The Bristol Times is a supplement in the Evening Post which appears on Mondays. Recently, there has been correspondence about Bristol South Baths which was used for other activities rather the obvious. I sent my contribution which appeared on Monday 26th July

“Your letters about Bristol South Baths brought back memories happy and sad. As well as roller skating they used to have pantomimes there with the performers amazingly strutting their stuff across the boards laid out over the water. My mother took me and my little brother, by bus from Kingswood, in the early fifties. The strapping “principal boy” was a traditional thigh slapping female and perhaps the pantomime was “Dick Whittington” for I remember joining in singing the bizarre “Open the Door, Richard”.

As to roller skating, about six years later, when working as a petrol pump attendant at Jack Lamb’s Garage in Downend, I became friends with a boy called Barry Turton who worked in the butcher’s across the road. Once a week we would roar off on his motor bike, me on the back, through the freezing fog of the winter nights. Arriving at Bristol South we would join the queue to hire the unwieldy skates which had to be strapped on over your shoes. The most decrepit and ancient pair, with a broken leather toe piece and/or missing laces always seemed to be reserved for me. Some “posh” people had their own skates. What luxury! The noise was deafening: the shouts and screams as people fell over, the racket the wheels made on the wooden boards magnified by the ever present swimming pool echo. I was a useless skater and stuck close to the side but Barry, who was very handsome, treated his fans to an exhibition of fancy footwork in the middle of the arena.

The next summer I went away for six months travelling round Europe (I was a little ahead of my time) – and when I returned home in the autumn of 1959, I heard the tragic news that Barry had been accidentally killed in a motor-cycle accident. He was nineteen.”

Last night, the 28th July, I was delighted to receive a telephone call from Barry’s younger brother, Roger, who by coincidence is visiting the UK from Australia where he now lives. We were able to share a few more memories of Barry. He told me that his mother died a few years ago but that she would have been very happy to know that he is still remembered with affection. 

I recently received the following email:

My name is Brian Sheen. I am researching a Walter Brain the son of William Brain and Sarah Tripp nee Edwards, William was a Farmer a Publican and also a Mine owner.

Walter was living at home in the 1861 census for Stapleton Gloucester. There is no trace of him in the 1871 census yet in the 1881 census he and his (wife) plus 6 Children all born in Bath are there, Walter’s occupation is a furniture salesman, their youngest Thomas William being born © 1866 as I said in Bath.

Walter’s wife puts her name on the birth certificate of their daughter, (the line I’m tracing) Leonora Tamar as Annie Pettigrove Brain formerly Howes.

I have a copy of the marriage certificate for Annie Pettigrove daughter of Daniel Pettigrove and Hester (Esther) Hudd; the marriage took place in St Philip and Jacob Church July 20 1840 after Banns. Annie at the time was a minor.

I can find no trace of a marriage between Walter Brain and Annie Pettigrove nee Howes what so ever. I searched through www.freeBMD.co.uk and www.ancestory.co.uk, trying all sorts of spelling combinations for Brain and Howes, all to no avail.

As I said Annie has put her name on the birth certificate as if she were married to Walter Brain.

From your information on the Brain family; would you by any chance have anything on this Walter and Annie Brain of Bath please?

Thank you.

I replied:

Dear Brian

The Brain papers were left to me by my friend, the late Walter Anthony Brain who I knew as Tony. His name suggests that he belonged to the branch of the Brain family that you are researching. (I am descended from Hugh Brain who also came from the Bitton area.)

I have looked through Tony's lists and there is no Brain/Howes marriage shown. (I think your marriage for Annie Pettygrove Hudd is a red herring. The name Pettygrove is not unusual in the Kingswood district.) I have also checked the Bath Register Office index of marriages - no luck - and the births index which unlike 19th century FreeBMD gives the mother's maiden name. All the children were registered at Bath 1866-81, all Brain/Howes.

Walter was missing somewhere in 1871, perhaps on the road as he was a salesman, but I have found Annie in Devizes. I used the most unusual name among those she chose for her children (Flora) to do a search and found the family as follows:

Thomas Howes, head, married, innkeeper, Black Swan, 25 Market Place, wife Ann, and children Thomas, Rhoda, Tamar and Lilly. All were born Bitton except Lilly who was born Melbourne, Australia!  Visiting were Annie Brain, daughter, 25, Thomas W. Brain, grandson, 4 and Flora L Brain, granddaughter, 2, plus several servants.

I can't throw any light on Walter's whereabouts in 1871 - or why (apparently) he and Annie did not marry. It would seem to suggest that one or other had a previous marriage, but so far I have drawn a blank on this too.  Could they have been in Australia at some time with Annie's family?

If you have not already done so, I would suggest you might it helpful to join the Bristol & Avon Family History Society where you are likely to find other Brain researchers as the name is common in our area and fairly localised to Kingswood. See also Brain and Howes in the alphabetical lists in my Kingswood Index. See top of this website.

