Showing posts with label Leeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leeds. Show all posts

Friday, 18 November 2011

Thomas and Annie's Home in 1906 - 9 Renfield Grove, Leeds

When I posted about Thomas' plumber's registration card for 1906, I made a note to myself to find the address: 9 Renfield Grove, Leeds. As it was not listed in current maps of Leeds, I did some digging. The West Yorkshire Archive Service was kind enough to provide me with the following information: Renfield Grove was located in the Central Ward of Leeds and was part of the slum clearances of the 1960s and 1970s. It would have been very near the current Sheepscar Interchange, possibly located close to where you would find Nortech Close today.

Looking at a Google map, this is where Renfield Grove would have been located:


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This is a street view of the location:


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You may need to angle the camera down on the street view to see the road...it doesn't seem to want to cooperate for the link.

Many thanks go to the West Yorkshire Archive Service for all their help in locating this long lost street and last known residence for the Ball family in Leeds.

Cheers, K.

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Thomas and Annie in Leeds 1906

According to Thomas' plumbers registration card for 1906, Thomas and Annie lived at 9 Renfield Grove, Leeds. The street no longer exists in Leeds, but I have found references to it online as being a residence up to 1938. I'll keep looking and will post when the mystery is solved.

Cheers,
K.

Thursday, 29 September 2011

It all starts with William Huxtable Ball.....

So, the story begins.....

Granddad, William Huxtable Ball, was born on 18 August 1903 in New Wortley, Leeds, England. The address of his birth as 6-8th Avenue:


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His parents were Thomas Huxtable Ball and Annie Amelia Turner. His father was a journeyman plumber, who left for Canada in the spring of 1906. Granddad followed with his mother, leaving Liverpool aboard the ship, Dominion (Dominion Line), on 25 Apr 1907, bound for Montreal. They arrived on 7 May 1907. However, Granddad contacted pneumonia during the voyage and was forced to stay in hospital for a month in Montreal, before making the journey (likely by train) to Vancouver to join his father, Thomas. Granddad's family grew to include three sisters, Gwendolyn, Evelyn and Marjorie. He met his wife, Mary Meade McPhee, in the Royal Columbian Hospital, where she worked as nurse. They married on 4 June 1932 and raised two sons. He worked in the Shell Oil Refinery in Vancouver. His first job was in the warehouse, where he rolled barrels. He later took on sales positions with Shell and retired as a District Sales Manager. Nana and Granddad lived primarily in the Vancouver area and also spent time in the Okanagan while Dad and Bill were in high school.

Upon Granddad's retirement from Shell in 1960, he and Nana took an around-the-world cruise, sailing on a freighter from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, the Suez, to the UK, where they visited with Grandad's cousins in Penarth and Dinas Powys, Wales. They flew from London to Montreal, and visited with their sons, new granddaughter and future daughter-in-law. They moved to Nanoose Bay, outside of Parksville, on Vancouver Island, where they built a house overlooking the Strait of Georgia. Granddad died on 6 Apr 1971 of prostate cancer in Parksville, BC.

To be continued....