Tips, Dukestown

[davyr]

I have recently received the birth certificate for my Great Grandmother, Mary Joanna James (b. 1875). The address is given as Tips, Dukestown.

I can find no reference to this on the internet - can anyone please throw any light on this place name? Surely it can't mean she was born on a "tip"?

[helachau]

The birth cert shd identify "Sub Registration District" within " Registration District". Also the address of the "informant". Can you post details?

Might we be talking about "Duketown/Duke's town" near Tredegar?

[davyr]

Yes, it is that Dukestown - Registration District is Crickhowell and Sub-district is Llangunider. The informant's address (the mother) is simply "Tips, Dukestown".

[pippycat]

nearest I can come up with is Tirphil...not too far from Dukestown as the crow flies!

Is your Mary daughter of Edward James and Bridget?

Rebecca

[maidofkent]

There's an Alice Tips Cottage in Picton Lane, Dukestown. I don't know much about houses but it looks as if it could be an older property that's since been extended and modernised. I tried to find out about Alice Tips (this is the part of family research that I love, and is the reason it takes me so long to get anywhere with my own tree!), and I could only find 1, born in Prussia, 1888. On the face of it, no connection, but who knows.......

[Coromandel]

There's a reference to the Dukestown Tips here:

The first pit sank was termed "Dukes Pit," from its being on the Duke of Beaufort's property. This pit was situated nearly in a direct line westward to Dr. Coats' residence, on the opposite side of the brook Nant Melin. It was a small square pit, its dimensions were about 8 feet each side, and was nearly 35 yards in depth, reaching at that depth the substrata of the Big Vein, named the "Little Coal and Rough Vein." Sinking in this locality at that time was a process in a state of infancy, and the engineering skill required was deemed almost a superhuman acquirement; nevertheless the undertaking was successfully completed. The machinery for sinking was a water-wheel and a small drum barrel, termed a "whimsey"; cranks were fixed at each end of the shaft of the water wheel and drum barrel, connected by two rods of wood, strengthened with iron straps top and bottom, and a brake to be applied to the water wheel if necessary, which was a very simple but ingenious invention. By this means several pits were sunk in succeeding years, viz., No. 1 or Bryn Bach Pit, No. 2 or Evan Davies' Pit, Ash Tree Pit, and the old Water Wheel Pit.

After completing the sinking, two chains were attached to the drum-barrel, and a small rude cage attached to each chain, and Duke's Pit was in working order. To imagine the quantity of material raised by this simple construction, the reader has only to make an inspection of those huge heaps of rubbish called "Dukestown Tips."

From Chapter 4 of Powell's History of Tredegar (1902), which is online here:

http://www.
mike-jones.ukfsn.org/phot/

So it sounds like they were tips of waste generated at the coal pits. Perhaps people lived near these tips? Or else Mary Joanna's mother went into labour when at work there?

There are some pictures of people scrabbling over tips in South Wales to gather fuel in 1873 and 1875: go to freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cmhrc/prints.htm, scroll down the page to 1873? 'The Strike in South Wales (On a tip collecting fuel)' and 1875-27-02 'Lockout in S. Wales (On the tips)'. They don't say where exactly, but perhaps give some idea of the landscape.

[Colin Rowledge]

Yes, it is that Dukestown - Registration District is Crickhowell and Sub-district is Llangunider. The informant's address (the mother) is simply "Tips, Dukestown".

What was the name of the mother?

[Ladkyis]

Some of the poorer, ie starving and homeless, actually built shanties of branches or old corrugates iron and lived on the tips very similar to the shanties found in what are third-world countries.

[Hollytree]

My greatgrandmother was born in a 'hut' in Llantrisant.........and knowing that when she was about 4 the family were in the workhouse in Somerset I can endorse your comment Ladkyis

[Colin Rowledge]

My greatgrandmother was born in a 'hut' in Llantrisant.........and knowing that when she was about 4 the family were in the workhouse in Somerset I can endorse your comment Ladkyis

One of mine was a Washer-woman at a quarry. She lived in a cottage, but was probably more of a shack. She was a widow. Her 2 children - birth cert.s I have - there is no father named.

A poor destitue woman, taking solace and comfort wherever she could find it.

Could be that she was happier then, than those claiming 'benefits' today. At least, to the best of her ability, she was providing for her children and they went on to better things later in life.

CDolin