New out Today

September issue 2012 Newsletter Its been a very quiet couple of months since we sent out the last newsletter but the weather has been very warm for some members and holidays as well also the school children are away on there long break so people dont want to be sat doing there family tree.

Message flagged Wednesday, 29 August 2012, 8:23 Hi Everyone, Welcome to the September Newsletter. Compared to this time last year, the Familytreeforyougroup has been very quiet! We have had 3 new members since June 2012 with only one of them actually writing in, despite frequent attempts to get the other two to write in. Please dont be shy, we really want to help you and are interested to see what names you are researching, their email addresses are jojoyce1960@yahoo.com and dorolowe@swbell.net. So I guess it may be Joyce and Dorothywhere are you!! Our latest member and I think our youngest member, is Leonie, who is 18 years old and is researching her family tree from the Burton on Trent, Staffordshire area. She is making good progress on her tree and hope we shall be able to help her get many more names and information on her Ancestry tree. There are a few more new genealogy search engines you may wish to have a look at and try with some of your ancestor's names. Here they are:Macavo ----------Mocavo is the leading free Internet search engine for genealogy. The data in their indexes only includes information of interest to family historians. http://www.mocavo.com/

GenealogyInTime ------------------------Free search engine for genealogy http://www.genealogyintime.com/genealogy-resources.html Ancestry have a couple of records that are free for anyone to search at the moment, they are: The 1911 UK Census The United States 1940 Census also new as well on Ancestry is this, for those lucky enough to have an IPhone:-

New free iPod and iPhone app We've just released a new, world-wide version of our iPhone Ancestry app. This now also works with the iPod, and has several new features:

An interactive family tree viewer to see relationships in your family history Access to family trees that were shared with you Ability to view historical documents and source citations attached via Ancestry.co.uk An improved user experience

Read more about it or download it for your iPhone or iPad now. In case you have Irish Ancestors, you may be interested in their latest Irish Records: Dig Deeper Into Irish Roots - Three Centuries of Irish Records Now Online Historic Irish records, detailing 40 million births, marriages and deaths spanning three centuries, online today Ancestry.co.uk

Over 400,000 historic Irish Catholic Parish records, 1742-1884, online for the first time today Irish BMD and Civil Registration indexes now extended by over 40 million records Famous names uncovered in the records include CS Lewis, W.B. Yeats and Samuel Beckett

We now have a new Moderator on the FTFY Group, our Janice (Mundy) who lives in Adelaide, Australia. Janice has been a member since June 2010,her sister Joy is also a member on the Group. Janice was a bit of a novice to genealogy when she joined the Group but has come on leaps and bounds with her research and knowledge of genealogy. Her

Ancestry tree is very impressive and after advice from ourselves, it has been her motto to always verify and prove what information she puts on her tree. She has some amazing photos too. Janice has many English ancestors and she hopes to fly all the way from Adelaide in the very near future, to stay with some of her relatives and to visit the places where her ancestors hail from, which is mainly Norfolk, and Cornwall. I have also offered her to escort her on some of her adventures. Janice is not just our new Moderator but also our Australian reporter and will be sending in new links and news, when she sees them. Please read Janice's article on Gold Mining in Australia around 1852. I find it interesting to read as I have an ancestor who did just that, he left his job, home and family in Scotland and set sail on 6 month voyage to Bendigo in Australia. He became a successful miner and spokesperson for the miners and here is an article about him you may be interested to read:http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/denovan-william-dixon-campbell-3396 On a personal note, I had a 'breakthrough' the other week, in that I got in touch with someone else researching my Scottish/Danish Countess side of the family. Although I had all 10 names of the Countess's children, I had not really researched them, with Scottish records being the way they are but she had and was also able to send me a lovely photo of a very distant cousin being received at Court at Roode Castle in Edinburgh, to me it looks like her wedding day but maybe that is how they dressed when being presented at Court for the first time. Her name was Francis Gardner Baxter Breysig and here is her photo:

