Radford Branch

This page sets out information that we have found about the Radford branch of Fairholm in England.

So far, there are 161 people on this tree.

This branch is headed by Benjamin and Jane Fairholm. They married in 1832. Benjamin was the eldest son of Joseph and Ann Fairholm who lived at Nottingham and a grandson of William and Ann Fairholm who lived at Shelford. Jane's maiden name was Leeson. She seems to have been Benjamin's second wife. His first wife seems to have been Elizabeth Kent. She died in 1822, the same year they married, possibly in childbirth. Benjamin and Jane had seven children. They were all born at Radford, as were fifteen of their twenty-two grand children. Their surviving sons were Joseph, who married Emma Culley in 1866, and Reuben, who married Eliza Julia Read in 1865. Some relatives also lived at Sneinton. Descendants of Joseph have provided us with a lot of information, but we have only identified a few descendants for Reuben.

The most recent information we have is that the descendants of Joseph and Elizabeth are living in Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, the West Midlands and Wales.

Click on the image to open a pdf of the early tree for this branch.

It will open in a separate window in your web browser.

The following abbreviations are used on the tree:

b : birth

c : christening or baptism

m : marriage

d : death

bu : burial.

New Radford & Sneinton

New Radford developed on the eastern edge of the parish of Radford from the late 1790s. For a short while its development helped to relieve congestion in Nottingham caused by restrictions on the town's growth due to land ownership issues. The top map opposite shows Nottingham (centre right of image) and New Radford (in the red circle) in 1835. The expanding city eventually absorbed New Radford and later Old Radford, further to the north west.

The middle map (from 1861) shows the streets in the area in which the family lived or worked from the early 1800s to at least 1936. The area was called Bottom Buildings. North Street and South Street were later renamed Lea Street and Brassey Street. The properties between North Street and South Street and Parker's Row and Parker Street were back-to-back houses - meaning that only one wall of the house could have windows and doors. Additional terraced properties were built later between South Street and Parker Row (which was made an extension to Windmill Street).

The first old photograph was taken around 1912 and shows the south side of Parker Street just past its junction with Hornbuckle Street. Joseph and Emma Fairholm (nee Cully) lived on this street from at least 1868 to at least 1871. The properties are probably typical of the ones that family members had lived in from the early 1800s in this area.  The second old photograph shows the chemists at the junction of Alfreton Road & Independent Street - the street immediately north of where family members lived - circa 1904.

By the start of World War I the area had become run down. Although improvements were made to some of the properties around that time, the streets that the families had lived in had been demolished by the start of World War II and in the 1960s a massive redevelopment took place in this part of New Radford.

Sneinton grew up on the eastern side of Nottingham, in a similar way to New Radford and New Lenton on the west side - to help cope with the overcrowding in Nottingham.

The bottom map from 1881 shows some of the streets in Sneinton where members of the Radford branch and the Southwell 2 branch lived in the the mid to late 1880s : West Street, North Street and Walker Street. The old photograph shows Carlton Road circa 1917 on a postcard published by W. H. Smith. The streets where family members lived were just to the right of the two boys.

Piecemeal redevelopment of the area took place under clearance schemes in the 1930s and a larger scheme took place later.

Part of the Sanderson Map of 1835 reproduced from a copy held by Nottinghamshire City Library

Part of the map of the town of Nottingham and its Environs produced for the Duke of Newcastle in 1861 produced from a copy held by Nottinghamshire City Library

Reproduced with permission of Reflections of a Bygone Age from their book Radford with Hyson Green and The Forest on old picture postcards (ISBN 0 946245 83 5)

Reproduced from a copy held by Nottingham City Library

Reproduced courtesy of Nottingham City Council Local Studies Library / www.picturethepast.org.uk.

Reproduced with permission of Reflections of a Bygone Age from their book Sneinton and St. Ann's with Carlton Road on old picture postcards (ISBN 0 900138 18 2)

Benjamin Fairholm - Indian Mutiny

"This soldier is physically unfit for further military duty thro' an attack of chromic bronchitis since his arrival home from China."

