West Midlands (region)
Woman of the waterways
From Mid Wales to the Black Country and back, Hannah Evans had a hard life on the canal system, writes Raymond Humphreys. Life could be hard for anyone sucked into the early industrial revolution. The story of my great-grandmother, Hannah Evans, illustrates this. Hannah was born in Guilsfield, Montgomeryshire in 1848, the second of the … Read more
The mop fair
Nell Darby details the history of the statute fair, or mop fair, where servants tried to find work, but could became the victims of crime instead. In my local town, a fair is held twice a year. It’s a rather standard event; there are fairground rides, stalls where you can shoot a can to win … Read more