Hi,
thanks Admin for that, my original post included these 1871 & 1881 Census', but I was eventually convinced they couldn't be our man as wrong parents, and I ran out of space. Must admit I also thought Bagpath was a poor FamilySearch transcription before I found there is indeed such a place, altho' now sadly a ghost-town if not hamlet I gather.

Clearly I was so convinced that the 1866 Baptism to James & Rebecca which I found in the FoD PRs at the start of my hunt had to be "our" man. The sheer numbers of James H Cox's I later found should perhaps have convinced me otherwise, but the Baptism plus the journeyman blacksmith / GWR theory settled it for me.

Sorry about that, and many thanks for the image re the mysterious George Inn !.

( Darned Vurriners ;-) )