I have lived near two of Katherine Mansfield's family homes in Wellington, and she is an important part of our national consciousness. Interesting that the last remaining pub in Dymock is the Beauchamp Arms; Beauchamp being Katherine's family name. I will have to check to see if her family is linked to Dymock.

Thank you both very much - you can only see so many things on a total of two and a half months in Britain, and I missed out on seeing some beautiful places...

http://www.katherinemansfield.net/life/chronology.html

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jmansfield.htm

Kathleen (Katherine) Mansfield Beauchamp, the daughter of Harold Beauchamp (1858–1938)
and Anne Burnell Dyer (1864–1918), was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 14th October 1888.

Jefff, I enjoyed looking through the photos in your first link. If you ignore the built structures in the photos, the environment looks very like the countryside near where I live in the South Island. You can see that our ancestors from Britain really tried to make our landscape look like what they called "Home" (when I was a youngster, Britain was still commonly referred to as "Home", and it is only in the last 20 years the usage seems to have gone).

Jefff and peteressex: I had not heard of the Dymock poets as a group. I have read the works of two of them without knowing they were part of a 'collective' identity (apart that is from 'the war poets'). I was intrigued by the connection of at least one of them to Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murray. I have lived near two of Katherine Mansfield's family homes in Wellington, and she is an important part of our national consciousness. Interesting that the last remaining pub in Dymock is the Beauchamp Arms; Beauchamp being Katherine's family name. I will have to check to see if her family is linked to Dymock.

Thank you both very much - you can only see so many things on a total of two and a half months in Britain, and I missed out on seeing some beautiful places...

I have no problem with that for local government purposes, altho I do hope this scheme for Gloster Cathedral area to become part of the "Forest" doesn't(didn't?) happen !
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Barking-mad-boundary-changes-Gloucester-Cathedra...
Not sure about this excerpt !! (no doubt quoted out of context, but shades of 70s banks ?)
Councillor Pam Tracey (Con. Westgate) said: "This is absolutely diabolical. Do they not live in the real world? We built the river so we could keep them out."

It all reminds me of my first visit to the New Forest, I was surprised that I couldn't see the trees for the open spaces ..., altho at least it was a Forest once before the Navy shipyards got busy. Similarly the attractive & peaceful yet rather barren Forest of Bowland near Blackburn. Shows how lucky we still are perhaps.

I've just realised I should have consulted the "official" British History, and to my surprise I find the above suggestion re Gloster was almost the same in the days of the Conquest.

"Between 1086 and 1228 the bounds of the juridical Forest were enlarged to include all the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire manors and villages in an area bounded on the south-east by the Severn from Over bridge, adjoining Gloucester, to the mouth of the Wye, on the west by the Wye from its mouth up to a ford between Goodrich castle and Walford (Herefs.), on the north-west by bounds, mainly trackways, running from the ford by way of Weston under Penyard (Herefs.) and Gorsley to Oxenhall bridge on Ell brook near Newent, and on the north-east by the main road from Newent to Gloucester."

From: 'Forest of Dean: Bounds of the forest', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 295-300.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23265 Date accessed: 02 March 2013.

So maybe our C21st administrators are not "barking" after all ?

Hi S,
the Leadon eh, never thought of that but makes good sense, thanks. Since my schooldays I've heard & read the Forest lies "twixt Severn & Wye", but they rarely comment on the northern boundary - perhaps as per my post they were themselves unsure. In the last hour I've felt impelled to learn a little about the Leadon, didnt realise it had given its name to Ledbury, shame on me especially as I've always enjoyed waterways but I knew precious little about this one !.

