Southwell 2 Branch

Southwell 1 Branch

This page sets out information that we have found about the Southwell 1 branch of Fairholm in England.

So far, we have 239 people on this tree.

This branch is headed by William and Mary Fairholm. We do not know who William's parents were, but we suspect that he was the brother of George Fairholm who heads the Southwell 2 branch. They were both wheelwrights and it seems unlikely that two wheelwrights called Fairholm would both set up business in such a small village without being related. Their father may have been George Fairholm, who was living near to William in the 1851 census and was the right sort of age. Mary's maiden name was Adamson. William and Mary had nine children. At first they were living at Radcliffe-on-Trent, on the opposite side of the river Trent to Nottingham. They moved to Southwell by 1820.

William and several of his male descendants were wheelwrights.

We only have present day descendants for William and Elizabeth's youngest sons, William Adamson and John. The most recent information we have is that their descendants are living in Nottinghamshire.

Southwell

Southwell (pronounced Suv-ell) is a village to the west of Newark in Nottinghamshire. It is known for its minister and as being the home of the Bramley apple.

The fairly poor quality map from 1884 shows the part of Southwell where members of the Southwell branches lived from at least 1828. They lived on Westgate from the 1840s onwards. The two old postcards show the street. The second card was issued circa 1907.

Reproduced with permission of Reflections of a Bygone Age from their book Southwell on old picture postcards

(ISBN 0 946245 61 4)

OS Map 1884. Image produced from the www.old-maps.co.uk service with permission of Landmark Information Group Ltd. and Ordnance Survey

Wheelwrights

Several generations of the two Southwell branches were wheelwrights. The trade was a highly skilled one and extended beyond the manufacture of wheels to the creation of a variety of wagons, drays, traps and carts. The process of producing just one wheel was lengthy and a wagon could take up to six months to complete. The various parts of a wheel are shown in the diagram below.

Family businesses were included in the trade directories of the time:

Pigot and Co. 1828 - 1829 and for 1830

Southwell - William Farnholme - wheelwright - Westhorpe

Nottingham - George Fairholm - wheelwright - Carter gate

White’s Directory Nottinghamshire 1832

Southwell - W Fairholme - wheelwright - Southgate(?)

Nottingham - Geo. Fairholme - wheelwright - Water Street

Pigot and Co Nottinghamshire 1835

Southwell - William Fairholme - wheelwright - Westhorpe

Nottingham - George Fairholme - wheelwright - Cartergate

Pigots Commercial Directory Lancs, Leics, Lincs, Northants, Notts, Rutland, Yorks 1841

Nottingham - George Fairholme - wheelwright - Carter gate

Kelly’s Directory Lincs, Derbys, Leics, Notts, Rut 1849

Southwell - Mrs. Mary Fairholm - Wheelwright - beer retailer - Westhorpe

Nottingham - George Fairholm - wheelwright, & C, - Carter gate

Francis White and Co 1864

Nottingham - Geo Fairholme - wheelwright - 35 Cartergate

Morris and Co 1869

Nottingham - Henry Fairholm - wheelwright and carriage builder - Cartergate.

Includes information from a book about wheelwrights the details of which I have lost and from copies of the trade directories noted that were held at Nottinghamshire Archives.

William Fairholm - death & inquest

William Fairholm, head of this branch, was killed in 1843 when he was removing a tree from a field. The inquest was reported in the Nottingham Mecury:

"A most serious and fatal accident happened at this place on Saturday afternoon last, to Mr. Wm. Fairholm of Westhorpe, wheelwright and publican; the deceased was assisting, with his father and others, in leading wood from a field in Park Lane, Southwell; and in the falling one of them struck the deceased and killed him dead on the spot."

Other newspapers also report the incident but, unfortunately, none of them state the name of his father.

Mary, his wife, carried on the businesses that William had run. There is a reference to her as wheelwright and retailer of beer in the Kelly’s Directory for 1849 and she is running the Plough Inn in 1859 when it is put up for auction. Also, she supplied elm coffins to the Southwell workhouse.

Information from the Nottingham Mercury from a copy that was held at the British Newspaper Library.

"Accidentally killed by a stroke from

a piece of timber"

Death certificate

Fighting in the street

A dispute between neighbours John & Ann Fairholme and William & Jane Brown resulted in a fight betwen the two men and between the two women on Westgate in 1865. William Brown and Anne Fairholm were both described as being "covered in blood". All four were arrested and charged with being drunk and causing a disturbance. The report on the case does not mention the cause of the dispute.

Information from the Nottingham and Midland Counties Daily Express via britishnewspaperachive.co.uk.

Photograph by cocoparisienne on pixabay.com

George William Fairholm - publican

George William Fairholm was born at Southwell in 1860. He became a wheelwright, like his father. He had moved to Rawnsley in Staffordshire with his wife and three children by 1890. I have not discovered why they moved, although Amelia was born in the county. George was still a wheelwright there, but by 1891 he was the publican running the Talbot Inn at what was then Five Ways, now Heath Hayes, which is south west of Rawnsley. The name of the public house has changed a little over time. It was later the Talbot Hotel and now is just The Talbot. It is an attractive double-bayed, brick Victorian property on Hednesford Road. William and his family lived at the pub until at least 1901, but by 1911 he was living on Stafford Street in the village and was no longer working.

John and Amelia had a total of fifteen children, although I have only been able to identify ten of them. At least six of their children were born in Staffordshire. In 1892 they had triplets - Elizabeth, Frank and George William. Unfortunately, the same year not only did all three of these children die, but so did two others, John Henry and Ethel May. It must have been a terrible time for the family. In all, only three of the children survived to adulthood : Annie Evelyn, Mary Ann and Edwin Cannon.

There was no village at Five Ways / Heath Hayes in the mid-1800s, but by 1871 there were around 200 residents, and by 1881 nearly 1,000. Five Ways / Heath Hayes was a mining village, with most of George & Amelia’s male neighbours working at collieries as miners or in other capacities. This and other villages were founded and expanded as the mining industry expanded across Cannock’s Chase. There were two collieries close to the village (Cannock Chase No 8 and the later Coppice colliery) with another five in the surrounding area. Miners were the most likely customers at the Talbot Inn, but it had competition from the Five Ways Inn - at the junction of the roads that gave the village its first name. That pub also still exists. The map below from 1882-1883 shows the location of the two inns. George’s is circled in red.

Includes information from Old Heath Hayes (Bucknall & Francis).

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland - maps.nls.uk

Photograph by josh-olalde on Unsplash