Post by llosgi calch on Apr 25, 2011 11:42:02 GMT
An email received from Moira Cholerton...
I am writing a website about my family history and one branch of the family, whose surname was Shelby, lived for many years in the Minera area. As part of the background information to their lives I would very much like to include the part of your time-line covering the latter half of the 19th century. I would also like to include a link to your website.
Would you be amenable to my doing this?
I attach a draft of the relevant section of the family history.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Moira Cholerton
This is part of the story of John Shelby and Sarah Ann Owen. They began married life in Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, gravitated to Cardiganshire & then spent several years in the Bedwelty area of Monmouthshire.
By 1863 the family had moved north once more, this time to near Wrexham in Denbighshire. In 1871 they were living in Evans Row, Ruthin Road, Pen Y Gelli - at least one of their younger children was born at nearby Minera (map 4). John was then a lead miner. I am told he owned a quarry but the marriage certificate (1881) of his daughter, Louisa, stated he was a ‘carpenter’ so his role in the mining industry is uncertain.
Almost certainly throughout John’s working life he would have worked more under contract than as an employee; the miners generally negotiated with an agent a price per ton for working a vein, the fee often being dependent on the difficulty of the job. Miners also bargained over the pay for sinking shafts and driving levels. They shouldered the burden of risk but if they were lucky they might hit a wide vein of lead. It was a precarious living. They also risked injury or death in the all too frequent accidents or by contracting diseases such as silicosis brought on by the dust; few of them lived beyond fifty.
John and Sarah brought their three children, Louisa Morgan (b 1853), Margaret Jane (b 1860) and Miriam Shelby (b abt 1862) to ‘a boomtown’. There was a brick-works but lead mining was the most important contributor to the wealth of the community, reaching its peak in 1863-4 when 6822 tons of Lead ore and 1179 tons of Zinc ore were mined. Profits were just under £70,000 for that year.
Sarah and John were to have five more children. James Pritchard (b 1863) and Susannah Ellen (b 1865) were both born at Adwy'rclawdd, “a small pleasantly-situated village”, close to Coedpoeth, “a populous village, having all the pretensions of a little town, both villages being in the Parish of Bersham and about 3 miles from Wrexham and both situated high up with splendid views”. (from ‘Villages & Parishes In The County Of Denbigh’, 1886).
Thomas Francis (b 1868), Timothy Morgan (b 1869) and Sarah Ann (b 1871) were all born in Pen Y Gelli. Sarah and John also adopted a deaf-mute boy, Henry Huband. No doubt the family enjoyed a comparatively comfortable existence in those boom years but, once the children had grown up, the bubble burst.
In 1881 the family was still living at Pen Y Gelli, part of the larger community of Coedpoeth, (map 5) tucked in the extreme north-eastern corner of the district of Bersham, less than a mile from Minera. There were several mines, the largest being the vast Minera Lead Mine standing just across the River Clywedog and the landscape was pockmarked with mineshafts. The map also shows a large number of wells, probably still in use at that time, and an amazing number of Non-Conformist chapels - there were at least four Methodist Chapels of various kinds in and around the small community of Pen Y Gelli – serving to illustrate the extent to which chapel dominated life in Wales at that time. Almost certainly Sarah’s children would have attended Sunday services regularly, just as Sarah had done as a child.
The two eldest children, Louisa and Miriam were not with the rest of the family at the time of this census (3 April, 1881); they were already in Yorkshire preparing for Louisa's wedding later that month.
The modern Coedpoeth encompasses former communities such as Penygelli and Adwy'r Clawdd though in the 19th century Adwy'r Clawdd, now known as Adwy, was the more prominent village with the higher 'Coedpoeth' described as a mountain road. Adwy'r Clawdd means 'gap in dyke', its name referring to Offa's Dyke. The dyke, stretching the length of Wales from Prestatyn to Chepstow, passes along the eastern boundary of the modern village of Coedpoeth.
“Bersham is a large township which stretches westward from the borough of Wrexham, between the rivers Gwenfro and Clywedog, to the mountain township of Minera or Mwnglawdd. It is bounded on the north by Broughton-in-Bromfield and Brymbo, and on the south by Esclusham Above, Esclusham Below, and Erddig - all, but the last-named, townships in the old parish of Wrexham. The name ‘Bersham’ was formerly applied to the township only, and not to the village now so-called.”
In fact Bersham was no more than a district dotted with quite small communities, though some of these coalesced as they grew.
