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Moving home in 1860's

barrie

barrie

master brummie
My Gt, Gt, Grandfather, James Oldfield was born in 1820 in Wells in Somerset, and in 1845 he married a girl named Hannah Wescott who lived next door.

By 1853 the family (there were by now 4 children) were living in Canal Street in Birmingham, and in the 1861 accounts for the Birmingham Industrial School, he is shown as the master of boot and shoe making.

What I would like to discover, is what mode of transport would they have used to get from Wells to Birmingham in those days, would it have been the railway or the stage coach?

Ta very much.

Barrie.
 
The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway merged with the Bristol and Gloucester Railway to form the Birmingham and Bristol Railway in January 1845, so it is more likely that they travelled by train. Once the railways were in place stagecoaches were largely redundant, overtaken by the speed and comfort of the train.
 
Thank you very much Lloyd, I'l have to google that railway company and get some pictures. Thank you again.

Barrie.
 
barrie I would go with Lloyd on this. Until the opening of the Gloucester and Birmingham Railway in 1836, the only stagecoach making the longest journey from the direction of the West Country to Brum was a daily service from Cheltenham via Evesham but that was withdrawn when the train service started.
 
The first station at Wells wasn't built till 1859, so they would have to have travelled first to (say) trowbridge (opened 1848) before catching a train
Mike
 
A fascinating question. Have you looked in the 1851 census returns? That would narrow down the date they arrived in Birmingham. I would guess that they travelled by train from Bristol Temple Meads, or somewhere beyond and changing. They would then travel through Gloucester, Cheltenham, perhaps avoiding Worcester, and Bromsgrove to the old Midland Railway Station at Lawley Street (opened 1842). This was the terminus of the Midland Railway until 1851, when their trains were admitted into Curzon Street Station. On 1.7.1854 the new 'Central' station was opened at New Street, and trains shared with the London & North Western until the Midland Railway opened their own station to the south in 1885.
If they had moved two or three years later, they might have gone by Great Western Railway to Didcot, and then by the same company via Oxford, Banbury and Leamington to the new station at Birmingham Snow Hill. which was opened on 01.10.1852.
Things were happening fast in those days!
Peter
 
Thank you Barrie for posting this question.

the records from my tree indicate that my Gt Gt Grandmother was born in Bishops Stanley in Gloucester in 1850, however she and her family are shown on the 1861 census as living in Ormond Street Aston.

I had often wondered how her family of arrived in Birmingham. I presume it would have been in search of work?

It is difficult for us to understand the impact that the railways must have had on people during these times - it simply opened up the country to everyone.

Mabz
 
Peter wrote;

Have you looked in the 1851 census returns? That would narrow down the date they arrived in Birmingham

Thank you Peter. In 1851 James and Hannah were living at, 8 Keward, St Cuthberts, Wells. By the 15 Oct 1853 they were living in Castle Street, Birmingham where their daughter Anna Oldfield was born, so it is known that they moved to Birmingham between 1851 (whenever the census was taken) and October 1853 when their daughter Anna was born. That narrows it down a bit.

Barrie.
 
As Peter says, a fascinating question and one which has always intrigued me.

One of my sets of gt.gt. grandparents, James and Mary Tovey, moved to Birmingham from Winchcombe, Gloucestershire in about 1850. They had been married for over ten years by then and had presumably acquired, as well as the children, a quantity of household equipment and furniture. The question is - how would such a load have been transported? If it was a rail journey, did the railway company offer some sort of goods service in such circumstances? (Rather like how, on a far greater scale, they used to transport whole farms from one end of the country to the other).

In fact the railway did not come to Winchcombe for a further half century. I think you could have got to Birmingham from Cheltenham and Gloucester by rail by then but even that would have necessitated a cart ride from Winchcombe. So I tend to assume that they did the whole journey by horse and cart.

Wells is much further away than Winchcombe. But the question remains - how would the bed and the chairs and the pots and pans have got there, quite apart from the people?

Chris
 
Hi Chris. I too had wondered about all the household items, and wondered if they were converted into cash, and the money used to furnish their new homes? What a wrench it must all have been. In the case of my Gt,Gt,Grandparents, to move from a place like Wells to a city like Birmingham must have been a real culture shock.
 
barrie said:
My Gt, Gt, Grandfather, James Oldfield was born in 1820 in Wells in Somerset, and in 1845 he married a girl named Hannah Wescott who lived next door.

By 1853 the family (there were by now 4 children) were living in Canal Street in Birmingham, and in the 1861 accounts for the Birmingham Industrial School, he is shown as the master of boot and shoe making.

What I would like to discover, is what mode of transport would they have used to get from Wells to Birmingham in those days, would it have been the railway or the stage coach?

Ta very much.

Barrie.
Click to expand...


Did he have his shop later?
 
In 1873, James Oldfield is listed as being an Industrial schoolmaster at 14 Cecil st, but no mention in 1876
 
Any time Barrie
The 1873 info (of course I suppose it was really 1872) , below, was from Whites 1873 Directory. The 1876 comment was from Kellys.
Mike

james__oldfield_1873.jpg
 
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Thank you Mike, James and his family are on the 1871 census at that address. Only 10 years later his wife Hannah was to die of TB, at that time they were living in Canal Street, James was to die of the same disease in 1883
 
Barrie
Perhaps I should add that I was only looking for "Oldfield" in 1876. Have just checked address and there is no one listed at no 14, so they could still have been there, but not listed. There's no Oldfield in Kellys in Canal st in either 1876 or 1880, though there's not many people listed at all in that street, a lot of blanks.
Mike
 
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Just to say a very big thank you to everyone who helped me with this enquiry, what a wonderful site this is, everyone is so kind, patient, and helpful, nothing seems to be too much trouble, makes you proud to be a Brummie.

Barrie.
 
The canal system linked Birmingham with Bath and Gloucester and larger items may have travelled by boat as cargo of opportunity. May well have been a wharf close by in Aston or wherever. It would have meant a cart ride to start though. There must have been baggage cars on trains for trunks and cases for such things as linnen and pots and pans.
 
Thank you Rupert that is most interesting, I hadn't thought about the canal system. If they were'nt in any rush, they could have travelled by canal themselves.

Barrie.
 
Rupert has jogged my memory here. In one of the episodes of "Who Do You Think You Are" there was an item about agricultural folk from Norfolk who had been found jobs in the mills Up't North, and they were all transported there via the canal system.

Barrie.
 
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