 If you have a wildlife mad child that worships at the feet of Chris Packham, you will not go far wrong in taking them along this walk because apart from bird watching, tree, plant, mammal and insect identification, you can run, pretend you're in a jungle with all the vine type plantation that hangs from the trees, walk in wellies through streams and pond dip. Walsall provides a wealth of  wonderful wildlife for everyone.

I even saw my first of the year, red admiral butterfly today.

Walsall is Wonderful....sometimes!

Development by Stealth

Badly needed new homes on the green belt

 Forgive me, two blogs in one day and the resulting hogging of TheYamYam's front page. Makes a change from Ian Shires doesn't it?!

A couple of weeks ago I was bemoaning what I consider to be the unacceptable face of development in the Croft Conservation Area in Aldridge. Today I'm back on a similar subject.

The back elevation of the new church rooms

I have every sympathy with the Planning Department at Walsall Council. Like every council in the land when it comes to development they have to weigh up and take into account an awful lot of opinions plus unitary development plans, government legislation and the policies of whomever its local political masters are at the time. However, I do sometimes wonder what on earth goes on when recommendations are made in favour of some developments and their design and whether there are different rules that come into play for certain people and organisations.

The front elevation of the new church rooms

Housing is currently a big discussion point with the General Election looming and nobody can deny that we do need to build more homes for ordinary people to live in. You know the sort, two and three bedroomed houses with little gardens, usually in some form of estate type build, for the masses. To make things easier for developers who would have their plans for building on Green Belt land thwarted by ordinary locals who are rather fond of the green lung that surrounds their urban area and the opportunities it gives them for exercise, relaxation and even a little fresher, cleaner air, our current coalition government have made all sorts of amendments to existing planning laws and made up some new ones too. As time goes by there will be many that will regret that we have allowed our green belt to be gradually stolen right from under our noses.

What remains of the 'new' rectory

One such development that was given the green light on green belt is a rather flash 'exclusive' type gated, walled development of enormous houses just at the back of the Parish Church in Aldridge. A lovely spot. Fantastic views. Protected. On Green Belt. Of course Aldridge is crying out for homes of this type because it really doesn't have enough to go round. It is interesting to note that the homes come ready supplied with exterior security cameras just in case anyone wonders off path from The Redhouse. Of course they're not the only homes that have been built in this area in recent times. A precedent was set a few years ago and inch by inch Aldridge is expanding towards Little Aston.

Not two paces away from these much needed homes for the well heeled are the remains of what was the Rectory. It never won any awards for its architecture being a house of its time, the 1960s but it will be replaced and will be joined by more large houses in another exclusive development for those who can afford to pay for the views and the exclusivity and where there was one house, there will be several and another little bit of green in our conservation area will be gone.

Another couple of paces bring us to the new Parish Church Rooms. From the front elevation they are reasonably pleasing and I rather like the use of the coloured glass but the view from the back, from the public footpath, well let's be generous and say not quite as much thought went into this elevation and the fence! Who allowed this fence to be erected in the conservation area?

I'm not against all development at all. What I am against is the stealing by stealth of our green belt in order to provide homes for the more affluent in our society who can afford to pay the premium required because possibly/maybe someone had a very dry palm and the developers, land owners needed to buy them moisturiser. I also object to the lack of thought  by architects and planners in designing and allowing ugly looking buildings that are not in keeping with their surroundings, to be erected in conservation zones.

Rant over...for now.

The Forgotten

 You may not realise but in amongst the graves of mere mortals in Aldridge Cemetery there are at least half a dozen Commonwealth War Graves. I do not know for definite but I should imagine they are the graves of local young men who had joined up and somehow managed to find a final resting place in their home village. Certainly some of the names are familiar to me as belonging to families that have long roots in Aldridge. All of them died during World War Two.

Aldridge Cemetery has a lovely setting. It lies high in the village, behind the church and next to the cricket field. Although many graves appear to be attended regularly the graveyard itself is in a sad state of neglect. The paths are filled with fallen logs, twigs and branches. The rabbits have done untold damage to some graves where the headstones lean heavily towards recently dug holes. Even at this time of the year, after winter, the grass is in an unkempt state although at least it is short, for in summer it is often taller than knee high. The brambles are already sending out tendrils ready to wrap themselves the feet of the unwary when attempting to walk on the pathways, some of which are now extremely narrow due to overgrown verges.

