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Children of William Foden

Although having looked at the map where that house is for sale it seems a bit south of where the farm is marked on the map. However, there can't be two farm houses both called Mill Green that close together and may be the house was a bit away from some of the farm buildings.
MWS I think you got closer to the asking price than I did. :D
 
Great information emerging - family information, maps, current house images and details of the circumstances of the tragedy.

We now know that it happened on Saturday, 7th October 1944. One doesn't want to try and visualise the dreadful circumstances but some of us can remember the farm equipment of that time and also the typical farmer with his old, gaberdine raincoat and perhaps an ancient trilby jammed on his head to protect him from the elements. Feeding the nation was always a hard and dangerous life, especially in those days.

Thanks for the newspaper cutting, Pedrocut. Without wishing to be greedy, do any of the other reports throw any further light on the accident? And especially useful would be any funeral report which might detail principal mourners (i.e. family and perhaps prominent others).

(I never realised that Mill Green Farm straddled the Chester Road/A452. Must have passed it regularly a long time ago!)

Chris
 
All of the above is particularly interesting, thanks to you all.
Would anyone know any more about the house built 1740, it seems to belong to Birmingham heritage ?
 
Victoria County History of Staffordshire might just be a possibility, if anyone has access to a copy.

Chris
 
There are quite a few other newspaper articles about Mill Green Farm - labourers wanted, sale of, change of use, death notices (including Nellie 1967) and court cases (one involving Arthur Foden 1940).
 
Wow, MWS, what can you tell us about the SALE of, Change of use, any death notices, plus the court case of Arthur ? All that is the type of info I would love to have and to see added to the history of the house. Bring it all on please.
 
just a note to members who may not know ...the british newspaper archives can be a wonderful source of gaining information about our past..cheap enough at only £12.95 for a months subscriptions..you can of course have a 12 months subscription which not only gives us a saving but brings the monthly payments down to just £6.67 a month..for any members wanting to have a bash themselves click on the link below..to be honest i have not subscribed for a while but must do so as they are adding more and more all the time and bringing the the years up to more recent times

lyn

 
Can't see much from just the search results but...

29 Mar 1940 - Arthur Foden appears to be being prosecuted for somethng to do with potatoes.

18 Aug 1964 - lambs of William George Foden had been killed by dogs of Horace Arthur Stringer.

1 Jul 1980 - not much to this one but appears someone was shot dead but it might be another Mill Green Farm, there's one at Abbots Bromley.

16 Oct 1934 - cabbages stolen but this mentions a Robert Brown not a Foden.

29 Sep 1830 - for sale, can't see much more.

17 Aug 1967 - death of Nellie, cremation Ryecroft Crematorium maybe.

12 Jun 1931 - chickens killed by a dog, Edgar Thomas Foden mentioned.

12 Jan 1924 - mention of what the family did for Christmas.
 
Should I deduct from above, that BHF staff do not have automatic access to most genealogy sites & newspapers ? That would be appalling to know subscriptions are not subsidised after all the work you staff members put into this forum. If this is the case then I thank again MSW for the work he's putting into this thread.
 
PJMBurns, I have no access to any sites (including Ancestry) as my politic is not to subscribe to them - I wait for free week ends that people tell me about ! (I am a long long way from any public British library).
 
Should I deduct from above, that BHF staff do not have automatic access to most genealogy sites & newspapers ? That would be appalling to know subscriptions are not subsidised after all the work you staff members put into this forum. If this is the case then I thank again MSW for the work he's putting into this thread.

crikey glennys jean i wish that were true :rolleyes: but all members of BHF including staff members have pay to view all genealogy and newspaper sites

lyn
 
Can't see much from just the search results but...

29 Mar 1940 - Arthur Foden appears to be being prosecuted for somethng to do with potatoes.

18 Aug 1964 - lambs of William George Foden had been killed by dogs of Horace Arthur Stringer.

1 Jul 1980 - not much to this one but appears someone was shot dead but it might be another Mill Green Farm, there's one at Abbots Bromley.

