By December 1819 Thomas was free from bankruptcy and could restart a business. The pottery was now being run by Bridgwood & Co and as the pottery buildings included the malting operation, he couldn’t operate that, so he moved to Handsacre where he could run both a malting business and a brickyard. Within just a… Continue reading Thomas Bond Part 3 – brickmaker
Category: Miscellaneous
Thomas Bond Part 2 – maltster, brickmaker, potter and bankrupt
By September 1815 Thomas Bond was in Stafford gaol – one of 10,000 people imprisoned for debt each year during the 18th and 19th centuries. Life in the debtors’ prisons of the early 19th century could be harsh; a prisoner had to provide his own food, clothes, and water, for example, so without a supportive… Continue reading Thomas Bond Part 2 – maltster, brickmaker, potter and bankrupt
The founding of Armitage potbank
When Bill Wright wrote ‘Notes for a history of Armitage’ in 1950 he included a chapter entitled ‘The Armitage Sanitary Pottery’. He had joined the pottery in 1918 as an office boy and by 1950 he had become Sales Manager of what was then called Edward Johns Co. Ltd., (and later Armitage Ware and Armitage… Continue reading The founding of Armitage potbank
Thomas Bond Part 1 – maltster, brickmaker, potter and gaolbird
Thomas Bond is generally credited with building the first pottery in Armitage. Largely based on a set of papers held at Stafford Record Office, entitled Armitage Brickworks, this is the first of three stories about Thomas Bond. This set of events happens before the founding of the Armitage pottery as detailed in Book One History… Continue reading Thomas Bond Part 1 – maltster, brickmaker, potter and gaolbird
The pre-fabs
In October 1946 the Housing Committee of Armitage-with-Handsacre Parish Council convened a public meeting to ‘discuss the unsatisfactory progress of the new houses’. Held in the Parish Hall, crowded with many young married couples including young babies, the meeting was at times quite tempestuous. The Council Chairman, H. Wright, told the meeting about the unsatisfactory… Continue reading The pre-fabs
Occupations
When researching a person the occupation begins to tell something of that person’s story although it is always more interesting when an unusual occupation is encountered. As you might expect, there is not much in the way of written information about occupations in medieval times but records of court cases provide some information. After the… Continue reading Occupations
And the next prize is …
In the early 1800s, the Staffordshire Agricultural Society, with Sir George Pigot as President and the Lord Talbot as Vice-President, held an annual meeting at which various awards were handed out. The 8th August 1803 edition of Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, at the not inconsiderable price of 6d per copy, reported on the awards. There were… Continue reading And the next prize is …
Field names
What is known as the Tithe Commutation Act map (tithe map) of 1841 and its accompanying book showing tenants, owners etc. for the parish of Armitage-with-Handsacre gives us most of the information we have on old field names although estate maps also provide some information. The different documents do not all agree, and some information… Continue reading Field names
The first issue of the Parish Magazine
The very first edition of Armitage parish magazine came out in January 1892,priced one penny. The rendition of the church on the front cover, shown below, is stated as being a woodcut owned by Miss Birch, of Armitage Lodge, and is from a photograph taken by Mr. H. Cecil Gardner, of The Towers. The parish… Continue reading The first issue of the Parish Magazine
Pit ponies
Jack Smith was born on 1st November 1899 in Wednesbury to John and Eliza Ann nee Love who had got married the previous Christmas Eve. John gave his occupation as a plate leveller on his marriage certificate and as a straightener on the baptism record for young Jack so he presumably worked in the metal… Continue reading Pit ponies