Hi John,
I'm only too pleased to try and help, altho wouldnt call you "unknowing" especially with your long history researching the Dean. I deliberatly didn't mention the Hundred as this is perhaps an outdated definition nowadays plus I was sure you'd know about that. These photos might help you, a great site to help visualise any area.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=40039010

This is another website you'll hopefully find interesting John.
http://www.royalforestofdean.info/leadon-vale/
Despite the website name this opening page states
"To the north of the Royal Forest of Dean is the Vale of Leadon; here you will find the market town of Newent and the village of Dymock. In complete contrast to the forest and the Wye Valley the area provides a mixture of market gardens, rolling farmland hills, vineyards and black and white timbered buildings. The Vale of Leadon is a quintessentially unspoilt English area centred around the picturesque town of Newent."

So despite the writer essentially saying the Vale is outside of Dean (pleasingly he/she seems to agree with my thinking, phew!), I think from a tourism industry viewpoint it was felt logical to include the Vale under the overall FoD banner, just as this FoD FH site quite correctly does too for slightly different reasons.

John, as you must have read elsewhere I suspect Dymock's main claim to fame are the "Dymock Poets". A year or so ago the BBC Countryfile programme visited the area (in yet another helpful nod to local tourism in recent years!), if you can find a copy of it it's good watching.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0110kgm

Really pleased you found my post of interest, must admit I was worried lest I inadvertantly caused offence to the good people of the area, it's difficult sitting on the fence when I was myself unsure where the "fence" was !! - thanks again Slowhands for clarifying thing

Jefff
I think the current fod district council includes Dymock in its 'area'
S

Hi John,
I'm only too pleased to try and help, altho wouldnt call you "unknowing" especially with your long history researching the Dean. I deliberatly didn't mention the Hundred as this is perhaps an outdated definition nowadays plus I was sure you'd know about that. These photos might help you, a great site to help visualise any area.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=40039010

This is another website you'll hopefully find interesting John.
http://www.royalforestofdean.info/leadon-vale/
Despite the website name this opening page states
"To the north of the Royal Forest of Dean is the Vale of Leadon; here you will find the market town of Newent and the village of Dymock. In complete contrast to the forest and the Wye Valley the area provides a mixture of market gardens, rolling farmland hills, vineyards and black and white timbered buildings. The Vale of Leadon is a quintessentially unspoilt English area centred around the picturesque town of Newent."

So despite the writer essentially saying the Vale is outside of Dean (pleasingly he/she seems to agree with my thinking, phew!), I think from a tourism industry viewpoint it was felt logical to include the Vale under the overall FoD banner, just as this FoD FH site quite correctly does too for slightly different reasons.

John, as you must have read elsewhere I suspect Dymock's main claim to fame are the "Dymock Poets". A year or so ago the BBC Countryfile programme visited the area (in yet another helpful nod to local tourism in recent years!), if you can find a copy of it it's good watching.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0110kgm

Really pleased you found my post of interest, must admit I was worried lest I inadvertantly caused offence to the good people of the area, it's difficult sitting on the fence when I was myself unsure where the "fence" was !! - thanks again Slowhands for clarifying things.

www.dymockpoets.co.uk

Hi Jefff

Thanks so much for taking the time to inform an unknowing Antipodean! Lots of useful information for me to follow up.

We haven't been to Dymock - on our first trip to Britain in 2004 we kept our excursions to the Forest places where the Hopkins/Joseph mob came from, which were pretty much all with the St Briavels Hundred. We stayed in a B & B at Hillersland for a few nights as our base.

On our second trip in 2006 we drove from Fishguard across to Oxford and stayed on the A40 so only skirted the Forest really.

It would seem that strictly speaking Dymock lies outside the boundaries of the Forest, but there would be such a community of interest that it is great it is included on this site.

Thanks once again.
John

If you look back over the site and its evolution then the area of interest has fortunately never been the tight area within the hundred of st briavels. I tend to go approx by the river boundaries of the severn wye and leadon. But its always grey at the edges !

Enjoy

Wow, thank you for all that information. I will have to print it off and arrange it on a page so that I can get my head around each generation. My brother will be particularly interested because he knew Uncle Bill as a father.

