sharing Solihull's local history
Even if you use a computer to organise your family tree, you are still likely to end up with a lot of physical documents that you need to keep in order. There are a number of ways of doing this, the most obvious being alphabetically, but this can become confusing as your research grows, especially if you have multiple people with the same name. Another way is to use numbers from a pedigree chart of your direct ancestors.
At Solihull Heritage & Local Studies we try to make sure that we are collecting items that will help future historians understand the history that we lived through.
Official reports will give the statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic, but won’t include the stories of everyday experiences and people’s feelings. Please help us to document what it’s like so that future generations can understand what we went through.
Make the most efficient use of your time by following our tips to get started on researching your family history. A word of warning – genealogy can be addictive, so it may end up occupying more time than you think!
Continue reading “Starting your family tree – the first steps”
Private Leslie Jones, 1st South Midland Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, died on 15th March 1920 and is buried at Olton Franciscan Cemetery, Solihull. He was born in Birmingham in 1889 and baptised at St Asaph’s Church on 7th July 1889. His parents were Thomas Henry Jones, a carpenter, and Harriet Elizabeth (née Evans), a tailoress who had married at St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Aston in 1886.
Continue reading “15th March 1920”
On the evening of 24th October 1923, Solihull was battered by a whirlwind (now believed to have been a tornado) that travelled a path from Sharman’s Cross to Elmdon Heath, and killed a man sheltering in a barn. Lasting only three or four minutes, reports of the whirlwind, also described as a cyclone in some articles, appeared in newspapers across the country.
Continue reading “The “Solihull Whirlwind” 1923″
Captain Charles Murchison Bernays, formerly of the Royal Army Medical Corps, died on 6th January 1920 in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Dover, aged 39. His death was attributed to haemorrhage as a result of his having been badly gassed in 1917 whilst on active service. Prior to the outbreak of war, he had been practising as a doctor in Shirley but at the time of his death he was house surgeon at the hospital where he died.
Francis George Harris, formerly a Gunner with the Royal Garrison Artillery, died at Birmingham General Hospital on 29th December 1919. He had been discharged from the Army in March 1919 so does not appear as a war casualty on official records, although he is commemorated locally in the Soldiers’ Chapel, Knowle. He is also listed on the Roll of Honour for Packwood amongst those who served.
Former Private Thomas Paget, Warwickshire Regiment, died on 20th December 1919 at City Isolation Hospital, West Heath, Birmingham aged 43. He was a former labourer and died of TB contracted whilst on active service.
Continue reading “20th December 1919”
Easter Sunday, 9th April 1917, saw the unveiling in Solihull of a War Shrine to the Fallen of the First World War, pictured above (image courtesy of Gordon Bragg).
The Calvary shrine was the gift of a parishioner and was designed by local artist Elphege Pippet (1868-1942). It was built by Charles Timms of Messrs. Thompson, builders of Knowle, causing the Rector of Solihull to note: “everything connected with it has been done in our village, which is as it should be.”
James Fern Webster was an engineer and prolific inventor who lived and worked in the High Street, Solihull Lodge in the 1870s/80s.
He developed a process for making the extraction of aluminium sufficiently cost effective for the metal to be used in the manufacture of everyday objects, patenting a process that enabled him to sell aluminium for £4 per pound instead of the £60 per pound that it had been previously. Prior to this, aluminium was considered a precious metal, and bars of aluminium were exhibited alongside the French Crown Jewels in the Paris Exhibition of 1855.
Continue reading “James Fern Webster – the “wizard of Warwickshire””
Solihull Life 