The immediate cause of the Indian Mutiny in the army in India was the use of greased paper covers for the cartridges for the newly introduced Enfield Rifle which had to be bitten off before the cartridges could be used.  The muslim and hindu soldiers (sepoys) objected to the covers on religious grounds – the grease was made from cow and pig fat.   There were much deeper causes linked to the way in which the British involved themselves in the political, economic and social affairs of the states in the sub-continent, as well as the general treatment of the Indian soldiers in the army.

Benjamin Fairholm joined the King’s Regiment (8th Foot) in 1855 and arrived in India in November that year. In 1857 he was involved in the responding to a local outbreak of the Indian Mutiny at Jullender and received the India Mutiny Medal for this. The regiment moved onto help regain Delhi, which had been taken by the mutineers and then proceeded to Agra, clearing up pockets of rebels on the way.  In November 1857 the 8th Foot helped to relief the hard pressed garrison at Lucknow and In 1858 formed the garrison at Futtehghur.

In late 1859 and into early 1860 the regiment traveled to Calcutta, some by bullock cart and some by river in two steamers to prepare for embarkation home.  Two hundred and sixty-four officers and privates volunteered to joint other corps.  Benjamin joined the 87th Foot which was under orders for active service in China.  The main hostilities in the Second Opium War between China and several western countries had ended in 1858.  The war had been about enforcing the terms of the treaty that had ended the first war to China's significant disadvantage.  However, the Chinese government stalled in complying with the new treaty that had been signed in 1858 and further military action was undertaken by western countries.

Benjamin’s new regiment traveled to Hong Kong on five steam ships.  A journey that took five weeks. Instead of proceeding north with the main force the 87th Foot became the garrison for Canton (the main port for trade with the west) and remained there throughout the Summer and Autumn of 1860.  Although not involved in any military action, 3 officers and 47 men died during the posting.  The Anglo-French force that moved north destroyed palaces belonging to the Chinese Emperor at Chengde and Peking, bringing a final end to the war.

The regiment left for home in December 1860, arriving back six months later. They were posted to Dublin and the Curragh Camp.

Having survived three long sea voyages and much fighting, Benjamin contracted chronic bronchitis.  After his arrival in Ireland he was discharged from the army as unfit.  He returned to Nottingham, but by 1871 was in the Lenton Pauper Lunatic Asylum.  He died there in 1874 of consumption aged 37 or 38.

Information from Historical record of the King’s Liverpool Regiment, The Royal Irish Fusillers 1713 - 1950 - Cunliffe, army records held at the National Archives, Companion to the Indian mutiny of 1857 - Taylor.

Cap badge of the 8th Foot

    Historical record of the Eighth, or the King's Regiment of Foot; containing an account of the formation of the Regiment in 1685, and of its subsequent services to 1844. Richard Cannon.  From a copy on rchive.org.

From the record of the proceedings of a regimental board Dublin 05 April 1862 for Benjamin Fairholm.  Discharge no. 645.

Framework knitting

Members of the Radford branch were framework knitters.

The textile industry in Nottingham started to use machines as early as 1641. Stockings were being produced on 400 frames by 1700.  Much of the production was made of silk, but as the quality of cotton improved there was a switch and cotton became the main material used for knitting in Nottinghamshire. There were eight cotton mills in Nottingham alone by 1794.

Wider frames were developed that were capable of producing larger pieces of knitted material.  This material was then cut up to make clothes which the narrow stocking frames could not handle.  Stockings could also be made much cheaper this way too.

