Wheatley's Website 

HOME PAGE

Calendar
  Clays Cloggers                        Church & Chapel             Fund-raising Events     Womens Institute   Wheatley Bowls Club
Clays Horticultural Society      Family History Group    Village Map                   Uniformed Groups  Wheatley Allotment Ass.
Wheatley Book Club                 Business Listings            Churches Together       District Councillor
Village Hall                                Village in Pictures           Parish Council              Video Tour
Link Magazine                           Cricket Team                   Parish Council emergency Plan
Neighbourhood Watch              Wheatley School            Wheatley School PTFA      Wind Farm Resistance Group

*********************

Forthcoming Events
New or Guest Members are welcome at any of our meetings.  

The next and future meetings will be held in:

Monday Sept 20^th 2010
Maureen Sutton ---- “Back-end”   Harvest customs and stories. with pictures and memorabilia.

Monday Nov 15^th 2010    
Michael Gildersleve--- “In search of Mother.”     The speaker’s own story of his own search for his true mother and some of the obstacles he had to overcome. Some may leave with tears in their eyes. Not to be missed!

  Recent meetings

NORTH & SOUTH WHEATLEY LOCAL & FAMILY HISTORY GROUP

On Monday 14^th June 21 members and guests of the group gathered at the Sun Inn and were literally transported back in time. The mode of transport was built in 1938/9 but because of pressures for military transport was not registered until 1946. Manufactured by Dennis, and originally plying the Dover to London route twice each day, there are now only two of these buses of this vintage in the UK. The body is made of wood and crafted probably by two joiners working without plans, so none of the windows are exactly the same size. There is no exact record of the distance travelled but the calculations suggest it to be in excess of 1,500,000 miles and the engine has been refitted just once. The price when new was a realistic £1,350, whilst many of todays’ luxury coaches would be at least 400 times as much.

Our very knowledgeable driver gave us a commentary almost throughout our journey, and stopped at various points on the way. In Retford we learnt of the 1066 charter enabling the town to become a market town and its steady growth from that time. There was the rebuild of Grove Street chapel from 650 seats to hold 1,000 worshippers, but how many attend today? Then we saw the museum, originally home to the Pedlar family who became famous for saving the Flying Scotsman from the scrap yard in the USA and returning it to the UK. The Turks Head that dates from mid 1700’s and just a few doors away the oldest residence in the town centre, dating from 1701 and selling at that time for just 10 guineas. The story of the Clarks family who started with a small dye works in town and expanded to over 100 shops in the north of the UK.

When we stopped for a while in the market square we were treated to gory tales of early punishments and the unsanitary conditions as the population grew through the mid 1800’s. 1831 saw the first gas lighting, and the fact that before the police came the inspector of Nuisance who single handily kept the peace in town. He was paid just 10 guineas p.a.  Around 1880 ‘night soil’ collections were just not enough to prevent the ‘Great Stench’ of 1884. Little wonder if one considers that the Turk’s Head yard was home to the landlord’s pigs whilst he shared it with an undertaker and had a water bottling business, “Pig Muck – dead bodies – and mineral water” - all in one yard!  Grove Street was home to a sheep and horse fair, much of the Market Square dates from 1700 – 1850, the first bank being built in early 1800’s when there were no less than 4 postal deliveries each day. Dick Turpin is said to have assessed the potential wealth of travellers in the White Hart which serviced as many as 19 stage coaches each day with a team of 4 horses, along with smaller vehicles that was probably 100 horses to change each day.  

We returned to the town of Retford via Ordsall. A fine spread was laid on for us at the Beeches, and all passengers and crew enjoyed the opportunity to socialise for a while. This was a trip that took in so much in such a short space of time and we may have to do it all again around a different part of the North Notts area. These notes are less than a third of those taken on our journey – it’s a pit you missed it!

Our chariot awaits                                    Ready for boarding

 
                    The lunch stop                                                            Suitably refreshed, it was time for home

Book Launch pictures


NORTH & SOUTH WHEATLEY LOCAL & FAMILY HISTORY GROUP

Our speaker on May 17^th was Lynda Hotchkiss. She said her objective was to go beyond the records such as Parish Registers and indexes with which members were very familiar and look at some other sources of information that could aid family historians to ‘put flesh on the bones’ or confirm previously questionable links. Some researchers had options for their next step back on their tree and needed to be more specific, but much depended upon the survival of records, some of which is patchy.

Lynda started with Wills, which often named individuals and their relationships. She also identified the likely location of those Wills that had survived, ecclesiastical archives from 1350 in Lincoln or Nottingham and then maybe York or even Canterbury according to where land or lands were owned. Then later to Probate registers. There could be many clues in the wording and terminology used in both wills and inventories.