It would seem that Uncle Bill was not Welsh (not that I remember him ever claiming to be) except that he was born there. In fact his birth in Pontypridd seems to be the only mention of Wales in the history you have described. I assume the family were in Wales for work.

Dymock appears quite often, so I need to follow up on that, and Jefff's information about it will be most helpful.

Thank you once again.
John

PS BTW, I didn't know that NZ Census records were searchable - I will have to follow that up. I note that he is shown as living in various census areas in Wellington until he moved to Kapiti on his retirement(Kapiti is the West Coast north of Wellington). As far as I am aware, his home was always the same place; just the census areas were re-named.

Thanks so much for taking the time to inform an unknowing Antipodean! Lots of useful information for me to follow up.

We haven't been to Dymock - on our first trip to Britain in 2004 we kept our excursions to the Forest places where the Hopkins/Joseph mob came from, which were pretty much all with the St Briavels Hundred. We stayed in a B & B at Hillersland for a few nights as our base.

On our second trip in 2006 we drove from Fishguard across to Oxford and stayed on the A40 so only skirted the Forest really.

It would seem that strictly speaking Dymock lies outside the boundaries of the Forest, but there would be such a community of interest that it is great it is included on this site.

Thanks once again.
John

http://www.dymock.org.uk/

However it's still a delightful part of glorious Glostershire and I'm more than happy to have close links to both the area & it's inhabitants, it's only a few miles "out" of the woods so clearly there will be plenty of family ties both ways, especially since the Industrial Revolution took over from agriculture as the major employer 150 odd years ago and no doubt families moved from Dymock into the Dean to work as they did both ways between Ponty & physically similar Dean. It therefore makes complete sense to include Dymock PRs in this website.

In case you haven't done so this Map should help place Dymock wrt the Forest area in general. If you select the satelite "hybrid" photo and zoom out you can see the "traditional" true Forest is the dark areas to the southwest, I would say by the time you've driven north as far as the A40 road abt Longhope/Lea then you're leaving the Forest as such and the colourful patchwork of fields becomes the norm.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/maps/parishmap.php

I doubt people of Dymock ever spoke the true Forest dialect, but then again not many born & bred Foresters do either thesedays & haven't for a few generations. We (I'm from Cinderford) certainly did and still do say "anyroad" and we never spoke true Forest, but what few references I've found suggest this is more a Northern England phrase, so ????. Perhaps we picked it up from miners down from Durham or Yorks ?. I'd be very interested in anyone else's views ??
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anyroad

I still remember when my older sister got her first job all of 15 miles away in a bank in Gloucester in the mid 70s; she came home complaining some of them considered Foresters as almost from another planet or at least the backwoods !, despite her not having a strong Forest dialect. Dymock's a similar distance/travelling time from Cinderford so maybe their inhabitants would have thought the same of us ?. However given we are both from rural areas, so both unlike the city of Gloucester, I wonder if despite the longer distance apart they'd feel more akin to Foresters rather than the citizens of the nearer yet "farther apart" Gloucester ???

If you've ever read any of my posts you'll know I love the Genuki website as a way of getting to know an area from a Victorian viewpoint. In it I see no suggestion tying Dymock to Dean.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/GLS/Dymock/Gaz1868.html

Another section of Genuki gives a very useful guide to placing a town wrt the official local government Districts during the C19th & C20th, Dymock is listed under Newent.
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/newent.html

Hope this helps if only a little, I'm sure much of this you'll have seen before.

