Aston. Birmingham. A Mecca?

[David Annis]

Just a quicky. I have noticed that one or two of my people moved to Aston, Birmingham and quite a few other un related ones as well.
What was the draw to this place in the late 1800s, where the streets paved with gold ?
Cheers.
Dave.

[Alan Welsford]

I don't know about the Aston area of Birmingham in particular, although I'll admit it does seem to be high up the list of places people migrated to.

I think the move started earlier than "late 1800s", and I certainly have examples of one of the surnames I'm researching, FINCHER, already installed there before 1851.

I think the answer is simply people going where the work was, (or where the better paid work was), and clearly industry was booming in Birmingham and it's environs. Areas that had been traditionally agricultural almost certainly didn't offer the same opportunities.

The two FINCHER brothers who went to Aston were carpenters, and soon became involved in railway carriage construction. One eventually moved around various railway locations, including Brighton, before ending up at the LNWRs massive carriage workshops at Wolverton. The one who's family stayed in Aston allegedly went to Ohio, (without familly) and worked for railways out there for a while. I was cynical of this at first, but he is missing from home in 1871, and a good match appears in the 1870 US census. I'm fairly certain it's him, because the chap living with him can also be traced back to..... Aston, Birmingham.

I've tracked other people to the area, and again, I'd say it was for betterment, and to take advantage of the huge industrial growth going on there.

It occurs to me that moving to Birmingham from rural Hertfordshire well before 1851 would have been no picnic. I assume they would have exploited the perhaps just newly opened London to Birmingham Railway, although as I understand costs of even the most basic rail travel were beyond the reach of many people.

Alan