Apprenticeship papers, either for local trades and even the livery companies. ‘Children’ from 12 years old were apprenticed either by their families or often by parishes and might be moved to a different and sometimes distant parish to serve that often 7 year term.

Maintenance papers or ‘Bastardy Summons’ often enabled one to clarify parentage and tie down illegitimate children. Then Settlement records, either the printed or handwritten, often named specific individuals and their children.

Workhouse records – from early parish ‘poor houses’ to the larger and more formal Union workhouses after 1834 all kept detailed records even to what each occupant might expect at each of 4 daily meals. These often linked closely with the records kept by the parish ‘Overseers of the Poor’ which again provide a wealth of information about people, their trades, their children and sometimes placement of orphans.

Militia records – ballot papers - covered all males of a parish from 16-60 years of age and why they may be exempt from serving and the ‘Substitute Oath Roll’ which lists Individuals who sold their services and so effectively some armies were made up of mercenaries.

Maps sometimes combined with ‘Glebe Terriers’ could enable you to find out exactly where your ancestors lived. ‘Presentation Deeds’ give details of the appointment of clergy to a ‘living’, and they in turn can be traced often with details of their parents in the Alumni records of Cambridge or Oxford, as most clergy were M.A.

Sales catalogues [often retained by the Victorians] gave details of leasehold, freehold and copyhold sales along with the names of tenants and their property. War Diaries of regiments, Alehouse licences from Quarter sessions, and Large house inventories all enable extra facts to be added and sometimes conclusive evidence of lineage.

Even small vessels on the Trent, or canal boats, their crews, passengers and journeys have been recorded and some ‘Port’ books are available through the Railway and Canal Society.

Lynda gave us all the incentive to start clarifying some facts and adding information to other areas of our records. Family history after all is not just about a skeletal ‘tree’ of names and dates – it is also very much about social history and that ‘Flesh on the Bones’. 

Monday March 15^th 2010  was our Annual General Meeting, when our Chair, Ann Smith reflected on the past year’s successes and thanked all involved in them. Particular note was made of the book of photographs published in November last. [copies of the book are still available at the P.O. or by ringing 01427 880934] Much was also discussed and plans laid for the future. Watch out for announcements as the year progresses.
As has become customary for our meeting following the annual event, members had been invited to bring along an item of interest to all from their own archives or research and say a few words.
Ann Smith started by revealing a superb model of Old Mill Farm [Mill House and Bakery] so generously donated [along with a folder of photographs and documents] to our group by Ruth Waller. Ann was able to explain where the bakery was within the site and her memories of it.
Alan Guest had brought along a newspaper cutting from the late 1940’s which had been retained for the piece on one side but when turned over it detailed a proposal from the Master Bakers Association about relaxing the regulations regarding the rationing of eggs so that a better type of cake could be baked for children’s  birthday parties.
Erica Tasker told us about her research into a particular building associated with her own family history and how she had discovered the records held on it by English Heritage because it a was a listed building.
Roy Bennett brought along a selection of his childhood toys that included whipping tops, Meccano, an operational steam engine and even a child’s cooking range complete with utensils that was ‘powered’  by a spirit burner.
Freda Proudley explained and produced examples of some of the pitfalls of family history research and the need to double check all the records and not to take everything at face value.
Lynda Barker brought along a photograph of the Village Choral Group that had been enhanced by darkroom trickery in 1912/13 and differed from the one published in our book, by the addition of 2 extra people who had not been available when the original was taken.
Dave Valentine told the tale of the families of two of his 2 x great grandfathers, each having 11 children and how their fortunes differed. One family had experienced infant deaths and ‘suicides’ and he had yet to find one to reach 51 years of age whist the other family had gone on to ages of 85, 94, 102 and ‘Aunt’ Pattie who reached an age of 106 and enjoyed 9 years of retirement after stopping work at 97 ‘bar 2 months’ (in her words).
Others contributed with stories of family reunions, Job finding, and even multiple wills in what turned out to be over an hour of fascinating revelations and enjoyment for all present.

Monday 18^th Jan 2010
Our speaker for the first meeting of 2010 was Rodney Cousins and his talk was entitled ‘Down your Way’. Rodney had brought with him a superb selection of artefacts ranging from a child’s Windsor chair, real leather laced period boots to roofing tiles and a cooper’s specially curved draw knife. He split his talk into sectors and dealt with a wide range of crafts associated with, earth, wood, metals and textiles. Before that though he gave an introduction specific to our location and referring to the 1908 directory for the village which included a blacksmith, joiner, no less than three millers, and numerous farmers. From the 1851 census he was also able to tell us that there had been two wheelwrights, a tailor and even a clockmaker within our village.

