From about 1590 to the middle of 1800 research shows that our Randall ancestors lived within and around the Warminster, Wiltshire area. In 1851 we see some of our ancestors moving to nearby Frome in Somerset. Thereafter, with the advent of the the Industrial Revolution and the steady decline in the many local industries inWarminster caused by agricultural depression, we find some of our distant relatives migrating to Tredegar in South Wales and to Poplar in the county of Middlesex, London.
During the 21st century the Randall offsprings have again moved from the Dagenham, Essex area, north of Poplar, to currently live in the towns of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and Leicester in the county of Leicestershire.
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Aylesbury, as records show, was first recorded in the year 571. The name derives from Aegel's burh meaning 'fortress'. By the 7th century Aylesbury was within the boundary of the kingdom of Mercia and with the conversion of these Mercian kings to Christianity, led to the founding of the missionary churches or 'minsters'. The Aylesbury missionary church is thought to have been founded by King Wulfhere between 657 and 674 and the present 13th century church of St. Mary is located on or near the 'minster' site. Some mid-Saxon burials have been discovered to the south and south east of St. Mary's churchyard confirming its status. Reference to the 'minster' is to be found in the Domesday Book as well as its 24 borders or smallholders, two slaves and a freeholder holding one virgate of land. During the 10th century Aylesbury was in the hands of the Anglo Saxons and remained so until 1204. There is evidence that during the Norman period Aylesbury had a castle which was probably eroded during the civil strife of the early 12th century. The urban economy of Aylesbury throughout the 13th and 14th centuries showed a fairly wide range of crafts including tailors, salters, smiths, poulterers, coopers and shepherds to name just a few. Leatherworkers, drapers, butchers and bakers were all trades that were significant during the following centuries. Like many of the towns, villages of England, Aylesbury also suffered its share of epidemic disease and during the 16th and 17th centuries outbreaks of plague were frequent visitors to the area. By 1659 the population begun to rise and by 1800 it had reached 3000 and was steadily increasing. Unemployment was rampant and placed a heavy burden on the poor rate. 1820 brought changes in the network of road links, and with the improved techniques in road-making and the arrival of the 1805 Grand Junction Canal, this gave Aylesbury new opportunities. By 1839 it had its own rail station and in 1849 after the outcome of a report by the General Board of Health, questioning the life span of residents compared to those of the Wycombe district and detailing preventable diseases and their causes, an elected Local Board of Health was set up. In 1894 this was superceded and became the Aylesbury Borough Council. From 1850 onwards we see the expansion of industries in and around Aylesbury. Prosperity grew and faltered a little with the onset of agricultural depression in the 1870's but expansion marched on and the historic market town of Aylesbury remained relatively intact. Between 1960 and 1990 the population of Aylesbury doubled to reach 50,000. New housing estates were built and new companies moved into the County Vale of Aylesbury. One of these companies was Negretta & Zambra moving from London to Buckinghamshire. This was the same company that Charles Thomas Randall had worked for since 1938. With the prospects of a new house and continued work with a company he knew well Charles moved home with his wife Francis May and younger son Peter. By 1966 Charles and family were living in their new home in Aylesbury.
Dagenham, Essex
Although Dagenham was a Saxon settlement, human habitation existed there as far back as pre-historic times. In more recent times it was a rural riverside community and existed as such for hundreds of years. Its terrain, with its steadily sinking foreshore and ever rising sea-levels, must have been one of the most vital topics of concern to those shepherds who tended their sheep on the malarial marshlands of the Thames estuary. The Dagenham Breach of 1707 was a major disaster when sea-defenses collapsed causing extensive flooding to the area. Not until the 19th century did the area of Dagenham start to be transformed into a populated industrial complex. The 20th century saw the continuation of industrial growth with the building of the Ford Motor Company in the 1920's. Dagenham's housing requirements, both private and council, grew as industries developed and by 1929 the Becontree housing estate, the largest estate in Europe at the time, was well under way. The appeal of a newly built modern house, on the outskirts of central London, away from the Blitz damaged East End, offered our Randall ancestors an opportunity they could not resist. By 1943 Charles Thomas Randall and his wife May had moved to Dagenham in Essex.
