During the1939 census John and his wife Alice were living at 94A Evesham Road, Stratford on Avon. This is where he died. He was working as a journalist for a newspaper at the time. I have researched this Bird family history back to the 1700s.
Thank you for this Mr Stewart. I knew his Stratford address but not when he moved (probably 1928 when he married) He died in Stratford hospital in March 1981. While researching the family history I have got as far as his siblings and parents, John and Albena. Is there an easier way of going back to the 1700's than just clicking on every 'Bird' ? Or did you use another website such as ancestry.co.uk? Finally, do you have a connection which prompted your research?
I started all the family trees I put together long before Ancestry.com and others. In the old days I had access to the registers held by the local Vicars. Then of course I made many visits to the records offices, and obtained birth, marriage and death certificates. The Mormon IGI index then became available which provided much valuable information. Much easier now with so much information online including the huge amount available on our award winning Badsey web site. I am not related to any of the Bird family but one was my wife's god-mother which prompted me to put a tree together as a present. Havng now completed five family trees over the past few months, this correspondence has prompted me to update the Bird tree over the next week or so as I have much more information to add. I will get back to you.
Thank you very much. Is there a charge if I would like a copy? Do you need any more info from me? Also, who is/was your wife's Godmother and finally do you offer a service such as a family tree for my partner? Many thanks for your assistance.
Kind regards
Andy Bird
There will be no charge for the Bird family tree. If you look under Churchyard inscriptions you will find my email address. I think it best for us to continue this discussion via emails.
Peter
George and Julia Moisey were my grandparents. My mother, Margaret (1915 - 2012) their youngest child, often spoke about Theodore Hall and how he left Bredon View to her parents. However, after her mother’s death, the house wasn’t sold immediately but was left to her widowed elder sister, Maud James, who lived there for at least another 20 years. I remember visiting her there in 1962. My mother’s brother, William Moisey and his family also lived in one of the houses in Sands Lane.
Hello first of all what a wonderful site this is , so easy to use.
I have just found out that one of my gran fathers came from Badsey. Surname [ Johns born around 1855.]
are there any Johns still in this area, and how many church's are there. as it will not say at the moment any other info apart from the place of birth.
thank you for any one that might be able to help .
Thank you for your kind comments. There is just one church in Badsey, the Church of St James. In the past there was also a chapel in Aldington and a Quaker Meeting House in Chapel Street, Badsey.
You don’t give the names of your great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather and grandfather. Which is the Johns you refer to who was born about 1855? If you can provide us with this information, we may be able to help you further.
I am helping to research the village of Wickhamford for the Badsey Society and was interested in your comment that your grandparents owned Woodlands for most of the 20th century.
I remember the Newman family living at Woodlands. Mr and Mrs Newman ran a clothing shop in Evesham next to the Methodist Church. They had two sons who attended Prince Henrys Grammar School as I did. I can't remember their names. I think I remember seeing them bike to school as I went by on the school bus from Wickhamford.
Are you one of the sons or are you a grandson of the owners?
We are always looking for memorabilia, photos etc to put on the website and wonder if you might have photos or memories of Woodlands that you would like to share.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Valerie Harman (nee Mason)
Hello,
I found this email in my spam folder!
My name is Laura and I’m in the USA.
My mother is one of the Newmans daughters.
Her brothers were Paul and Terrence. Both have passed away.
We do have some pictures of the house from the time my Grandparents owned it.
I’ll have to look them out for you!
Laura
Hi Laura
Many thanks for getting back to me.
I am shocked to hear that both your uncles, Paul and Terrence have passed away.
I never knew that Mr & Mrs Newman had daughters. Did they go the Prince Henry's Grammar School?
We would love to see the photos of Woodlands and hopefully use one or two of them for the website. I will get Tom Locke, who I am helping with the Wickhamford section of the Badsey website, to make contact with you. He is the person who deals with the photos.
Regards
Valerie
If you have any photos that we could use on the web-site, you can send them to me, together with any background information, at the Society email address - wickhamford@badsey.net
Hi Laura
We look forward to seeing the photos of Woodlands.