1911 7 Richard Street Cilfynydd Nr Pontypridd
Alfred John Robins 30 Ware Hert
Emily Francis Robins 34 Glos
Emily Francis Robins 10 Glos
Alfred John Robins 9 Glos
William James Robins 1 Pontypridd

ROBINS Alfred John Robert
ROBINS CHRISTMAS 1902 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 77 286

Name: Alfred John R Robins
Birth Date: 11 Mar 1902
Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1972
Age at Death: 70
Registration district: Gloucester City
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 7b
Page: 1249

Name: Alfred J R Robins & Nora H Enon
Date of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec 1929
Registration district: Gloucester
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume Number: 6a
Page Number: 724

ROBINS Alfred John Robert
ENON Nora Hilda
Gloucester Register Office
1929 41 119

Name: Alfred John R Robins
Birth Date: 11 Mar 1902
Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1972
Age at Death: 70
Registration district: Gloucester City
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 7b
Page: 1249

Name: Nora Hilda Robins
Birth Date: 10 Jul 1890
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1972
Age at Death: 82
Registration district: Gloucester City
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 7b
Page: 1004

1901 New Street
John E Reeves abt 1877 Gloucestershire, England Head Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Edith J Reeves abt 1875 Gloucestershire, England Wife Gloucester, Gloucestershire
William E Reeves abt 1897 Gloucestershire, England Son Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Edith E Reeves abt 1900 Gloucestershire, England Daughter Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Emily F Robins abt 1877 Gloucestershire, England Boarder Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Alfred J Robins abt 1880 Ware, Suffolk, England Boarder Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Robins Gloucestershire, England Boarder Gloucester, Gloucestershire

1881 Kibes Lane "Harrow"
George Robins abt 1836 Watford, Hertfordshire, England Head Ware, Hertfordshire Licensed Victualler
Elizabeth Robins abt 1843 N K, Worcestershire, England Wife Ware, Hertfordshire
Charles R. Robins abt 1871 Turnham Green, Middlesex, England Son Ware, Hertfordshire
Mary A. Robins abt 1872 Turnham Green Daughter Ware, Hertfordshire
George Robins abt 1874 Turnham Green Son Ware, Hertfordshire
Albert Robins abt 1876 Turnham Green Son Ware, Hertfordshire
Thomas Robins abt 1878 Turnham Green Son Ware, Hertfordshire
Alfred Robins Ware, Hertfordshire, England Son Ware, Hertfordshire

Name: Alfred John Robins
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1880
Registration district: Ware
Inferred County: Hertfordshire
Volume: 3a
Page: 342

1871 Chiswick
George Robins 30 Hertford Watford Met Police Officer [ ancestry has it as Walford!]
Elizabeth Robins 27 Worcs Bodrett?
George Robins 2 Chiswick
Charles Robins 1 Month Chiswick

IF George is from Walford then :-

1841
Thomas Robins abt 1805 Herefordshire, England Walford, Herefordshire
Mary Robins abt 1805 Herefordshire, England Walford, Herefordshire
Thomas Robins abt 1829 Herefordshire, England Walford, Herefordshire
Mary Robins abt 1831 Herefordshire, England Walford, Herefordshire
George Robins abt 1834 Herefordshire, England Walford, Herefordshire
Joseph Robins abt 1836 Herefordshire, England Walford, Herefordshire
William Robins abt 1839 Herefordshire, England Walford, Herefordshire

1851
Thomas Robbins abt 1806 Ross, Herefordshire, England Head Walford, Herefordshire
Mary Robbins abt 1802 Walford, Herefordshire, England Wife Walford, Herefordshire
Mary Ann Robbins abt 1831 Walford, Herefordshire, England Daughter Walford, Herefordshire
Joseph Robbins abt 1837 Walford, Herefordshire, England Son Walford, Herefordshire
William Robbins abt 1840 Walford, Herefordshire, England Son Walford, Herefordshire
Charles Robbins abt 1843 Walford, Herefordshire, England Son Walford, Herefordshire
Emily Robbins abt 1845 Walford, Herefordshire, England Daughter Walford, Herefordshire
Peter Robbins abt 1848 Walford, Herefordshire, England Son Walford, Herefordshire

The material you have discovered about the family's residence in Gloucester is very interesting, though it suggests the connection is not with the Forest (although is Dymock in the Forest?).