What do you think, Wedding Day or being presented at Court? Vera has also had, this week, a revival of a person on her tree who had given her and her family many hours of searching the internet to see what happened to him. His name was Daniel Walker Warner Powell and he was born in Brentford, Essex in 1879. Apparently, Daniel just up and left his wife and children one day and the last heard of him was that he was in the USA with another wife and child. That's all Vera knew, so the other day, we decided to see if there was any fresh news on him. Well, after many hours of searching, we actually found him on a ship sailing to New York and the information on the manifest was such that we were

able to establish that he must have responded to an advert in a newspaper for a chauffeur's job, working for a businessman called A.L. Thompson in New York City. This was 1914, the start of WWI. To put all the info into a nutshell, he married again (bigamy), an English lady from Cambridge. They had just one child and we were able to trace the family through the 10 year USA censuses and also passenger lists. Its funny that we did not see Daniel returning to England on a ship - I wonder what excuse he gave his wife, perhaps she would not be too impressed with him being stopped at the port by the Polce, wanted for abandonment and bigamy! I must say that we were impressed with Ancestry's records in so much as they even had Daniel on an airline passenger list (B.O.A.C.) if any of you remember that old airline? Anyway, we have now been able to trace his wife's family back to Cambridge and that is where we are up to. It would be great, after reading this Newsletter, that you let us know how your trees are going and like Vera, have another go at researching something that has been a mystery for a long while and see what we can turn up. As you know, Vera and I are on duty daily from very early to a about 7pm, so please keep this Group going by being an active member. Many thanks. Christine & Vera

Coal Mining

Coal was the fuel that powered the Industrial Revolution. The reliance on steam engines meant a huge increase in the demand for coal and the men women and children who mined it, particularly so in the mining areas of Scotland. In 1781 the first ironstone works in Lanarkshire started at Wilson town in Carnwath. Early coal mines were cut into exposed rock faces at the side of rivers, which also applied to shale mines (paraffin). For centuries, people in Scotland and Britain had made do with charcoal if they needed a cheap and easy to way to acquire fuel. What industry that existed before 1700, did use coal but it came from coal mines that were near to the surface and the coal was relatively easy to get to. Two types of mines existed: drift mines and bell pits. Both were small scale coal mines and the

coal which came from these types of pits was used locally in homes and local industry. However, as the country started to industrialise itself, more and more coal was needed to fuel steam engines and furnaces. The development of factories by Arkwright and the improvement of the steam engine by Watt further increased demand for coal. As a result coal mines got deeper and deeper and coal mining became more and more dangerous. Coal shafts could go hundreds of feet into the ground. Once a coal seam was found, the miners dug horizontally. However, underground the miners faced very real and great dangers. The people who worked the Scottish mines, although their wages were relatively high, lived in conditions approximating legal serfdom. If a pit was sold, they became the property of the new owner; children were often bound to the coal master for life at baptism. The masters were obliged in return to keep them all their days, in sickness and old age and to provide a coffin for their burial. This extraordinary set of affairs was sanctioned by Scots law in 1606. This meant among other things, that miners could not remove themselves from that occupation. Beggars, tramps and those guilty of minor crimes were forced into lifelong bondage in the mines. This law was not changed until 1775 when it was then allowed that all new men entering the mines were allowed to be free; however it was not fully remedied until 1799. The 1800's saw a massive rise in the amount of coal and iron mines as the industrial revolution swung into full effect. In 1879 there were 314 ironworks with 5149 puddling furnaces and 846 rolling mills in operation in Lanarkshire and in 1881, 392 coal pits and 9 fireclay pits. This labour force was found principally in Irish emigrants who were refugees from the suffering and deprivation caused by the potato famine in Ireland. Places like Blantyre were reputed to be, at this time; "a district of pits, engine houses, smoke and grime", this description no doubt led to the nickname the town endured for many years as "Dirty Auld Blantyre". Lanarkshire was rich in coal, with numerous early mines scattered over the county. Around 1910 the actual amount of working collieries reached their peak with around 200 in the county. Between the wars mining started to decline and miners had to travel to work, or be re-housed near the pits