For once Walsall Council cannot be blamed for as can be seen from the notice above, the cemetery belongs to the Parish Church.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission are in theory responsible for the maintenance of the war graves however as the graves in Aldridge Cemetary are classified as 'scattered graves' in amongst non-war dead graves that are not theirs to maintain, it is a difficult mission. The information given on the CWGC web site says:

" the CWGC has had to adopt a practical approach to care. The headstone should be clean and upright and the surrounds should be tidy. The grave should be accessible but it is generally not possible to establish or maintain border planting in front of the grave "

 From the photographs that I took today it can be seen that the surrounds of these war graves are not tidy nor in every case are they easily accessible and the Church itself warns that the ground is uneven. I have visited during the summer months and the graves have at times been almost invisible through the long grass growing around them.

It's a sad state of affairs. If the crowds that gather each Remembrance Sunday at the cenotaph in Aldridge are anything to go by, Aldridge has not forgotten its war dead and those that made the ultimate sacrifice in serving their country however, just a hundred yards from the cenotaph the war dead who found a resting place at home, do indeed appear to have been forgotten.

Walking the familiar

The view from the top of Whetstone Lane

 I haven't much felt like engaging with the world in a social manner just recently. It's been a case of staying indoors and avoiding people and even avoiding in depth conversations on-line. Today I decided that a walk would help because after all, walking has always helped me think things through.

Hidden away, one of the oldest buildings in Aldridge

I kept to the mean streets of Aldridge and started on a route that was very familiar to me for many years, up Whetstone Lane towards the school that my children once attended. Familiar and yet changed since I last walked. Half way up there is a development being built on what was once one detached house with an enormous garden. Now soon to be an "exclusive development" no less, of five detached houses, presumably with very small gardens and being overlooked by lots of houses that have been there for years the occupiers of which, were probably none too pleased when the notice of the planning application dropped through their letterboxes.

The shops on the corner of Churnhill Road had also changed and a house had been built on land where there used to be another house. 

Not hidden, the newest and one of the ugliest buildings in Aldridge

As I rounded the summit of Whetstone Lane I stopped to admire the view from up there. You sometimes forget just how elevated Aldridge is, especially if you've not rode a bike back there too recently and I haven't. The view stretches out past Sutton Park and on a clear day and from the right angle you can see Lichfield Cathedral. My Dad used to stand a top that hill back in the 30s, his view uninterrupted by houses and plot which orchard would be next in line for his scrumping activities.

Prison?

More from the conservation area

I turned into Erdington Road and began the climb back towards the centre of Aldridge. The area around The Croft in Aldridge is a conservation zone, so it makes me wonder what entered the heads of those who approved the planning application for the Croft Centre, some sort of gated and walled retirement "community" for those who can afford to pay for its facilities. Bay Tree House, a council run residential facility for the elderly formerly occupied this space. It would never have won any prizes for its design but it was brick built, two storeys high and well screened and hidden by dozens of mature trees, the majority of which were felled to allow for the building of Aldridge's own Alcatraz. For that is what the building resembles to me; a prison. It is dreary, lacking any imagination and so out of place in our conservation zone. It sits opposite one of the oldest houses in Aldridge, which can be glimpsed through the bare hedges at this time of the year, a house I've often thought of as being a pleasant place to live, being on the edge of The Croft. No longer, who would want to look out of their bedroom window and look at the Croft Prison? The inmates will have a much better view as can be seen from the photographs here.

Parish Church

Once passed the Church I lingered a while opposite the Manor House. Last night I discovered that along with all other youth facilities in Walsall, bar one, The Manor House Youth Centre will permanently close on 1 September this year. Thus the battle to keep The Manor House Youth Centre open in some form or another has finally been lost and presumably the plans to sell the House and its substantial grounds, formed by the last Tory administration of Walsall Council will be enacted. Another slice of Aldridge history to be lost. The fact that the house is a grade 2 listed building I doubt will hinder any plans by a future buyer to blight further our conservation zone if the current construction site is an example.

Soon to be sold. The Manor House

Our MP Richard Shepherd is retiring in May and recently the Tories selected a new prospective parliamentary candidate (or prospective MP as she styles herself on Twitter) called Wendy Morton. Being a proud Yorkshire lass I doubt she knows too much about the history of Aldridge Brownhills. Unfortunately the history of Aldridge doesn't get a lot of publicity but she can brush up on Walsall Wood and Brownhills by getting her teeth into Brownhills Bob's wonderful blog . I wondered what Wendy's views were on how this historical asset should be utilised, so I sent her a tweet last night, captured below. Haven't had a response yet. 