Frome, Somerset
Some believe that the name of Frome derived from the Celtic word, ffraw, meaning fair or brisk. In 685 AD a group of monks led by a man known as the Abbot of Malmesbury and Bishop of Serbourne ( one in the same person ) built a wooden church dedicated to John the Baptist. In 690 AD this church had developed into a monastery and served as the foundation for the city of Frome. In 1086 AD entries made in the Doomsday Book by the Norman assessors noted that Frome had a thriving town, a weekly market, three mills and the hunting forest of Selwood ( reserved for the king who owned the manor ). Frome ( or Frome Selwood ) is in the east of Somerset and west of Wiltshire and nestles in the foothills of the Mendips. The terrain is ideal for the raising of sheep and the woolen industry grew and prospered on the basis of this during the 17th and 18th centuries. By 1823 Frome was suffering from the results of mill automation and lost trade to Bradford in Yorkshire. Diversification was the key to survival and over the following centuries Frome developed its reputation as a cloth producing town as well as a collection point for the output of local villages. By 1852, our ancestors, Charles Randell and Emily Hawkins, had moved from nearby Warminster to live in Gentle Street, Frome, and in the same year they were married in Frome Church Selwood. Charles was a Coach painter by trade and Emily worked as a Silk Spinner. Steam power had already been introduced to the mills of Frome in 1811 and the woolen industry continued to hold its own but with a lesser demand for labour. Frome also had a station on the Weymouth branch of the Great Western railway and rail travel was becoming more popular to those unwilling to travel by coach and horse along the unkept highways of Somerset and Wiltshire. The Coaching businesses were becoming far from prosperous and this may have encouraged Charles and Emily's next move when they looked at the promise of more abundant permanent work in London.
Oadby, Leicester, Leicestershire
An Iron Age settlement pre-dated the Roman built town in the first century where Leicester stands today. In the 7th century Anglo Saxon records refer to Civitas Legorensis, meaning the seat of a Christian bishop, the first recognisable reference to the name of Leicester. Two centuries later the Vikings overrun Leicester and by 1086 AD the Norman assessors noted in the Doomsday Book that the settlement of Leicester had some three hundred homesteads. Leicester's central position was of strategic importance in the middle ages giving its support to Richard III during the War of the Roses. In the 17th century sheep farming and cloth making encouraged a flourishing wool trade and with the opening of the canal and railways in the 18th and 19th centuries these industries continued to develop. Today the large textile companies have fallen into decline but there are still a large number of related textile trades thriving in Leicester. The town of Oadby adjoins the south-eastern side of the city of Leicester and the Borough of Oadby and Wigston is the smallest of Leicestershire's nine districts. Wigston in 1086 AD was the largest village in Leicestershire and is mentioned in the Doomsday Survey. In 1984 the economic climate for Christopher Randall and family changed and in the same year the family moved from Dagenham to Oadby in Leicester.
Poplar, London
London was built by the Romans in 42 AD probably taking over an ancient British settlement maybe no more than a collection of huts in a great windswept marsh. The River Thames was many times wider than it is now. In 61 AD the city was burnt down and in the 5th century the Roman legions left leaving a battered city worn down by the continual attacks from German pirates. The Saxons were the next to make their home in London. In 1086 William the Conqueror commissioned a survey of east London and combined Stepney with Hackney establishing the chief manor under the lordship of the Bishop of London. To clarify the area of London that housed our distant ancestors, we must understand that by 1700 London was vastly different in structure than it is today. Our ancestors lived in the East End of London. There, there were several parishes of which Stepney was one. This had eight hamlets, one of these hamlets was called Poplar and Bethnal Green. By 1857 two of our ancestors, Charles Randell and Emily Hawkins, were living in Poplar in the county of Middlesex,in the East End of London. All their children were brought up in the East End of London and a further three generations of Randalls continued to thrive.
Tredegar, South Wales
The town of Tredegar sits at the top of "Sirhowy Valley" in South Wales. Areas within Tredegar are Dukestown, Sirhowy, Georgetown, Trefil and Tafamaubach. The Sirhowry area was famous for its furnace built in1778 by Thomas Akinson and William Barrow. The raw materials required for the building and fueling of the furnace being in plentiful supply from the local quarries in Trefil and the surrounding coal mines. Tredegar Ironworks began its history in 1800 when work started on its construction. Involved in its development were Mat Monkhouse, Richard Fothergill and Samual Homuel. Expansion of the Ironworks encouraged more people to the area and on the back of this Tredegar was born. By 1863 we known that William Randall, born 1835, with wife Maria and son Thomas, had moved from Warminster to live in Tredegar. William worked as a labourer in the local ironworks.
Warminster, Wiltshire
Warminster was originally a Roman settlement and is mentioned in the Doomsday Survey as" Guermistre". The name given to the town probably derives from Worgemynster meaning monastery. Although Warminster has never had a monastery, we can suppose, according to an 18th century manuscript, that a 10th century Saxon church pre-dated the present Parish Church of St. Denys and probably stood some 100 yards to the west of the present church site. The River Were, to the west of the church, flows through Colharbour, an ancient Roman settlement, disappearing underground to appear again in a south easterly direction to join the Swan River and eventually reaching the River Wylye at Smallbrook. The St. Denys Church records in Warminster show some eight generations of Randalls going back into the late 16th century. Warminster Common, on the eastern edge of Warminster, is where most of our ancestors lived. The "Common" , as it was known, was a somewhat squalid place in the 18th century. Its notoriety being renowned as far away as Devon. Thanks to the efforts of a William Daniel and the Anglican clergy the area was finally transformed in 1833 bringing it into respectability. In 1862 Warminster Common was renamed "Newtown".
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