[ 51 High Street Witney,property previously owned by John Blackwell born Harpole and lived Witney Oxfordshire. he was a gas manufactor.He was the great grandfather of Susan Clarke though her maternal grandmother Maria Gulliver nee Watts. The building is now a hairdressers.
Below HARPOLE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Below, BLISWORTH , NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
I shall be writing about the Blackwell family that had ties with Harpole Northamptonshire. They can be traced back to 1700. i am not sure if any of the Blackwell family live in Harpole the nearest family is my sister who lives in Bugbrooke.I live about 5 miles away.
october 4 th 2013. I have just received a book about the history of the Straw hat makers in Dunstable Bedfordshire . STRAW HATS & BONNETS by JOAN CURRAN.
I have travelled through the town as we went on holiday with our folding caravan via London to Dover in Kent in 1970`s.The A5 was the main road through the town and kept the town very busy. There is also a good golf course near by.
My 3x great grandfather John Blackwell , his brother Richard Blackwell moved from Harpole Northamptonshire to Dunstable Bedfordshire to become a Straw hat maker. He and his family had two factories built at the back of their large houses. They also owned two more houses in the town and was very well off. When the last of the Blackwells died the amount they left was in todays money £1 million pounds.
As there was so many of them in the family, it was possible that some had to move away from home to find work. more information to follow on members of the family who owned 2 factories in Dunstable Bedfordshire. and gas lighting factory Witney Oxfordshire. tailors shop in Birmingham Silver Jewellery Birmingham.One son left Edgbaston to live in the east end of London, he had trained to become a GP he was first on the scene after a murder victim of jack the ripper.
As i continued my research, which i really enjoy doing i came across Billingham family from Harpole Northants.They owned a printing business in Bridge Street ,Northampton. when i worked at Jeyes Chemist my boss a Miss Billingham before her marriage, and the family came from Harpole.
After her husband had an accident he was no longer in need of his sheep dog. Nancy Gulliver had just lost her farm dog and took on the ownership of the sheep dog. Did she know that she had a connection with this family through her maternal grandmothers side of the family, the Blackwell family?
As there was many children and they moved away for work,it has taken me time to research where they went and who they married.
My great grandmothers father was John Blackwell.In a photo i have of his daughter Maria Blackwell and her husband William Watts, they appear very well dressed. Again there was a very large family of the Watts .I only know of two of the daughters who married.Elizabeth who married Mr Mortimer and Maria who married Fred Gulliver,my grandparents.Fred came from a farming family, so it was a different life for Maria .Her father , brothers ,sisters were stone masons, saddle makers,dressmakers.
Maria was good at the book work for running the farm business as she got older and infirmed she left the work to Nancy Gulliver. Part of the book of expenses of running the farm have been saved by my mother and are in the keeping of Susan Clarke.Its a small world and as my mother used to say we are all related to one another.
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Postcard view of Chantry Road Moseley Birmingham.[A postcard i purchased from Ebay]
ALthans Blackwell lived here with his family