Moving on to crafts and tools dealing with earth  -  red clay was used for bricks, tiles, potting including chimney pots, and almost all manufacturing craftsmen were paid piecework and so only earned money just for what they produced. A brick maker could hand make 3-4000 bricks in a day, but they then had to dry prior to firing, and most were identifiable to the individual maker by some mark on them. The earth also gave rise to stonemasons working on larger buildings and churches as well as mudmasons who worked on the construction of earth walls and buildings which were most common in the south of the county.

Wood gave Rodney the opportunity to look at crafts that have now almost disappeared such as coopering, wheelwrights, and basket making. Our locality was the largest willow growing area in the country and the willow works at Beckingham have been well researched n by some members of our group. The uses of different woods for each finished article were explained, like an elm hub, oak spokes and an ash rim surrounded by iron for wheels and how complicated and skilful the cooper’s job was making oak barrels for brewers and distilleries. Clogs, chairs, besoms, cricket bats, charcoal, and specific turning were all well explained and little anecdotes made the morning very entertaining. Many more crafts, greensmithing [working with copper rather than iron (blacksmith) or precious metals (goldsmith)], shoemaking, saddlers, smock makers even beehive making and thatching as well as others were all covered explained in some detail. For example smocks could sometimes be identified as made in a location and the embroidery often denoted the trade of a wearer. Ann Smith thanked Rodney who had also answered several questions in discussion after his talk.

Monday 16^th November 2009

Our speaker for this meeting was Paul Howitt, Chairman of the ‘Friends of the Old Hall Association’. The Friends were formed in 1949, just after the war, and without them the Hall may well have fallen into complete disrepair and been demolished. It had escaped the bombing of WWII but the condition it was in left much to be desired. In the 1960’s and early 70’s the drive was to clear out the old and build the new. Toward the end of the 1970’s there was the first public realisation of our heritage, but until the Friends, along with English Heritage, achieved a Grade 1 listed Building status for the Hall it was always in danger. Now with that listing its future is assured.

Paul’s knowledge of the Hall and its history were evident throughout his talk, which covered such a wide range of themes, including the design, rooms and their uses, development and current uses of the buildings.  Parts of the present hall were built between 1460-80, and there has almost certainly been a house on the site for 1000 years. It has been added to and altered. It has received visits from Kings & Queens, been associated with the Pilgrim Fathers and involved with different sides of warring factions. Latterly, and evidence is there from the census it has been home to as many as 12 families, including William Rose, founder of the engineering business after which Cadbury ‘Roses’ were named.

Other areas covered were ghosts, and the grey lady of the tower, the green oak timber frame and why it was green oak, the 200 carts and 5000 soldiers that accompanied Henry VIII, on his visit, in 1541 with his 5^th wife. It is the ‘Old’ Hall, not just because of age but it was once replaced by the ‘New’ Hall in another part of town. How the River Trent was once the division between the ‘north and south’ and the Hall’s strategic positioning for military involvement. This is a précis of some parts of a very entertaining and educational talk.

We also launched our book, “North & South Wheatley  -  Photographic Memories”. This has been well received by those who collected their copies and joined us for a small celebration. We would like to thank all those who subscribed in advance and giving their support to this venture.

Copies are now on sale at the Post Office or by calling Dave on 01427 880934.  -  Price £8.00        The book will make an ideal Christmas especially for friends or relatives who may have moved away!

Monday September 21^st  2009
Our speaker for the morning was Lynda Hopkiss, a respected genealogist from Lincoln. Her talk entitled ‘Real People who don’t exist’ was very well received by members and guests. The difficulties of tracing our ancestors when the trail appears to peter out, is a dilemma facing most of us at some time. Lynda started with the simplest reason being different spellings of surnames caused simply by mishearing, interpretation of regional dialect, individual alteration or just plain illiteracy of some ancestors or the record makers. [Lynda’s example was of her own name from Hopkiss to Huskies or in my own case Valentine to Folluntyne]. There are other explanations such as an illegitimate child having the opportunity to call themselves by either their mother or father’s name [if known]. Use of step-father’s surname is quite common. Foster and adoptive children change their names – sometimes without even knowing. Bigamy, criminal conviction and a number of other reasons were given mostly with examples from her own research. Legitimate and plausible reasons were explained for a person to use up to three quite different surnames. Before there was either compulsory registration or census, records are scarce and tracing many people is difficult. Lynda gave us several more avenues to consider when the trail has seemingly disappeared.

