Ivy CUMPER, John CUMPER residents 1936 to 1998 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, May 25, 2017, 19:37 (2528 days ago) @ Cumper

Hi Cumper, welcome to the forum and website.
Please bear with me as this is a tricky query and a little outside my own area of knowledge geographically-speaking so want to get it right from the start.
As far as I can see High Rock, Woodcroft, is just north of Tutshill & Chepstow, which fits the other places you name so hopefully this is correct ?.

In my experience a patternmaker describes a skilled woodworker employed in the foundry industry, making the moulds used to make metal castings, but I guess there are other jobs of that name, such as clothing industry, so please confirm if your John was involved in foundry work. As we're looking at the WW2 era, then I assume John was working in an industry related to the War, rather than say decorative items. In earlier times the Forest had several foundries, usually producing/repairing heavy machinery related to mining eg steam engines (cylinders, valve bodies, wheels, etc), water pump bodies, as well as larger castings used within structures such as cranes, bridges etc. Off the top of my head I'm struggling to think what foundries were working in the Tutshill area cWW2, but my suspicion is marine engineering or ship building on the Severn ?? There were government shipyards at Chepstow during WW1, but not sure about later, I need to research more.

I'd be grateful if you can confirm I'm on the right tracks, or not, thanks.

---

Searching the net for "Chepstow foundry" produced this webpage, if you've not done so already I recommend contacting them.
http://tidenhamhistory.co.uk/tutshill/

That page mentions "John Silley was a marine engineer who started his working life at Messrs Edward Finch & Co. in Chepstow".

Which leads to this webpage, which nicely places Finches at the Chepstow shipyard in WW1, but what about later ???
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Edward_Finch_and_Co

Finches apparently also built the cast-iron bridge over the Wye at Brockweir, not far from Woodcroft, but this was pre WW1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockweir

===

Finally, for now, I suggest you also address your query to the local newspapers, hopefully they'd print a letter and maybe get some specific response ref John and Ivy.

In fact it's probably well-worth searching the old newspapers via the BNA website, or at Cinderford library if you're in the area ?. Something like an obituary could be very useful.

Looking forward to your feedback, Jeff.