THE HOUGHTONIAN | MAR 2012 | VOL 2 ISSUE 1 | ISSN 1757-3890REF NO: HLS1854161475THIS MONTH’S PHOTO FOCUS looks at <strong>Houghton</strong> Hall in the early years of it being used by<strong>Houghton</strong> Social Club. Pictured is Anthony Widdowfield, steward of <strong>Houghton</strong> Social Club (centre),with other members outside their premises, circa 1919. <strong>The</strong> old Hall had been purchased by<strong>Houghton</strong> Social Club for £1,030 0s 0d in 1917.OUR SECOND photographshows the staff of WilliamFish’s grocery shop at 42Holly Avenue, circa 1960.Pictured, from <strong>le</strong>ft, are:Freda Fish, Maureen Blairand George Fish. <strong>The</strong> shopwas built in 1935 and wasowned by the family until1983. <strong>The</strong> premises weredemolished, along with therest of Holly Avenue, around2006.REF NO: HLS1854161476With thanks to Lena Inch forsharing these photographs.MORE PHOTOGRAPHS AT www.HOUGHTON<strong>le</strong>SPRING.org.uk
THE HOUGHTONIAN | MAR 2012 | VOL 2 ISSUE 1 | ISSN 1757-3890HARRICK CUTHILLHello Paul, Have you been ab<strong>le</strong> tofind Harrick Edward Cuthill'sgravestone for me? I have sincefound out that poor Harrick mayhave died as an infant and mayjust have been added at the foot ofwhatever grave was availab<strong>le</strong>.Thank you very much forsearching for me, but if nothinghas been found so far, I realisethat knowing that he is somewherein Hillside Cemetery is as far asthe search can go. All bestwishes.Elizabeth RobinsonEssexFAMOUS WILLIAM SHANKS<strong>The</strong> town of <strong>Houghton</strong>-<strong>le</strong>-<strong>Spring</strong>had a famous resident in the1800's by the name of WilliamShanks. Shanks calculated thevalue of the mathematicalconstant PI to 707 decimal places.This calculation was later found tobe in error from the 528th placeonward. Can you email me the*exact* 707 digits that Shanks gotas the result of his calculations? Ican get the *actual* value of PIfrom many places, but I want the*erroneous* value that Shankscalculated. Thanks much inadvance!Char<strong>le</strong>s RichmondPAUL LANAGAN REPLIED:Hello Char<strong>le</strong>s, p<strong>le</strong>ase see myartic<strong>le</strong> on William Shanks which ison the HH website in the Artic<strong>le</strong>ssection. William’s 1853 bookmight help you; it was cal<strong>le</strong>d:‘Contributions to mathematics,comprising chiefly the rectificationof the circ<strong>le</strong> to 607 decimals etc’.FEAST TIMEI always know when it is comingup to <strong>Houghton</strong> Feast time, eventhough I now live in Andalucia inSpain How do I know this? <strong>The</strong>Pomegranate trees are at burstingpoint and they were always in theshops in <strong>Houghton</strong> at the Feast!Happy memories!June Brown<strong>le</strong>eAndalucia, SpainWHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?Can you help solve theseGenealogical & Heritage Quests?STONES BUTCHERSA descendant of the Stone family(Katherine Bond) has kindly givendetails of the family in a recent"<strong><strong>Houghton</strong>ian</strong>" (2011, <strong>Issue</strong> 3).Kath<strong>le</strong>en tells us that Conrad(born in Germany) and AnnaSteinbrenner started their porkbutchery business in the early1900s. Interestingly, the Indicesgive Anna's surname beforemarriage as Goetz. <strong>The</strong> interest isthat a Frederick Goetz appears inthe Newbott<strong>le</strong> Street 1911 Censusas a pork butcher with a Schedu<strong>le</strong>No near to that of No1 Whee<strong>le</strong>r St.Perhaps Frederick was thenalready trading at 36 Newbott<strong>le</strong> St(very near to 1 Whee<strong>le</strong>r St)?Perhaps Anna was a relative ofFrederick, and Frederickemployed Conrad when Conradfirst came to England? A furthercomplication is that neitherConrad nor Anna appear in the1901 or 1911 censuses. Whateverthe course of events, it seemsprobab<strong>le</strong> that Conrad & Anna(who were in Germany throughoutWW1) came to (or came back to)36 Newbott<strong>le</strong> St soon after WW1.Soon after their return theychanged their name to Stone.