THE RIDGERS FAMILY OF WINDLESHAM

In the First World War this small town would have been extremely busy with the large number of Australian servicemen stationed at  nearby No 1 Australian Command Depot and No 1 Australian General Hospital.

Edward Dance (1806-1882) was born to Thomas and Catherine at Whitchurch . He married Mary Ann Thomas (1817) from Redbrook  in 1836 and his brother Joseph was a witness at their Newland wedding.  Edward  worked as a labourer and a gardener during the 1840s and a maltster in the 1860s and 1870s  when the family lived at Upper Redbrook.  His 6 children, John (1838), Harriet (1840), George (1843), Mary Ann (1849), David (1845) and Thomas (1847) were all born in that area. Unhappily David and Thomas died in infancy.  

On the 1851 census he was living at Scowles, between Pedbrook and Coleford  and according to local records owned a house there.

According to local history sources -  Squatters built cottages on Scowles common from the start of the 19th century,  creating a hamlet with 36 households in 1851. The small community of miners and quarrymen  had its own church and school from the mid 19th century.

His son John Dance (1838) who was a stonemason had a home at Scowles from  at least the 1870s and probably till he left for Western Australia in the early 1900s.

Edward Dance was to finish his days living at the Jones Almshouses in Newland where his wife  died in 1879 and he in 1882. He was buried only a few yards away in Newland churchyard.

Photo shows Edward Dance 1806-1882 with son John (1838)

His daughter Mary Ann Dance (1849)  married joiner Edwin Hodges (1845) from Bristol in 1868. They settled in Bristol and 3 of their sons were born there, Edward Hodges (1870), Frederick (1872) and Frank (1873). They later moved to Hampton, Victoria in Australia.

Edwin died there in 1918 and Mary in 1920.

Picture shows Mary Ann at Hampton.

see  DANCE PICTURE GALLERY

Another daughter Harriet Dance (1840) married Redbrook tinplate worker James Rogers in 1859. They had  two children, Mary Ann Rogers (1859) and Thomas (1861) at Redbrook. After the death of James Rogers Harriett married again at Bristol in 1869. He was Charles Watkins (1848) a miller who after their marriage changed his name to Powell. After a couple of years in Skenfrith, Monmouthshire the couple settled at Redbrook, Harriett's birthplace. They had seven children Harriet Powell (1870), Edward (1871), Eleanor(1873), Frank (1874), Jane (1876), John (1878) and Philip (1880). 

The photo shows four generations. Harriet Powell (nee Dance) seated, with daughter Eleanor Roberts (nee Powell) on her left and grand-daughter Kathleen Roberts (1897) holding her daughter.

Photo kindly supplied by Mike Kohnstamm  whose mother is the baby of this group.

John Dance (1838) was employed at Cwmtillery colliery near Abertillery, Monmouthshire after finishing the Monmouth School contract in  the Whitsun of 1896.His address then was Clarence Place, Blaenau Gwent. He is still in the area  in 1901 lodging with his niece Eleanor Roberts's family (pictured with her daughter above) at Glendower Street, Abertillery.

A bill from the Kalamunda Store.

Ted's store at Kalamunda, near Perth. On its right is the old post office which has now moved to the museum area.

A modern and an 1890s view of Monmouth Grammar school where John Dance (1838) was employed as a stonemason in the mid 1890s.

John Dance (1838) was born to Edward and Mary Ann at Redbrook. He was a stone-mason who was married three times. His first wife was Zipporah Webb (1834). Married  1861 she died after child-birth the same year.

Second wife Sarah Evans (1843) gave birth at Redbrook to John Edward Dance (1864), and Florence Ellen (1866) and then William Dance (1868) at the Scowles. She died at Redbrook in 1869.

His fourth child George Dance (1878) was born to third wife Margaret Hamilton (1842) at the Scowles, Forest of Dean. His family believe he married her in America. She died at Coleford in 1879.

John was staying at Abertillery, South Wales in 1901 with his niece Eleanor Roberts's family (see her photo above) but had moved to Western Australia in the early 1900s to join his son John Edward.

He was quite a world traveller, apparently spending time in the USA and Brazil during the 1870s and 1880s. The home at the Scowles, Coleford seems to have been maintained during  his absences - in 1891 a housekeeper is shown looking after the young motherless George Dance (1879) and in an 1897 letter from the Abertillery area to his son Ted in Western Australia he suggests any reply should go to Scowles.

His occupation as a stonemason shows him working at a variety of building projects. He refers in his letter about completing recent work at Monmouth Grammar School and was at the time employed at Cwmtillery, Monmouthshire, possibly at the colliery.