Monday 20^th July 2009
Our meeting in July was devoted to the final selection of the photographs to be used in the book we plan to publish for our 10^th anniversary later in the year.

Monday June 15^th 2009.
The June meeting of the group was the summer outing, well we never left the joint parishes, but what a trip. After a glorious weekend the forecast said ‘rain’, but we were lucky and it held off for the three hours it took for our ‘Village Walkabout’. Led by Ann Smith a group of 14 started at the corner of Muspit Lane, which was the old road to Retford and before moving on had learnt of the village pinfold, the long gone tithe barn as well as murder by pitchfork. Then it was on to St Helen’s Church, or what is left of it, where we looked at the only known picture of the complete church. It fell into disrepair, despite the congregation of field mice, and it’s effectively demolished in 1885. Most took the footpath from there to the east end of Low Pasture Lane and again studied photographs of the six sail windmill and the steam mill that once provided employment for several men in the village. Then it was onto the crossroads to look at the Old Hall and again recount buildings that are no longer there.

Up the hill to see what is believed to be the oldest house, dating from the early 1600’s, which was even before the church tower was built in 1637. We looked at where the carriage shed had been from where the village produce was transported to Retford market. The old Bakery was remembered fondly by customers when it was operational, the hiring triangle, the water ‘tank’ and the ‘other’ public house also had tales to be told about them. The party continued down the lane to the site of the Reading Room, and then to hear about the only remaining Chapel from of the four that once existed. We learnt that the bricks for the current Chapel were made in Walkeringham and transported by canal to Clayworth and from there by farmer’s horses and carts over the hill to Low Street. Some of the history of the Forge, the old shop, the Primitive Chapel, the Sun Inn, as well as the plaster pits and joinery businesses were all covered during a most enlightening journey.

With tired legs the group settled down to a picnic lunch, at the home of Jack & Dee Miles, and more tales of what had happened where and when. The knowledge displayed by Ann , ably added to by other long life long residents of the villages made for a very interesting day out without leaving ‘home’.

Monday 18^th May 2009
The group along with several welcome new guests met in the Boardroom at the Post Office. Our speaker for the morning was Ann Batchelor, and her talk was entitled ‘My name is Frances’.

She started with a letter to Edward Rudolph written around 1917 from a Sister Tomlinson who ran a ‘Mother & Baby’ home in Pontefract. It was an appeal to him to find homes for a 7 year old girl and her brother who was just 6.  The children had been reluctantly left at the home by their father who was a desperate man, as he was in lodgings with them, having lost not only other children to various illnesses but then his wife at the age of just 28 years. He had tried all ways of raising them on his own but with a full time job as a miner in Featherstone [earning just £1-17s-10d per week], the rent, food and ‘child care’ in those hard times was very difficult and the latter was not working as his landlady was a hard, if not cruel substitute for their mother and she had asked them to move on. Father volunteered to pay 12/- per week toward their upkeep and had no option but to walk away and leave them, with Sister Tomlinson at the home, which in itself was unsuitable for children of their age and hence the appeal letter.

Edward Rudolph, who was to become the founder of ‘Waifs & Strays Home’ [today known as the ‘The Children’s Society’], managed to place the girl in York but the boy had to go first to London and then was moved around the country.

The little girl was Ann’s mother and home soon became a large terraced house in Leeds which she shared with a Matron, a Sister and 19 other girls. When a new girl arrived also called Frances, she was called into Matron and told she would have to then be called ‘Joan’, as they could not have two girls with the same name, and when another Joan arrived she was renamed again, this time ‘Fanny’. But Frances always insisted her “My name is Frances!” and hence the title not only of today’s talk but also the book that was written about her.

Ann kept us enthralled for almost 2 hours with her tales and a  series of memories from Frances, as well as the research she had done to reunite her mother with a number of people from her past. It was truly an emotional journey for both the speaker and her audience.

Members Interests
Our members all share an interest in our own and other local villages and are always keen to receive old photographs / stories of individuals, families, and local buildings.
If you have anything you believe may be of interest to us just drop a note to Dave Valentine [see No 114 at the base of the list below for contact details]. Eventually we hope to produce a booklet featuring old photographs etc.
Individual members are in most cases also researching their own family history, some may be local, but many have roots that spread far and wide. Please have a look at the list below. Almost all family historians benefit from the exchange of information as has been proved by various international websites.
If you have any common interests or knowledge of the family names listed our individual members would be pleased to hear from you.
Look for the number by the name and the contact details are by those numbers at the end of the list. 

The annual Quiz Night held to raise funds for the village hall attracted lots of entries. 
The winning team from our Group are seen collecting their prizes from
active chairperson Carol Kirk.