<strong>The</strong>y had five children. I can findno record of the births of theeldest two, Renee and Greta.Ronald was born in 1921, Eric on30 November 1923, and Maureenin 1928. Conrad and Anna bothdied in 1957, Conrad aged 73 andAnna aged 69. <strong>The</strong> family waswell liked and respected. Reneemarried (Morris Rabin?) and livedin Whee<strong>le</strong>r St. Greta marriedFrank Bond, and begat a sonColin S Bond, the father of theaforementioned Katherine Bond.Ron joined the RAF straight fromschool and rose to the rank ofGroup Captain. Eric was wellknownto me. We often playedtogether, sometimes in theabattoir at the back of theNewbott<strong>le</strong> St shop! He marriedOlga Meer in 1950, ran thebutchery business after his father'sdeath, and died aged 66 in 1989.Dr Jack Mor<strong>le</strong>yPORK BUTCHERSGood evening! I am researchingpork butchers from the Hohenlohearea of Germany and I cameacross your very interesting website. In one of your magazinessite. In one of your magazines(unfortunately cannot tell youwhich as I am now having troub<strong>le</strong>with downloading them) CatherineHall tells her story of theSteinbrenner family running a porkbutcher’s shop in Newbott<strong>le</strong>Street. <strong>The</strong> Steinbrennerschanged their name to Stoneapparently. My own greatgrandparents were from theHohenlohe area and ran a porkbutcher’s shop in Rotherham,Yorkshire after emigrating to GB.<strong>The</strong>re is a very interesting storyabout the Hohenlohe butchers inthat they were really masters oftheir trade and attempted (in manycases extremely successfully) toset foot in England. I see thatthere were dozens of them in theDurham area. Such names asVogtherr,Kaufmann,Steinbrenner, Kuch, etc.appearwhen researching. A friend ofmine in Germany has done somevery interesting research on thepork butchers from Germany inEngland, particularly Sheffield,Liverpool, etc. and I have nowfound that Durham containedmany pork butchers from theHohenlohe area. Would it bepossib<strong>le</strong> for you to contactCatherine Hall and give her myemail address? I could a well sendyou an artic<strong>le</strong> on the PorkButchers from the Hohenlohe areawho sett<strong>le</strong>d in Britain from about1830-1910, maybe. I now live inSwitzerland, but was born inCheshire and my grandfather,Louis Christian Pfisterer, was bornin Rotherham, Yorkshire, toMargarethe Brück and JohannFriedrich Hermann Pfisterer ofKocherstetten / Künzelsau, in theHohenlohe district of Germany.Christian Louis changed his nameto Chris Fisher after 1904 as mymother was born as a Pfisterer.I think this could be the beginningof a very interesting subject, and Ilook forward to hearing from you.Gillian Schu<strong>le</strong>rSwitzerlandNEWBOTTLE ST SCHOOLHi Paul, have you got a photo ofNewbott<strong>le</strong> Street Infant Schoolaround 1958 as my mam thinksshe is on one of them?Julie Wilde<strong>Houghton</strong>-<strong>le</strong>-<strong>Spring</strong>COLLIERY FOOTBALLHi, Not sure if you can help? Mygrandfather William Robson(1916-2002) lived in <strong>Houghton</strong> allhis life worked at and playedfootball for Herrington Colliery FC(and played semi-pro forWashington Colliery later) in the1930's and won a northern <strong>le</strong>aguecup in the 1938/1939 season. Iunderstand there was a photo ofthe winning team in an oldphotograph book of <strong>Houghton</strong> Le<strong>Spring</strong> re<strong>le</strong>ased in the 1990's andI'm trying to track down either thephotograph, book or newspaperclippings. Have you any ideawhere can I start looking? I've triedAmazon but there's nothingobvious. His father (RobertRobson) was also the clubmanager/coach and lived inNewbott<strong>le</strong>.Any help would begreatly appreciated. BestRegards.Streven TurnbullPAUL LANAGAN REPLIED:Dear Steven, <strong>The</strong> photograph youmention is found in 'H-L-S & H-L-H in Old Photographs' by KenRichardson, 1989. In theHerrington Burn section, locatedon page 141 is a photograph ofLambton Engine Works SportsClub Associated Football Clubteam and officials in 1938. W.Robson is listed as being in thefront row.FEAST FEEDBACKHello <strong>Houghton</strong> Heritage, Ithoroughly enjoyed our <strong>Houghton</strong>Feast weekend from 7th – 9thOctober, especially the localhistory displays.My wife and Ireally enjoyed the history side ofthe Feast and particularly enjoyedthe display of miners’ banners inthe Sports Centre. We wish youevery success with planning nextyear’s Feast. Thank you,John MarlowDerbyshire* * * * * * * * * * *Keep reading formore Quests!
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