LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

Rossendale Branch Newsletter September 2006

Coming Events

Sunday 8th October

Society Dinner

Hosted by Blackburn & Darwen Branch at Whitehall Hotel, Ross Street, Darwen

4.00 "Welcome" & Drink Speaker: Peter Park - "A different look at the Records".
6.00 - Dinner Full menu in your August "Lancashire" magazine. Cost £17 per head.

Places will be allocated as booking forms are received. There are several forms available at the back of the room.

Tuesday 26th September

User Consulatation Open Meeting at the Lancashire Record Office, Bow Lane, Preston at 2,00pm.

Various aspects of the Service will be discussed; plans to implement the Audience Development Plan and the Access Plan; whether digiltal photography should be allowed in the searchroom? and future user group meetings.

Starting -Friday 22nd September - Chorley Branch are commencing a 10 Week course.

"First Steps in Family History" at the Scout HQ, Charter Lane, Charnock Richard.

£25. The course includes topics like:-

What is Family History? Why do we do it? How do we start? Civil Registration, Census, IGI, Church Records. Newspapers & Maps, Ephemera, Computer Options, 2 out-visits - Chorley Reference Library, the Family History Centre at Preston Temple, Chorley.

For further details email chorleyinfo@lfhhs.org.uk

Saturday 23rd September

North West Group of Family History Societies

Family History Fair, Floral Hall, Southport - 10.00am - 4.OOpm

This event has been transferred from Manchester, this year. There will be the usual of stalls and talks.

There is no parking at the hall and anyone attending the Fair will have to park at the main pay and display car parks and walk the short distance to the hall.

Saturday 7th October

Irish Ancestry Group - Mini Conference Venue -

The Straits, Oswaldtwistle 10.30am - 4.10pm

Contact Margaret Pursell, 128 Red Bank Road Bispham, Blackpool FY2 8DZ. email mpursell@redbank.fsnet.co.uk Payment £6. Please bring a packed lunch. Application forms & programme are available at the back of the room.

Family History Drop-in Centre

Haslingden Roots and the Rossendale Branch invite you to Haslingden Library, Deardengate, Haslingden to our Research Evenings . Every Tuesday from 6.30 - 8.30.

The sessions are held upstairs in the Local Studies Room and Reference Library.

Jurors’ Lists - transcripts.

Lower Booths. 1800 & 1810 Ho-W

These lists cover the years 1796 - 1834. They are to be found in the Quarter Sessions documents at the LRO. They are listed under Blackburn Hundred and then by town. They give address, occupation and age.

Hopkins, William, Rawtenstall, Farmer, 1810, 44
Hopkinson, William, Rawtenstall, Shopkeeper, 1800, 34.
Hoyle, Henry, Newhouse, Gent, 1810, 64
Hoyle, Joshua, Edgegate, Yeoman, 1800, 50
Pickup, George, Rawtenstall, Carter, 1810, 54
Taylor, John, Height End, Gent, 1810, 32
Welsh, Gilbert, Constable Lee, Yeoman, 1800, 32
Welsh, Gilbert, Constable Lee, Gent, 1810, 44
Whittaker, Peter, New House, Yeoman, 1800
Whittaker, Peter, Newhouse, 1810, 60

Rossendale Ancestry

Dyson/ Aspden

John Dyson and his Rossendale Connections

My great grandfather, John Dyson, was born in September 1821 at Fearns in Rossendale but he left the area at the age of 21 to work in London. By 1851 he had married and returned north, entering the felt carpet business in Manchester. More than a decade later he started his own company with his brother, then also with his sons, manufacturing felt carpets, printed druggets, baizes, hearth, sofa and bedside rugs. He never returned to Rossendale but at least two of his siblings and their children continued to live there. He died in 1884, a prosperous business man.

John was the son of Thomas Dyson, who moved to Rossendale from Sowerby, and Betty (nee Aspden).

They were married at Newchurch in 1814. Although all their children were baptised in the established church, they seem to have had definite connections with Bethlehem Unitarian Church. According to baptismal records and census records they lived between their marriage and the 1860s successively at Waterbarn, Newhallhey, Newchurch, Fearns, Four Lane Ends, Holt Mill, George’s Row and Stacksteads.

The other children of Thomas and Betty were:

Mary, born 1814 mar. Robert Hopkinson 1834.
George, born 1815 mar. Betty Taylor 1841.
William, born 1816/7 nothing further known.
Elizabeth, born 1818 mar. Edward Rostron Harriet, born 1823/4 alive in 1841.
Delilah born 1825/6 mar. William Kenyon
Thomas Aspden, born 1834, married Frances Shore 1860, in Manchester, lived in Salford, partnered John in business, died 1892.

John was baptised 21st October 1821 at Newchurch St. Nicholas. About the time of his 60th birthday, the Pendleton, Salford and Broughton Reporter (September 10th 1881) printed a biographical article an updated version formed his obituary only three years later. [an edited version is given below]

Councillor Dyson, Broughton.

"Born in anything but affluent circumstances, he by dilligent application to business, raised himself to the honourable position of a Manchester Merchant and a member of Salford Council. He was born in a small village called Fearns in the Forest of Rossendale, in September 1821 and was the third son of Mr. Thomas Dyson, a woollen dyer of that place, His mother was a kind and affectionate woman and Mr Dyson is known to have cherished fond recollections of her example and influence to which he attributed much of his subsequent success.

When he was about six years old he went to the village school, the weekly fee of which was 2d. Two years later he was removed to the 6d a week school. The most important part of his education however, was received at the local Unitarian Sunday School.where at one time the three R’s were taught for the benefit of scholars whose general circumstances were not favourable to secular education.... [some] thought this a desecration of the Sabbath and showed their disaproval be pelting young Dyson and his fellow scholars with stones and bespatting them with mud as they left school. When he was about nine years old he went to work in a woollen factory, working for up to fourteen hours a day. At that time there were no Factory Acts to protect young children. Subsequently he was sent to learn his father’s business and when about 17 years of age he was apprenticed to a carpet blocker. In 1843 he was engaged by the Patent Felt Co. of London as a foreman. In 1847 he married Matilda, only daughter of Mr. Wright, Auctioneer and appraisor of London----"

[full article available from Paul Dyson] email paul@dyson151.plus.com

Where are we Going? -

The future of the Society

A meeting has been arranged at Astley Hall, Chorley, on Saturday, 30th September 1.00pm - 4.00pm

This has been described as a Brainstorming session, whereby all interested members can contribute their ideas regarding the way forward for this Society.

The Chairman, Stephen J. Ward will be there along with other members of the Executive. If you think you will be present please notify Stephen in advance. If you can not attend but would like to put forward your ideas. Then you can send them by email to chairman@lhhs.org.uk

E-Mail Forum?

It has been suggested that an email forum be set up. This would be a Society- wide forum, whereby memers queries could be sent similtaneously to all the other members who had signed up for this venture. Anyone would be free to chip in and reply.

Specialized software would be needed, so the Executive Committee is canvasing your views. Do you think such a forum would be useful?

The Straits Resourse Centre

A working party was recently set up to advise on the best way that the premises at the Straits could be developed as a Resourse Centre for the Society. This Group issued a 10 page document which has been ratified by the Executive and the working party has now become a the working party sub-committee with the responsibility of implementing this report.

In the first instance the Centre will be open one or two days a week and will be available only to members. Volunteers are needed to staff the premises. If you can spare a couple of hours a week, give your names to Kathleen Ashburner. Training will be given. Kathleen is on the sub-committee and can provide further details.