If You Want to Get Ahead, Get a Hat

Unfortunately, I never met 3 of my Grandparents as they died before I was born. I only fleetingly remember the 4th., my Grandfather HULLOCK, before he too died when I was no more than about 5 years of age, (more about him another time). So I haven’t experienced the ‘Nanny and Granpa’ thing……it was more an Auntie and Uncle thing for me.

This post makes a start to relate the history about my maternal Grandmother’s family, the AINSWORTHs of Chorley, England. Hopefully the topic will also be of particular interest to the present day families descended from them.

 

To begin then, with some orientation, my Grandmother on the maternal side was Mary Alice AINSWORTH.

 

Here’s Mary…and that’s what you call a hat! The title of this post was in fact prompted by my wife’s reaction on first seeing this photo.

The estimated date taken, based on fashion, is maybe somewhere between 1895 and 1905, which would put her between 18 & 28 years old. Looks the younger end of that to me….but I’m no expert in these things. see HERE

My Family Tree website shows our current ancestral line back through Mary to her father, John AINSWORTH. (you will need to register to view details of living individuals), where evidence first suggested that he was born in Leyland, near Chorley, Lancashire in Sept. 1852.

I’m still researching John’s origins and family line going further back. However, we are very fortunate that we still have the Family Bible started by John when he married and this has many entries for the first family that he started in the second half of the 19th century.

 

Together with photos handed down, I can have a good stab at reconstructing the lives of this past generation from at least his family forward.

 

Before describing John’s family and descendants in later posts, I first wanted to delve deeper into his ancestors.
 

(CLICK on the cover to view the Family Pages in the Bible)

 

 

To get back further from John, a first clue was the Marriage Banns for his marriage in 1876

 

 

 

 

These specifically occurred on 6th July 1876 with John claiming age 24. If my maths is right, this would indicate a birth date prior to 6th July 1852.

 

By that date, the Industrial revolution was well under way with this area sporting industries such as coal mining, cotton mills and brickworks to name just three. As with many families from the area, we can see ours worked as weavers in the cotton trade. John’s mother we learn was Sarah, a ‘single woman’ as defined by the census ‘occupation’.

 

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Postscript Edit:-

Well you live and learn! – in the section below, I describe John’s address as John Street, Coppull (near Chorley). It turns out this was erroneous, thanks to a very diligent fellow researcher, who pointed out there was a John St. in Chorley itself, and this was the correct address. It had in fact been demolished and wasn’t showing up on Google searches.

Here is a clip showing the present day road map for the area concerned in Chorley, superimposed with the old map on which John Street appeared.

And below, the Google Earth view of the same area, with now a furnishing store where the street used to be.

The information below is still local to the area and worthy of keeping.

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At the time of his marriage, John is living appropriately enough at 21, John Street, a row of collier’s cottages in Coppull, near Chorley – CLICK for Brief History for more background CLICK here.

 

These properties, known as 'back to back' houses, are situated in Darlington Street and John Street – (Source: Facebook Group  "Chorley Then And Now")

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collier’s Cottages – John Street, Coppull

 

 

 

 

 

According to one writer, “…By 1830 Coppull was a rather unimportant agricultural area of a few cottages, houses and farms, and a small chapel to the east…….”

 

 

 

 

 

 

When John was born in 1852, significant changes were already underway. The single track railway was established from Wigan to Preston in 1838, workers were flooding in and housing was needed.

These are Mill Stone Platt cottages, Chapel Lane, Coppull, c1900. The Printers' Arms pub on Chapel Lane was the local for handloom weavers who worked at Mill Stone Platt cottages – (Source: Facebook Group "Chorley Then And Now")