I have received the following message from Averil Douglas who used the contact form at http://www.bristolfamilyhistory.co.uk/contact.

“I am descended from Lazarus Jacobs [b: abt. 1709 Frankfurt, Germany; d: 1796 Bristol) and Mary (nee Hiscock), his wife [b: 1725 Templecombe, Somerset; d: 1816 Bristol) through their daughter, Susannah (Sukey)[1759-1851] who married Joseph Moses Alman, thence through their son Mosley Moses Alman, then his daughter Leah Alman who emigrated to Australia 1853 aboard the ship "Cambodia" and married Abraham Barnett Simmons, a son of Rabbi Barnett Asher Simmons of Penzance, Cornwall and his wife Flora (nee Jacob) in Melbourne, Vic. Australia.

Isaac Jacobs was a brother of Susannah (Sukey, referred to above) and became a very famous glassmaker.  His portrait I understand is housed in the Bristol City Museum [Object Number K458), an oil painting by Isaac Pocock.  I am hoping you have access to a photograph or this portrait on file and may be willing to share it with me.  I live in Australia and do not plan to visit the UK at this point in time.

In addition, I would appreciate hearing from you with any other information you can provide or details of publications that would be of interest to me. I would also be happy to provide you with further information from my family tree should you be so interested. If you hold on file information about Joseph Moses Alman of Bristol, [1748-1835] and his family, including any siblings as well as his  descendants other than Mosley Moses Alman (1785-1852) I would appreciate hearing from you with this information.  Thanks.”

Unfortunately I have no information other than the items already posted but am endeavouring to find the portrait of Isaac Jacobs mentioned by Averil.

The following touching report appears in the Bristol Mercury of 6th May 1837:

“On Monday, May 1^st, Stephen Cave, esquire and his lady of Cleve Wood celebrated the 50^th anniversary of their marriage by inviting all the old couples of Mangotsfield who had been married fifty years and upwards to their mansion to partake of a comfortable repast. Five couples attended and after dinner were presented with a liberal donation of £5 each. The good old gentleman was highly affected at meeting on such an occasion his aged neighbours and gave them some excellent advice which greatly affected all present concluding that the only way that he and they could hope to meet in heaven to celebrate the grand jubilee there would be by repenting their sins and throwing themselves wholly on the merits of their Redeemer.

“The party including Mr & Mrs Cave consisted of seven couples, their combined ages reaching 1,036 years.

“On the same day, 180 children of the school established by Mr Cave twenty five years ago assembled on the lawn for plum cake and cider after which he presented each with a shilling. The appearance of the children was neat and clean and they conducted themselves with credit to the pleasure of their patron. They sang “God Save the King” and were joined by Mr Cave and his family for whom they gave three hearty cheers.

“This excellent philanthropist also gave a handsome present to every one under his employ and his benevolent lady gave articles of clothing to some of the girls and to poor widows. In compliment of the occasion the bells of the village rang a merry peal.”

According to my “Kingswood Index”, Stephen Cave and Ann Daniel were married at St Augustine’s Bristol on 1^st May 1789, and if the entry is correct (I have been known to err!) the above Golden Wedding anniversary celebrations appear to have been a little premature.

I am sorry to say that I rather maligned Stephen Cave in one of my early efforts, “The Budgetts of Kingswood Hill” noting that in 1816, he chaired a meeting devoted to the suppression of the “Cock Road Gang”. These people, largely consisting of the Caines family and their relatives and friends became notorious in the first quarter of the 19th century: several ended their miserable lives on the gallows and others were transported to Australia. I compared Stephen, a Tory paternalist, somewhat unfavourably with the self made Kingswood grocer and philanthropist Henry Hill Budgett. In hindsight, I realise that the men had more in common than I thought, each believing that education would improve matters among the ignorant poor of the neighbourhood and both founded schools.

Stephen Cave died on February 18^th 1838 at Cleve Wood, aged 75. He was described in his obituary, (Bristol Mercury 24.2.1838) as “a most worthy and honourable man in all relations of social life and one of the best of our citizens.”

Stephen’s widow Ann went to live with her daughter Harriet and son in law John New at Craddock House, Ulfculme, Devon and it was there that she died on January 5^th, 1851 aged 86, described as the relict of Stephen Cave, esq., and sister of (Alderman) Thomas Daniel of Bristol. (obit. Bristol Mercury 11.1.1851). Being interested in family trees, I was pleased to find that the surname Cave was long commemorated in Thomas Daniel’s family. His descendant, living 1952, was called Henry Cave Daniel.   

(For additional information on the Cave family see “Mangotsfield” by Andrew Plaster, BAFHS Journal 125, September 2006)

I was delighted to see that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday made an official apology to the many children who were robbed of their childhood, by an official migration programme which ended forty years ago. They were taken from the UK to Australia supposedly to give them a better life but the reality for thousands of these children has been described as “hell on earth”.

In my post of 27.3.2009 entitled “A New Start” I referred to a similar band of little children sent from Bristol to Canada.