The enterprising Ridgeway family, I am told, have their origins in the Little Wenlock - Church Stretton areas of Shropshire. Besides agriculture they were engaged in brewing and the manufacture of stoneware jars, in which they were active in both Burton and Stoke on Trent. Attached is a photograph of a Peter Ridgeway taken at Fenton, a suburb of Stoke on Trent, with an interesting backdrop of ‘stone jar thingys’.
The Greenhalghs were farmers at a Glebe farm in Middleton, Lancashire. An area once described as a fertile and well cultivated valley. However the needs of the cotton industry were to convert the local farmland into terraced housing and Middleton became a suburb of Manchester. Although the original family farmhouse is said to still exist. The farmer John Greenhalgh had at least two sons Samuel and Harry.
In 1899, at age thirty, Samuel Greenhalgh married Sarah Anne Ridgeway, a skilled cotton weaver, aged twenty seven, living in Middleton. She was the daughter of George Ridgeway. The Peter Ridgeway in the picture is said to be her grandfather. About 1906 Samuel and his family moved to Maesteg and started up the brewing business. Given her background Sarah Ridgeway may well have been the driving force behind this. The second photograph is of Samuel Greenhalgh, his wife Sarah Anne (Ridgeway) and their two oldest children John and Annie. They would subsequently have another daughter Mary and a son Harry (not to be confused with Samuels brother).There are two different types of ‘Greenhalgh jar’, the first belonged to the brewery run by Samuel and Sarah and are marked “S. Greenhalgh – Maesteg”.
Samuel’s brother, Harry also moved to South Wales and took up the botanical brewing business in Aberaman. The third photo is of Harry and of his wife Mamie surname as yet unknown, but is thought to have been a local girl. Theirs were the second type of Greenhalgh jar marked “H Greenhagh – Aberaman”. It is said Harry was a well-known for driving about the valleys in a six cylinder Wolseley and that he owned a house and fields in Trefin. They have no known children.
An important customer of the botanical brews of the Greenhalghs, were the temperance movement of the local chapels. However the brews were not strictly soft drinks, as they were at that time permitted a legal alcohol limit of 3%, although this was not strictly enforced and higher specific gravities were not uncommon. It is said that Samuel would concoct some rather special cordials with a little extra kick, which were very popular with the good chapel folk at certain holiday times such as Christmas and Easter. Samuel’s brewing business came to an end through a combination of factors. His antiquated equipment could not meet new government legislation and his two sons John and Harry had little inclination to take over the firm or commit to the necessary financial re-investment needed. He is said to have sold the business to the Ridgeways.
As for Samuel and Sarah’s children; John was an intelligent man, he worked in insurance in the city of London and taught languages at night school. He married Joan from Bexhill and lived in Dulwich before retiring to Bournmouth, they had no children; Mary worked in the munitions plant in Bridgend and married a Bryn Bowen from Blaengwynfi, they moved to London after the war but had no children. Harry married a Gladys Keeling from London; he did military service and had twin boys Barry and David. Following the early death of Gladys the twins were brought up by his wife’s family. Harry emigrated to New Zealand were he would spend many years living on a house boat in Auckland harbour. Of his twin sons Barry would join the merchant navy and eventually settle in Australia but had no known children. David lived in Greenwich and had a son and a daughter, but I believe the family has now relocated to East Anglia. The elder daughter Annie married a George Rickards from Castleton; they had one son * and lived in Turberville Street. After the war the family relocated to London. * married and had four children, he now lives in Kent and still has fond memories of both Samuel and Harry and of times spent at the house in Trefin