I had hoped that my walk through the familiar would lift my spirits but instead it left me feeling angry. Progress is good and change is always needed to prevent us going stale but the changes I observed in Aldridge today are not good. They are further evidence of the wholesale destruction of everything that was pretty and picturesque in what is still called 'the village' by those who remember the village feel and look that Aldridge once had.

Zombie

It is said that there is very little good news. There is, so I'm told but good news doesn't make headlines and is seldom broadcast. The news output on the main TV channels this year has been utterly depressing and makes you wonder what hope there can be for human kind. As Dolores O'Riordan sang 'with their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns' the few are leaving a terrible trail of destruction in their wake and yes, Mothers' hearts are broken.

The one subject reported though that really has depressed me beyond belief has not been the direct slaughter of innocents by misinformed terrorists although that in itself could be enough to think there is no hope, no it's been the indirect slaughter of innocents by those in charge and who should know better, who are trusted to know better, are paid to know better but do not live in the same world as I do, yes I mean our politicians, our government and how they are allowing the NHS to die. Nor is it withering. It is a death by thousands of cuts, literally, and it is violent, dark and absolutely bloody heart breaking.

The privatising of vital NHS services, GPs 'purchasing' of vital services for their patients are bad enough but seeing A&E departments fall apart under the immense pressure of the needs of people requiring their services is observing the NHS in its death throes. It is not the fault of the staff who work in these departments who face an uphill and never ending battle every time they walk into work. No, there are a myriad of reasons but they all interlinked and they all come back to the tories and our coalition government.

It is in the personal interests of many high ranking tories including cabinet members to see the NHS die. They and their friends are shareholders and beneficiaries in the companies that will take over from the NHS; the insurance companies, the private health suppliers and providers, all there ready and waiting to step in because health services are no longer about benefiting the people be they sick or well but in need of advice, but are about profit.

The tories bleat long and hard about the GP contracts that the previous government introduced which have led to GPs no longer providing decent out of hours services but have they done anything about these contracts? No. They torment us with little snippets such as asking GPs to see more patients outside of normal working hours (and how many actually do that?) but there is little if anything else offered.

111 was supposed to be the saviour, a better service than NHS Direct. Get rid of the NHS marker, contract it out and make it better! Have you ever called 111? I have several times. My only advice is don't bother. The script they read from has to be strictly adhered to, there can be no deviations. It is take a paracetamol or go to A&E and virtually nothing in between.  One weekend in absolute facial agony with a swelling that made  me look like I'd done a few rounds with Mike Tyson,  I was given the phone number of a dentist that offered an out of hours service. I called them. It was 120 pounds to walk through the door and sit in the dentists chair plus there would be extra to pay for treatment and yes I made it clear that I was an NHS patient and not private. Needless to say I did not take up their generous offer and instead maxed out on painkillers for another 24 hours enduring the agony.

Over the last twenty years we've got used to hearing about hospitals streamlining their services because due to the improvements in procedures and care, patients can released home sooner and so beds available in hospitals  have been reduced. Trouble is that when there is a high demand for beds either the people waiting in A&E have to wait on trolleys, sometimes in corridors until a bed becomes available whilst the person who was utilising the services and the bed is discharged perhaps a little sooner than they should have been into a world where the services they need are either lacking or non-existent. Or maybe they are discharged only to be readmitted a few hours later via the auspices of A&E because they have suffered a catastrophic event entirely down to the fact that they were discharged too early. I could relate anecdotal stories to illustrate this of people who I know where this has happened but there really is no need because everyone reading this will have similar stories to tell.  Such is the pressure on beds.

Recently I sat for many hours going through the budget proposals of Walsall Council who have enormous cuts to make to services if the budget it to be legal. This too was heartbreaking. How on earth are you supposed to make informed comments and arguments about why certain services should not be cut or charges raised on those least able to afford them when there appears to be little alternative? Some of the proposals for adult care in the community for both young and old are nothing short of insulting and also discriminative. Discriminative because in my mind everyone should have the right to access the care and services they need to be able to lead a full and active life within the community and yet for those who are disabled in some way or are old are now being told that in order to to be on a level playing field with healthy and able bodied they must pay and pay dearly.