Mining was a dangerous occupation not only from injury, but problems caused by damp and breathing in coal dust, the mining Unions having to fight hard to improve working conditions. In the early days women and children were employed underground to haul coal, but conditions gradually improved with women and children doing pit head work only

Working Conditions
Although the law relating to miners had been changed for the better at the turn of the century, life was still very harsh for miners & their families in the mid 1800's. Miners were expected to work at least a daily twelve hour shift on weekdays, reduced hours on Saturday, and Sunday being the day of rest. Working in the mines was very dangerous & unhealthy and most miners who survived the physical dangers inherent in the working environment eventually succumbed to mine-related respiratory diseases such as silicosis in later life.

One of the more dangerous risks of mining, was that of the gas referred to as "Firedamp". Firedamp was/is a highly explosive gas found in coal mines, it is easily ignited by flame, friction or electrical energy. Its principal constituent is Methane (CH4) or as it is sometimes referred to "Marsh Gas". This gas was found in most of the pits in the Lanarkshire area and often large volumes of it would be broken into during the mine workings, resulting in "blowers". Men employed as "Firemen" under the supervision of a "Fire master" had the responsibility of checking the pits for the build-up of firedamp and other dangerous gases such as "Afterdamp", i.e. Carbon Monoxide (CO) which is poisonous & Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which suffocates. These gases were removed by various means including ventilation forced by furnaces and steam and or by "burning off" in small pockets. The firemen & fire master would normally carry out their checks prior to the commencement of the day's work.

Miner's Housing
With the influx of new miners and their families there was a demand for housing. This housing was provided in most cases as one or two room dwellings in what became known as "miner's rows". The other type of housing available was rather generously referred to as "miner's cottages". Compare both types below. The building of these rows was the premise of the mine owners.

'Miners rows' in the Coatbridge area. Living conditions in the companies housing 'miners rows' were primitive, with mainly room and kitchen type housing, outside toilets and external water stand pipes.

'Miners cottages' in Blantyre.

In the 1800s, coal was dug with a pick. Crouching or lying on his side, the collier carefully undercut the seam until a wedge or small powder charge brought the coal crashing down. One usually entered the trade as a boy. Very often a father took his own children, boy or girl as soon as they could open a trap door or push a corve of coal along tracks. In order to survive, a child had to quickly learn how to shore up mine ceilings with timbers and how to recognize the deadly fumes of "black" and "white" damp. Needless to say, mining was one of the most

dangerous occupations of this time period. In Yorkshire, more than a thousand people died in mine explosions between 1851 and 1877. Despite the heavy death toll by explosions, it was the less spectacular deaths caused by the less spectacular falls of coal that accounted for most of the deaths in the coal mines. The miners themselves were responsible for many of the accidents. They took risks like failing to set timbers or build packs. They were often reckless when drawing timber in the goaf, and they sometimes caused explosions by smoking pipes. Apart from the carelessness of the miner, accidents were also caused by the avarice of the masters and the incompetence of the collier officials. One of the most common forms of neglect was the failure to examine working places before the men entered the mine. Where candles were used for light, men risked an explosion when they entered a gas-filled tunnel. Ventilation was often inadequate especially in the thin-seamed collieries. Inadequate ventilation meant that the miner was uncomfortable, but also there were accidents under such conditions. Workers became groggy from lack of oxygen, and explosive fumes could accumulate. For all the danger they faced and their labour, the skilled miner earned between 20 and 30 shillings a week. In addition it was rare for a miner to live past 40 or 50. They often walked home stiffly like cripples bearing the visible signs of over strained muscles. Yet, coal miners were workingmen as skilled as any of the British immigrants who helped establish American industries. They were unexcelled at working thin veins of coal in the homeland; immigrant British miners could use the pick in the narrowest of places. In fact, American mine owners imported many British miners as foremen or superintendents hoping that they would introduce efficient mining techniques into their mine. Emigration from England never reached the high annual rates attained by the Irish and Germans, but the average rates of emigration from Great Britain between 1861 and 1910 exceeded those of Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria- Hungary. News of American prosperity usually started British miners streaming toward the United States, especially during times of depression in Great Britain. Not all the miners who crossed the Atlantic stayed, however. Some came with the intention of working a year or two to save a nest egg and then return to their home. Some travelled back and forth depending on economic conditions. Some moved their homes and families to America. Pressed