The effect of the continuing development of mechanisation, the increased use of the wider frames in knitting, changes in the economy and in fashion resulted in protests from hand loom weavers and makers of fully fashioned stockings who feared for their livelihood.  Many frames were destroyed in the Luddite riots which in Nottingham mainly occurred in 1811 and 1812, but lasted intermittently to 1816.  Thousands of soldiers were brought in to contain the rioting, but this was not succesful because several hundred frames were destroyed.  The situation in the country as a whole was such that the Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812 was passed making destruction of a frame punishable by death.  Several MPs from Nottinghamshire promoted the bill through parliament. The penalty was later changed in 1814 to a maximmum of lifetime transporation, but reverted to death in 1817.

Framework knitting could be carried out in the home because the frames were powered physically.  It was a family activity:  the husband operated the frame, his wife seamed the stockings and, with any children, transferred the yarn from hanks to bobbins.

Most knitters rented their frames from master hosiers or intermediaries, who generally also allocated work and supplied the yarn.  In 1844 the rent for a narrow frame was around 1 shilling a week and for a wide one up to 3 shillings.  Payment for the finished items was on a piece rate.

In 1844 a government commission investigated the textile industry after a petition from 25,000 framework knitters.  Unfortunately, nothing beneficial came of it.  However, the evidence collected indicates the level of poverty in which many knitters lived.  One third to one half of their income was spent on work expenses of one sort or another.  After paying their work expenses and rent some families of two adults and four children were left with as little as 3 shillings and 6 pence to live on for a week.  A loaf of bread cost 6 pence.  Many had to pawn their clothes on a regular basis to buy food.

Some houses were built especially to accommodate the frames, but many frames were in ordinary houses and conditions were cramped.  A particular feature of a framework knitter’s house was wide windows to make maximum use of natural daylight and limit the expense of candles. Workshops, housing several frames, were also built, but it was only after steam power was introduced from the late 1870s that factories were developed.  The new powered machines required less physical strength and the industry became increasingly dominated by female labour.

Further development of the frames allowed machine lace to be produced.  Lace production expanded rapidly from the 1880s and by 1890 there were 500 hundred lace factories in Nottingham employing over 17,000 workers.

Information from Framework Knitting. Marilyn Palmer. Shire Publications Limited.  Also, from a book about the social history of the victorian period, the details of which I have lost.

1851 Census. North Row, New Radford.

Benjamin Fairholm

Jane

Jane

Benjamin

Joseph

Frameworker knitter

Launderer? of lace

Cotton doubler

Framework knitter

Winder

Benjamin Fairholm

Jane

Joseph

Lab at lace factory

Lace dresser

Lace maker

1861 Census. South Street, New Radford.

Benjamin Fairholm

Frameworker knitter

1871 Census. South Street, New Radford.

© base map Corel Corporation

The daughters of Reuben & Annie Fairholm

Reuben Fairholm - the son of Joseph and Emma Fairholm - married Annie Oxby on 19 November 1906 at Kinoulton parish church.  Annie's siblings included two sisters - Mary and Kate.  Reuben and Annie had four daughters - Nellie, Gladys, Kate and Annie.  Sadly, Annie snr died three days after the birth of Annie jnr in May 1916, whilst Reuben was serving with the 1st Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment in France.   To make matters worse, Reuben died in France in March 1918.  This left the four sisters as orphans.

Katie Oxby was the beneficiary of Reuben's will - and received his estate worth £909 5s 11d.  It seems that Katie received the payments from the army that were due on Reuben's death, including the War Gratuity, but it is not clear whether this was on her own behalf as the beneficiary under his will or on the children's behalf.  Katie was noted on Reuben's army pension index card as guardian to the four children.  I don't know the formal or practical significance of this, but a small army pension was paid for each of Reuben & Annie's daughters from February 1919 for a set period that was based on their their then age.  

After the death of their mother, Nellie, Gladys, Kate and Annie went to live at Field Farm near to Hickling in Nottinghamshire with Annie's other sister Mary - by then married to Albert Salt.  Field Farm was their home for several years, although by the 1921 census Nellie and Annie were at the next village of Kinoulton, at the home of John Oxby - their grandfather - with Kate Oxby - who had married Frederick Sentance.  Gladys and Kate (Fairholm) were still living at the Field Farm with Mary and her immediate family.

