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Stories and Articles
taylors
Len & Roger & Ada Taylor

Ada Elizabeth Taylor nee Rogers was the daughter of Edith Warren's sister Mary Louisa Warren who married William Rogers a Waggoner (both of Dudley]. Ada was born at 25 Cross Guns Street Kates Hill Dudley in 1908. She had a brother Edward (Ted ). Her mother was a general servant before marrying.
Her grandfather John Warren was an Iron Moulder in Dudley. All the men in the family were in the mining or iron industries.
She spent many summer holidays with her partner Len and their son Roger in Torquay with the Childs families. Her aunt Lizzie another of Edith's sisters also spent holidays, often at the same time. Lizzie was a general servant like her sister and married Walter Cotton, the couple had four children, Walter, Mona, Frederick and Lawrence
Stories have been heard in the family that Maurice Childs turned them away one summer saying that they were 'not a Bed and Breakfast'
Ada married Len Taylor in the summer of 1933 in Dudley
adacert

Brickmaking in Dudley c 1850

Brickmaking in Dudley c 1850
Wattons Brickmaking


John Watton Edith Warren's maternal great grandfather was a Master Brickmaker in 1850
Louisa his grandaughter married Henry Warren. Other male members of the Watton family were in the Brickmaking Business

The first attempt at setting a standard came under Elizabeth I, who passed a charter in 1571 for all bricks to be 9 x 4.5 x 2.25 inches. However at this time there was still wide variation in kiln techniques, which meant continued variation. The next change came in 1769, when sizes were stipulated at 8.25 x 4 x 2.25. Everything remained stable until 1784, when a brick tax was introduced, to help finance the American War of Independence. A levy of 2s 6d per 1,000 bricks was charged by the British Government. Some brickmakers countered this by making larger bricks, so that fewer were needed and less tax could be charged. In 1803 the government moved the goal posts by charging for cubic size or volume, and brick number became irrelevant.
"Taxation was only repealed in 1850. Brick making took off in Victorian Britain; the sky was the limit. Every shape, size and colour of brick was produced. Terracotta was a favourite material and was used to embellish work, alongside the faultless bricks that we see today in almost every town and city in the country. Most bricks were smooth faces and generally pressed to achieve precision. A size of 9 x 4.5 x 3 inches was popular.
The moulded hand made brick had not disappeared, however. Some clays do not lend themselves to machine pressing and, of course, some factories in regions of traditional brick making did not change. Why should they? Their factories did not need power to make bricks, only fuel to burn them in clamp kilns. In some areas the fuel naturally occurs in the clay so coal was not relied on.
"Fashion has always played a big role in architecture, and by 1919 bricks with a more traditional feel became popular, and the hand-made brickmakers could not keep pace with demand. This led to extruders becoming commonplace and textures being created by separate machines using all types of clays. (An extruder is a horizontal machine which pushes clay through a die to create the brick). The name given to these bricks was usually 'rusticated'. Smooth bricks were, as today, out of fashion.
"Moulding machines have also become commonplace. A moulding machine can make bricks very quickly and in great numbers by copying the idea first used by Bradley and Craven to produce a very acceptable 'handmade' brick.
"The pressed brick lived on in the form of London bricks which applied a texture in the press. These bricks were used in large housing estates all over the Black Country. The other use of the pressed brick was for common bricks - the National Coal Board made millions of these, a by-product of coalmining being brick clay. These bricks were used for internal walls in houses until breeze blocks and stud walls took over. Breeze did not require as much mortar and so was quicker to lay, while stud walls were dry and didn't require a bricklayer!



Grave of John Watton - donated by Jeannette

Grave of John Watton - donated by Jeannette