It is the local councils that are supposed to provide social care. For many people who are being discharged from hospital it is vital that this social care is in place and accessible as soon as they are discharged but the councils are having to cut or to charge for these services and the administrative merry go round that is encountered when attempting to arrange access for someone is such a nightmare. No wonder hospitals cannot discharge those that are well enough not to be in hospital but do require social care and services. It is cheaper for the council and the individual for people to remain in hospital, bed blocking.

These are the reasons A&E departments through the country cannot reach their targets and why people are kept waiting on trolleys for hours and sometimes days. It's all about money. Money to be made for shareholders and interested parties and money to be saved by councils by not providing services or providing them but charging and making them inaccessible to those who need them most.

Yes the NHS makes the headlines, the so called failures of A&E staff to meet targets. What isn't making the headlines and what isn't entering into the full consciousness of the British people in large numbers are the real reasons for these failures. It's all about money and profit. But you see it's not me, it's not my family......

The life and times of Henney; an ordinary but extraordinary woman

Lucky Horse Shoe courtesy of  www.indepthinfo.com

When researching your own family history, many ancestors are fascinating, interesting and their characters reach out to you across what can be hundreds of years. Occasionally you find someone that you would love to meet, to ask questions, seek motives and answers because their lives are so full of twists and turns and you can feel the force of someone who held on, no matter what. You suspect a strong personality, guts, determination and perhaps you see a little of yourself hidden by the generations. Henney Rowbotham Lloyd Mason Robinson is one such woman.

When I first came upon the identity of my Great Grandmother Henney I made an assumption that many have made; that her name was a shortened form of say, Henrietta. What I did not do, as many more have on their family trees on Ancestry, is to think she was a boy. Certainly the Rev. Fisher of St Giles Church, Willenhall thought that he was baptising a boy on 17 June 1849 and duly entered into his parish records that the baptism had taken place of Henry Rowbotham, son of Thomas, a lockmaker and Ann.  Either Rev Fisher didn't listen properly when asking the parents the child’s name or perhaps he had partaken of a little too much communion wine but Henney was Henney, not Henrietta and she was undoubtedly a girl. It is all recorded as such on her birth certificate.

Henney was born in Humpshire as Willenhall was (and still is if you are of a certain age) known locally, a name derived from the fact that many of the men in the town had a humpback derived from bending over their  lock making workbenches from a very young age. Her father Thomas was one of these lockmakers of whom by 1855 there numbered 340 in the town. Self employed, most workshops were backyard affairs and often whole families were employed in the business, down to young children filing keys. They worked long hours throughout the year, rising before 6 am to start work that would not finish until at least 7 pm. Locksmiths in Willenhall were paid less for their locks than elsewhere and yet they achieved worldwide recognition for their skills. This did not however detract from the fact that it was a hard life and that finished products from one week would have to be sold before the following weeks materials could be purchased. Despite this Thomas would appear to have made ends meet as he had at least two young men apprenticed to him over the years and advertised in the trade directories of the period. Furthermore at some stage he decided to retire from lockmaking and buy a pub in nearby Wednesfield. He was old by then but perhaps he considered the business of a licensed victualler to be less onerous than lockmaking.

Henney was the ninth child of Thomas and Ann who went on to have a total of twelve children that are known of. Alas for the couple, their three boys Thomas, Edward and John all died as very young babies but their girls flourished. All must have attended school or were taught to sign their names at the very least by their parents as they were no marks, when signing any documents of note. I get the feeling that these girls were proud of their father and of their name because there are several occurrences of children being given Rowbotham as a middle name, which what makes what happened to Henney puzzling. There are mysteries to which I will never know the answer but I do know one thing; Henney, my Great Grandmother was a survivor and she didn't always play by the rules that polite Victorian society kept or invented.

It is not known when and how Lewis Lloyd came into Henney’s life but he had been born and bred in Bilston, a few miles down the road. He was five years older than Henney and worked as a waggoner. He was illiterate, signing documents with the customary mark. Perhaps he conveyed locks that had been produced by Thomas or maybe they met at Willenhall market, either way it seems that fifteen year old Henney developed a passion for this young man and was headstrong enough to do something about it or perhaps she was led astray. We cannot be certain. What is known is that Henney removed herself to Bilston and satisfied the vicar of St Mary’s that she was 21 years old and therefore did not require her parent’s permission to wed and that she lived in Bilston. The banns were called. On Christmas Day 1864, when Henney was just 15 years old, she became a wife.