John Dance 1838 at Abertillery in 1901

His daughter Florence Dance (1866) married James Griffiths (1859) from Newport and settled there. She had nine children, all born in Newport. Those we have details of so far are John Edward (Jack) Griffiths (1891), George Griffiths (1896) and Kenneth Griffiths (1921)

Jack Griffiths (1891) migrated to Western Australia around 1911 where his Grandfather John Dance (1838) and uncle John Edward (1864) were now settled. He joined the AIF for World War l and died in France on the 18th of  October 1918.

SEE Jack Griffiths - Life and Death of a Newport, Gwent ANZAC

Jack Griffiths and on the right his mother Florence

 See Griffiths Family Page

George (1843) the son of Edward (1807) was from the Newland district of the Forest of Dean and born at Berry Hill. 

His wife Mary Scriven (1844) came from Rockfield, Monmouth a few miles away. Her sister Ann Scriven (1837) was married to Monmouth born Edward Shellard (1836) who was clerk and verger at St Mary's Church, Monmouth in the late 19th century. 

George Dance (1843) was a tin-roller, the most skilled job in the tin-producing process. As a youth he had worked at the Redbrook tin plate works in the Forest of Dean as a furnace-man. He later  moved to the Llanelly area of South Wales in the 1860s and two of his children, George Edward (1868) and Frederick (1870) were born there.

George Dance (1843) returned to the Wye Valley/ Forest of Dean  in 1871 to the Lydbrook Tinplate Works where he  spent the remainder of his working life. 

He and Mary had 10 children. Two were born at Llanelly, South Wales and the remainder around the Monmouth, Redbrook, Lydbrook area, all within a few miles of the Lydbrook works. 

Bishopswood Church  where Francis (1884) was christened, Mary (1882) was married and their parents George and Mary were buried

George's Funeral Notice

Ross Gazette - 27th of November 1924.

Funeral - The funeral of the late Mr George Dance, whose death was reported in our last issue, took place on Friday last at Bishopswood Church.

The service was read by the Rev. A H Bromfield (Vicar). The coffin bore the inscription: "George Dance. died Nov. 17th 1924, aged 84 years".

The chief mourners were Mr Geo Dance, Mr Fred Dance, Mr W Dance, and Capt Frank Dance MBE (sons);

Mrs Roberts, Mrs Frankish, and Mrs F.Bennett (daughters); 

Mr F Bennett (son in law), Mrs A Dance (daughter in law), Mr and Mrs J Wheatstone, Mr Corry Dance, Mr Bert Dance, (grandchildren),

Mr M O'Meara, Mr John Davies and Mr Goodfellow.

The floral tributes were very beautiful and bore expressions of sympathy and loving remembrance from the following: 

Rye, Anderson and Maud; Annie, Dot and Edith; George and Claude; Bert, Hilda, Will and Alice; Fred and Annie and family (Swansea); Edith, Bert and children (Boston, USA); to my dear father, from Frank; Dol, Ernie and the children (Windlesham); Will, Rose, Vera and Mabel (Cheltenham); Mr and Mrs Gilchrist; Maud and family; Mrs Clayton; Mr and Mrs Sheldon; Mr and Mrs Goodfellow; Mr A B Murray; Mr Maurice St. Clair O'Meara; Mr and Mrs J Phillips; With sincere sympathy, from staff at Curacho Ltd.

His son George Edward Dance (1868 - 1927) was working with him at the Redbrook tinplate works as a pickler when only 12 years old.

He married local girl Alice Martin (1869) at Lydbrook in 1894 and was employed in the Aberdare area of South Wales as a plate-layer for the next ten years where three of his children Albert (1897), Hilda (1901), and William (1904), were born.

By 1907 he and Alice had returned to the Forest of Dean where their daughter Alice (1907) was born at Chamomile Green, Lydbrook. He was a sick man during the latter part of his 59 years, suffering from bronchial and asthmatic problems. His eyesight was also poor and was a contributing factor to an accident that later proved fatal when he walked into the path of a motor cycle not far from the church on Church Hill, Lydbrook around 9pm  one October evening in 1926. He was buried at Lydbrook on the 8th of January 1927. A witness at the inquest was his son, collier Albert Dance, who had been located at the Anchor Inn soon after the incident and rushed to assist his father.

Engine driver William James Dance who was born in 1904, the son of  George Edward Dance (1868), married Clara Wilce  at Lydbrook in 1928. Tragically, he lost his wife and new born daughter Joan within a few months of each other in 1930.

Clara was born in 1910 the daughter of Frederick Wilce and Mary Ravenhill.

