Having researched a family, we normally include military records on the page about the family, linked from the Families index and (where applicable) from the War Memorial page. But we haven’t completed the long and complicated history of the Leivars family in Sawley yet. So, for Armistice Day, some of the wartime records for the family have been extracted and set out below. John Leivars (1844-1926) known as Jack, was a regular solder in the 1860s and 1870s, serving with the 45th Regiment of Foot (which became the Sherwood Foresters). He took part in the 1868 Abyssinian Campaign. In 1879, Jack qualified for an Army (Chelsea) pension and returned to Sawley, where he married Ann Catliff. In 1924, General Smith-Dorien chatted with him at the Sherwood Foresters Old Comrades Annual Dinner. By 1914 Jack and Ann had 12 children and were living in Chantry Place. Their eldest son John William Leivars (1882-1916) served with 9th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters during the war. In late September 1916 they took part in the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, one of the later stages of the Somme campaign. In mid-November they were at the Battle of the Ancre Heights. A week later, on 26 November […]
Posts - People
The following are transcripts of letters sent by a Long Eaton girl to her pen-pal in America in 1945 and 1946. Sheila Redford was born in Long Eaton in 1929. Her family lived in Bennett Street. She left school at 14 and started work in a factory office in Sawley during World War 2 (perhaps Park Mill on Grosvenor Avenue which was used by Rolls Royce during the war). Arlene Olsen lived in Harrietta, a small town in rural Michigan. After the USA entered the war in December 1941, she helped the war effort by collecting milkweed floss to fill lifejackets. Arlene’s daughter found the letters amongst her mother’s papers and thoughtfully contacted the Sawley Historical Society and sent the letters back to England. The extracts are printed with the kind permission of Sheila’s daughter. 6 Feb 1945 Dear Arlene Very many thanks for your lovely letter, to which I am answering straight away. So, Sergeant Elmore was your music teacher, was he? When he came to talk to us about you boys and girls over there, we asked him if any of you would like to write to some English girls and he gave us your addresses. I […]
The Harriman Family Grange Gardens were opposite Sawley Grange Farm, on the other (reservoir) side of Draycott Road, when it used to go to Draycott! Although always referred to as ‘Grange Gardens, Sawley’ it was (just) in Breaston parish. The image above shows an 1890s map superimposed on a modern air photo. The story seems to start with the Harriman family … Thomas Harriman was born in Hathern in 1812. He married Mary Frearson from Sawley in 1838. At first, they lived near Nottingham, but by 1846 they’d moved to Sawley Grange. Their children were: Annie (1842-1898) William (1844-1927) Elizabeth (1846- Mary (1848-1882) Grace (1851-1934) Mary (the mother) died in 1851 probably while, or soon after, giving birth to Grace. In 1860 Thomas got married again, to Zillah Briggs. By 1871 the family had moved to Draycott where Thomas worked as a brewery agent. But Thomas still owned over 12 acres of land, whilst the 3 younger daughters had just over an acre each (Annie was married by then). Elizabeth and Mary were still at home, both working as governesses. Grace (pictured) was probably living at home too, though she was away on the night of the 1871 census. […]
On Tuesday 29th June 1852 a Sawley woman was battered to death in her home by a stranger. John and Sarah Walters lived in Thompsons Barns, a solitary group of three 2-storey buildings around a farmyard on the lane to Church Wilne, about ¼ mile before Wilne Mills. The left building (looking from the road) was their house, the other buildings being sheds. The buildings were owned by Richard Thompson, a Draycott farmer. John Walters was a farm labourer for Mr Thompson. The Murder On Tuesday 29th June 1852, two days after Sarah’s 58th birthday, John was out hoeing turnips in the fields. Sarah left home around 11am, stopping to see the sexton in Wilne before walking to Draycott to do some shopping. She mentioned seeing ‘a bad looking fellow’ sitting in the lane near the cottage and being glad to get past him. On her return she found the man inside her house and left her shopping on the doorstep. Her husband described her as a courageous and spirited woman and the man later claimed she hit him first. But he beat her to death with a hatchet, which was later found in the yard. It was customary for […]
Henry Dicken (1883-1973) was from near Chesterfield. He was one of 10 children born before his father, Robert Dicken, died in 1891. Five years later his mother (Ann 1855-1920) married Edwin Lomas in Derby. They lived in Normanton (between Osmaston and Littleover) and had two more daughters before Edwin died in 1900. Henry Dicken worked as a lace card puncher. In 1904 he married Ada White (1885-1972) from Spondon. A year or two later they moved to Long Eaton (where there were many lace mills). Around 1908 they moved to New Sawley (where there were other lace mills; or he could have walked across the park to Long Eaton). In 1911 the family were at 18 Myrtle Avenue (not far from the site of the Sawley windmill discussed in a recent post). According to one source, they may also have lived in Golden Row in Old Sawley. The last of their children to be born in Sawley was Nellie (1911-1991). 1912 Henry left Liverpool aboard the SS Merion, bound for Philadelphia, USA. The rest of the family followed later. SS Merion The family settled in Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio (West of Cleveland), beside Lake Erie. In 1931 Nellie Dicken […]