[The above description came from ‘John Wilkinson and the Old Bersham Iron Works’ (1899). By the late 18th century the ironmaster, inventor and entrepreneur, John Wilkinson owned a mineral empire that included Minera, Brymbo and Bersham. The fortunes of the furnace at Bersham, owned by their father, took a turn for the better in the 1760s once he and his younger brother William took over. John went on to buy Brymbo Hall and to build two nearby blast furnaces; these became the Brymbo Steelworks. He was famous for his development of precision casting processes. Bersham produced high quality, orld-renowned cannon as well as the cylinders for James Watt's steam engines, much used by colliery owners for mine drainage. Vast deposits of iron, lead, and coal were waiting to be hewn from the ground and for more than a century there was a rapid growth in mining and related industries. With the coming of the railway Minera was served by a branch line. The history of this transformation of the beautiful Clywedog valley can be seen at the Bersham Heritage Centre.]
The website coedpoeth.minerahistory.com includes commercial directories which testify to the strength of the identities and to the self-sufficiency of the local communities in the 19th century. Their occupations provide an insight into the community life the Shelbys would have shared, and the following timeline from that website describes local events of which the Shelbys would have been aware:
(the section of the timeline 1862 – 1894 would appear here)
By the 1890s the price of lead ore had collapsed and the price of coal, needed to work the pumps, had soared. The Minera mine would close in 1914 and subsequently become a museum. Other works suffered a similar fate but the museums recall the glory years. The valley has returned to being largely a place of leisure but the heritage of its industrial past has not been forgotten. Museums such as the Bersham Ironworks and Heritage Centre, the Nant Mill Visitor Centre and Minera Lead Mines and Country Park, the latter being on the site of the Minera Mine, provide an insight into what life was like for John and his family.
No doubt John and Sarah’s later years would not have been easy but their children lived nearby. John died, aged 67, on 26 February 1896 [Wrexham 1896, 1st qt] and Sarah, in the winter of 1897-8 [Wrexham 1898, 1st qt], aged 68.
I know little of Sarah herself; my uncle, Eric Wynn-Owen, recalled talk of ‘Grandma Shelby’ but could remember nothing specific. Her great granddaughter, Olwen Hedley, did have a picture of Sarah and wrote, “My recollection of her is that she looked a lady of great character, with a very firm mouth, but nice”.
I am writing a website about my family history and one branch of the family, whose surname was Shelby, lived for many years in the Minera area. As part of the background information to their lives I would very much like to include the part of your time-line covering the latter half of the 19th century. I would also like to include a link to your website.
Would you be amenable to my doing this?
I attach a draft of the relevant section of the family history.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Moira Cholerton
This is part of the story of John Shelby and Sarah Ann Owen. They began married life in Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, gravitated to Cardiganshire & then spent several years in the Bedwelty area of Monmouthshire.
By 1863 the family had moved north once more, this time to near Wrexham in Denbighshire. In 1871 they were living in Evans Row, Ruthin Road, Pen Y Gelli - at least one of their younger children was born at nearby Minera (map 4). John was then a lead miner. I am told he owned a quarry but the marriage certificate (1881) of his daughter, Louisa, stated he was a ‘carpenter’ so his role in the mining industry is uncertain.
Almost certainly throughout John’s working life he would have worked more under contract than as an employee; the miners generally negotiated with an agent a price per ton for working a vein, the fee often being dependent on the difficulty of the job. Miners also bargained over the pay for sinking shafts and driving levels. They shouldered the burden of risk but if they were lucky they might hit a wide vein of lead. It was a precarious living. They also risked injury or death in the all too frequent accidents or by contracting diseases such as silicosis brought on by the dust; few of them lived beyond fifty.
John and Sarah brought their three children, Louisa Morgan (b 1853), Margaret Jane (b 1860) and Miriam Shelby (b abt 1862) to ‘a boomtown’. There was a brick-works but lead mining was the most important contributor to the wealth of the community, reaching its peak in 1863-4 when 6822 tons of Lead ore and 1179 tons of Zinc ore were mined. Profits were just under £70,000 for that year.
Sarah and John were to have five more children. James Pritchard (b 1863) and Susannah Ellen (b 1865) were both born at Adwy'rclawdd, “a small pleasantly-situated village”, close to Coedpoeth, “a populous village, having all the pretensions of a little town, both villages being in the Parish of Bersham and about 3 miles from Wrexham and both situated high up with splendid views”. (from ‘Villages & Parishes In The County Of Denbigh’, 1886).