I have a vague memory of my brother telling me that Uncle was living with HIS uncle in Gloucester when he learned his trade, but I don't think my brother knows that the whole family moved there from Wales. I will have to talk with him again with this information at hand, and it may ring a few bells for him.

BTW, I have no recollection of a Welsh accent with my uncle which makes sense now given the family shift to Glos when he was very young - the only thing I remember is that he used to say "anyroad" (instead of "anyway"?) - is that a Gloucestershire dialect expression perhaps? My Forest ancestors came over to NZ in 1860, so all vestiges of Forest dialect had long gone.

Thank you once again - you are a gentleman and a scholar.

1911 Rock Hill, Chalford, Gloucestershire
Fanny Christmas 60 Widow
Ethel May Christmas 22
Frederick John Mason

1871 Moreton St Gloucester
Tom Marden 26 Upton
Elizabeth Marden 24 Matson ?
Mary T Marden 2 Gloucester
Robert Christmas 23 not known
Frances Christmas 21 Bromsgreen

CHRISTMAS Robert
SADLER Fanny
Gloucester St Michael
1870 35x No 2 251

1861 Broom Green
William Sadler abt 1818 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Head Dymock Ryland, Gloucestershire
Ann Sadler abt 1818 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Wife Dymock Ryland, Gloucestershire
Fanny Sadler abt 1850 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Daughter Dymock Ryland, Gloucestershire
Emily Sadler abt 1852 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Daughter Dymock Ryland, Gloucestershire

Year: 1856
Month: Nov
Day: 10
Grooms_Surname: SADLER
Grooms_Forenames: William
Grooms_Age: 40
Groom_Condition: Widower
Grooms_Occupation: Groom
Grooms_Residence: Brooms Green
Grooms_Fathers_Surname: Sadler
Grooms_Fathers_Forenames: Thomas
Grooms_Fathers_Occupation: Nailer
Brides_Surname: DUBBERLEY
Brides_Forenames: Ann
Brides_Age: 40
Brides_Condition: Widow
Brides_Occupation:
Brides_Residence: Brooms Green
Brides_Fathers_Surname: Lucy
Brides_Fathers_Forenames: Thomas
Brides_Fathers_Occupation: Labourer
Licence_or_Banns: Banns
Date_of_Banns:
Signature_or_Mark: Both mark
Witness_1: Mark of Charles Jones
Witness_2: Mark of Hannah Pingrey
Other_Witnesses:
Officiating_Minister: Frederick Lynch
Event: Marriage
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P125 IN 1/27
Page_Number: 107
Parish_Chapel: Dymock

1851
Andrew Duberly abt 1826 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Head Dymock, Gloucestershire
Ann Duberly abt 1821 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Wife Dymock, Gloucestershire

Year: 1850
Month: Dec
Day: 5
Grooms_Surname: DUBERLY
Grooms_Forenames: Andrew
Grooms_Age: Full
Groom_Condition: Bachelor
Grooms_Occupation: Labourer
Grooms_Residence: Brooms Green
Grooms_Fathers_Surname: Duberly
Grooms_Fathers_Forenames: William
Grooms_Fathers_Occupation: Labourer
Brides_Surname: LUCY
Brides_Forenames: Ann
Brides_Age: Full
Brides_Condition: Spinster
Brides_Occupation:
Brides_Residence: Little Green House
Brides_Fathers_Surname: Lucy
Brides_Fathers_Forenames: Thomas
Brides_Fathers_Occupation: Labourer
Licence_or_Banns: Banns
Date_of_Banns:
Signature_or_Mark: He marks she signs
Witness_1: Mark of John Mace
Witness_2: Mark of Lucy Dublery
Other_Witnesses:
Officiating_Minister: J Simons
Event: Marriage
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P125 IN 1/27
Page_Number: 74
Parish_Chapel: Dymock

<><><> not to be confused with son !