[A longer version of the following story appeared in the Long Eaton Advertiser in January 1947] Many details of the life and change in the ancient township Sawley are revealed by Mr William Smith of Towle-street, who is the oldest inhabitant of the village and who will celebrate his 93rd birthday this month. In a talk with this hale and hearty veteran farm worker he recalled scenes people and happenings as far as eighty years ago. Born at Sawley in 1854, Mr Smith retains vivid recollections of his youthful days. In his early days, Sawley consisted of 200 houses and less than 800 inhabitants, then chiefly engaged in farming, boating, stocking making, warp net and lace making and blacksmith work. In Smith’s early days Sawley possessed four small one-storey factories containing about ten warp lace machines, owned by the Smedleys and Cliffords and later by Mr John Thorpe, several of these warp machines being subsequently shipped to America. An Italian named Arnabiliano also made warp lace in Sawley. A small number of women possessed lace frames and used to sit outside their homes in summer especially on Smithy-row (now demolished) working designs on plain net from paper patterns underneath. During […]
At about 4am on 20th January 1931, John Roe of Oakwood Bungalow, Plant Lane got up, complaining of a violent headache and difficulty in breathing. When he left home half an hour later, his wife assumed he was going to work early. But he wasn’t seen alive again. When it was realised that he was missing, dozens of villagers made unofficial searches of the riverbank. On 10th Feb an appeal was broadcast on BBC radio. John Roe had been born in Long Eaton in 1872. In 1895 he married Tacey Ann Clifford from Sawley. Their daughter, Gladys May, was born later that year. At first they lived in Co-operative Street, before moving to Myrtle Cottage on Nottingham Road in Sawley. Their next house was 13 Charnwood Avenue and finally Oakwood on Plant Lane. John was a Jacquard (lace machine) card maker. From around 1911 he had his own card punching business at Birchwood Mills (Wilsthorpe Road). At about the same time, his parents moved to ‘Avondale’ 81 Wilsthorpe Road. His father was a lacemaker, working as a foreman for Fletchers works and attended the nearby St Mary’s Chapel. John suffered from ear trouble. A short time before his disappearance […]
Albert Edwin Smith was born in Castle Donington, where his mother, Eliza’s (Hickinbottom) family lived. Albert’s father was Edwin Smith, a lacemaker from a long-established Sawley family. Albert and Eliza set up home at 141 Sawley Road, Long Eaton. In 1914 he joined the Army, serving with the South Nottinghamshire Hussars; though he may already have been a volunteer trooper before the war. After mobilization, the South Notts Hussars served in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 and then at Salonika before deploying to Egypt as part of the Desert Mounted Corps. Albert was promoted Lance Corporal. (* Ed. When I was very young I heard that Albert (a neighbour) had been in the cavalry at Omdurman. I assumed he’d been at the famous 1898 battle in which a young Winston Churchill took part in the last full-scale British cavalry charge. But Albert wasn’t that old, so he must have visited Omdurman (in Sudan) during his time with the Desert Mounted Corps around 1917.) In early 1918 the South Notts Hussars gave up their horses and were transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) and set out for France. But early the next morning, their troopship, the SS Leasowe Castle, […]
“As I remember Sawley, it was a lovely village with farms all around us. Mr. Bates, two Mr. Bradley Smiths, Mr. Gregory, Mr. Grammer, Church Farm. The fields were beautiful when harvest time, with horses pulling carts, and we as children catching a ride underneath and grabbing corn to eat. I remember walking into a telegraph post on Draycott Road, near Shirley Street, and what a bang on the nose. When the cows came out, I used to collect the manure for the late Mr. Rice who lived near Dr. Clifford’s house, Wilne Road, opposite the late Mr. Kirkland’s buses and petrol pump. I was a pupil at Old Sawley Infants school, moved to Sawley Junior School which now is a motor showroom. I was there till the outbreak of WWII, 1939. I left on my 14th birthday and worked for the late Mr. Jarvis, Wilsthorpe Road, named Paragon Works, wood working; wage £1. !Os, eight till five pm. My father worked at Sheet Stores, British Railway for 50 years, as a workshop and shunter, sometimes all night shift work. I remember going for his wages to keep nine of us, £2.10s.0. Trent Lock was my favourite walk, and Wilne […]