CRADLEY LINKS

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Dedicated to the local and family history of Cradley in the Black Country

CRADLEY ONLINE

Cradley Diary of Events

Cradley People & Places

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WELCOME TO CRADLEY LINKS

Phoenix: The phoenix that rises is smaller than its parent whose death gave it life. Image from crystalinks.com

Welcome to Cradley Links, the online resource dedicated to the local and family history of Cradley.

This is Cradley in the Black Country of the Midlands of England, historically in north Worcestershire, now part of Dudley, West Midlands. It was once an ancient Saxon Manor, Cradelei, and was surveyed for the Domesday Book in 1086.

Cradley was at the forefront of the industrial revolution that swept the world and it became famous for hand-made iron chain. Today Cradley is a different place, mostly de-industrialised and its High Street re-named out of existence. Dudley Council celebrated the centenary of the old Colley Lane Primary School by demolishing it (they built a new one on the site) and are now set to close the town's only High School at Homer Hill.

Notwithstanding all these changes Cradley continues to be a place with strong local character and there are a lot of people who regard it as "home", even when they live far away. For a place of its size Cradley has a remarkable and growing body of historical research and publications. This web site will be dedicated to furthering knowledge of our rich local and family history.

Cradley Links will continue to be closely associated with the Cradley Then & Now Group and with the Rootsweb Cradley mailing list (ENG-WORCS-CRADLEY). We hope that it will be of interest to Cradley folk wherever you are in the world.

WHAT'S NEW ON CRADLEY LINKS - IN BRIEF


Margaret Bradley, one of Cradley's leading historians, delves into the history of Oldnall, probably the most ancient settlement in today's Cradley.
Michael Raybould relives his Memories of Park Lane, Cradley in the 1950s.
The 1841 census for Cradley is now back on this site, with limited search facilities that may be extended later (the page might be slow to load).
Stuart Robinson tells how the Beardsleys and Beasleys did not cope with life under the old Poor Law regime of settlement, removal, the poorhouse and prison, in An Extinct Genealogy.
Howard Hill's Memoirs of a Black Country Mining Engineer.
The closure of Beech Tree Colliery, Cradley's last pit.
A centenary celebration of the efforts of Cradley's Mahlah Homer, 'Lady of the Manor'.
The search for "missing person" Richard Bennett, sentenced to 10 years transportation to Tasmania.
Stuart Robinson's Goin' Down Hayseech is the story of his family's journey through time and along the river Stour.
Nigel Cooper's Bowgy Mon poem, translated and adapted from German to Black Country dialect with Cradley references.

Contributions Welcome

Please tell us what you think about the site by adding an entry in the Guestbook, or just see what other people are saying.

Please join the Rootsweb Cradley mailing list (ENG-WORCS-CRADLEY), and send your questions about anything to do with Cradley or the Black Country. Your message will be read by scores of other interested people who have also subscribed to the List.

Finally, please use the Contact Form to contact Cradley Links for any other reason. For example, use the contact form to offer articles, photos or other content; to make suggestions about what you would like to see on the site; or to report errors or problems with the site, etc. As always, we need your comments and contributions, and in this one regard we do hope to be like the old Cradley Links which was very successful in the many people who supported the site with their articles, photographs and other information.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you ... the new Cradley Links webmasters.