Year: 1856
Month: May
Day: 13
Surname: SADLER
Forenames: Elizabeth
Residence: Brooms Green
Age_at_death: 42
Officiating_Minister: J Simons
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P125 IN 1/15
Page_No: 157
Parish_Chapel: Dymock

1851 Broomgreen
William Sadler abt 1817 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Head Dymock, Gloucestershire
Elizabath Sadler abt 1816 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Wife Dymock, Gloucestershire
William Sadler abt 1843 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Son Dymock, Gloucestershire
Harriett Sadler abt 1848 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Daughter Dymock, Gloucestershire
Frances Sadler abt 1850 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Son Dymock, Gloucestershire

Year: 1850
Month: May
Day: 5
Parents_Surname: SADLER
Child_Forenames: Frances
Fathers_Forenames: William
Mothers_Forenames: Elizabeth
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Brooms Green
Occupation: Nailer
Officiating_Minister:
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P125 IN 1/24
Page_Number: 34
Parish_Chapel: Dymock

ROBINS Alfred John
CHRISTMAS Emily Frances
Gloucester Gloucester St Paul
1900 34 No 2 72

1891
Emily F Christmas abt 1877 Gloucestershire, England Servant Barton St Mary, Gloucestershire

1881 Alma St
Robert Christmas abt 1849 Plymouth, Devon, England Head South Hamlet, Gloucestershire
Fanny Christmas abt 1851 Dymock, Gloucestershire, England Wife South Hamlet, Gloucestershire
Ralph Christmas abt 1873 Gloucestershire, England Son South Hamlet, Gloucestershire
Emily Christmas abt 1877 Gloucestershire, England Daughter South Hamlet, Gloucestershire
Catherine Christmas abt 1879 Gloucestershire, England Daughter South Hamlet, Gloucestershire
Rose Christmas Gloucestershire, England Daughter South Hamlet, Gloucestershire

CHRISTMAS Catherine Elizabeth
CHRISTMAS SADLER 1878 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 37 336
CHRISTMAS Emily Frances
CHRISTMAS SADLER 1876 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 34 283
CHRISTMAS Ethel May
CHRISTMAS SADLER 1889 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 54 422
CHRISTMAS Robert James
CHRISTMAS SADLER 1883 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 45 300
CHRISTMAS Rose Annie
CHRISTMAS SADLER 1880 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 41 255

Thank you Slowhands for your research.

1925 would be too late for a birth/baptism record for Uncle Bill (my aunt - his wife, was born in 1908). As a result of seeing your reply, I realised that there should be a record of his birth in my mother's/aunt's family tree, and there is:

William James Robins, b. 09.09.09 (believe it or not), in Pontypridd, Wales. Unfortunately, because of the way that family tree was written, there is no record of his antecedents - just his birth date and place of birth.

My brother knew his mother but I never met her so I have no details of her name other than hearing her referred to as "Mrs Robins"!

From your limitless resources Slowhands, are you able to confirm his birth record, and provide the name of his parents? I would be grateful for any information you may have access to.

New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981

Emily Frances Robins 1928 Pahiatua Manawatu-Wanganui
Emily Frances Robins 1935 Wellington Central Wellington
Emily Frances Robins 1938 Wellington North Wellington
Emily Frances Robins 1938 Wellington Central Wellington
Emily Frances Robins 1946 Island Bay Wellington
Emily Frances Robins 1949 Island Bay Wellington

William James Robins 1938 Wellington North Wellington
William James Robins 1946 Mount Victoria Auckland
William James Robins 1949 Mount Victoria Auckland
William James Robins 1954 Miramar Wellington
William James Robins 1957 Miramar Wellington
William James Robins 1963 Miramar Wellington
William James Robins 1969 Miramar Wellington
William James Robins 1978 Kapiti Wellington
William James Robins 1981 Kapiti Wellington