Thomas Francis (b 1868), Timothy Morgan (b 1869) and Sarah Ann (b 1871) were all born in Pen Y Gelli. Sarah and John also adopted a deaf-mute boy, Henry Huband. No doubt the family enjoyed a comparatively comfortable existence in those boom years but, once the children had grown up, the bubble burst.
In 1881 the family was still living at Pen Y Gelli, part of the larger community of Coedpoeth, (map 5) tucked in the extreme north-eastern corner of the district of Bersham, less than a mile from Minera. There were several mines, the largest being the vast Minera Lead Mine standing just across the River Clywedog and the landscape was pockmarked with mineshafts. The map also shows a large number of wells, probably still in use at that time, and an amazing number of Non-Conformist chapels - there were at least four Methodist Chapels of various kinds in and around the small community of Pen Y Gelli – serving to illustrate the extent to which chapel dominated life in Wales at that time. Almost certainly Sarah’s children would have attended Sunday services regularly, just as Sarah had done as a child.
The two eldest children, Louisa and Miriam were not with the rest of the family at the time of this census (3 April, 1881); they were already in Yorkshire preparing for Louisa's wedding later that month.
The modern Coedpoeth encompasses former communities such as Penygelli and Adwy'r Clawdd though in the 19th century Adwy'r Clawdd, now known as Adwy, was the more prominent village with the higher 'Coedpoeth' described as a mountain road. Adwy'r Clawdd means 'gap in dyke', its name referring to Offa's Dyke. The dyke, stretching the length of Wales from Prestatyn to Chepstow, passes along the eastern boundary of the modern village of Coedpoeth.
“Bersham is a large township which stretches westward from the borough of Wrexham, between the rivers Gwenfro and Clywedog, to the mountain township of Minera or Mwnglawdd. It is bounded on the north by Broughton-in-Bromfield and Brymbo, and on the south by Esclusham Above, Esclusham Below, and Erddig - all, but the last-named, townships in the old parish of Wrexham. The name ‘Bersham’ was formerly applied to the township only, and not to the village now so-called.”
In fact Bersham was no more than a district dotted with quite small communities, though some of these coalesced as they grew.
[The above description came from ‘John Wilkinson and the Old Bersham Iron Works’ (1899). By the late 18th century the ironmaster, inventor and entrepreneur, John Wilkinson owned a mineral empire that included Minera, Brymbo and Bersham. The fortunes of the furnace at Bersham, owned by their father, took a turn for the better in the 1760s once he and his younger brother William took over. John went on to buy Brymbo Hall and to build two nearby blast furnaces; these became the Brymbo Steelworks. He was famous for his development of precision casting processes. Bersham produced high quality, orld-renowned cannon as well as the cylinders for James Watt's steam engines, much used by colliery owners for mine drainage. Vast deposits of iron, lead, and coal were waiting to be hewn from the ground and for more than a century there was a rapid growth in mining and related industries. With the coming of the railway Minera was served by a branch line. The history of this transformation of the beautiful Clywedog valley can be seen at the Bersham Heritage Centre.]
The website coedpoeth.minerahistory.com includes commercial directories which testify to the strength of the identities and to the self-sufficiency of the local communities in the 19th century. Their occupations provide an insight into the community life the Shelbys would have shared, and the following timeline from that website describes local events of which the Shelbys would have been aware:
(the section of the timeline 1862 – 1894 would appear here)
By the 1890s the price of lead ore had collapsed and the price of coal, needed to work the pumps, had soared. The Minera mine would close in 1914 and subsequently become a museum. Other works suffered a similar fate but the museums recall the glory years. The valley has returned to being largely a place of leisure but the heritage of its industrial past has not been forgotten. Museums such as the Bersham Ironworks and Heritage Centre, the Nant Mill Visitor Centre and Minera Lead Mines and Country Park, the latter being on the site of the Minera Mine, provide an insight into what life was like for John and his family.
No doubt John and Sarah’s later years would not have been easy but their children lived nearby. John died, aged 67, on 26 February 1896 [Wrexham 1896, 1st qt] and Sarah, in the winter of 1897-8 [Wrexham 1898, 1st qt], aged 68.
I know little of Sarah herself; my uncle, Eric Wynn-Owen, recalled talk of ‘Grandma Shelby’ but could remember nothing specific. Her great granddaughter, Olwen Hedley, did have a picture of Sarah and wrote, “My recollection of her is that she looked a lady of great character, with a very firm mouth, but nice”.