16 Oct 1934 - cabbages stolen but this mentions a Robert Brown not a Foden.

29 Sep 1830 - for sale, can't see much more.

17 Aug 1967 - death of Nellie, cremation Ryecroft Crematorium maybe.

12 Jun 1931 - chickens killed by a dog, Edgar Thomas Foden mentioned.

12 Jan 1924 - mention of what the family did for Christmas.
Thank you MWS. The most intriguing one for me is the sale in 1830. It would be interesting to know when the farm stopped being as such, the reason for it, and who the house was sold to.
 
When I first used the Newspaper Archive there was under 2m pages and now over 37m.

One thing about the BHF is that contributors are willing to freely help others with queries in order to save them paying for a subscription to gain access to sites for specific info. There is always someone who will come to their aid.
 
Glennys,

All the information on this site is due to the hard work of members, and the moderators for keeping the site in order and removing any spam. The site is kept alive by the donations of members and a little bit from GoogleAdsense advertisements. Accordingly, information from Ancestry, FindMyPast, British Library Newspaper Archives, oldmaps.co.uk, Midlands Historical Data, and other sites is provided via members paying out of their own pockets for supscriptions. In fact, we shouldn't be putting images from those sites on the Forum really as our subscriptions are for private use only. It's all very well saying that you will wait for a free weekend, but it is only the subscribers that keep those sites going.

Maurice :cool:
 
I have been able to glean info from the 1939 registry (even tho' having no paid access!) and have followed up as best I could:
At Mill Green farm, I found 8 people:

Arthur E Foden 1886 - 1944 head
Nellie Downes / Foden 1888 wife
Frances M Foden / May Dau
William G Foden 1915 son
Edgar T Foden 1916 son

*Frank I Foden 1920
Robert Brown 1899
Daisy E Brown 1897
----------------------------------------------
All the above Fodens are descendents of my Caleb Foden 1805-1885

* Frank Isaac Foden = son of Frank Foden 1895-1951 + Harriet Emily Brown b: 1894
I don't know the relationship, if any, of the 2 x Browns living there also.

Chris, as for the missing third son of Arthur, it may be Peter J b: 1928 who was not at the farm in 1939. Maybe we'll hit home soon !

Glennys
Chris, I think there was also another (4th) son born Walsall district 1919, called Harold Frank Foden, with mother Downes . This seems to coincide with your HG text.
 
A couple of fragments, Glennys, before I forget them.

In 1824, some Ancient British relics were discovered at Gainsborough - then known as Greensborough - Hill Farm. Being contacted about them in 1957, Harold Foden mentioned that his family had occupied the farm for 60 years....
(Source: Stonnall History website)

Margaret Newbold married Eddie Foden of Gainsborough Hill Farm at St. Peter's Church, Little Aston - unknown date, I would guess 1960s/70s.
(Source: Sutton Coldfield History social media site)

Chris
 
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The probate for Arthur of Mill Green Farm is granted to widow Nellie and William George - the amount is £8247 16s and 8d

A tidy sum, in today's money -£370,000. More than the worth of a tenant farmer, I imagine. But the value of quite a few acres at that time? Possibly....

In the 1920s the average value was £30/acre. Let's say it had increased to £40/50 by 1944. So perhaps 150-200 acres? It looks to me as though Arthur probably owned the land he farmed.

Chris
 
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A couple of fragments, Glennys, before I forget them.

In 1824, some Ancient British relics were discovered at Gainsborough - then known as Greensborough - Hill Farm. Being contacted about them in 1957, Harold Foden mentioned that his family had occupied the farm for 60 years....
(Source: Stonnall History website)

Margaret Newbold married Eddie Foden of Gainsborough Hill Farm at St. Peter's Church, Little Aston - unknown date, I would guess 1960s/70s.
(Source: Sutton Coldfield History social media site)

Chris
I found Harold F Foden is the brother of Arthur and that they were the sons of George Frederick Foden b1863. He and his wife Alice worked on Kettlehouse farm 1888-1894 and then went on to Gainsborough Hill farm . In 1911 George states he is on "own account" which ties in with Harold's saying of the farm being 60 odd years in the family, so they must have bought it!

