Shotley Bridge swordmakers

[Hotspur]

Any Brummies reading this want a genealogical endeavour to pursue... I doubt it.

Show me the money! I thought this was your baby.

The British History Online link and a bit of plumbing the depths might yield information. On the other hand, a lot of genealogical research these days is pay for play. I have done work (gratis) for some threads here and continue to do so but it might be some years before your questions re Oley might hit the bottom of a very long list of things to do. If I find a family tree for you this weekend, you owe me. Seriously.


A slip of the tongue omitting an M to come up with Ole' is kind of hard in any accent, as one has a consonant. You seem to be concentrating on the wildest explanations possible instead of digging deeper on a topic (such as early hollow ground blades).

Time permitted lad, I'll take a look at your latest request (to do your project).

Take my surname of Cleeton and explain how that could be somehow be written or associated with Eaton. Cleaton, Cleoton and say, the Clee hills outside of Cleeton-St Mary. Or perhaps the manor of Cleoton or Cletune now underwater off Skipsea (1066 and all that). Could any be be mistaken as originally lacking a consonant? Back to the Halstatt era and the Black Sea with the current surname Kleeman. Always a consonant.


Cheers

GC

ha, in the first five minutes Oliey (not on Ancestry.com)

[Hotspur]

This isn't your's is it?
http://www.exodus2013.co.uk/the-shot...e-swordmakers/

Note the date 1628 and fill in some blanks.

Cheers

GC

[urbanspaceman]

Hi Glenn. Please don't concern yourself with my fanciful theory; I agree that the consonant is the clincher, but I was just hoping for a break. They are very keen, over here, to retain the story about Mohll becoming Mole at whatever cost.
With regard to that 'Exodus' article: no, it is yet another catalogue of fallacies and falsehoods. The 19th C. chronicler in question (married to an Oley) misread the entry in the parish register which admittedly was faint, but it said Cler - for Cleric - not Oley.
The Shotley Bridge endeavour began in 1685.
The Vintings/Vintons were mining and forging iron and lead around there, certainly since the 1500s; and local historians will tell you that there were forges going back to before the Christian era.
We did have Germans working in the glass industry in Newcastle itself - primarily the Tyzacks - a good hundred years earlier, but Shotley Bridge sword-making with the Solingen immigrants didn't start till 1687.
BTW. You're not from Birmingham, are you?

[Hotspur]

Nope. Originallly mid west US

[urbanspaceman]

During my endless searches for examples of SB blades I occasionally come across interesting examples and such was the case this evening.
The first is a Scottish (long) dirk dating to c.1720 according to the dealer made from a cut-down backsword blade.
(Apparently, after swords were banned in Scotland following the 1715 rebellion, attempts were made to lengthen the dirk to give a degree of decent protection; hence this example.)
So-far, so well-known, amongst the cognoscenti; the curiosity is the marking on the blade: see image.
The second is described by the dealer as a late 17th C. Shotley Bridge Smallsword with 'TLE xx on one side and Bridg xx on the other plus a running fox; see image.

[urbanspaceman]

sorry, this image didn't upload the first time.
The second is described by the dealer as a late 17th C. Shotley Bridge Smallsword with 'TLE xx on one side and Bridg xx on the other plus a running fox; see image.
Sorry the resolution is poor but it's a bushy tailed fox.

[Hotspur]

Originally Posted by urbanspaceman

sorry, this image didn't upload the first time.
The second is described by the dealer as a late 17th C. Shotley Bridge Smallsword with 'TLE xx on one side and Bridg xx on the other plus a running fox; see image.
Sorry the resolution is poor but it's a bushy tailed fox.

Hmm, and not a hollow sword grind but rather a hexagonal cross section..

Cheers

GC