The Dunwells
John =Elizabeth CLOTH MAKER
Harriet James William Job Emma Mary Benjamin
William =Alice Thompson LABOURER JOURNEYMAN BRICKMAKER
James John Mary Ann Rachel others William
This family are in Holbeck South Leeds and William and family are there in the C1871 at 36 Pottery Place / Hunslet Hall.
James however, is in Egton Bridge. That is a big jump. He is lodging with Mary Ann Roe -shoe maker's widow. He is a Labourer brick works - it would be likely this is at Grosmont where there was a Brickworks next to the Ironstone Mine. It does not seem that at that time that the Brick works belonged to the Dunwells. His brother John is still in Leeds as a lodger in another family and he is a brick moulder.
James marries into the Roe family, one Margaret Roe in 1871 and she is the daughter of Thomas Roe a shoemaker of Egton. (Presumably deceased) as he is lodging with widow Mary Ann Roe in the 1871 census. (Did she have a little legacy I wonder?)
Ten years later James and Margaret are in Headingly Leeds at 20 Holderness Place with 7 children including Austin Dunwell and James is listed as Brickmaker. Of the children we can see that 5 were born in Egton up to Margaret born in 1878. The youngest children are twins Lilly and Rosa born in 1880. The road seems fairly prosperous with a mix of trades and employment but not wealthy or prestigious.
In the next census however, we find James and Margaret back in Egton now living at the Mill house in Egton Bridge. References to the family in the newspapers include a drowing of a young man who was visisting with them, an accident to one of the sons at the Brickworks that sounds quite serious and also a fire which nearly destroyed the property. James is now a Brick Manufacturer and I think it must have been Alban who was injured as he is in the brick trade while Austin is a joiner's apprentice.
By 1901 this family have moved to 9 Dixon Terrace Darlington and James is now a Brick and Tile manufacturer, as are Austin Dunwell and two of the other sons. James dies 1907/8 in Darlington. His wife Margaret lists herself a Brick Manufacturer in 1911 and her son Austin is listed as an assistant. Margaret dies in around 1928.
Meanwhile James' brother John has married another Roe - Sarah Frances Roe in April to June 1880. (daughter Catherine is born quite soon afterwards in the first quarter of 1881). In 1871 as mentioned above he is lodging in Holbeck Leeds and is a brick moulder. We next find him in the 1881 census living with parents in law in Grosmont. John Roe is the Ironstone Mine Deputy and John Dunwell is a brick maker. Ten years later John and wife Sarah Frances live at the Brickworks with their 8 children and by 1911 the family have moved up to Low Leys and John is now a brick and tile manufacturer.
William Dunwell, the youngest brother of James and John appears in the 1901 census as the foreman at the brickworks in Grosmont and ditto in 1911. He has married Mary Brown born in Robin Hood's Bay and has a fine family with some interesting names.
I always remember Aunty Kath talking about Austin Dunwell. She never called him Uncle Austin. She just said Austin Dunwell as if that was a thing. Eliza Keefe married Austin Dunwell and went to live in Darlington. Full stop. Austen Dunwell wanted one of the Keefe girls. Full stop.
What we do know from the press articles at the time, is that our Austin was engaged to another girl, a teacher, and she took him to court for breach of promise complaining that he had been seeing another girl. Austin and his fiancee could not marry because she could earn more as a teacher than he could provide her with -as his father only gave him a small wage. He became engaged to Margaret Fitzpatrick in 1900 and she took him to court in 1913. When examined during the court case, he stated that he had 29 shillings a week from the executors of his father's estate and that he and his brother managed the brickworks - presumably in Darlington. He did not marry Eliza Keefe until 1915 - during the war - after he had paid off the 60 pound damages awarded to Miss Fitzpatrick?- and they were both in their forties. In 1917 he joined the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners. He seems to have endured some bad health. In the photograph with Hannah Lawson he looks a bit sheepish. Eliza - a capable boarding house keeper in 1911 living in Chorlton Manchester and running a large establishment - I wonder why she threw in her lot, with Austin Dunwell.
The Dunwells also made bricks in Pocklington. 1900 to 1915, the manager was Alban Dunwell and the company was run by Trustees of James Dunwell.
We were walking around Grosmont and wondering where the clay came from for the bricks and tiles. On the old maps there seems to be a fair pit around the brickworks so probably there was a clay bed around the works. There was a sale of a bed of clay in 1859 connected to a Robert Jackson ( Oxford graduate? school teacher and later shop keeper of Egton Village). It is not clear if he owned it or was an agent. The clay bed was adjacent to the railway line - maybe this is the site at Grosmont but not necessarily.
Certainly the manufacture of bricks and earthware chimney pots, drains etc became very profitable during the second half of the nineteenth century with development a sure investment. In this part of Leeds, the wealthy mill owners lost their estates to the owners of the brickworks. They became the wealthiest people. (Inghams Cliffes). The ironstone mines in Grosmont were a big source of employment for the area and a big source of wealth for the owners. They were worked out and the brickyard became as important for local industry. Looking at the area today does little to indicated how industrial it was in the nineteenth century with the coming of the railways opening up lots of opportunities for trade and manufacture. Coal was needed for the kilns and bricks could be sent out on the railways.
We have one little factlet about John Keefe - in 1891 he is listed in a Trade Directory as an Earthenware Dealer. Does this connect him to the Dunwells? Or to the OKeefe Brickmakers in Youghal?