I spoke to Robert Hale yesterday. His father had the nursery on the Evesham side of Woodlands. He remembers the Newman family at Woodlands but didn't remember the children. He felt they were nearer to his older brother's age. I am sure your mother will remember the Hale family.
There is a photo on the internet showing lower Bridge Street, Evesham and it shows your grandparents shop. You can just make out the name. It is a Francis Frith photo and I put into my search engine 'Photo Evesham Bridge Street 1955'. Hope you can locate it.
Regards
Valerie
I am a descendant of David Constable 1725-1778, younger brother of George Constable, the purchaser of Wallace Craigie, and of Mathilda who married Laurence Brown.
Yes, very much so - see pages 147-148 of Peace, War & Remembrance: The Great War in Badsey, Aldington & Wickhamford. However, if you look at the Index of People on this website, you will see that there are no Tovey burials. From what I can gather, there were just two Tovey families living in the village during the WWI period: Charles & Mary Tovey, and Charles' brother, Richard, and family. Richard had an adopted son, Alfred Webb, who died aged 12 in June 1920. Wikipedia gives the pandemic as lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, so Alfred could possibly have died of flu, but you would need to purchase the death certificate in order to find out.
This is another superb piece of research by the Badsey society. The levels of detail and accuracy indicate that considerable effort and great care must have been required. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned. Badsey and the neighbouring villages are very fortunate to have this excellent website containing so much valuable local history (not just this article of course). Badsey seems to be a leader in this field and sets a splendid example to other villages.
I am researching Muzio Clementi and any links to Dr Johnson and trying to find out if ever they met.
I am interested in the article: “Miss Marjorie Clementi pianist seeks Muzio`s last home” which was published on 15th October 1955. (Badsey Society copy made 2003 of the 1955 document)
In this article it states that :
“At 28 he had taken London Society by storm with his conducting of the Italian opera at Covent Garden; and had stirred Dr Johnson.” Where did this quote come from? I really need to find the original source of this quote. I note that the provenance was an article from the Evesham Journal copied from file at Evesham Library. However where did this actual statement come from? Can anyone help me please?
I am a member of the Badsey Society as well as being a member of The Vale of Evesham Historical Society. I suggest you contact Richard Ball of the VEHS at richardfball@aol.com
I am almost certain the society has done some research into Clementi so may be able to help you.
Val Harman
Thank you Val. I am most grateful to receive your suggestion and I will follow it up and contact Richard Ball.
Many thanks. Janette Horton of Lichfield Staffordshire.
If you log on to the British Newspaper Archive website, there are a lot of references to Muzio Clementi. You might be able to track down from there the origin of the quote.
I'm impressed that you found the article so quickly - we only published it on the web yesterday! I'm glad that the Cox family has been useful - it was quite a useful exercise in pulling together all the various references to Cox on our website. If you have any Cox family photos etc that you think might be useful, we would love to see them.
I'd like to comment on the family of my 3x great grandparents Thomas Sharp & Harriet Knight (of Sharps Row in Badsey), in particular about Harriet's brother's line. He was Robert Knight born c1806 in Badsey and married to Mary Dowsil.
Of Robert & Mary's children I am currently looking for the whereabouts of their son William Knight who was born 1846, but my problem being that another William Knight was born the same year which had presented me with a dilema.
My reason for writing is because I have been looking at two persons named William Knight born at the same place & year and I have made a mistake in following my line which is in fact incorrect. I have made a common error in looking at the many trees on Ancestry and taking information without positive proof. I am usually very careful what to include in my tree and check as much as possible but in this case there are many tree's that were just showing incorrectly. Many people are in danger of adding 2 plus 2 and coming up with 5.
I'd like to thank Maureen Spinks & the Badsey Society for helping me with my Knight connections, especially proving that my William Knight was the son of Robert Knight & Mary Dowsil and the fact that this William was the one who emigrated to Ohio.
