Jennifer was Agnes Hill’s grand daughter.

Agnes had married William Batt in 1909, shortly (er…yes that shortly!) before having a daughter, Winifred.

Winifred married George Tenant in 1932 and appear to have Shirley J. Tennant in 1934 – so I think this must be Jennifer.

Fred remembers that Jennifer has curly hair, just like Shirley Temple, and that she appeared on the front of several magazines.  She also thinks Jennifer married a Dr Foster, but I’m struggling to find a record of this.

In 1947 Winifred gave birth to a second child – Malcolm Tennant.

I remember Malcolm.  He served on the Ark Royal and visited with Aunt Aggie (his grandmother) in c1971.  He was an Arsenal fan and took Adrian and I to see West Brom v Arsenal at the Hawthorns.  He proudly stood with his Arsenal scarf on in the middle of the Albion fans in the Brummie Road end – not a sensible thing to do in those days of skin heads and football violence.  Nevertheless he brazened it out and there was not trouble.  Probably they Albion fans were brassed off as the Arsenal won 2-0 (I think).

Edward Hill, Fred’s great grandfather married Mary Ann Winnall.

Mary Ann Winnall’s line can be traced back through the Oldswinford registers to this entry. A marriage of William Winnall to Phoebe Oldnall in 1745.

If this William Winnall is the same William Winnall who came from Wolverley then there is a link to the Vernon family. The Vernon’s built Hanbury Hall and their line can be traced all the way back to a French knight who came over with William The Conquerer.

A quick search of 192.com showed that amazingly both executors – Dennis Reyolds and Ronald Hatton were both still living at the same address.  The website also usefully listed their phone numbers.

Tentatively I called the first number: Dennis.  

It must be odd receiving a call out of the blue from someone you don’t know talking about your family history.  After an explanation of who I was and why I was calling Dennis put me on to his wife, Margaret as “…she’ll be the one you want to talk to”.

It transpires that Margaret is Fred’s cousin.  The daughter of (Henry) Edward Hill – Fred’s mother’s brother.  So Margaret would be Fred’s cousin.  

Margaret thought that her daughter may have some of the photographs, but that she didn’t have anything.  However, her sister Joan, may know more as she was the one who helped clear out Phylis’s house when she died.  

Margaret was right.  Joan did know a lot more.

Gertie had the family bible (I wonder if that still exists – need to ring Martyn and find out).  But Joan still does have a number of family items – including  photos of her grandparents  (Alfred and Alice Hill) – one with Alice sat on a chair wearing a long dress with Alfred standing protectively near her; another had the some of the family standing outside Greyfields, Kinver: grandmother and children, one of whom Joan assumes was her father, although she’s not sure which one.

Joan also had a medal which had been awarded to Auntie May from Dodford school for 100% attendance over a whole year.

She remembered Walter (“…a miserable bugger”) but had no idea that he’d had an illicit child.  There was someone else in the family who was never mentioned.  I wonder what his ‘crime’ had been?

Other gossip included Phylis being very friendly with Alfie Burford, a relationship her mother discouraged.  After Uncle Oliver died she became very close to him again.

Joan wanted to know if it was true there were any canal boat people in her family.  I confirmed this and talked about the Dyers.  Apparently Margaret her sister is quite horrified at this – being of the view that canal workers were like water gypsies!  

Did I know if Alice had a brother, Floyd, who was a blacksmith at Burcot?  I’ve not heard of this before but it will be worth looking into.

Then, intriguingly, she said something along the lines of there was a “Hill” who worked at Pipers Hill farm and a rich man called Vernon.  Auntie May had said that they were related.  This is the first family mention I’ve had of the Vernon link, although Steve Winall and Wendy Walmsley have long thought there was a link.  I must follow this up.

When the house was cleared out some of the things, including a few postcards, were given to Joan’s niece, Margaret’s daughter.  Joan said she would get in touch and get back to me and we thought it would be a good idea to meet up and share resources.

Footnote:

When researching the Hill family 1891 Census entry at Greyfields, where Alfred was a bailiff, I noticed that also living there at the time was a Game Keeper.  The led me to look back a page to see if there was anyone else living there at the time.  There wasn’t, but to my surprise there was my Meredith relatives living in Compton Road.  Edward and Ada must surely have know each other.  Perhaps they were even at school together?  I wonder how I could find out.  

Interestingly, as the families lived here in 1891, they must surely have been scandalised by the Wolverley Murder!

Then playing in garden on the see-saw/roundabout. Adrian Sunter ahead of his time in Bay City Roller trousers, Graham Hodgets (?) wearing a hoodie and Megan Holmes. John Tipper also there? Tim wielding stick to know Graham off see-saw. Oh the fun we had.

The shots have Fred outside the family caravan, Jen riding on her bike, our dog Lassie being walked by Tim with Jen holding David Richie and Chris Richie playing cricket.

The other families I remember are the Andrews who had a steel factory in Stourbridge; Baldwin; Richie; Loverock who owned the garage in Brierley Hill. The Griffiths family had a caravan on the top field.