My grandfather, Thomas Henry Worgan, was born on 30th December 1875 at Miles Green, Audley. According to his birth certificate, present at the birth was the maid of my great great grandmother, Ann Worgan. Thomas’s father was James and his occupation on the certificate was Colliery Manager.
For many years I endeavoured without success to find about James, having worked myself as a ‘pen-pusher’ in the North Staffordshire coal mining industry for 32 years.
In March 2005 I joined the North Staffs Mining Research Group and Ian Bailey, the tutor, subsequently gave me some information relating to the Old Hayswood Colliery in Halmerend, where the manager in 1874 was my great grandfather James Worgan. Although I had found him the mystery deepened because, according to contemporary accounts he left the colliery shortly afterwards despite the managing committee ‘Seeming to have confidence in both managers’, ( Frank Machin, The Yorkshire Miners, 1958, p.231. James Worgan was the first manager of the Co-operative Colliery (Hayeswood Colliery)the other one being Samuel Jenkins. James Worgan was born in 1833 and according to the 1851 census was living with his parents, three brothers and a sister at Joyford, West Dean, and his occupation was given as coal miner. I am not aware as to where he studied to become a colliery manager.
It is interesting to note that at this time, his father, John, born in 1805, also at West Dean, was a labourer, but in the 1841, 1861 and 1871 censuses he was a coalminer/collier. James, however, left the Forest of Dean, as did other members of his family, sometime after the 1851 census, presumably to move to North Staffordshire.
Of my great-great-great-grandfather, John, born in the Forest of Dean in the mid-1770s, I have little information other than that he married a Sarah and in 1841, at the age of 65, he was a coal miner living in the Forest of Dean.
According to the 1881 census, James was living in Price Street, Burslem, which raises another problem which so far I have been unable to solve.
I have in my possession a photograph of my grandfather, Thomas Henry Worgan, with his 3 brothers, all of whom were born in Audley between1875-82, and his sister born in Lyndale, York, in 1874. According to the 1881 census there were two other children which my father, also James, never said anything about: a son, James, was born in Wednesfield in 1861 and was a ‘Colliery Engineer (Mining)’; and a daughter, Sarah, born in Castle Eden, Durham, was a lady’s maid. I have not been able to trace these last two. My great grandmother, Pamela, was born in Barnsley in 1842, so it is possible that James and Sarah were the product of a previous marriage. They seemed to move about quite a lot, as did Thomas Henry, who worked in North Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Durham, North Wales and back to North Staffordshire between1896-1912.
The Worgans left to right Albert,Robert,George,(all went to Lancashire) Hettie (went to Wrexham) and Thomas Henry my grandfather
So what caused James to leave Old Hayswood Colliery? It became even more intriguing because, according to the 1881 census James was an Auctioneer’s Valuer, but on Thomas Henry’s marriage certificate in 1896, he was a collier at the age of 63. This appears to be quite a drop in status from colliery manager to collier. Perhaps we will never know why.
Halmerend working Mens Club Site of the Hayeswood Colliery
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