by serious labour shortages during the Civil War, a number of U.S. mine operators attempted large-scale recruitment abroad. However, contract labour was probably rarer in the mines than it was in the textile and metal industries. Yet miners flocked to the US coal fields. Friends and relatives already in America guided emigrants to where they were needed. Yorkshire miners and mine owners seemed always at odds with each other, but the period prior to John Beaumont's emigration was particularly stormy one. Bitter conflicts led to the formation of the South Yorkshire Miner's Association in 1858. Its stated purpose was to organize for the protection of coal miners and their families against the tyrannical conditions of employment, the ill-winds of trade recession and unsympathetic, merciless employers. Miners generally complained about low wages, dangerous working conditions and the unscrupulous business practices of mine owners. Prior to 1858 all attempts to establish a permanent trade union had failed. Fear of dismissal was the most common reason given for not joining the union. Some men organized when they thought wages could be raised, but once they achieved their goal the trade union quickly disappeared. In the early weeks of 1858 most miners were working only four days a week and at several collieries wages were reduced as 1858 looked to be a poor year for the coal industry. For instance, Mr. Kirby Fenton of the Waterloo Colliery notified his workers that wages were to be reduced. This was the spark that started the Strike and Lockout of 1858. The miners refused to work at lower wages, so they went on strike. Men at nearby pits agreed to pay a levy to support the striking colliers. Other employers held a meeting on February 23. They decided to cut wages 15% for all the employees of the West Yorkshire Coal Owner's Association. On Tuesday, March 29 the miners decided to accept the wage cut, but to form a union and strike three selected mines. It was also agreed to continue to pay a levy of two shillings a week to support the men on strike.

The sort of home and conditions to which a miner arrived back after his work depended on many circumstances, but first and foremost on the character of his wife. This was especially true with those whose earnings were fluctuating and uncertain. "You will find two men," stated a witness in 1864, "and one have a clean, decent, wholesome industrious wife, and that mans children will be kept, as clean and comfortable as possible. Then one of the same 'pare' who had got a dirty, careless wife, and that family will be in rags, yet make the same earnings. There was one woman who has a husband and 4 or 5 boys who all work in a mine, and yet they have not got a chair to sit down upon, nor a cup or saucer in the place. The bed would disgrace the poorest person in the kingdom". That there were such cases is perhaps hardly to be wondered at when once considered the woman's task in a household of four of five men living in a tiny cottage, one rising before daylight, another going to work at ten at night or arriving back to dinner at 3 in the afternoon, almost all requiring meals at separate times and "crows" to be prepared for each. In spite of all this, and the fact that in the poorer households the women themselves were sometimes out all day working on farms or the tin streams, the Cornish miner's home was generally clean and well ordered. It was exceedingly rare, the Commissioners of 1842 noted, to meet with an example of squalid filthiness in any members of a Cornish miner's family. Diet The miner's usual dinner which he took with his family on his arrival home (if he hadn't been working first core by day), consisted of fish, generally salted, potatoes, and tea. The latter, however, being very dear, the dried leaves of mugwort were frequently substituted for it. This meal was varied sometimes by a slice of fried green pork (i.e. home cured bacon) with eggs and potatoes, or else a small lump of meat put into a great dish of potatoes, little enough in many cases by the time 9 or 10 children had all had a share. Pork used to be used everywhere to be more commonly eaten in the mining districts than beef or mutton, because many of the miners kept their own pigs. On the whole, the Cornish miners ate far less butchers meat than other classes of labourer's. "We cannot afford more than 3 or 31/2 pounds a week, said one man, before the Commissioner. With the miner, stated another witness, it is general a 'feast or fast'. One day he will have his beefsteaks and his good living, and the next he will have his