Many thanks for your kind comments, Graham. As Knight was the commonest surname by far in Badsey for three centuries, it is inevitable that many names were duplicated, so it is a case of looking logically through all the baptism, marriage, burial and census records to confirm the correct line of descent. It is extremely frustrating when we see incorrect family trees published on Ancestry.
A pivotal point regarding your William Knight came when I realised that a significant number of people from Badsey emigrated in the latter half of the 19th century to the small town of Auburn, Ohio, USA. William Knight seemed to have "disappeared" from the UK census so, as other Badsey folks, including several members of the Knight family, had gone to America, I started looking for him in America - and, bingo, there he was in the 1870 census for Auburn!
Thank you for taking the time to write and hope that you continue to enjoy looking at the Badsey website - new articles are being added all the time.
I’ve just come across your site. I’m a Woodall, interested in family history. I’m descended from the youngest of Sir Corbet Woodall’s 10 children (of the Gas, Light and Coke Co). I’m not sure of the exact connection here but would love to know more. Thank you. Alex
Thank you for your comment. The person by the name of Woodall who lived in Wickhamford was Alfred Woodall (1875-1966) who was born in Staffordshire, the son of William and Caroline Woodall. Having checked on Ancestry, William Woodall was born at Shrewsbury in 1843, the son of John and Elizabeth Woodall. John Woodall was born at Shrewsbury in about 1808.
I see that Corbet Woodall was born in Liverpool in 1841, but older siblings were born in Shrewsbury, as was his father, William (born about 1804), so there would appear to be some kind of family connection. It is possible that William Woodall (father of Corbet) and John Woodall (father of William and grandfather of Alfred) may have been brothers. The Shropshire parish records do not appear to be online, so you will need to pay a visit to Shropshire Record Office to check this out. Hope this helps.
Corbett's father, William, was born abt.1795 and married Martha Ann Basson 13 Aug 1829 and had four children. William's father, John, married Martha Harris at Shrewsbury 15 Jan 1805. They had six children, including John Woodall, who was born 25 Jun 1807 in Shrewsbury. This appears to be the connection.
Peter Stewart
Hello. I am another person decended from Joseph Knight (my mother was called Jennifer Knight, and her father grew up around the area). I notice that one of your pages (https://www.badsey.net/past/knight3.htm) refers to a huge family tree of the Knights. I wonder if i can see that information?
Thank you for your email and many apologies for the delay in replying but I have been busy updating and article about the Knight family which I have added to the Top Ten Names section - https://www.badseysociety.uk/top-ten-names. The family tree which you refer to was produced some 17 years ago for a display at the school fete. I’m afraid it no longer exists in print format (from memory it was about 22 sheets of A4 stuck together) as it was getting extremely tatty and, more importantly, corrections and new information needed to be added. I hope that this article on the Knights will help you understand the various family relationships.
Comments
Re: John Henry Bird
During the1939 census John and his wife Alice were living at 94A Evesham Road, Stratford on Avon. This is where he died. He was working as a journalist for a newspaper at the time. I have researched this Bird family history back to the 1700s.
Re: John Henry Bird
Thank you for this Mr Stewart. I knew his Stratford address but not when he moved (probably 1928 when he married) He died in Stratford hospital in March 1981. While researching the family history I have got as far as his siblings and parents, John and Albena. Is there an easier way of going back to the 1700's than just clicking on every 'Bird' ? Or did you use another website such as ancestry.co.uk? Finally, do you have a connection which prompted your research?
Re: John Henry Bird
I started all the family trees I put together long before Ancestry.com and others. In the old days I had access to the registers held by the local Vicars. Then of course I made many visits to the records offices, and obtained birth, marriage and death certificates. The Mormon IGI index then became available which provided much valuable information. Much easier now with so much information online including the huge amount available on our award winning Badsey web site. I am not related to any of the Bird family but one was my wife's god-mother which prompted me to put a tree together as a present. Havng now completed five family trees over the past few months, this correspondence has prompted me to update the Bird tree over the next week or so as I have much more information to add. I will get back to you.
