Place:Lye, Worcestershire, England

Watchers
NameLye
Alt namesThe Lye
TypeTownship, Civil parish
Coordinates52.459°N 2.116°W
Located inWorcestershire, England     ( - 1974)
Also located inWest Midlands, England     (1974 - )
See alsoHalfshire Hundred, Worcestershire, Englandhundred of which the parish was a part
Oldswinford, Worcestershire, Englandancient parish of which it was part
Stourbridge, Worcestershire, Englandmunicipal borough which it joined in 1933
Dudley (metropolitan borough), West Midlands, Englandmetropolitan borough covering the area since 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Lye or "The Lye" is a suburban area of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the West Midlands of England. In the 19th century it was a village within the parish of Oldswinford, and, until 1974, was situated within the boundaries of the county of Worcestershire.

It used to be famous for the manufacture of nails, anvils, vices, chain, crucibles and firebricks. Lye Waste, adjacent to the original village of Lye, was an area of uncultivated common land but it was settled by people who, by building houses including a fireplace within 24 hours by using mud and clay as the main building materials, acquired freehold rights as a result of the passing of the Inclosure Acts [sic] from 1604 onwards, and it became thickly built upon. The village of Careless Green, now part of Lye but once a separate village immediately to the south-east, was noted for insurance clubs called Stewpony societies and the Stewpony Allotment Society which tried to improve conditions for the labouring classes.

end of Wikipedia contribution

In 1897 Lye joined forces with the neighbouring settlement of Wollescote and became the Urban District of Lye and Wollescote. In 1933 the urban district was abolished and the area became part of the wider municipal borough of Stourbridge.

The map of Worcestershire circa 1944 labels the civil parishes in Stourbridge area of Worcestershire.

Research tips

  • Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales - Revised: Worcestershire illustrates the parish boundaries of Worcestershire when rural districts were still in existence and before the West Midlands came into being. The map publication year is 1931. The map blows up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use.
  • British History Online has a large collection of local maps from the Ordnance Survey 1883-1893. These blow up to a size that permits viewing of individual hamlets, farms, collieries, but there is no overlapping of one map to the next, and no overall map to tie the individual ones together.
  • British History Online also has three volumes of the Victoria County History of Worcestershire online. Volume 3 (published in 1913) deals with the Halfshire Hundred; Volume 4 (published in 1924) deals with the City of Worcester, as well as parishes in the hundreds of Pershore and Doddingtree. Volume 2 covers religious houses in the county. The remainder of the county is not represented in the British History Online series.
  • GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Worcestershire as well as leading to a collection of 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish. The auxiliary website English Jurisdictions can also be helpful.
  • Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD (Telephone: 01905 822866, e-mail: archive@worcestershire.gov.uk) The Archives Collections Catalog Summary outlines the contents of the Archives Collection and also notes on what has been transferred to the national online service Access to Archives
  • The Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry has a branch in Bromsgrove which deals in Worcestershire family history. There are also branches at Stourbridge and Worcester.
  • The Midlands Historical Data project produces searchable facsimile copies of old local history books and directories of interest to genealogists. It specialises in the three counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, working closely with libraries, archives and family history societies in the area. Digital images are made freely available to participating organisations to improve public access. Free search index on its web-site to all its books. In many cases payment will be required to see the extract.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time has
  1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts of the 20th century
  2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
  3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960
  • Brett Langston's list of Worcestershire Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.
  • More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Lye, West Midlands. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.