When she was older, Gladys ran a sweet shop in Nottingham and remained in touch with her aunt Mary.  In the 1939 register Gladys is stated as living at 203 Berridge Road, together with her sister Annie.  They are both stated to be "shopkeeper sweets".  I assume that they were living in the accommodation above the shop because Berridge Road appears to be a long-standing shopping street, although the uses of the shops have changed.  No. 203 is currently an Indian takeaway.  Gladys did not marry.  When she died in 1949 she made her sister, Mary, her beneficiary.  Kate married John Walker Theobold in 1933 and Annie married Albert Harry Sharp in 1942.  They each had one child.  I cannot find a marriage for Nellie in the marriage index for England, although marriages to Manders and Walder are mentioned elsewhere.

Avril Thesing posted an article about her time at Field Farm during World War II, including her involvement with the Salt and Fairholm families, on www.hicklingnottslocalhistory.com.  It is a fascinating a read.  Robert Fairholm told me about the article and it inspired me to write this briefer story about the four sisters.  I have included some information from that article here.

Image by Pexels on pixabay.com

Primitive Methodists

The Church of England was the main religion of England following the creation of the church in the 1500s, but some members of the English branches joined or were born into other Christian religions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Initially, Methodism was a movement within the Church of England that was founded by John Wesley.  In 1795 it became a separate organisation and it grew rapidly, particularly in the industrial areas of England.  Several branches of methodism separated from 1797 onwards.  The Primitive Methodists (also know as the Independent Methodists or Quaker Methodists) separated in 1811. Most of the various extant branches re-merged in 1932 as the Methodist Church.

When her death was reported in 1838 Ann Fairholm (the wife of Joseph Fairholm) had been "about 20 years a steady and consistent member of the Primitive Methodist Society, at New Radford."  Ann and Joseph were living at North Street in New Radford at the time.

It is not certain at which Methodist chapel Ann worshipped.  There have been several chapels in New Radford, some of which closed or moved, with some of them within easy walking distance of North Street during the 1800s, although not all of them existed during Ann's period of attendance.  To add some complexity, the users of certain chapel buildings seemed to have changed over time.  In White's Directory of Nottinghamshire of 1853 it is stated that:

"The New Connexion Methodists have a chapel in Chapel Street. The Independents [the Primitives] have a chapel in Denton Street, erected for the Unitarians, and the Second Advent Congregation assemble in a chapel in Denman Street, built for the Independents."

A map of Nottingham and its "environs" from 1861 that was produced for the Duke of Newcastle does not show a chapel on Denton Street, but does show a "P.M. CHAPEL" on Highurst Street, which is an extension of Chapel Street.   There might have been a Wesleyan Chapel on nearby De Ligne Street, although the text is a bit unclear on the copy that I have, as it is for the chapel on Denman Street.

The New Connexion Chapel on Independent Street was built in 1858.  I wonder if there was a further change of uses, with the New Connexion congregation moving to Independent Street and the Primitives moving into the vacated space.  

Independent Street backs on to North Street, but the chapel there did not exist during Ann's life and so it is most likely that Ann attended the chapel on Denton Street.  It would only have taken a few minutes to walk from her home.

Information from myunitedmethodists.org.uk, Britannica.com, Nottinghamshire Parish and Denominational Registers : A Finding List for Family Historians, Kelly's Directory of Nottinghamshire (1904).

The base of the map opposite shows the extent of modern day India.  At the time of the mutiny the sub-continent was partly run by the East India Company and partly by several Indian polities.

Not a happy subject, but an interesting one nevertheless.  The formal registration of deaths from 1837 provides access to the causes of deaths across the country.  There were many possible causes for adults and children in earlier times that are preventable today.  A few examples for the Radford branch are included below together with some general information.