broth. They live upon broth for some days after it, and they only throw in a bone or perhaps a bit of pork to make it. The actual shortage of butcher's meat did not, perhaps, tell so much upon the miner's health as the roughness and unsuitability of much the food he ate, either through choice or necessity. In many cases where the miner rose at 4.30 in order to get to the mine and be underground by 6am, his breakfast would consist of only a cup of tea and bread and butter. As the price of wheat was formerly nearly double that of barley, both bread and pastry were made from the latter, wheaten loaves being generally indulged in by the working classes only at feats times or Christmas. In earlier times neither food nor drink was taken by the miners underground, but at a later date it became the custom for the men to take down a "mossel" (i.e. bread and butter) with them, and in some cases a "keg" of water also. On account of its convenience for carrying underground, many miners preferred the "hoggan" a solid mass of flour mixed with water and baked without any leavening - a heavy enough fare to kill anyone not accustomed to it from youth. Setting up House On returning home miners may just as often as not transfer one form of work to another, chiefly among these was building a cottage for himself and of clearing the land for a garden. The miners very seldom borrowed money in order to set about building these houses. The fluctuations in miners wages meant it may only be once or twice in his life the opportunity of getting to bring home 40 to 50 in a month or so (for tributers). The whole thing depended on whether the miners wife had managed to live without deeply getting into debt. If they were badly in debt, every one of these "sturts" as the miners called them, was swallowed up in clearing their liabilities. If this was not the case they straightway set about building a house in their spare time. Sometimes 2 or 3 thousand tons per acre are thus removed from some spots before the ground is cleared. The leases were only the miners for the term of 3 lives The most serious drawback, however to the miner owning his own cottage lay in the fact that he was thereafter tied to a fixed abode. "A miner will travel (ie) walk, six or even 8 miles between the mine and his home twice in the day in cases where built a house near a mine which has ceased to give him work," wrote the Commissioners in 1842. The cottages which the miners built varied much according to the character and means of their occupants. Miners houses are much

cleaner and more comfortable than agriculturists" stated one witness in Camborne in 1864,, In the Camborne and Redruth districts the modern cottages are well and substantially built, much better than those inhabited by labourers in the Midland counties. They contain 2,3,4 or 6 rooms, the upper one being in the slanting, high-pitched roof. Sometimes with 2 families living there. They have usually garden plots before or behind in which vegetables and potatoes are cultivated. The older cottages were for the most thatched and contained only 2 rooms. Few, if any of the cottages at this time were provided with privies or possessed any system of under-drainage. The floors were generally of lime ash and apt to be very damp. Little room existed in the older and smaller cottages for the washing of clothes indoors, and hot water systems were of course totally unknown. The water from most of the mines, is used for domestic purposes, and sometimes 50 women may be seen at once standing round the engine-house, washing the linen of their families in the warm water from the steam engine.

Except in districts where loose stone suitable for building was particularly plentiful, the miner generally built the walls of his house of cob or clod, which is a mixture of clay stiffened with chopped straw and beaten hard like concrete. Houses built in this way had the additional advantage of cheapness.