My Foden tree starts 1805 with Caleb Foden from Erdington, (a farmer, then market gardner, then licensed victualer) who worked on Blakelands farm. His son, the above George Frederick, later took over the tenancy of Blakelands from his father, while another son, William, was on Kingstanding farm, Henry on College farm, and Charles on Booths farm. The farming showed them how to grow / make? hops etc so a lot of the family became in the normal routine of things, pub tenants: the Royal Oak, Bulls Head, Old Sun Inn, Hare & Hounds, Bush Inn, Parson & Clerk, Golden Cross, Irish Harp ... drinking and making money!

Glennys
 
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Interesting information, Glennys. Did you pick up at the same time anything on the location of these businesses - especially the pubs? Those with the more unusual names are obvious enough, like the Parson & Clerk and the Irish Harp which, coincidentally, stood/stand on the same road as Mill Green Farm - and with the Irish Harp almost next door. Did the Bush as well? I imagine several of the farms are now buried under 20th c Birmingham - Kingstanding farm, for example.

Chris
 
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Would anyone be interested in this story?

In the 18th century, Erdington was a village situated only a few miles north of Birmingham, Warwickshire, and at equal distance from the town of Sutton Coldfield in Staffordshire. It was surrounded by rich farming land.
In 1750, there was a population of 700 with 40 farms. However, the agricultural revolution and the Enclosure of the lands Act permanently changed the way of life in the villages as it had been long before. Many of the small agricultural workers found themselves without the means to provide for their family. Some emigrated; some went to work in the many new factories that were springing up in close proximity. Consequently by 1832 the population had risen to 2000.
There were, however, small farmers such as the Foden family who chose to stay in their home area and adapted their lives to the ways of the rich new landowners and the large farms that were a consequence of the enclosing of the land.

Glennys
 
Caleb Foden was born in Erdington in 1805, the year of the battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic wars. He was the son of John, a hay trusser.

In 1841, Caleb describes himself as a publican and in 1851, as a market gardener and retail brewer. The readily available farm products, such as barley and hops, made beer making an easy and profitable business. It was, in fact, healthier to drink alcohol as at that time water could be quite unclean to drink. In some places in Britain, one in every three houses was licensed to manufacture and sell alcohol. A license was purchased from the Crown. You could then legally make and sell ale, beer or cider. Taverns in the towns sold wine as well and might also have spirits, while inns sold alcoholic drinks and offered rooms for travelers.

When he was 24 years old, he married Elizabeth Wells from the village of Edgbaston which was 7 miles (11 km) away. They may have met at a fair or market in their area, or perhaps they already knew each other through their respective families. He and Elizabeth had 5 boys, William, George, Henry, John and Charles who all followed in their father’s footsteps; they also had 2 girls called Emma and Harriet.

In 1881, all of Caleb’s family is found only a handful of miles from Erdington, in or around Perry Barr and Kingstanding, where the Fodens had become well-known as tenant farmers of the Perry Bar estate.

Daughter Emma married in 1863 with Jeremiah Cutler. The Fodens and the Cutlers, another farming family, knew each other well, so well that Emma’s sister Harriet married Jeremiah’s brother, Linnaeus, in 1871. Both couples also worked as licensed victuallers.
In 1891, Emma and Jeremiah were at the Golden Cross Inn on Shortheath Road in Erdington, while Harriet and Linnaeus Cutler were the tenants of the Old Irish Harp Inn, which still stands to this day on Chester Road, in Aldridge, Walsall.

John, a market gardener, also married into the same Cutler family in 1870. He and Ellen Cutler were the tenants of the Hare & Hounds in Handsworth, then the Bush Inn at New Oscott.

William, Caleb’s eldest son, had 8 children and worked 60 acres on Kingstanding Farm. At 32 years old, he became tenant of the Royal Oak in Perry Barr, also known as the Parson & Clerk, and where he remained for 23 years until his death.

George had 9 children. When Caleb retired to Kettlehouse farm in 1881, George took over the 180 acres of Blakelands farm, Handsworth, from his father.
.../...
 
Well would you Adam and Eve it !

My great grandfather was Jeremiah Cutler. In my research I came to realise that the addiction to ale was in my father’s genes.

(correction, have dropped one of the greats)
 
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