WOW Nigel! When I asked the question I didn't expect anything quite like this! This is lovely stuff even if it wasn't lovely for those ancestors of mine who lived there! Thank you so much for your time and trouble in sending all of this, It is most appreciated. BTW I think one of my other lot may have been a servant for your Hingley's but I need to check my records first to confirm. I may just be having a premature senior moment! Best wishes Linda Staffs UK Researching: Cook(e) Plant Mason Keys Pearsall and variants Broster Rastall Turner Smith Miller Morgan Simmons Baker ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nigel Brown" <nigel-brown@blueyonder.co.uk> To: <ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 11:06 PM Subject: RE: [B.C.] Sweet Turf, Netherton > Dear Linda, > > -----Original Message-----Not knowing the area, would someone be so kind > as > to let me know how Sweet Turf got its name and what sort of area it was in > the mid 19th century?----- > > The name Sweet Turf was so called from the local farm pastureland, which > was > known for the succulent quality of its grass. (Text taken from Sweet Turf > web site which has unfortunately changed location or no longer exists.) It > is close to Mousesweet Brook, the name of which presumably has similar > origins. > > These names pre-date the industrial revolution since we are extremely > close > here to where Mousesweet Brook meets the River Stour at Cradley Forge, a > key > place in Dud Dudley's pioneering work in smelting iron from coal rather > than > charcoal in about 1620, the advance that made the industrial revolution > possible (although in the history books most of the credit went to Abraham > Darby who smelted iron using coke in 1709 at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire). > Thus, Dud Dudley has been described as a man "ahead of his time". > > In the mid-nineteenth century this area was at the heart of what Elihu > Burritt, the American Consul in Birmingham in the 1860s, described as "the > region of iron and smoke", where Nature is "scourged with the cat-o'nine > tails of red-hot wire, and marred and scarred and fretted, and smoked half > to death day and night, year and year, even on Sundays. Almost every > square > inch of her form is reddened, blackened and distorted". The iron > industries > were based on local mining of coal, iron and limestone, and local skills > in > nail making going back some hundreds of years. Later on (1909), 90% of all > Britain's iron chain and cable were produced in the 2 or 3 square miles > encompassing Netherton and the other four chain making townships of > Cradley, > Cradley Heath, Quarry Bank and Old Hill. In 1852 my great, great, great, > great grandfather's brother Noah Hingley moved his chain works from > Cradley > to Netherton and it went on to produce 20-25% of the entire British output > of wrought iron. And Sweet Turf was just down the road! > > I hope this helps. > > Nigel Brown > ENG-WOR-CRADLEY@rootsweb.com