Parish Church of St Peter, Camerton. © Copyright and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License
The Clark family of Cumberland worked for generations as agricultural labourers before the industrial revolution brought mining and iron foundries to the Lake District. We can trace our family back to our 4th Great Grandparents, John CLARK & Jane CHICKEN, residents of the rural village of Kirkbride, Cumberland, in the late 18th century!
Their son Joseph CLARK (1820-1895) became an agricultural laborer like his father, relocated to the village of Seaton, and married our 3rd Great Grandmother, Jane DREWERY (1828-1885). They raised nine children, relocating to a new address for every census of the 19th century, moving from Seaton to the town of Workington. Joseph outlived his wife, moved into his eldest son’s home, and continued to work as a labourer into his 70’s. Their sons worked in the coal mines of Workington and their daughters were employed in domestic service.
The one exception was our 2nd Great Grandfather William CLARK (1852-1902) who worked in the Seaton iron works. Raising their family on the move, William CLARK and his wife Ann BOWNESS (1855-1928), granddaughter of Seaton’s Blacksmith, followed the iron works from Workington to Lancashire & Lanarkshire. Ann BOWNESS was at least the fifth generation to live in Seaton & Camerton — the family church, St Peter’s of Camerton, is pictured above. You can read more about William’s life as an iron puddler and role of Ann as the family matriarch: William Clark & Iron Puddlers
George CLARK (1890-1983), the sixth of their eight children, was also an iron worker like his father. He led our family from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, to Darlington, County Durham, where he married Annie WANDLESS (1897-1969), the daughter and granddaughter of carpet weavers, carders, and worsted spinners. Three more generations of the Clark family have lived and thrived in Darlington and they have continued to this day.
However, our grandfather, Albert Wear “Nobby” CLARK (1921-1983), left Darlington and met Sheila Mary HUDSON (1925-2016) in Bridlington during WWII. Nobby was stationed with the 54th Searchlight Battery in Filey, just a short bicycle ride away from Bridlington. The couple married after the war and settled in York. They purchased a house in Burton Stone Lane, recently vacated by Sheila’s late grandfather, James HARDACRE (1861-1947).
Grandparents
The Hall of Hall Hills was the mediaeval manorial complex at Storwood, controlled by the feudal overlordship of Ralph de Mortimer from 1086, and remained in the family until 1425. The site, at the south end of the hamlet, is still surrounded by a prominent moat and was one of the manors of the Baron…
William BOWNESS (1798-1887), our 4th Great Grandfather, was a Blacksmith in the village of Seaton, Cumberland. William and his wife Mary ADDISON (1803-1879) raised 11 children in Low Seaton. Between 1840-1865, William’s cottage was home to 10-11 people. Even as their children departed Mary’s mother moved in and their eldest daughter, our 3rd Great Grandmother,…
The Clark family of Cumberland worked for generations as agricultural labourers before the industrial revolution brought mining and iron foundries to the Lake District. We can trace our family back to our 4th Great Grandparents, John CLARK & Jane CHICKEN, residents of the rural village of Kirkbride, Cumberland, in the late 18th century! Their son…
At the turn of the 20th century, the Clark family of Workington, Cumberland, had embraced the Second Industrial Revolution and were gainfully employed in the mines and foundries of the northwest of England. Our 2nd Great Grandfather William CLARK followed the steelworks however all his brothers and nephews were coal miners, hewers, working directly at the…
William CLARK (1852-1902), our Great Great Grandfather, worked as an Iron Puddler in the iron foundries of England and Scotland during the Second Industrial Revolution. Born in the small village of Seaton in Cumberland, William was the second child of nine, raised by parents Jane DREWERY and Joseph CLARK, a farm labourer and husbandman. The…
On this Anzac Day, we remember our 4th cousins, Thomas Howson Wandless & Robert ‘Bob’ Wandless, brothers who were raised in Western Australia. Thomas was born in England just before the family emigrated, while Robert was the first of the seven siblings to be born down under after the family emigrated in 1881. Generations of…
We had never experienced a rocket launch in person. It was the summer of 2011 and, purely by coincidence, we had flown from England to visit family in Florida in the same week STS-135 was scheduled to launch with the orbiter Atlantis. This was the 135th and final mission for NASA’s Space Shuttle program. The…
Albert Wear Clark aka Nobby Clark was born 1921 in Darlington, County Durham, the third of nine siblings born to a steel worker and worsted cotton spinner. Nobby followed in his father’s footsteps as a labourer in the steelworks. Why Nobby Clark? A clerk would deal with the common people but would be better educated,…
Before launching into decades of dysfunction in the new world, the story of our 9th Great…
The Hall of Hall Hills was the mediaeval manorial complex at Storwood, controlled by the…
William BOWNESS (1798-1887), our 4th Great Grandfather, was a Blacksmith in the village of Seaton,…
On Hooping Day, all the horse drawn carts from the village and surrounding farms would…
In the mid 2000s I clearly remember a telephone call from my mother when she…
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