Re: John Henry Bird
Thank you very much. Is there a charge if I would like a copy? Do you need any more info from me? Also, who is/was your wife's Godmother and finally do you offer a service such as a family tree for my partner? Many thanks for your assistance.
Kind regards
Andy Bird
Re: John Henry Bird
There will be no charge for the Bird family tree. If you look under Churchyard inscriptions you will find my email address. I think it best for us to continue this discussion via emails.
Peter
The Hall Houses: Bredon View
George and Julia Moisey were my grandparents. My mother, Margaret (1915 - 2012) their youngest child, often spoke about Theodore Hall and how he left Bredon View to her parents. However, after her mother’s death, the house wasn’t sold immediately but was left to her widowed elder sister, Maud James, who lived there for at least another 20 years. I remember visiting her there in 1962. My mother’s brother, William Moisey and his family also lived in one of the houses in Sands Lane.
Re: The Hall Houses: Bredon View
Many thanks for this information. I have updated the article accordingly.
My Great Great granfather.
Hello first of all what a wonderful site this is , so easy to use.
I have just found out that one of my gran fathers came from Badsey. Surname [ Johns born around 1855.]
are there any Johns still in this area, and how many church's are there. as it will not say at the moment any other info apart from the place of birth.
thank you for any one that might be able to help .
Re: My Great Great granfather.
Hello Sally
Thank you for your kind comments. There is just one church in Badsey, the Church of St James. In the past there was also a chapel in Aldington and a Quaker Meeting House in Chapel Street, Badsey.
You don’t give the names of your great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather and grandfather. Which is the Johns you refer to who was born about 1855? If you can provide us with this information, we may be able to help you further.
Woodlands
My Grandparents owned Woodlands for most of the 20th Century. Very sad it wasn’t saved.
Re: Woodlands
...for much of the 20th Century, not most.
Re: Woodlands
I am helping to research the village of Wickhamford for the Badsey Society and was interested in your comment that your grandparents owned Woodlands for most of the 20th century.
I remember the Newman family living at Woodlands. Mr and Mrs Newman ran a clothing shop in Evesham next to the Methodist Church. They had two sons who attended Prince Henrys Grammar School as I did. I can't remember their names. I think I remember seeing them bike to school as I went by on the school bus from Wickhamford.
Are you one of the sons or are you a grandson of the owners?
We are always looking for memorabilia, photos etc to put on the website and wonder if you might have photos or memories of Woodlands that you would like to share.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Valerie Harman (nee Mason)
Re: Woodlands
Apologies I didn't read your message properly. I see you are a grandson of Mr and Mrs Newman who lived at Woodlands.
Valerie Harman
Re: Woodlands
Hello,
I found this email in my spam folder!
My name is Laura and I’m in the USA.
My mother is one of the Newmans daughters.
Her brothers were Paul and Terrence. Both have passed away.
We do have some pictures of the house from the time my Grandparents owned it.
I’ll have to look them out for you!
Laura
Re: Woodlands
Hi Laura
Many thanks for getting back to me.
I am shocked to hear that both your uncles, Paul and Terrence have passed away.
I never knew that Mr & Mrs Newman had daughters. Did they go the Prince Henry's Grammar School?
We would love to see the photos of Woodlands and hopefully use one or two of them for the website. I will get Tom Locke, who I am helping with the Wickhamford section of the Badsey website, to make contact with you. He is the person who deals with the photos.
Regards
Valerie
Re: Woodlands
Hello Laura,
If you have any photos that we could use on the web-site, you can send them to me, together with any background information, at the Society email address - wickhamford@badsey.net
Tom Locke
Re: Woodlands
Hi Valerie,
I’ve asked my Mom and she said that they all went to Prince Henry’s Grammar School.
My Uncle Paul’s death was sudden. A tear in the heart. My Uncle Terry had COPD.
I’ve been sent the email address to send pictures of Woodlands. I’ll have to look some out at my Moms house as well.
