Tag: John Bell

Blaco Hill Cottages

Blaco Hill Cottages (car and phone lines removed in Photoshop).

On Monday my sister Linda and cousin Kathleen joined Barbara and I on a short tour of some of our Bell family history locations north of Retford around Sutton-cum-Lound, North Nottinghamshire.

John Bell

Blaco Hill Cottages, between Lound and Mattersey, was the home of our great grandfather John Bell, a gardener, born 1842, and his wife, our great grandmother, Helena, nee Whitehead, born 1845.

Helena Bell

It was the birthplace of my grandfather, Robert Bell, and several of his siblings.

Our thanks to Victoria of Blaco Hill Farm for giving us a guided tour.

Linda, Barbara, Kathleen and I at Blaco Hill Farm, photograph by Victoria.

The Grade II listed farm house is currently being renovated. During re-roofing they found straw, a form of insulation, stuffed beneath the slates.

Blaco Hill Farm

Victoria sent me a photograph of an oil-on-canvas painting of the farm.

Continue reading Blaco Hill Cottages

‘Jack’ Bell

John Bell

I never met my Great Uncle ‘Jack’, grandad’s elder brother. He was christened John Theodore Bell but probably got Jack because his father was also a John.

This photograph, part of a family group, was taken at Lound around 1901 (and colourised by me in Affinity Photo 2 on the iPad).

John

At that time, aged 27, he was working as a steel polisher in New Radford, Sherwood, on the north side of Nottingham. He had married Fanny Taylor, 26, and was living at 16 Deligne Street, with his in-laws, Leicester-born Edward Henry Taylor, 59, an army pensioner and his wife, Chelmsford-born, Sarah Taylor, 54, a lace worker specialising as a clipper – cutting away the connecting threads at the edges of the lace.

John's signature 1911

The 1911 census records that the couple had one child who died in infancy.

John's signature, 1921

In the 1921 census he is still working as an ‘Iron & Steel Polisher’ in the Raleigh Bicycles factory in Nottingham. They’ve moved to 5 Edith Terrace, Radford, and mother-in-law Sarah, now 73, has moved in with them.

John was born on 1 April 1874.

The Bells of Blaco Hill

Colourised in Photoshop

My grandad Robert Bell’s family: the Bells of Blaco Hill, Mattersey. That’s grandad, back row on the right.

diary, Christmas Day 1972

According to my diary (above) Grandma gave me the photograph 50 years ago today when we called at Sutton-cum-Lound on Christmas Day 1972. My dad’s elder brother, Uncle Fred, was also there.

Robert Bell
Robert Bell

Grandad and Grandma had such large families that my father claimed that he could never sort out who all his aunties and uncles were. Somewhere I’ve got a key to the photograph but until I put my hands on it I’m as clueless as my dad was.

At least I know that this is my great grandfather, John Bell, born 1842, an agricultural labourer, later working as a groom at Blaco Hill.

Elizabeth Bell

And this is great grandma Helena Bell, born in 1845.

Look forward to finding out more about the Bells and my grandma’s family the Bagshaws as I’ve been so involved with the other side of the family, the Swifts and the Trueloves of Sheffield.

Link

Blaco Hill

Blaco Hill Cottages – looks like the perfect location for a Bell Family reunion!