Social History Stories

Stories From Life In 19th & 20th Century Britain

Caroline - The Injured Queen  - A reflection on society and attitudes in late Georgian England (1821-23)

57 Clement Street - Life On A Northern Terrace - Family life in a Terrace House in early Twentieth Century Huddersfield (1911-1938)


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Stewart Blackburn War Story - Fleet Air Arm (1939-46)

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  To Be Involved-  In 1939 Stewart Blackburn started work as a clerk at Eaton, Smith & Downey, a firm of Huddersfield solicitors. On September 3rd  of that year the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared that Britain was at war with Germany. Inevitably the war began impacting ordinary peoples lives and there was a feeling of wanting to be involved and to “do your bit”. During the nights of the early 1940s Stewart volunteered as part of a Fire Watch. A team which sat in various town centre buildings and provided early warning of the effects from incendiary bombs. During 1940 Stewart’s father, Percy, gave up Tailoring for the war duration and became a Progress Clerk at Hopkinson’s engineering works as part of their war production effort. While sister Annie had taken two evacuated students into her household. Huddersfield wasn’t totally untouched by direct enemy action during these years. German bombers attempted to hit David Browns factory at Lockwood, but...
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Percy Blackburn - War Story - Royal Naval Air Service (1916-1919)

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  A Normal Life. At the beginning of 1917 Percy Blackburn was thirty four years old and gainfully employed in Huddersfield as a Tailor’s Cutter , which he had been for the previous twenty years. He was also the head of a young and expanding family. His wife Nora was expecting to give birth to their third child in March and his growing responsibilities were uppermost in his mind. { Percy & family late 1917 - L to R Lawrence, Percy, Annie, Nora & Marjorie} The growing demands of the war, which had been raging in Europe since 1914, was, however, making demands on the wider population. Throughout 1914/15 the armed services had relied on volunteers to fight the " Great War ". The sheer scale of the conflict and weight of casualties meant that this method of recruitment was no longer enough to maintain the effort required. In an effort to satisfy this need, compulsory conscription was introduced by the government on 4 th  January 1916 for all males aged 18 to 41. ...
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The Tragedy of War - James Parkinson (1891-1917)

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  James Parkinson’s first breath of life was experienced in the dour surroundings of the Haslingden Union Workhouse in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. His mother, Alice Parkinson, was a resident in the workhouse with the obligatory “pauper” status. Even though she had employment, as a Drawer of Cotton in a textile mill, the wages were not sufficient to finance a household. Alice had to fight adversity from an early age, having lost both parents and sister before she was 10 years old. What made Alice’s situation more extreme was having children out of wedlock. Towards the end of 1887, aged 21, she had given birth to a daughter, Harriet, father unknown. Despite working as a Card Room Hand for a number of years, being an unmarried mother rendered this impossible and she lost her job, housing and was condemned to seek support of the Parish. It was into this environment that James arrived on Wednesday 9 th December in 1891, also of an unknown father and adding to his mothers now considera...
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Caroline - The Injured Queen (1820-1823)

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  The story which follows reflects the tragedy of an all too common personal circumstance and societies reaction to it. Yet also shows possible evidence of personal reaction and proud defiance in the face of such circumstance.   Anne Blackburn, the twenty two year old daughter of Christopher and Esther, has her illegitimate daughter, Caroline, baptised at Saint Michael's, Ashton under Lyne, on 14th July 1822. Sadly the Register entry under "Quality, Trade or Profession" is described as "Base". This probably reveals that she had no means of supporting herself or her daughter and was relying on Parish assistance. Caroline Blackburn Baptism 14th July 1822 Since 1601 the Poor Laws had required required each Parish to calculate and levy a poor rate. This was used to provide relief to the poor people of the Parish. They would also run a "poorhouse" for homeless Parishioners where work was provided to mitigate the cost. A deserted pregnant woman was pro...
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Betrayal – Fred & Beatrice – (1915-1920)

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  Fred’s thoughts turned from disbelief to sadness and quite quickly to anger. He couldn’t believe what he was being told at first. He couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing, and become well known for it! They hadn’t been married much longer than a year in September 1917. Fred had been away in the army for a year, but so had most young men in that time period. Beatrice had grown up in the Springwood area of Huddersfield yet was well known around Luck Lane which linked to the Marsh district and then on to her new marital home in Birkby. Luck Lane was where he was told Beatrice had been seen committing adultery, on many occasions. The ultimate indignity and horror for Fred was for this to culminate in her having a miscarriage at their house in Corby street. The fact that the potential father of the child was unknown only compounded the sordid nature of this event. The actual cause of the miscarriage was not known but with the doctor having been called to attend meant i...
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Voyage To America - (1765-1827)

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Sailing Ship Hannibal - James Fulton Pringle (1788-1847) The ship Hannibal creaked and groaned as she made her way across the wide Atlantic Ocean. Plunging waves, storms and swells were the norm as she plied her regular route between New York and Liverpool. A sailing ship of 440 tons she combined her cargo with a small but growing number of passengers. Four formal cabin passengers were increasingly supplemented by emigrants placed in the grim “steerage” area of the ship. On this leg of the route between Liverpool and New York there were ten passengers in steerage including three children aged between 1 and 6 years travelling with their unaccompanied mother. Emigrants travelling in steerage were frequently in a desperate situation, trying to escape poverty with the chance of finding a new life in places like the United States of America. Among these passengers in May 1827 were Henry Blackbourn and four members of his family……. Origins When Richard Blackbourn and his wife Martha uproot...
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57 Clement Street - Life on a Northern Terrace (1911-1938)

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Based on extracts from “A Yorkshire Lass” memoirs of Joyce Gill (in italics ). With additional information and editing by Jonathan Blackburn. By 1910 the new development of Clement Street in the district of Birkby, Huddersfield was almost complete. It consisted of 55 stone built houses in two terraces either side of the street. The even numbers side only went up to 30 as the Birkby Council School intercepted the end of the street. The odd numbered side reaching 79 before it terminated. Although they were still terraced houses, designed for the burgeoning workforce of Huddersfield, they were a step up from the previous generation of workers cottages. The ceilings were higher and they had front and back gardens instead of opening directly onto the street. A big step forward was sanitation as toileting facilities were now integral to the house, instead of an outhouse in the back yard. 1911 Census 57 Clement Street, Birkby - Number of Rooms Schedule – Signed by Rowland Blackburn It was on ...
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