William Osborne Hardy (1871 - 1954)

My grandfather, William Osborne Hardy - I always called him Grandad - and my Grandmother Emma were married 19th April 1897 at St. Werburgh's Church, Blackwell, Derbyshire. She lived at Blackwell and according to the marriage certificate, he was resident in "Felkirk in the County of York".

When they were married they at first lived in Alfred Street, Royston, Yorkshire and moved to Blackwell when my mother was about 2 years old. At first they lived in Blackwell Rowe, near Emma's mother. These houses were pulled down and replaced by council houses in about 1960. Then, they used to be called Primrose Hill, which was rather a misnomer, quite apart from there being neither primroses, nor hill.

Emma liked living there, so when my mother was about eight years old, Grandad rented a modest three bedroomed semi-detached house at Mount Pleasant, Blackwell. This later became 51, Allreton Road Newton and later still renumbered to 161. The builder badly wanted Grandad to buy the house, but he could not afford to do so and the builder was soon declared bankrupt.

The family had something of a financial struggle especially during strikes at the pit. My mother talked of having to hide and pretend to be out, sometimes, when the rent man called, of wearing clothes too short in the sleeve andbeing sick of eating suet dumplings. It had a lasting effect on her. She was never mean, but always very thrifty. She would not have approved of credit cards!

My mother served an apprenticeship as a dressmaker, but had to give up her career to look after the family, as Emma developed serious heart trouble. She died on February 14th, 1929, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Werburgh's. I must have helped to cut the grass around thechurch hundreds of times.

My mother, Olive Lilian Hardy, married John Vardy Jones in Blackwell Chapel, later that year on the 28th September. Everyone knew Dad as "Jack". He began work as a miner, then after an accident to his left eye, he became a boiler attendant. Later still,he worked on the telephone exchange at the mine. He always worked at A. Winning (Blackwell) Colliery.

He and Mother lived with my grandmother and my mother inherited the house at Mount Pleasant after Grandad's death. Grandad decided he could afford to buy the house in 1920, at a cost of £245-0-0.

William Hardy, i.e. my Uncle Bill, was about two years younger than my mother and also worked at Blackwell Colliery. He was a fitter. He married Margaret Elizabeth Rex, a school teacher, who was the daughter of a Methodist Minister that spent part of his ministry at Blackwell Chapel. They had no children.

This couple were like a second mother and father to me, when I was young. My mother anticipated that I would difficultieswhen I started school, because of my poor vision, so Aunt Margaret taught me basic simple arithmetic and how to red before I ever went. They lived about ten minutes walk away, down the road from our house at 'Braeside' Alfreton Road, Blackwell, which they had built.

My grandfather kept in touch with his sisters all through his life. He used to visit Lizzie (Elizabeth Slack, nee Hardy) in nearby Alfreton, Fanny (Fanny Ely, nee Hardy) at Pleasley, and spent holidays with Mary (Mary Owen, nee Hardy) at Royston and with Olive (Olive Senior, nee Hardy) at Scarborough. I can remember Mary (more often known as Polly) staying with us for a few days when I was in my early teens, and recollect her talking about her granddaughter, Sheila.

However, the person really responsible for keeping the family in touch was Robert Edward Ely. He had a car and spent a great deal of time ferrying his mother, aunties, and sisters around to see each other.

Robert had brought his mother, Fanny, over to our house on the 15th September 1934, the day I was born. Realising that the birth was imminent she decided to stay and look after my Mother. Mother was always very grateful for this. She was 36, it was a difficult birth, and there was a thunderstorm at the time, so it must have been a great comfort to have someone like Fanny who had had six children of her own to give support. I always remember Fanny as a calm gentle woman.

Whenever any of Grandad's sisters came to stop at Pleasley, Robert usually brought them over to see us, often calling for Lizzie en route.

Lizzie and Olive were very hard of hearing and used to haveear trumpets. I suppose hearing aids had been invented, but not many people had them in those days. We used to take it in turn to sit by them and talk very loudly and distinctly into these ear trumpets. By the time they had left we were all exhausted and had sore throats. However, we always looked forward to seeing them. All Grandad's sisters were very pleasant old ladies.

I see Grandad is described as a miner on his wedding certificate, but from before I was born, he used to work at the coke ovens at Blackwell Pit. He seemed to get a good deal of satisfaction from his work as he was still working when he was 73. Then he was slightly burnt in a minor accident, so my Mother decided that he ought to retire. And to forestalll any arguments when he recovered, she secretly dumped his pit clothes and work boots in the dust bin!

Grandad was very active up until about a year before he died, in 1954. He played bowls when he was younger, I believe at County level at one stage. He was also very good at billiards, which he was still playing well when the whole family went on holiday to Blackpool in 1951 when he was 80.

I also recollect that my Dad, Uncle Bill, Grandad and myself decided that we couldn't have a holiday in Blackpool without the ultimate challenge of a ride on the Big Dipper. When we all got off, it was Grandad who said "Wasn't that fun! Shall we go on again?". The rest of us were nervous wrecks.

1954 was a tragic year for this branch of the Hardy Family. My Grandad died, and his sister-in-law, Margaret, had a severe mental breakdown. At that time, it was not possible for a doctor to refer someone suffering in this way to a hospital for treatment. The next of kin had to sign for them to be admitted. Uncle Bill did not want to do this - it was often referred to as "putting someone away". It soon became obvious that he had no alternative. The stress of this decision, along with that of living for months unsure of what Aunt Margaret might do next, was too much and shortly after she was admitted to Mickleover Hospital, he committed suicide by gassing himself.

My Mother found him and fortunatley, being a strong person, she coped, but I don't think she ever entirely got over it. It was a tragic waste. He was a highly intelligent and likeable man. I was away from home in my first year at Sheffield University when this happened. Mother and Dad did not let me know until after the funeral.

After some months in hospital Aunt Margaret recovered and went back to live at "Braeside" on her own. She died in 1980.

After taking my degree in 1956 I started work as a specification writer at Davy United Egineering Works in Sheffield, the firm which built the huge rolling mills at Ebbw Vale and Consett. I had no idea what I really wanted to do, and the firm required someone who could write decent English and translate into French.

After three years, I decided that it wasn't really me and made up my mind to become a Home Teacher for the Blind. I went off to Leeds to take the appropriate course at the North Regional Association forthe Blind and ended up afterwards working in Whitehaven where I met Matthew. We were married in 1964 and boughta house in Frizington. At that time Matthew was working at Sellafield as a builder, but shortly Lynda was born, he decided to start his own small building and contracting business.

We built a bungalow at Winder, a small village just outside Frizington, where we lived for 14 years. I became a partner in the business and used to work out the PAYE, VAT returns, take phone messages, write the snotty letters etc.

In 1984 there was very little work around for self employed builders, so after 18 years we decided we had had enough. Matthew got a job with Wimpeys working on the new Police Station in Whitehaven, then moved to work for Copeland Borough Council where he is now a housing inspector.

Lynda, our eldest daughter graduated from Nottingham Polytechnic last year (1990) and is now a qualified social worker for Derbyshire County Council in the Claycross Area - the wheel has come full circle as that is near Tupton where I went to school.

Jill went to Workington College to do the catering course and after completing that, decided that she would like to specialise in Baking and Confecrtionery, so went to BlackpoolCollege for two years and is now living and working as a bakerandconfectioner in Egremont, near Whitehaven.

So, that, more or less, is the story of this branch of the Hardy tree. 

I would love to hear from anyone who connects to this branch.More on My Family History