Additional Comment: Craske family

I have just published a new comment to the September 2006 notes about the Craske family (and others), from Cathy Bryant.

SC

New Comments: Craske, Suttle and Porter

I've just added new comments about the Craske, Suttle and Porter families - both with pleas for contact.

Thanks, Victor and Rick

Steve Clarke

Travelling to Work: Glemsford to Sherborne

My interest in the migration of Glemsford people in the Nineteenth Century has been re-ignited by Angela Russell's research into the family of Walter James Brown.

He was married to Susan Ann Middleditch. Angela's research shows that they were mainly employed in the silk industry in Glemsford (although living in Sudbury).
Whereas Walter's brother George, and sister Joanna Maria (married to George Craske), by the 1901 census had moved their respective families to Eccles in Lancashire, Walter James moved his complete family of eight daughters and one son, sometime between 1891 and 1897, to Sherborne in Dorset.

Here in 1901 Walter is recorded as overlooker at the Silk factory and all his daughters were silk weavers.

Angela goes on to ask: did any other families move to Dorset? was the silk industry at Glemsford in decline then?

If there is anyone reading this who can shed light on this, and the silk industry in Sherborne in particular, please let us know.

And I would add other questions to those: how did ordinary factory workers find out that employment was available in other parts of the country? - how did they travel? - were the relatively-new railways a factor in making people more mobile? - did people like the Browns and Craskes travel with the intention of staying permanently? - how did they sort out accommodation?.

I know some of these questions seem naive, but I doubt whether we should treat the answers as taken for granted or, in any sense, obvious.

So: if anyone has anything else to add to the question of Suffolk migrants, please get in touch - whether with concrete evidence or simply family anecdote.

Steve Clarke

Travelling to work

I have become increasingingly fascinated by a particular aspect of the lives of Glemsford people, particularly in the later stages of the Nineteenth Century.

Perhaps it shouldn't surpise me, but I am always intrigued by the distances families moved away from the village, presumably in search of work.

People moving to London is almost expected many girls went to go into service, but recent researches and family hunts have shown Glemsford people turning up all over Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, but also in Lancashire - the Browns and Craskes in particular, in Yorkshire, and now in Dorset. Most times, it seems to be the working skills - weaving, for example - that have taken the family to their new homes.

My study of the school log books also shows a steady, if unspectacular, trickle of families out of the village.

Now here's a thought: such migration might make a fascinating study for someone.
I'd be delighted to hear from anyone who might follow up the idea.

Steve Clarke

More about the Craskes

Not that I ever doubted it, but it is always nice to get confirmation that people actually read and take note of these entries.

A few weeks ago I published some details about the Craske family and their migration to Lancashire.

Today, I received this from Bill Thurgood:

I was fascinated to read about your research on the Craskes who went to Lancashire.

This is also my family, my mother was a Craske descended from Ellen Craske of Shimpling, very much the same family.

Ellen had a child out of wedlock, in Stanningfield, and the father was William Cornish.

Now, he did not marry Ellen. Instead he married Henrietta Pettit, strangely this is the surname of the family who you discuss immediately prior to the Craskes on your blog page.

Our branch of Craskes went to Essex , but I now live in Cornwall.So imagine my surprise to uncover that my mother was really a Cornish by descent.

Thanks Bill. Anyone who wishes can add a comment or contact Bill via my address.

Craske Family Search

I've been having some fun over the last few days chasing the Craske family of Glemsford and Leigh (Lancashire) around the Censuses and elsewhere, partly because Alan Bell asked me if I knew anything, and partly because there is a slight link to the Brown family, of whom, as we all know, there were many in Glemsford - 144 in 1901.

At one stage of my search I remembered having contact, back in 2004,with Sandra Farrimond, who was researching a separate (but related) branch of the Craskes. The email address I have doesn't work any more, so, if Sandra wants to, a quick note to me could put her and Alan in touch with each other.

Meanwhile, just for general interest, these notes appear in Glemsford School logbooks:


26 July 1897

The attendance officer having obtained date of Julia Craske's birth, her name has been removed from the books, as she will not be three years old until December next. She had made 11 attendances, and these will be subtracted from the total for the quarter.

20 October 1897

Finding that a false date of birth was sent when Arthur Craske was admitted on the 16th of July last, his name has been removed from the register, as he will not be 3 years old until Dec. 3rd. His attendance will be deducted from the totals at the end of the quarter.

17 December 1897

Attendance a little improved this week, three or four children who have had Measles being allowed to return. Arthur Craske, aged 3 years was admitted yesterday afternoon.

21 February 1902

Kate and Muriel Craske left school to-day, on account of the removal of their parents to Lancashire.

Kate, Muriel and Julia were the daughters of Charles Craske and Kate (nee Bird), while Arthur was the son of Mark and Adelaide (nee Hartley). Charles and Mark were the sons of Thomas and Georgeanna (Georgina, Georgianna). George Craske (an older brother of Mark and Charles) was married to Joanna Maria (nee Brown) and was already living in Leigh, Lancashire by 1901.

So, another Lancashire: Glemsford connection, to go with the travels of another branch of the Brown family, researched last year, and written up on these pages.

If anyone has further details, or questions ...