"A man finds room in the few square inches of the face . . .

     for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants."  
                                                                  --Ralph Waldo Emerson


Erik, 
     What follows is the limited information I have of Poppa's grandparents, my great-grandparents.  I include it because it is quite interesting.  This information come from Poppa and from my cousin, Anne Shelton.
                                                                  --Mom


     Albert Shelton, Poppa's grandfather, was born March 23, 1869.  He was the sixth child of what would become a family of eight.  He was known my the nickname "Mickey" all his adult life.  In June 1897, he married Maria Oscroft.  She already had two sons, John Henry Oscroft and Fredrick Albert Oscroft.  When Albert married Maria he was listed in the 1901 Census as a coal miner but by 1904 he was a shop keeper.  Maria's family perhaps 'had a bob or two' and Albert may have been given a good dowry for marrying Maria and raising her two sons.  
FYI:  a 'bob' is old British slang for a shilling.  A shilling is a former British coin equal to one twentieth of a pound or twelve pence.
     Albert and Maria had four sons of their own, eldest to youngest, Joe (my grandfather), Jack, Bill and Tom.  Albert had a horse and dray which he would drive to the neighboring villages of Calverton, Oxton, Epperstone and Woodborough, selling china, glassware, and paraffin oil for lamps.
     Often one or more of his boys would ride with him on the dray, helping to tether the horse and keep watch over the goods while Albert was doing business.  He had a set route which he and the lads did whatever the weather conditons because people would be relying on him, especially for paraffin oil for their lamps.   He also had a shop at 74 Front Street in Arnold.  Maria ran the shop. Their home was at the rear of the property.

a dray, a low cart for delivering loads, usually pulled by one horse

        Maria and Albert's son, Jack, remembered that he and his brothers went to Sunday school. He said it wasn't really like school, but rather "somewhere to go when it was raining, somewhere to go and have a sing, or a have a Bible story told us."  He remembered once getting a 'bat up't tab' (a smack round the ear) from the Sunday school teacher for singing the wrong words to a hymn.  Their lyrics went something like this:



          "There is a happy land, far, far away.
           Where they eat bread and jam three times a day.
           Oh how they slap it on."



     Once, Albert and Joe, 'borrowed' a rickety old bike from outside a gate in Arnold. No tires, just steel rims on the wheels and no brakes. They rode off with the bike toward Arch Hill planning on a few 'croggies' down the hill.  (A croggy is a ride on the handlebars of a mate's bike.) Things didn't go as planned; they lost control and hit the wall of the old Coaching Inn at the bottom of Arch Hill.
     The front wheel was so badly buckled the boys were scared to take it back.  They threw the bike into a pond in front of the inn.  For weeks after whenever they heard a knock at the door, they panicked.  They thought it was the local bobby (police officer), Bobby Wilson coming to lock them up.

     When the boys were young, everyone in the family learned a song, poem, or story to recite and entertain the rest of the family on Sunday evening or at family get-togethers.
FYI:  The first television wasn't invented until the late 1920's.

 

    


     The kerosene lamp (widely known in Britain as a paraffin lamp) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as a light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a table, or hand-held lanterns may used for portable lighting.


   
     Sadly, Albert Shelton died of chronic bronchitis and heart failure in November 1911, at the age of 42. He left behind a wife, Maria, and six sons.
     On August 13th, 1918, John Henry Oscroft, Albert's stepson, a private in the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regt) was killed in action in Proyat, France.  He along with 518 other soldiers lost their lives just twelve weeks before the end of the war.  He was 24 years old.
     One year later on February 25, 1919, Maria Oscroft Shelton, died from bronchitis at the age of 44.
Her youngest son, Thomas, would've been about 17 at her death.  It is not known who took in the boys. Perhaps their grandparents?

“There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors . . .

                                             and no slave who has not had a king among his."   --Helen Keller

Erik,  
     I was planning next to go forward to my childhood, but Momma sent me a page or two of 
memories about her grandparents, William and Sophie Bradley.   I couldn't leave these wonderful stories out. 
                                                                                  --Mom


     "My mom, Hannah Sophia Bradley, was born in the village of Woodborough, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England, on April 7, 1885.  Her parents were William and Sophie Bradley.  As a young man, Granddad Bradley 'took the King's shilling' to escape  the law for scrumping (stealing) apples from a village orchard.  'Taking the King's shilling' meant enlisting in the army to avoid charges. He was sent to the Crimean War.  While in Turkey he met and married the daughter of an army sergeant, but on the return journey to England by ship, she and the baby she was carrying, died in childbirth and both were buried at sea.
     After reaching England, William Bradley returned to Woodborough and there met and married Sophia Reddish, my grandmother.  He was quite a bit older than her; they had one son, Richard, stillborn twins, and finally, Hannah Sophia, my mam, and Jane, my Aunt Jinny.
     The Reddish family had long ago been wealthy landowners around Nottingham.  There is an old watermill at Halam, near  Woodborough, that once belonged to the family.  In the 12th century the name Reddish was deReddish, so it was probably of Anglo-Saxon or French origin.
     My granddad became a stocking frame operator.  The frame sat in the front room.  He would 'knit' the stockings on the frame, and then walk to Arnold and deliver them to Allen and Solley's Factory to be seamed and shaped.  His daughter, Hannah, my mam, often accompanied him.  She told me that Granddad worked on silk stockings for Queen Victoria.  He worked her design, a crown over a V and an R (for Victoria Regina) into the top of the stocking.
      Granddad decided he would teach Mam to run the stocking frame; she hated it!  It made a sound--'shinka-pom-push' as the pedals were worked.  This went on for hours.  One morning, after much protesting on her part, he nonetheless made her get on the frame to work.  She got so fed up of hearing that 'shinka-pom-push' that she stamped her feet on the pedals and jammed the needles together.  Scared that she'd broken the frame, she ran off into the orchard and never again was she made to work on that  machine.              --Joan Shelton


Bit of history:  In July 1853, Russia occupied territories in the Crimea, a peninsula in the Ukraine, that had previously been controlled by Turkey.  Britain and France were concerned about Russian expansion and attempted to achieve a negotiated withdrawal. Turkey, unwilling to grant concessions, declared war on Russia.  In November 1853, Britain and France joined the war against Russia.
 

     A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechanization of the textile industry, and played an important part in the early history of the Industrial Revolution.

      Amy Symington from Lyon & Turnbull models a pair of hand stitched silk stockings on February 24, 2010 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Scottish auctioneers are due to place the hand-stitched, silk stockings in their sale on March 24, 2010. Complete with crests this style of stocking is thought to have been among Queen Victoria's favorites.


   
     "Mam had an uncle living on a farm at the end of the village.  He was a strong Methodist.  Every Saturday they swept out his barn and arranged forms (wooden benches) for seating.  The first Methodist Church in Woodborough began in that barn.  Eventually the 'church' was granted a deed from the diocese and was able to build a chapel.
     Granddad Bradley took ill, becoming paralyzed and remained bedridden until his death.  We now know he died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lous Gehrig's disease), the same disease my brother Jack died of in 1972.  After her dad died, at the age of 12, Mam was sent to work at Woodborough Parsonage."   --Joan Shelton