Hi
My grandfather was born in Ashton Under Hill (now Worcestershire, but then Gloucestershire) in 1901. While he was still a toddler, he moved to Birmingham. I was told that his uncle ~ as the man of the family ~ decided to 'sell the cottages', so the family had to move.
I have long been bemused by this. The family was not well-off ~ my grandfather's mother (the elderly lady in my avatar photo) had had to walk to Birmingham, in order to find work, while she was still very young, because her parents had died leaving four orphaned children. I would have assumed that the family were tenants, who rented their home. Her father had been a carter.
And why 'cottages' in the plural?
There were several family members in the village, but the older ones seem to have lived with the younger ones in their dotage. I cannot see how they would have come to own more than one cottage ~ if, indeed they actually 'owned' any.
Does anyone know how I can find out more about this mystery, please?
Someone who knew the family has indicated that the tiny cottage on the front of a photographic book on the village was the family home, but on the census, the family is recorded at least twice, straight after the Star Inn, so I wondered if it was in that part of the village. There were, of course, different branches of the family ~ and I haven't found any real addresses so far. It's a real mystery.
