The Gaskins

[pjmburns]

Right! I will do a streetview walk online, thanks for the suggestion. I would very much like to obtain an image or two of domestic buildings where the Gaskins lived and worked. Olton is Solihull area? (always correct me if I'm wrong). I was born in Boldmere, just south of Sutton Coldfield, so I'm best with Aston, Bordesley, Deritend etc and I know central B'ham. Together we can shed a lot of light.

Try this. St Bernard's Road where there are still a number of large houses.
Those with gardens going down to Olton Mere are on the right.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[Neil M]

Arthur's father, Henry, is on census records as a "japanner".

Yes, and according to a memoir written by Georgie Gaskin in 1929, Henry Gaskin was a "decorative artist who painted mainly portraits and drifted into furniture decoration when the taste for japanned pieces became fashionable in the late nineteenth century". [See HERE}

Around 1865 Henry moved his family to Wolverhampton presumably because Wolverhampton had large works (and so jobs) for japanning furniture and metal goods. By 1871 he had become a japanning foreman. But by 1881 (then aged about 50yrs) he was recorded as being unemployed - coinciding with the decline in the British japanning industry due to changing Victorian fashions and the rise of cheaper and mass-produced electroplated metal items. (Birmingham had japanning works too but I think they tended to specialise in japanning papier-mâché goods).

 

[pjmburns]

I might be wrong but......I think the house might still be there.

1912 directory


This is house #16 today