Laura
Re: Woodlands
Hi Laura
We look forward to seeing the photos of Woodlands.
I spoke to Robert Hale yesterday. His father had the nursery on the Evesham side of Woodlands. He remembers the Newman family at Woodlands but didn't remember the children. He felt they were nearer to his older brother's age. I am sure your mother will remember the Hale family.
There is a photo on the internet showing lower Bridge Street, Evesham and it shows your grandparents shop. You can just make out the name. It is a Francis Frith photo and I put into my search engine 'Photo Evesham Bridge Street 1955'. Hope you can locate it.
Regards
Valerie
Benjamin Carter 1842-1926
Thank you to Bronwen Reeve for all the hard work you have put into researching our family history.
Brown Constable Family
Your site is a treasure trove for my research into the Brown Constable family. Thank you!
Re: Brown Constable Family
Thank you! Are you a descendant of one of the family?
Re: Brown Constable Family
I am a descendant of David Constable 1725-1778, younger brother of George Constable, the purchaser of Wallace Craigie, and of Mathilda who married Laurence Brown.
Spanish Flu
Was Badsey affected by the Spanish flu. Researching my family tree of the Tovey family?
Re: Spanish Flu
Yes, very much so - see pages 147-148 of Peace, War & Remembrance: The Great War in Badsey, Aldington & Wickhamford. However, if you look at the Index of People on this website, you will see that there are no Tovey burials. From what I can gather, there were just two Tovey families living in the village during the WWI period: Charles & Mary Tovey, and Charles' brother, Richard, and family. Richard had an adopted son, Alfred Webb, who died aged 12 in June 1920. Wikipedia gives the pandemic as lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, so Alfred could possibly have died of flu, but you would need to purchase the death certificate in order to find out.
Re: Spanish Flu
Thank you for the information she was Ann Tovey who married Charles Jones - they both died in 1914.
Cox family of Wickhamford
This is another superb piece of research by the Badsey society. The levels of detail and accuracy indicate that considerable effort and great care must have been required. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned. Badsey and the neighbouring villages are very fortunate to have this excellent website containing so much valuable local history (not just this article of course). Badsey seems to be a leader in this field and sets a splendid example to other villages.
Re: Cox family of Wickhamford
Many thanks for your kind comments - glad that you have found that our website informative.
Muzio Clementi
I am researching Muzio Clementi and any links to Dr Johnson and trying to find out if ever they met.
I am interested in the article: “Miss Marjorie Clementi pianist seeks Muzio`s last home” which was published on 15th October 1955. (Badsey Society copy made 2003 of the 1955 document)
In this article it states that :
“At 28 he had taken London Society by storm with his conducting of the Italian opera at Covent Garden; and had stirred Dr Johnson.” Where did this quote come from? I really need to find the original source of this quote. I note that the provenance was an article from the Evesham Journal copied from file at Evesham Library. However where did this actual statement come from? Can anyone help me please?
Re: Muzio Clementi
I am a member of the Badsey Society as well as being a member of The Vale of Evesham Historical Society. I suggest you contact Richard Ball of the VEHS at
richardfball@aol.com
I am almost certain the society has done some research into Clementi so may be able to help you.
Val Harman
Re: Muzio Clementi
Thank you Val. I am most grateful to receive your suggestion and I will follow it up and contact Richard Ball.
Many thanks. Janette Horton of Lichfield Staffordshire.
Re: Muzio Clementi
If you log on to the British Newspaper Archive website, there are a lot of references to Muzio Clementi. You might be able to track down from there the origin of the quote.
Cox family
Wow I’ve been tracing my family back to Richard Cox and beyond and was amazed to read this thank you
Re: Cox family
I'm impressed that you found the article so quickly - we only published it on the web yesterday! I'm glad that the Cox family has been useful - it was quite a useful exercise in pulling together all the various references to Cox on our website. If you have any Cox family photos etc that you think might be useful, we would love to see them.
