MEAD family, Stewkley - Charles and wife Sophia nee DIMMOCK 1841 and 1851

[Mabel Bagshawe]

Barracks was also used as a term for a encampment of huts/tents etc where labourers were housed during a temporary project or new working area  or potentially in a remote place where nowhere else for labourers to live. examples I know of would be for navvies on railway or dam construction projects, people settling round new coal mines in South Wales and for slate quarry workers in remote areas of Snowdonia

Anyway, think this is Charles in 1851 - lodging with a family in Colsterworth, Lincs

John Ashwell    46
Eliza Ashwell    43
John Ashwell    18
Ann Ashwell    15
Charles Meade    30 - railway labourer, married b Bucks, Studeley )as transcribed by Ancestry but image could be Stukely or similar]
Joel Cotter    21 - lodger, railway worker

HO107, 2102, 161, 29

In 1841 he is surrounded by "R R labourers" - wondering if this is rail road, i.e. he's a navvy of some sort

[bucksboy]

Well done, good find.  Never thought of Barracks as been described. I live and learn, as always.

Steve.

[mead researcher]

Thank you, thank you, thank  you Mabel Bagshawe.......
His whereabouts in 1851 has been a mystery for a long time.
And also to your suggestions re the name "Barracks".
On our visit to Stewkley and Wing years ago we had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with local Author Robert DICKENS who wrote the 2 small "Stewkley in Camera" books.
He was also a local historian and together we did all we could, including poring over old maps, and your interpretation is also all we could suggest.
Now knowing that Charles moved around working on the railways (Kent 1841 Lincolnshire 1851) it lends credence to why he wasn't at home in Stewkley.
Thank  you for taking the time to reply with that information.
Barbara

[artifis]

I'd forgotten the railway navies' barracks connection but now I remember seeing a TV programme a number of years ago regarding building of the railways where they highlighted at least two instances where the name barracks remained in the area long after the navies had moved on.  I also remember that the Ordnance Survey recorded several instances of this when they did their detailed survey of the country in the mid 1800s.

[mead researcher]

Thanks for that artifis, every little bit of info. adds to the picture.
Barbara

[bucksboy]

I'd forgotten the railway navies' barracks connection but now I remember seeing a TV programme a number of years ago regarding building of the railways where they highlighted at least two instances where the name barracks remained in the area long after the navies had moved on.  I also remember that the Ordnance Survey recorded several instances of this when they did their detailed survey of the country in the mid 1800s.

Was that Programme, Time Team, with Tony Robinson.  Somewhere in Yorkshire I believe. It maybe worth looking for that episode, which may give the flavour of the conditions and hardships in these 'Barracks'.

I've just googled, it was Rise Hill, North Yorkshire, available to view on U Tube.

Steve.

[artifis]

I suspect you're right Steve, I used to watch all those programmes but also tucked away at the back of my mind is another programme about railways and the conditions during the building of them.

[mead researcher]

Thanks Steve - I had a look and can't get to see it - got the message when I chose the Rise Hill story:
This video contains content from LDS, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.
However I have found a few interesting sites with info. on the early railway building days.
Thanks again.
Barbara

[Vance Mead]

How far back do you have this family? Were they in Stewkley as far back as you know? I have quite a lot of information about Meads in Stewkley, going back to the 15th century.

There was a John Mede of Stewkley, husbandman, in Common Pleas records in 1484 and 1501. He or his son, also John Mede, was in the lay subsidy rolls and muster rolls in the 1520s. A Thomas Mede of Stewkley, probably a son of John, appears in muster rolls and subsidy rolls in the 1530s and 40s and left a will in 1569. The parish records begin in the 1540s and after that it’s possible to build a more complete lineage.


wills:
https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/wills/bucks/wills
https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/counties/bucks/wills-database

Parish records (1538.1638)
https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/counties/bucks/baptisms
https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/counties/bucks/marriages
https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/counties/bucks/burials

Medieval records
https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/counties/bucks/bucks-medes

From various records:
https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/counties/bucks/stewkley