Where the young couple began their married life is lost in the midst of time but it is known that in the autumn of 1868, nearly four years later, they were in Caledonia Street Bilston long enough to baptise a daughter by the name of Anne Maria. Whether Henney had borne other children is a mystery. There appear to be no baptisms in the whole of Staffordshire for any other possible children of the marriage  prior to this, so maybe Henney did not have to marry so young but chose and wanted to do so, or maybe the stress and unhealthiness of her life in those years was such that any babies never went to full term. Poor Anne Maria didn't fair well; she died before the end of the year.

1869 was a momentous year for Henney. She and Lewis moved to Moseley Hole lying just south of  Portobello, close to Willenhall. By this time Lewis had become a bolt maker, so perhaps he had found a job at the colliery there where his skills would have been needed. During the summer, cases of smallpox began to increase in the Wolverhampton area, becoming a full blown epidemic killing thousands during 1870 and 1871. Lewis became one of the first to succumb during that damp, stormy but warm summer. Poor Henney was left a very young widow at the tender age of 20, worse she was pregnant again and gave birth soon afterwards to  Elizabeth Rowbotham Lloyd in Heath Town. Henney had a couple of sisters that had married and moved to the area and her parents were also by this time living in close proximity, so presumably she was relying upon their support rather than entering the workhouse, which must have loomed large as a real possibility following her husband’s death. I cannot think that Thomas and Ann had been agreeable or happy at Henney’s marriage at such a tender age because her sisters all waited until at least their twenties before embarking upon this change in status. Perhaps the intervening years had softened their disapproval and they were willing to help this child who now found herself in such dire straits.

I hope that Henney welcomed the advent of 1870 praying that the year could not work out as badly as the previous 12 months, losing a child, then her husband and then giving birth to young Elizabeth. Maybe she had already met William Mason or was there a whirlwind romance? William had been born in 1837 in Penn, so was a good 12/13 years older than Henney. He was one of eight children and had spent many years of his life following work in the wider Wolverhampton area. In 1870 he was still a bachelor at 32 and worked as a miner as he had since 14 years of age. Later he became a colliery horse keeper, beginning a line of work with horses and a love of horses that was common within the family for a couple of generations.

On 9 October 1870 Henney married William at Holy Trinity Church in Wednesfield. What attractions did this young single mother hold to lure a confirmed bachelor of 32 into marriage? William would have proved a shrewd choice of husband for he was hard working and no longer would Henney have to rely upon her family for what effectively was charity to keep her out of the workhouse.

Henney,William and young Elizabeth set up home in Deans Road Wednesfield. I hope that they enjoyed a decent quality of life for a while as disaster was about to strike for Henney once again. Towards the end of April 1872 young Elizabeth developed flu like symptoms and then began vomiting. Shortly afterwards the tell tale spots of smallpox erupted on her skin and in her mouth. She would have been highly contagious at this time as Henney would know from her previous experience of this disease. Henney must have been distraught to see her second child fighting for her life but I have questions for Henney. In 1867 vaccination against smallpox had been made virtually (the act ‘required’) compulsory for all children within 3 months of birth and was free. If parents failed to get their child vaccinated then the Registrar was required to deliver a notice of vaccination and if this was ignored then the parents were liable to a summary conviction and a fine of 20/-. Henney wasn't stupid, she could read, she knew how devastating the disease could be having lost Lewis and yet  Elizabeth, just two years old, died after suffering from smallpox for 12 days. William who had been present when his step daughter died registered her death on the very day of the event.

Fate left cruelty behind for a decent period whilst Henney and William got on with ordinary life. They stayed in Wednesfield for a few years and their first daughter Annie was born there in 1873. There was then a gap when they moved to Moseley Village and their second and third daughters Clara Leah born in January 1877 and Mary Ann Amelia (known as Millie) was born in November 1879. The 1870s saw the decline of mining in the Willenhall area, mines were closed and presumably in search of work William moved the family to Littleworth in Cannock where at the end of 1882 my grandfather John Thomas Mason was born. He was followed quickly by Henry in 1884 and very shortly afterwards the family moved to the Pool Green area of Aldridge, just a few yards down the road from where I live now. William was by now a colliery horse keeper but I am uncertain as to which colliery in the area he worked.