In many cases the inside of the miners cottages were clean and spotless then as it is today, and the inhabitants, in spite of cramped conditions, a contented and happy lot. Seated of an evening round the open heart, with a fire blazing furze, the whole family would be assembled, with perhaps a neighbour or two on his way to night core. The Cornish

miners are generally fond of children, and a father would often on such occasions take a child on his knees and amuse it by recounting stories of the knackers and small people who worked in the old mines of long ago, telling them how, when they were old enough he would take them to hear them and show them the rich places down below where the tin was sparkling like diamonds. And then perhaps, placing the child upon his knees and lowering it backwards and forwards by the arms, the father would croon to it some purely local nursery rhyme, such as only a Cornish miners child would appreciate.. That is just a little of life as a coal miner

History of Pubs, Inns and Hotels

The origin of our pubs - public houses can be traced back through the ages... Inns were common along the roads of Roman Britain; providing lodgings for officials and others travelling this sometimes inhospitable outpost of empire. There were also small hutlike establishments - taberna - from which the word tavern is derived. With the departure of the Romans from Britain customer service really went down the tubes and it was not until the middle ages that things picked up as the monasteries created guest-houses and hospices to provide much of the available lodgings for travellers. Frequently the bread and ale was offered free at these establishments. It wasn't unknown for the brothers, or their visitors for that matter, to over-indulge, which led to ale tankards in monasteries being marked inside with vertical pegs to indicate the amount of ale to be consumed in a single gulp. This is the origin of our phrase 'to take down a peg'.

A thatched country pub, The Williams Arms, near Braunton, North Devon , In the middle ages, the selling of ale was a rather casual affair. There were laws appertaining to it, but ale-sellers, who tended to be women trying to earn some extra money, brewed and sold it to whoever would buy it in a variety of places; the market, the town, or from their home. Over the course of the fourteenth, and particularly the fifteenth century, the selling of ale became more sophisticated and located. Some women may still have taken ale to the market, but increasingly the selling and consuming of ale became located around the brewing place. Increasingly ale-sellers, who were now predominantly male, provided a "drinking room" where the customers could stay and drink their ale. Strictly speaking, inns provided rooms for travellers, taverns provided food and drink, while alehouses simply dished out beery substances. Since most of the population were illiterate it was quite common for each establishment to display a simplistic sign which depicted the name of the

alehouse. The concept of signage may have been imported by the Romans and one 15th century manuscript depicts an ale-house with an ivy bush sign hanging outside. Many of the signs which developed over the centuries were adapted from tradesman's signs; hence the Woolpack or Carpenter's Arms. Doves were associated with monastic hostelries. Near a canal or river one might come across a Navigation in the 18th century, and an equally unimaginative Railway Arms close to the burgeoning 19th century railway routes. Interestingly, the Pig and Whistle name is a corruption of 'peg and wassail'... Wassailing being the drinking to 'good health' while the peg is taken from that commonplace saying we mentioned previously. In the medieval period alehouses were ordinary dwellings where the householder served home-brewed ale and beer. If lodging for travellers was offered, this might be no more than bedding on the floor in the kitchen, or in a barn. Inns by contrast were generally purpose-built to accommodate travellers. They needed more bedrooms than the average house and substantial stabling. Some of the earliest great inns were built by monasteries in centres of pilgrimage. Taverns sold wine. Since wine was far more expensive than ale or beer, taverns catered to richer patrons who could afford it. They were restricted to towns and hugely outnumbered by alehouses. All three were social centres, but the larger inns had more scope for events. The type built with galleries around a courtyard provided an arena for plays or cockfights. In common with other tradesmen of the time, inns, taverns and alehouses advertised their business with a sign hanging outside. A pole above the door, garlanded with foliage, signified an alehouse. From the 14th century inns and taverns hung out a pictorial sign by which they could be identified in this illiterate age. In the 16th century many alehouses followed suit. The tradition has continued for licensed premises, since they were exempt from the Georgian restrictions on hanging signs. The earliest signs used motifs drawn from heraldry, but by Georgian times there was greater variety. Brewers were required to hang an 'ale-stake' outside their premises upon completion of a new batch of ale. This was a summons for the local 'ale-conner' to drop by - a civil servant (probably a very happy one) charged with ensuring the quality and quantity of ale. Brewers caught short-measuring could expect to be ignominiously dragged through the streets as a punishment. By the mid-18th century larger alehouses were becoming common, while inns beside the major highways grew in grandeur and new ones sprang up in this coaching era. The term alehouse was gradually replaced by public house during the 18th century. Taverns meanwhile

