RootsChat.Com
Wales (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Wales => Flintshire => Topic started by: ThrelfallYorky on Sunday 27 September 15 18:12 BST (UK)
-
I've got a certain connection with someone who lodged in Feathers Street in 1870s, and actually went there and took some photos last year, but half the street (at least) is very modern, and I wonder if there is a photo of the street at about the time this man would have been lodging there? I would guess it wasn't ever a "posh" area, he was a miner, and there seemed to be plenty of Pubs in the area, but does anyone know of a decent image of it at about this time, please?
-
Got these from http://www.fflint.co.uk/thumbs18.html
I doubt you'll find any Victorian pictures.
-
I thought Victorian images unlikely, and had simply googled "old photos feather street flint". From the same site thought this had a feel of the past
www.fflint.co.uk/sta.jpg
-
I think the building(pub?) at the end of the street is still there, and it looked turn-of-the-century to me when I was taking pics there. Thank you for your kind efforts, hanes teulu, and Shep. I thought a few buildings o one side had enough period details to look right when I was there, and just wondered what if other side ( which of course had the house I wanted) had been the same.
Again, my grateful thanks.
-
Welsh newspaper's on line http://newspapers.library.wales
The search key "feather's street" or "feathers street" returns a number of hits - no pics, but reading the items might give a flavour of the place? They don't all relate to Flint. You can use the date slider bar to limit your search to the period you are interested in.
If you spot a name/house number that's of interest, but it's in Welsh, and you might need a translation, you can PM me for details
-
To provide a translation service is a most kind offer - I become dumbstruck when map reading in wales, sadly. I shall promptly seek out that site, and have a happy time hunting about. I assume it's history was ... not very salubrious . Thank you again, hanes teulu.
-
Got these from http://www.fflint.co.uk/thumbs18.html
I doubt you'll find any Victorian pictures.
These are Victorian buildings. They all appear in the census returns. I was born in no 68 which I understand is next to the large building at the end which was a chapel. At the other end was a pub and the police station There is footage on youtube of these houses being demolished to make way for the flats (circa 1965) They lasted over 120 years and now the flats are being demolished. They lasted 50 years!
-
Ha! Isn't that just the way. When I looked in real life at the street, one side did look as if it was originally Victorian - well, mid-to-late, at least. the chap I was thinking of lived there in 1870s, so it would have been very different then. Thank you for the input, Eldon.
-
I don't think that there any properties in Feather Street, today. What you are probably referring to are structures at the back of Church Street. All the houses were on the opposite side with even numbers. 2 was the pub, 4 the police station all the way up to the other end where the large building (aerial photo) was a chapel. They were all demolished. Another factor is that the numbers varies from census to census. In one census there was a house 78, but most have a maximum of 68. Inhabitants were mostly labourers and chemical workers. I am trying to find a street map which shows all the house numbers, circa 1950.
-
Ah, it said "Feather Street" on the sign at the end of the road, when I was here, and I went and believed it. Now I'm confused.... as usual. I think the number in the early 1870s may have been "5", but can't find exactly the reference that makes me think that. Thank you again for your helpful input(s).
-
Yes I know the sign you referring to. Some of early census returns did have a few odd numbers.
If you go on the link from Shep, row 11 centre and row 12 ex rt. are the same photo. These could be the bricked up odd number houses, so you could be looking at 1.3.5. They are now store rooms for the shops in Church Street, at the back of the photograph.
On that Flint site there are a number of early maps and you may get a better idea when they enlarged.
-
Thank you.
-
Hi,
I was looking through the site and came across your post and wondered if you were still looking for information. I was born in 27 Feather Street in 1940 and lived there until They knocked our house down to build the flats in the early 1960's. If you look at the first photo on your link it shows the part of the Welsh Chapel at the top of the street. Our house was directly opposite the Chapel, where the rear of the library is now. Our house was one of the first to be knocked down. The pub that is mentioned in a number of the replies was The Three Pigeons. It was about 10 metres away from our house and many was the Saturday night I was kept awake by the revellers singing their loud songs.
I always regret not taking any photos, and the door number, before we left. I have a street map of Flint from 1870, but no photos. I can try and send you a copy if your interested.
-
I did find some images of the area, actually - an ancestor of my OH lodged there, we think he was killed in a mining accident c.1870 /75. The actual address was gleaned from a newspaper article, where he had been robbed by a fellow lodger!!
His son and the son's mother moved completely away from Flintshire very shortly after the son's birth, so he didn't grow up there. Thank you very much, Junius.
TY
-
ThrelfallYorky: I will try and find the census returns for Feather St. (They are currently in a very safe place!) Your ancestor should be on the 1861 unless you have already done that>
Junius: You are about 4 years older than me and we left in 1950ish. I am still trying to establish which of the houses was No68, which was very close to the Chapel you mentioned. I may be able to get a better idea when the 1921 census comes out in January. You and I lived more or less opposite to each other. By the way the Three pigeons was in Coleshill St.
-
Your right of course, the Three Pigeons was in Coleshill Street, but in all my time there I never heard described as anything other than as being 'at the top of Feather Street'. I've been trying to think of where 68 might be, but while I could still name most of the residents that were in the street, I'd struggle with what number they lived in. The house next to the Chapel you mentioned was always referred to as The Chapel House, although it didn't have anything to do with the Chapel as far as I know. I can still picture the daughter who used to live there, quiet girl.
If you lived almost opposite me then you must know who I am. If you can tell me what number you lived in, I can have a try at working out where 68 was and who lived there.
-
Hello Junius: I moved from Flint circa 1948 and have no recollection of Feather Street at all. My father moved to Flint in the late 1920's and worked at Pumphreys. He lodged at 68 Feather St. with a "nice old white haired lady''. She was the widow of the licensee of the Red Lion in Church St. I think her name was Selina Lloyd (not too sure of the Christian name) . She died during the war and left the house to my dad in her will. He was then a belt man in Courtaulds. He later married and I was born there in 1944.
I have looked at photographs of the top end of the street and tried to de-cypher the door numbers. It may be that 'Chapel House' is 70 so my birth place would be next to it. When you have one more posts I think I can send you a personal message. Regards Eldon.
-
This 1963-1967 map shows the "Before" + house numbers
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/324260/373016/12/100954
You should be able to zoom in (if necessary) to make out the numbers.
Click on the 1967-1975 map for the "After" - unnumbered
-
Fascinating. I always enjoy old maps.
TY
-
Hi,
You won't believe this but when I left school in 1955 I started to serve my time as a mechanic in.......
Pumphreys and later I worked at both the Castle and Aber works. The people in the next house to the Chapel House were the Reaneys, and when their daughter Mary got married, she and her husband also moved in and when the parents passed away, they took over the house. Next door were the McPhersons and the house doubled as a shop. If I knew who lived in any number number from that side of the street, I could work out where 68 was. I'll have to do a bit of research. By the way, on the 1870 street map most of the buildings in the street were the same as when I was born, but no chapel house.
-
According to the 1871 census, the man I was researching lodged at No 6 Feathers street at the time. He was in Dearham, Cumberland, near to where he was born, the decade before, and we think he died, possibly in a mining accident, before the 1881 census, as we've never managed to find hide nor hair of him from 1871 onwards.
(I didn't actually mention, if you check back, any number in my original post, as I've found from other researches how often street numbers are changed)
Thanks for your interest - it's truly amazing how people and things link up on here!
TY