The picture above is of my great great grandparents, John and Mary Stacey, and probably their 4 youngest children.
Their youngest son George was born in 1882 so that would date this photograph mid to late 1880s.
I will start my thoughts with John and Mary who are the maternal branch of my family.

Monday 26 August 2013

Family memorabilia

This little copper kettle, which I have on display in my lounge, was given to me by my mother a few years ago.  The story that she told me about it was that when my granddad, Herbert William Tirrell, was about 4 he went shopping with his mother one day and refused to leave the shop they were in until she bought him this little copper kettle.  Once they came out of the shop, with the kettle, my granddad hit a little girl on the head with it.  

When mum was young she used to play in the garden with it using it to make mud pies.  As you can see it has certainly been knocked about a lot.



There is an antique programme on the TV at the moment so I thought I would check out my kettle.  There were quite few on different sites so must have been mass produced.  Inside the handle the word Jubilee is stamped and this means it was made in Queen Victoria's jubilee year 1897 so that fits in with what mum told me as granddad was born in 1894.  Not very clear on mine,  the makers mark is just about discernible and, according to those I found online where this is a lot clearer, it was made by a company called Matthew J Hart and Sons.   Not worth very much as they were selling online at between about £10 and £35.  Not that I would ever want to part with it.