Taken eight years before Clara's birth, the photo shows the Ravenhill and Wilce families outside the shop which was situated next door to the Jovial Collier's Public House in Lydbrook

Sylvia Ravenhill who later became the shop owner (Mrs S Hall) is standing in the doorway.
Frederick Wilce is holding son Merrick. Thomas Ravenhill and his wife Eliza, Daisy Ravenhill in the black dress. Mary Wilce (nee Ravenhill) is  holding son George.
The small girl in the front is Winifred Wilce who later became Winnie Evans.

My sincere thanks to the Forest of Dean Family History  web-site and Margaret Wilce for this photo and memory.

William John Dance (1880) who was also born at Laundry Cottage, Welsh Bicknor to George (1843) and Mary, was a policeman  in 1901. He married Annie Green at Cheltenham in 1902 and they had two sons, Ronald (1904) and Wilfred (1907). When he volunteered for army service as a 36 year old in 1916 he gave his trade as motor mechanic. He served with the Royal Engineers Railways Division who had the task of building and maintaining light railways supplying the front line troops. He was discharged in 1919 with the rank of Quartermaster Sergeant. He had a haulage business at Cheltenham throughout the 1920s.

His son Ronald Lionel Dance (1904) had a removals business at Cheltenham for many years.

George Dance and two of his sons worked at the tin-plate works in Lydbrook, part of the Gloucestershire Forest of Dean area but only a couple of miles from the Herefordshire county border.

Lydbrook is a large village situated on the western edge of the Forest of Dean and adjacent to the Wye Valley. Many of the village houses are high on the valley hillsides. The Lydbrook valley was once the site of a thriving tinplate works, opened in 1871 and closed in 1925.  The old railway, built in 1872 to carry a branch railway line from Cinderford, a major feat of 19th century engineering, ran high along the hillside, and then crossed the valley on a huge viaduct on 90ft high stone piers. The viaduct was finally demolished in 1969. Without the heavy industry, the village is now a tranquil backwater

Lydbrook in the early 20th Century

George Dance (1843) was from the Newland district of the Forest of Dean and wife Mary (1844) a few miles away at Rockfield, near Monmouth. George was a tin-roller, the most skilled job in the tin-producing process. As a youth he had worked  at the Redbrook tin plate works in the Forest of Dean as a furnace-man. He moved to the Llanelly area of South Wales in the 1860s and two of his children, George Edward (1868) and Frederick (1870) were born there.

Lydbrook tin workers in 1911

Photo from the Forest of Dean Family History  web-site

He returned to the Wye Valley/ Forest of Dean  in 1871 to the Lydbrook Tinplate Works and spent the remainder of his working life there. 

His sons Frederick (1870),  Albert (1875) and George Edward Dance (1868) were also tin-plate workers. George Edward was only 12 years old when he started work  as a pickler in 1880.

Frederick (1870) married Lydbrook girl Annie Simmonds (1867) in 1892. They had three children Cornelius (1893), Albert (1895) and Evelyn (1897).

Evelyn married Digory Gordge (1894) from Swansea in 1920 and the family made their home there.

George's daughter Maria Dance who was baptised at Newland in 1872, married Manchester born mechanic Anderson Frankish (1867) and moved to Leyton in Essex. They had one child Edith Maud in 1897. When they died at Surbiton in Surrey, Anderson in 1946 and Maria in 1955, he was buried at Bishopswood, and Maria's ashes were scattered there.

This photo shows the Lydbrook tin-plate works before its closure in the 1920s.

George's youngest son Francis (Frank) Dance christened at Bishopswood in 1884 was boarding at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire in 1901 employed as a corn merchant's clerk. 

He married a  Ross bank manager's widow Mary Elizabeth Harries (1881)  at Marylebone, London in 1925 and returned to Bishopswood. She was formerly Mary Elizabeth Blanch a farmer's daughter who was born there and probably knew the Dance family when her father Richard Blanch was farming at Green Farm, Welsh Bicknor in the 1880s.

Frank was a vicar employed in the Hereford Diocese office at the end of the 1950s and died there in 1961.

From "Forest Mercury" October 1924

A representative of the Forest of Dean newspapers, interested in the appearance of a new industry in the Forest of Dean, was courteously received by Capt. F. Dance, the Managing Director at the Curacho factory and headquarters, adjoining the post office at Lydbrook. Here the Company found suitable premises designed for a mineral water manufactory and erected by Mr.  E. J. Flewellyn, who is now to double or treble the capacity of the place to provide for the future expansion of the enterprise. This is considered to be assured, as the Company have a well authenticated remedy to offer and will express their convictions about it in the form of publicity. "Curacho" was originally owned by a very old man, who treated it more or less as a hobby to produce a few dozen bottles a day.

