Ellesmere, Shropshire

My Grandmother

The 1901 census shows my grandmother Emma Mainwaring, then aged 14, working as a domestic servant at Kenwicks Park. Thinking that Kenwicks Park was the name of a large country house I started to search for it only to find that Kenwicks Park refers to a locality. Can anyone suggest where I can find the exact house where my grandmother worked?[more]

Ushers Shop

I have always known it as Ushers, although I remember it being run by a Mr. Fisher who has a teenage daughter who had a pony....I remember her being very kind to me when I was a little girl. I remember her singing a song about girls sitting in the back seat hugging and kissing with Fred . Very funny. Random... [more]

Would you swim in this today?

This the exact spot where I learned to swim, it was muddy, cold, and wonderful, it was also where I learned to use a canoe with the school, we actually had to turn it over...Yuk... My Mum would send us to Ushers shop on the canal a little way back, for bread..I can smell it now. Climbing up the steep hill... [more]

Smith Family of Tedsmore Bank

and died in 1883, Emma had a son, Thomas Leonard Smith, and he was brought up as one of the children and became a butler in North Wales and died in 1915, he left a widow and 2 daughters but never knew Emma was his mother. His only grandson was killed during the 2nd World War and I was the only... [more]

Embarkation leave

Mrs Barrett, the Post Mistress at that time, gave me a 1947 farthing for luck when I joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in June 1952. She said she had given one to village lads in WW2 and most of them came back, so look after it.
I went to Suez and came back and it is still on my... [more]

RE: SAD!

I have family in Oswesty  and my uncle used to have a fruit and veg round. I used to go with him and my aunty sometimes when I was young. I used to love staying in Oswestry, it's my favourite place. I still have lots of relations there now.

The Lordship of Tilstock

I hold the Lordship of the Manor of Tilstock and have many maps and papers relating to its history. The Manor covers 2550 acres (just over 4 square miles) and has existed since before the Norman Conquest, when it was part of the lands of Queen Aldgyth, widow of Gruffydd ap Llewelyn and second wife of King Harold II. It includes... [more]

Filling in a Beauty spot

Approximately around the 1950s it was decided to fill in the canal from the Wharf to the junction at Wrexham Road via Chemistry Lane. Most of the canal fill material was household and business rubbish but to us young boys playing in the area the attraction was the military equipment that had been discarded by the American bases locally when they... [more]