At some point towards the end of 1885, William hurt his leg and he developed a fever. On 21st January 1886 Henney became a widow for the second time when William died and was buried in the cemetery by Aldridge church. He was nearly 50 years old, whilst Henney was now approaching 37 and had five children to feed and clothe including a babe who was yet to celebrate his second birthday. Times were desperate and needs must to evade the workhouse but Henney was living in a small conservative village where everyone did know everyone and transgressions would be noticed and remarked upon.

Harriet Elizabeth Mason was born in Aldridge in the late spring of 1888. Her mother was Henney, her father? Well the surname she carried belonged to a man who had been dead for two years.The mystery is solved by examining the census of 1891. At 108 Albert Street Wednesbury one Thomas Robinson a 32 year old blacksmith born in Aldridge, is found living with his wife, Henney, his two stepsons John and Charles and also  his daughter Harriet, presumably named after her paternal Grandmother and a long dead sister.

Thomas Robinson was the son of Pool Green blacksmith John Robinson and his wife Harriet. John must have been making a decent living from his smithy as not only did Thomas serve his apprenticeship with his father but there were other apprentices too and a servant to attend to the family. When Henney and William had moved to Pool Green with their young family, Thomas would have been in his early twenties. He probably got to know the family well through William and his connections with horses and would have been near at hand when Henney was widowed. Clearly a close bond formed between the two and the result was Harriet. For some reason however Henney and Thomas did not marry despite the fact that legally there was no impediment and yet Harriet was openly acknowledged as Thomas’s daughter and Henney his wife, but not in Pool Green, they moved out of the village. Presumably Thomas’s family were not happy with developments and a young 26 year old getting together with a woman at least 11 years his senior with four children in tow. In other places Henney and Thomas would just be accepted as a married couple with no questions asked whereas in Aldridge there was history and the village gossips no doubt had a field day on the scandalous goings on!

By 1897 the gossipers had probably moved on to other subjects and Henney and Thomas moved back to Aldridge for a brief period. In the their time away Thomas’s mother had died and his father was now living alone in Pool Green. What made Henney and Thomas now decide to place their union on a legal footing is not known. Henney was now 48 approaching what was then old age, maybe she pestered Thomas for marriage knowing it offered her a little more security with him effectively still being a bachelor and not yet 40 years of age or perhaps Thomas wanted to do the right thing and make his father a little happier now they had returned to the village. Whatever the reason was, on 29th November 1897, Henney and Thomas married at the Register Office in Walsall and Henney’s oldest daughter Annie was a witness.

Clearly there was not enough work in Aldridge for Thomas and so the family moved to Hamstead Cottages next to Hamstead Colliery where he worked as a shoeing smith. In 1901 on census night the whole family were together. Annie was working in Birmingham as a domestic servant, John was home from the army, Charles was working as a blacksmith striker at the colliery and Harriet was at home with her Mother.

By 1911 Henney and Thomas were living on Hardwick Road in Streetly with Thomas now working for himself as a general and shoeing smith. Annie had married and had her own brood of four children living in Handsworth, John was also married with a child and living in Aston and Charles was working as a blacksmith in a foundry in Kilburn, Derbyshire. Only Harriet now 23 but still single remained at home. I am hoping that in these years life had been kinder to Henney and that she took comfort in the fact that she and Thomas had now been together for nearly 25 years.

One more move was on the cards, this time to Dudley Port where Thomas continued working as a shoeing smith. Henney became a widow for the third and final time in the spring of 1920 when Thomas died. She outlived him by five years. In January 1925 now approaching her 75th birthday Henney developed bronchitis and without the aid of antibiotics to fight the infection, it weakened her heart and she died of heart failure on 2 February. Her daughter Annie was with her.

I do not have any photograph of Henney and so do not know what she looked like but I imagine an attractive and maybe in her younger years voluptuous woman who was passionate and a little wild, willing to follow her instincts. Her every day activities would not have marked her out from the millions of other working class women of her day, cooking, cleaning, caring for her children but she was long lived for her time and left behind a remarkable story of surviving against all the odds, despite heartbreak and despair throughout her life. I am proud to call her my Great Grandmother.