There is of course a secret recipe and our representative was not invited behind the locked door where the preparation was being made ready for the up-to-date bottling plant. The remedy (the comprehensive utility of which is quite fully explained elsewhere) is extensively stocked by chemists and naturally, those who live near the place of preparation will not find it difficult to get supplies. 

A private company with a capital of £8000 has been formed to take over the business from Capt. Dance. who acquired the recipe and the Directors include Lord Doune. M.C., son of the Earl of Moray (Chairman) and Major C. J. Vaughan. of Courtfield. There is an interesting story to be told of Capt Dance and his war time associations with Lord Doune. 

There will be many still who remember Capt. Dance as a  Lydbrook boy, bred and born and educated in the border village. Apprenticed very early in life to Thornycroft's the ship builder at Chiswick, he subsequently acted as a clerk at Tewkesbury and at Messers Cadbury's before joining the Bank of New Zealand with whom he has remained to this day, serving them both in London and New Zealand, except for an interregnum resulting from the war.Captain Dance received a commission and rose to be adjutant to the 3/7th Middlesex Regiment. Then he was transferred to the Air Force for administrative duty. He was appointed Staff Captain and eventually became ADC to the Chief of the Air Force, Sir John Salmond when Lord Doune, who had been acting in that capacity, smashed in a gallant and triumphant affair with a giant Fokker which he brought down, gaining the M.C.

After recovering, Lord Doune rejoined the General for duty, but Capt. Dance kept his post, Sir John wisely deciding that two such ADCs were better than one.

Capt. Dance was mentioned in despatches and awarded the MBE. On demobilisation he returned to his appointment with the New Zealand Bank, but "Curacho" will have his undivided attention in the future.

Note by Tom - We have no record of Curacho's closure. It was still there in 1927 but was replaced by the Spring Water works by 1931. We know that Frank was already a curate at Aylesford in Kent from May 1932. This small industrial area at Lydbrook is still in use today and was  known locally from the 1930s as the "Pop factory".

Frank's wife Mary Elizabeth had four children, Barbara Harries (1910), James L.B (Bill) Harries (1915),  Mary Helena Frances Harries (1919) all born at Ross from her first marriage and Maud Elizabeth Dance (1926) from the second.

Frank's grand-daughter Judith relates - "He fought in WWI and was a Captain mentioned in despatches. He was awarded the MBE. 
 In 1926 my mother (Maud Elizabeth Dance) was born and they were living at Bishopswood Grange just outside Ross. He was a company director at that point. He was ordained as a priest in 1932 and was Chaplain at RAF Locking during WW2. As a child I knew him to be a vicar in Hereford."

Welsh Bicknor Church - No longer in use.

The old Wye Valley Railway from Symonds Yat Rock and following the River Wye.. It ran within a few hundred yards of Laundry Cottage at Welsh Bicknor only a couple of miles from this view. The disused railway bridge close to the cottage is still standing but  used mainly by hikers.

Welsh Bicknor in the early 1900s.

Edward's grand-daughter Mary Dance (born 1882) married Ernest William Ridgers (1884) from Windlesham, Surrey at All Saints Church, Bishopswood near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, on the 1st of August 1908. The marriage certificate has Ernest's father  entered as 'William Ridgers - Builder', and Mary's as 'George Dance- Tin Roller'.

Mary was born at Laundry Cottage in the nearby village of Welsh Bicknor, on the River Wye, the daughter of George and Mary Dance. 

Mary Dance around 1930

The old school at Welsh Bicknor

It would struggle to hold more than 20 pupils. The school closed in the 1920s following the retirement in her 70s through ill health, of long serving teacher Miss Gunter who lived on Coppet Hill.

Laundry Cottage, Welsh  Bicknor. Mary and her brother William Ridgers's riverside birthplace. Updated and enlarged in the 1950s and now staff quarters for Welsh Bicknor Youth Hostel.

It is only accessible on foot.

Then

Now

In the 1930s the cottage was altered and modernised. The owners used it as a weekend and holiday home. Unfortunately noise from across the river forced them to sell, apparently to the factory owners.

Immediately across the river from around 1912 was the home of the Lydbrook Cable Works. In 1925, the business was bought by the Edison Swan Electric Company. At its peak the plant employed around 1100 people. The Cable Works closed  in 1966, but then the factory was bought by the Reed Paper Group who operated from there until the 1990s. The site is now derelict.