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I remember the Penn Cinema from the late 1940s/early 50s when I used to go every week to the Saturday matinees.  Now I can only remember Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy, and some bloke who shouted "Shazam".  And one highlight of my very young years - my parents taking me to my first grown-up film, "Forever Amber", which sparked a life-long love of all things historical.

Hi Sue

The main area of concentration for my Fennyhouse family was around Lapley, Blymhill and Wheaton Aston in Staffordshire.  I have come across one instance so far of the name spelled Fernyhouse, so yes, there is a possibility that it could be a variation of Fernyhough/s found around Cheadle and Dilhorn - the two areas aren't that far apart.  Thanks for drawing this to my attention 

- judijee

I am researching a branch of my family named Fennyhouse - spellings include Fennehouse, Fennyes, Fynneyes, Finnhowse - who lived in west Staffordshire from at least the 16th century up until around a hundred years ago.  I am trying to build up a database and would be grateful for any information.

Hi all -
I've just caught up with this topic, and reading your posts has brought back such a lot of childhood memories.  My gran lived in Maple Road (just round the corner from the Gunmakers Arms) in a terrace of six late-Victorian houses that stood on the lefthand side.  I think they were demolished in the early 1960s, but the old lamp standard is still there where a crowd of us kids used to play hopscotch and skipping in the years just after the War.  It was originally a gas lamp, and when I was very small I would look out for the gaslighter coming round with his ladder to light the lamp of an evening. 
Gran and I often used to visit the Gunmakers to fetch a jug of stout, or else we'd go up to the Bradmore Arms and sit on the wooden bench in the 'outdoor'.  She did her shopping at a grocer's in Church Road called Brockhouse's (or Brocklebank's, I can't quite recall).  Another shop now long gone was in one of the terraced houses round the corner in Trysull Road - it sold wool and all sorts as well as having a post office, and was run by two sisters and their brother.
I was born in Birches Barn Avenue, and when I was around 12 or so we lived in Minsterley Close, on the other side of Trysull Road from Maple Road.   I've lived all over the place since then, but Bradmore has always meant more to me than anywhere else, so thank you to everyone who has brought back so many memories.

- judijee

Hi CaroleW and linell

Thanks for your response.  I am hoping that the address and father's occupation details for this baptism will confirm that the child's father was my own forebear, who worked variously as a framework knitter and a toll-gate keeper.  In both 1841 and 1851 he and his wife Eliza were living in Nottingham (no children shown on the censuses) but in 1858 their only surviving son was born at Ridgeacre (then part of North Harborne parish) which gives me the connection.  I know that William and Eliza moved around the Midlands, so this baptism for a daughter in 1846 at North Harborne would make sense.  Also, a relation of Eliza Eyre was toll-gate keeper at Wood End, Lichfield, in the 1840s.  Unfortunately, there appears to be no registration for the birth of a daughter to William and Eliza Eyre in 1846.

I would be most grateful for any help.

- judijee