were being replaced by or converted into coffee-houses as social centres for the wealthier classes. The first English hotel was built in Exeter in 1768, but the term was rare before 1800. From the 1810s we find purpose-built public houses, starting in London and the larger provincial towns. The number of pubs grew with the population. The late Victorian era saw the creation of flamboyant pub interiors, notable for their sumptuously decorated mirrors, tiled walls and etched glass. With the coming of the railways, a number of hotels were built close to railway stations. Some of the grandest were beside the great London terminuses, such as the Midland Grand Hotel (1874), St Pancras Station, Euston Road, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) in the Gothic Revival style. Coaching inns declined, though some were able to mutate into public houses or hotels, which flourished in the later 20th century along with the motor car. So much modernisation has taken place over the last half-century that only some 200 pub interiors in Britain survive intact from any earlier era. So many romantic legends have been woven around inns and pubs that the researcher needs to be especially wary. Ghosts, highwaymen, royal connections and tunnels are all popular elements in the mythology. Believe nothing that cannot be substantiated from primary sources. The introduction of hops into brewing brought a new drink onto the market - 'beer'. Ale was still the premier booze since it was unadulterated with preservative hop flowers added to beer. Recognising a good thing when they saw it Dutch and Flemish immigrants who had settled in England took advantage of the situation to develop hop gardens in counties like Kent and Sussex, and these became well established by the middle of the 16th century. However, not everyone welcomed the new 'beer' tipple, regarding the addition of 'hopes' as a poison and contaminant. Imagine what they would have made of alcopops? In vain, Henry VIII tried to stop the brewing of beer through heavy taxation. But such a heavy handed approach wasn't likely to prevail when it came to the question of tax and brewing. Well was it? What is perhaps extraordinary about some of our hostelries is that some of them have remained on the same location through the centuries.... The George at Glastonbury originates from the time of Edward VI, while The George at St. Albans is mentioned as long ago as 1448. Another George, in the Somerset village of Norton St. Philip may have been licensed as long ago as 1397. A quite amazing longevity in historical terms, perhaps only equalled by theological establishments. With the gradual spread of the road network and horse-drawn coaches our roadside inns were transformed into coaching inns; such establishments even now preserving the archways which lead to former

stables and courtyards behind. In market towns it was not uncommon for prosperous inns to add function rooms, and private rooms where business could be discussed away from the bustling town marketplace outside. And so it was that hostelries created a social role for themselves. 'Tied' houses came into being through the endeavours of William Simonds, one of the early brewing monopolists. Until Simonds arrived on the scene the wholesale beer and ale market did not really exist because of laws laid down in James I's reign. These generally prohibited wholesale supply of beer except to fully licensed establishments. Sensing that times were changing Simonds sought out potential positions for hostelries in the south of England. When the law changed in the early part of 1800s he was able to move quickly and set up fifty alehouses to take his wholesale product. The abolition of beer tax in 1830 meant that any ratepayer could now sell beer without a licence. There was virtually an explosion of beer houses - the beer often sold in the kitchen of someone's home. Gradually the drinking spaces in people's homes were separated: seating being available in the taproom, but standing space only offered in the bar-room. More genteel might look for an establishment with a parlour. The free for all in ale stopped in 1869 with tighter regulation of the brewing trade. Smaller alehouses fell by the wayside while larger brewers extended their control over drinking establishments as brewing was transformed into an 'industry'. Today, many of our pubs have been transformed into 'themed' hospitality shops and formica gin palaces which would probably make innkeepers of the past turn in their graves. The quite extraordinary thing, as mentioned before, is that many of these pubs have a historical background - albeit potentially transformed - that goes back centuries. As long as church establishments in many cases, and older than royal families. So when you next visit your local pub considers its historical background, and raise a glass to the ghosts of tipplers past.