Joseph Fairholme died of typhus in 1853 whilst living at Bottom Buildings in Radford.  Typhus is an infectious disease which is rare now.  The typhus organism is Rickettsia prowazekii and it lives in the cells of ticks and lice and is transmitted from them to humans.  Epidemics occurred in the insanitary and crowded conditions of Victorian towns and cities.  In 1837 alone 19,000 people died of the disease in England and Wales.  Joseph must have been living in very poor conditions when he died.

Ann Fairholm     and Benjamin Fairholm both died of dropsy in 1838 and 1877 respectively.  Dropsy is an older name for edema - an abnormal swelling caused by the accumulation of fluid in cells, tissues or body cavities. There are many causes including kidney, liver or heart disease, allergy, malnutrition and pregnancy.  The physical effects can be local or widespread depending on the cause.   The cause of Ann’s problem is not known.  Nowadays, diuretics are used to encourage the fluid to form into urine.

The death of Charlotte Holmes (nee Fairholm) in 1844 in childbirth was not unusual. Childbirth was a very dangerous time for women.  In 1839-1840 15% of woman giving birth died during or shortly afterwards.  Haemorrhaging during birth was often fatal because of a lack of treatment to stop the blood.  Mothers could slowly bleed to death.  Most births took place at home where the initial survival rate of mother and child was enormously higher than in hospital.  

Poor, malnourished mothers often gave birth to sickly children.  In the 1880s 25% of babies died before they were 12 months old.   There were many common diseases which could kill younger children.  Diphtheria, scarlet fever, smallpox and measles, as well as diarrhoea could all be fatal. Whooping cough is estimated to have been responsible for 40% of child deaths under the age of 5.  Eliza Fareholme died from dysentry at South Street, part of Bottom Buildings, in 1855 and Joseph Fairholme of scarlet fever in 1878 at Parker's Row in the same area.  They were 7 and 9 years old respectively. Cholera killed 30,000 people in England and Wales in 1832 out of a population of 18.5m.  Tuberculosis was the biggest single killer - 50,000 died in 1838 alone.  I have not spotted cholera as a cause of death on any of the death certificates that I hold and only one case of TB (not at Radord).

Under the Analysis section of the website (accessible from the menu at the top of the page) there is an analysis of the numbers of births, marriages and deaths of family members in England.

Includes information from a book about the social history of the victorian period, the details of which I have lost and The Complete Reference Collection - The Learning Company, Inc.

Causes of death in Radford

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Photograph by Olga Kovslski on Unsplash

Reuben Fairholme - asssult at factory

Reuben Fairholme worked at Berry’s factory on Wollaton Street, Nottingham as an over-looker.  In 1871 he was involved in an incident with Edward Smith, who worked as a threader at the factory.  Asked by Reuben to thread some silk instead of the cotton on which he was working Edward declined.  According to Edward, Reuben then attacked him, including “striking him several times with his fist”, although he apologised later.  Edward suffered injuries to his shoulder and had part of his left collar bone removed.  The defence had a different interpretation of events, including that the injuries occurred the following day.  Edward’s mother said that Reuben had offered to pay Edward’s wages whilst he was unable to work, but did not do so.  After evidence from the resident surgeon at the General Hospital and others, Reuben was ordered to pay a fine of £5.  After costs were deducted the remainder was to be paid to Edward in compensation.

A directory for 1885 has “George Berrey & Co lace mfrs” located on Wollaton Street - close to the junction with Upper Talbot Steet and Canning Street.  Reuben had grown up nearby in the Bottom Buildings area of Radford, but was living at Sneinton at the time of the incident.  As an interesting side note, Wollaton Street was once was the location of a building claimed to be the first cotton mill in the world.  The mill was built for James Hargreaves (inventor of the spinning jenny) and Thomas James in 1767.  

Information from Nottingham and Midland Counties Daily Express  inspirepicturearchive.co.uk, History, Gazetteer & Directory of Nottinghamshire - 1885.

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