Romsley & Hunnington History Society -

Meeting Report - June 2016

The rainy weather failed to prevent members & friends of Romsley and Hunnington History Society from meeting in the Church Hall on Tuesday 28th June 2016.

The Chairman, Paul Share, welcomed everyone & reminded us that tickets were still available for the performance of "The Ballad of St. Kenelm" on Sunday 3rd July.

Julian Hunt was our speaker, who gave a talk entitled Dayhouse Bank. He told us that from the age of 11, he always cycled through Dayhouse Bank on his way to school and remembered the Wesleyan Chapel plus a large house.

Using photographs taken in 1976 by John Brown, Tithe Maps & references from Court Rolls and Censuses, Julian gave us a detailed insight into the history of Dayhouse Bank.

Dayhouse (short for dairy house) was first mentioned in the Court Rolls in 1533. It was here that William Hulle kept his heriots(beasts). The Wesleyan Chapel was built in 1811 in the garden of a house called 'The Cottage' where the Hunt family lived (no relation to Julian). The date stone was laid on May 19th 1873 by Miss A.M. Cookes.

According to the 1861 Census, the Manchester Inn was known as The Spout & belonged to John Booth. As well as being an innkeeper, he was also a railway contractor. In 1851 he worked as a navvy and had contacts with Manchester, which may account for the name of the pub.

The names and occupations of the occupants of Dayhouse Bank during the nineteenth century were also found in the 1851 Census; Abraham Davenport, William Clewes, John Reade, Hannah Rutter, Edward Harris to mention a few. Nailers, farm labourers, woodcutters, farmers and shoemakers were just some of the occupations. Married women were listed as 'unpaid domestic duties'.

Julian concluded his talk by informing us that the Censuses & some of the Court Rolls can be found on the Romsley & Hunnington History website: www.rhhs.org.uk

Paul thanked Julian for his informative talk. The next meeting will be on 27th September when Joe Hawkins, who is the head gardener at Hagley Hall, will be giving a talk on Hagley Park Past & Present. The society will also be staging a smaller version of the 1966 exhibition (which possibly encouraged the formation of this present society) on Saturday, 10th and Sunday,11th September 2016 in the Church Hall. Everyone is welcome.