My Knight & Sharp ancestors
I'd like to comment on the family of my 3x great grandparents Thomas Sharp & Harriet Knight (of Sharps Row in Badsey), in particular about Harriet's brother's line. He was Robert Knight born c1806 in Badsey and married to Mary Dowsil.
Of Robert & Mary's children I am currently looking for the whereabouts of their son William Knight who was born 1846, but my problem being that another William Knight was born the same year which had presented me with a dilema.
My reason for writing is because I have been looking at two persons named William Knight born at the same place & year and I have made a mistake in following my line which is in fact incorrect. I have made a common error in looking at the many trees on Ancestry and taking information without positive proof. I am usually very careful what to include in my tree and check as much as possible but in this case there are many tree's that were just showing incorrectly. Many people are in danger of adding 2 plus 2 and coming up with 5.
I'd like to thank Maureen Spinks & the Badsey Society for helping me with my Knight connections, especially proving that my William Knight was the son of Robert Knight & Mary Dowsil and the fact that this William was the one who emigrated to Ohio.
Re: My Knight & Sharp ancestors
Many thanks for your kind comments, Graham. As Knight was the commonest surname by far in Badsey for three centuries, it is inevitable that many names were duplicated, so it is a case of looking logically through all the baptism, marriage, burial and census records to confirm the correct line of descent. It is extremely frustrating when we see incorrect family trees published on Ancestry.
A pivotal point regarding your William Knight came when I realised that a significant number of people from Badsey emigrated in the latter half of the 19th century to the small town of Auburn, Ohio, USA. William Knight seemed to have "disappeared" from the UK census so, as other Badsey folks, including several members of the Knight family, had gone to America, I started looking for him in America - and, bingo, there he was in the 1870 census for Auburn!
Thank you for taking the time to write and hope that you continue to enjoy looking at the Badsey website - new articles are being added all the time.
Woodall connection
I’ve just come across your site. I’m a Woodall, interested in family history. I’m descended from the youngest of Sir Corbet Woodall’s 10 children (of the Gas, Light and Coke Co). I’m not sure of the exact connection here but would love to know more. Thank you. Alex
Re: Woodall connection
Thank you for your comment. The person by the name of Woodall who lived in Wickhamford was Alfred Woodall (1875-1966) who was born in Staffordshire, the son of William and Caroline Woodall. Having checked on Ancestry, William Woodall was born at Shrewsbury in 1843, the son of John and Elizabeth Woodall. John Woodall was born at Shrewsbury in about 1808.
I see that Corbet Woodall was born in Liverpool in 1841, but older siblings were born in Shrewsbury, as was his father, William (born about 1804), so there would appear to be some kind of family connection. It is possible that William Woodall (father of Corbet) and John Woodall (father of William and grandfather of Alfred) may have been brothers. The Shropshire parish records do not appear to be online, so you will need to pay a visit to Shropshire Record Office to check this out. Hope this helps.
Re: Woodall connection
Corbett's father, William, was born abt.1795 and married Martha Ann Basson 13 Aug 1829 and had four children. William's father, John, married Martha Harris at Shrewsbury 15 Jan 1805. They had six children, including John Woodall, who was born 25 Jun 1807 in Shrewsbury. This appears to be the connection.
Peter Stewart
Knights of Badsey
Hello. I am another person decended from Joseph Knight (my mother was called Jennifer Knight, and her father grew up around the area). I notice that one of your pages (https://www.badsey.net/past/knight3.htm) refers to a huge family tree of the Knights. I wonder if i can see that information?
Re: Knights of Badsey
Thank you for your email and many apologies for the delay in replying but I have been busy updating and article about the Knight family which I have added to the Top Ten Names section - https://www.badseysociety.uk/top-ten-names. The family tree which you refer to was produced some 17 years ago for a display at the school fete. I’m afraid it no longer exists in print format (from memory it was about 22 sheets of A4 stuck together) as it was getting extremely tatty and, more importantly, corrections and new information needed to be added. I hope that this article on the Knights will help you understand the various family relationships.