Name: William James Robins
Date of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec 1909
Registration district: Pontypridd
Inferred County: Glamorgan
Volume: 11a
Page: 517

1911 7 Richard Street Cilfynydd Nr Pontypridd
Alfred John Robins 30 Ware Hert
Emily Francis Robins 34 Glos
Emily Francis Robins 10 Glos
Alfred John Robins 9 Glos
William James Robins 1 Pontypridd

ROBINS Alfred John Robert
ROBINS CHRISTMAS 1902 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 77 286
ROBINS Emily Frances
ROBINS CHRISTMAS 1901 Gloucester Gloucester, South Hamlet 75 354

1901 New Street
John E Reeves abt 1877 Gloucestershire, England Head Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Edith J Reeves abt 1875 Gloucestershire, England Wife Gloucester, Gloucestershire
William E Reeves abt 1897 Gloucestershire, England Son Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Edith E Reeves abt 1900 Gloucestershire, England Daughter Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Emily F Robins abt 1877 Gloucestershire, England Boarder Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Alfred J Robins abt 1880 Ware, Suffolk, England Boarder Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Robins Gloucestershire, England Boarder Gloucester, Gloucestershire

ROBINS Alfred John
CHRISTMAS Emily Frances
Gloucester Gloucester St Paul
1900 34 No 2 72

1925 would be too late for a birth/baptism record for Uncle Bill (my aunt - his wife, was born in 1908). As a result of seeing your reply, I realised that there should be a record of his birth in my mother's/aunt's family tree, and there is:

William James Robins, b. 09.09.09 (believe it or not), in Pontypridd, Wales. Unfortunately, because of the way that family tree was written, there is no record of his antecedents - just his birth date and place of birth.

My brother knew his mother but I never met her so I have no details of her name other than hearing her referred to as "Mrs Robins"!

From your limitless resources Slowhands, are you able to confirm his birth record, and provide the name of his parents? I would be grateful for any information you may have access to.

If you find there are any NZ connections to this Robins family, would you please make contact with me?

My uncle's name was William Robins. We believe he was born in Pontypridd, and there are connections with Gloucester. My brother (who was raised by this uncle after our mother died when we were both infants) understands that Uncle Bill completed his apprenticeship as a welder in Gloucester, and he evidently did a lot of work on a prominent clock in Gloucester - I am not sure which one.

Thus far there are no connections we are aware of between our Robins relations and the Forest of Dean, and we do not know how he came to be living in Gloucester. At some stage he and his mother emigrated to NZ, and they have both since died here. There are no descendants from my uncle. We would be interested to know if there are connections between 'our' Robins and the Forest (as there are for my paternal line - the Hopkins/Joseph/Cullis families).

Guessing at a timeframe , could this be your William ?

Name: William P Robbins
Mother's Maiden Surname: Gale
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1925
Registration district: Pontypridd
Inferred County: Wales
Volume Number: 11a
Page Number: 1029

Name: John I Robbins
Mother's Maiden Surname: Gale
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1927
Registration district: Pontypridd
Inferred County: Wales
Volume Number: 11a
Page Number: 872

with parents :-
Name: Fred Robbins & Lizzie D Gale
Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1924
Registration district: Newton Abbot
Inferred County: Devon
Volume Number: 5b
Page Number: 207

My uncle's name was William Robins. We believe he was born in Pontypridd, and there are connections with Gloucester. My brother (who was raised by this uncle after our mother died when we were both infants) understands that Uncle Bill completed his apprenticeship as a welder in Gloucester, and he evidently did a lot of work on a prominent clock in Gloucester - I am not sure which one.

Thus far there are no connections we are aware of between our Robins relations and the Forest of Dean, and we do not know how he came to be living in Gloucester. At some stage he and his mother emigrated to NZ, and they have both since died here. There are no descendants from my uncle. We would be interested to know if there are connections between 'our' Robins and the Forest (as there are for my paternal line - the Hopkins/Joseph/Cullis families).