How Navigating the Net led to my Roots on the Sankey Canal
by Robin Salmon

My family's intimate connection with the Sankey Canal came as a complete surprise – almost a shock. I had no idea that it had any place whatsoever in our family history.

The discovery came about through research into the background of my grandfather, Robert Salmon. He, reputedly, ran a small fleet of Mersey Flats, and lived in Birkenhead. He died long before I was born, and he had never told my father why or how he moved from his birthplace, Chipping Campden, to settle in the North West. His family were agricultural labourers in the Cotswolds, and he always described the village in glowing terms (it still is picture-post-card-perfect), so it was a puzzle why he left. My father believed the move had something  to do with looking for work, but knew nothing for certain.

When I began the research 20 odd years ago there was only one way to do it - go to the Record Office and search through microfilms of the census and other records. So I made the trip to Gloucester, and found a great deal about Robert and his father Charles. The family appeared frequently in the various records until the 1860's, when Robert's mother and his two younger siblings died, but after that the records were blank. Nor were there any Salmons in the Chipping Campden phone book, nor on the two War Memorials. It seemed that Charles had moved with what was left of his family. But where had they moved to? There was no way of finding out.

More recently, census data and the records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths became available on the Internet, and so I started searching again. In the 1871 census I found them in Smethwick, in the Black Country. I had had no idea we had any connections with Smethwick, so this was the first of many surprises. Smethwick is still a long way from the Mersey, but there was useful information in the detail of the records. Charles was living in a street which backed onto the Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigation, and 16-year old Robert was living nearby. His occupation was given as 'Boatman'. Clearly he was earning his living on the waterways. It's likely that the boats on which he worked took him far and wide, carrying the manufactured goods of the Black Country around the country, and perhaps on a trip up north he decided to 'jump ship' and stay there. There may have been a young lady involved, because by the time of the 1881 census he was married, and living at Haydock, his occupation being described as 'Flatman'. To begin with, this puzzled me. I have to confess that, as someone with a great interest in the waterways for many years, though I knew of the historic significance of the Sankey Canal, I had no real idea of its course. So I couldn't understand how someone who worked on a Mersey Flat could live so far from the river. The address given for Robert and his wife explained all – Double Lock Cottage, Haydock. He was living alongside the canal on which he worked.

This was interesting enough, but there was much more to follow. By the time of the 1891 census, still a Flatman, he had moved to Birkenhead, where his wife died, childless, a few years later. Robert then married Ada Waring, the daughter of the family next door. It was she who became my grandmother. I had known that her maiden name was Waring, but I knew little of her family details. So I now found in the census two 'new' great-grandparents  - Richard and Margaret Waring, her parents. Richard was also a Flatman, as was one of his sons. I decided to track them back through the censuses, and in the 1871 records I found that they, too, were living in Double Lock Cottage, Haydock, along with their young daughter Ada. It was then easy to find the registration details of her birth, and obtain a copy of her Birth Certificate. It confirmed that she was born at Double Lock Cottage, 10 years or so before her future husband would set up home there with his first wife.

Again through the net I found out the details of the Society, and through the good offices of the Secretary and other members (to whom I am very grateful) I obtained copies of old maps showing the location of the cottage. Sadly, with the maps came the news that it had been demolished many years ago to make way for a sewage works. So the hopes of a visit to what I was coming to regard as my ancestral home were sadly dashed. However, on the Society's website I found a photo of Double Lock and cottage in the Harry Arnold collection, but it turned out to be the 'wrong' Double Lock, at Parr. I have visited the site of the 'right' Double Lock. Though there is no trace of the cottage, the masonry of the lock is still there, and it was very moving to stand at the quiet and deserted spot where so many of my forebears lived and worked over 100 year ago, when this was a bustling local artery. Without the scope which the net now gives us I could never have unearthed all this information, and an important phase of my family's history would never have come to light, for me to pass on to my children.

I have since learned a great deal more from the net about my grandparents and great grandparents in Birkenhead, but that has nothing to do with the Canal . So that may be as far as my journey on the net can take me into my roots on the Sankey, but maybe not. For if any member of the Society has any more information on Double Lock Cottage, Haydock, (or Old Double Lock, as it is more comonly known) or the people who lived there, I'd be love to hear from you. You could contact me over the net – it's served me very well so far.

 Robin Salmon
marob.salmon@talktalk.net

This map was printed in issue 4.10 of Canal Cuttings as part of an article on the Old Double Lock by Peter Keen. Unfortunately it is not available on our website, though a follow-on article in 4.11 is.

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