Janice - Your Australian Reporter Pages

Hi, my name is Janice and I help as a moderator on the group with records in Australia. I have been asked to put some interesting articles in the newsletter so I thought I would start off with some information and links about the Gold Rush in Australia.
I hope you will enjoy

THE DISCOVERY THAT CHANGED A NATION.

In 1851 a man by the name of Edward Hargreaves discovered a grain of gold in a waterhole near Bathurst. Hargraves was convinced that the similarity in geological features between Australia and the California goldfields boded well for his search of gold in his homeland. He was proved correct and reported his discovery to the authorities and was appointed a Commissioner of Land, and received a reward of 10,000 pounds plus a life pension. The discovery marked the beginning of the Australian gold rushes and a radical change in the economic and social fabric of the nation. GOLD FRENZY Ophir was home to more than 1,000 prospectors just four months after discovery of the gold. Gold fever gripped the nation. The Commissioner of Land was appointed to regulate the diggings and collect license fees for each claim. Thousands of people left their homes and jobs and set off to the diggings to find their fortune. At the start of the gold rush there were no roads to the goldfields, and no shops or houses there. People had to carry everything they needed. They travelled by horse or bullock, or by walking with a wheelbarrow loaded with possessions.

At first there were mainly men at the diggings, but later on they were joined by their families. There were a few women diggers however, and the rich Bendigo goldfields were discovered by a woman. The gullies were quickly filled with claims so the higher ground had to be made unto campsites. People lived in tents and then later huts were made from canvas, wood and bark. Gradually stores and other amenities were built but life was very hard. There was a lot of violence on the goldfields because thousands of people intent on making a fortune were all crammed together in a small area with few comforts and tensions arose easily. To keep their claim a person had to work on it every day except Sunday, because if o-one was working it someone else would take it. The journey to and from Melbourne was long and hard and there were many dangers from bushrangers who held up travelers and robbed them. The police were very brutal and many were ex-convicts who were looking out for themselves. People came from all over the world expecting to strike it rich then return to their own country. Fresh food was very limited and the basic diet was mutton damper and tea. There was limited clean water and disease was common.

A SIMMERING DISCONTENT

Diggers on the Turon Fields, on the Turon River near Bathurst had grown angry and threatened to riot if the cost of licensing fees was not reduced. The monthly fee of 30 shillings for each claim was tough to pay in hard times and the claims were only 13.5 square metres on the surface which made difficult to work. The governor of New South Wales wisely reduced the fees by two thirds, but stood firm by the way it was collected, so resented by the diggers who called them the police digger hunts. Police would descend on the goldfields seeking out those diggers who had not paid their fees. Those who hadnt paid were hauled before magistrates and fined 5t pound four the first offence then doubled for any further offence.

THE END OF TRANSPORTATION The discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria accelerated the abolition of convict transportation to the east coast of Australia, and ultimately to the nation as a whole. By continuing to send convicts to the eastern colonies, it was in effect giving free passage to potential gold diggers. And why would the new convict arrivals want to work for a living when a fortune awaited them on the goldfields.

Following are some links if you are interested in reading about the Gold Rush of Australihttp://www.goldoz.com.au/gold_rush.0.htmlhttp://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explorehistory/golden-victoria/life-fields/aborigines-goldrushhttp://about.nsw.gov.au/encyclopedia/article/goldrush/http://www.victoria.org.au/the%20gold%20rush.htm

We Hope you have enjoyed our September Issue The next issue will be out in October Thank you for reading it ,It can also be read on Scrbd so if you have missed any issues please go to scribd and you can download or read from there Thank you Vera /Christine and Janice