Welcome to the Ives family web site. This branch of the family originates from the town of Bacup in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire. Our ancestor William Ives and his family arrived in the Stacksteads area of Bacup sometime between 1876 and 1878. William and his ancestors came from the Burnham area of North Norfolk and his wife Clara came from Ely, Cambridgeshire.

It must have been in the pursuit of employment that led William to the Rossendale Valley. There could not have been a greater contrast between the thriving industrial town of Bacup with its coal mines, quarries and cotton mills and rural Norfolk. Nevertheless, William and his family would have felt at home, as they were one of many North Norfolk families to find a home in 19^th century Rossendale.

The prospect of steady work in the cotton mills must have been attractive to those engaged in the poorly paid seasonal agricultural labour of East Anglia. There appears to have been migration schemes to keep the cotton mills of Bacup supplied with labour as the Bacup Times of 20^th November 1875 reports:

Importation of Millhands
On Wednesday evening, about 50 farm labourers with their wives and families from Norfolk arrived at Bacup. They were under the care of Mr J. H. Turner and had been brought to work at the mills of Messrs Joshua Hoyle & Sons Ltd, both at Bacup and Sharneyford. Homes and houses had been provided for the strangers and in consequence of the wetness of the evening, a conveyance was placed at the disposal of those who had to go to Sharneyford.

Not everyone welcomed these strangers. A research paper that can be found in Bacup Library titled Ordinary People (Bacup) by Jeanette Edwards 1990 describes the feelings towards the migrant families from East Anglia. The following is attributed to a Mrs Jones (b.1898) of Bacup:

They were brought in by the trainload to work in the mills... they were called yellow bellies. Why? Because they were foreigners - they worked for less. Some people say the Hoyle family (mill owners) ruined the town because they lowered the wages... bringing in these people.

I cannot help think that William and his family would have been better off in his native Norfolk. William's brothers appeared to have fared much better continuing in the family occupation of brick making. By 1883, William's eldest brother Edward was the managing brick maker at Great Bircham and he probably provided the headstone for the grave of his parents Edward and Celia Ives. William died a poor man and he was buried in a public grave in Bacup Cemetery.

My Father, Frank Ives snr. has compiled a short history of our Ives family from the time William arrived in Stacksteads. With the help of genealogy resources available on computer and the various records available in Norwich it has been possible to draw up a family tree that takes us back into the 18^th century.

One of the best genealogy resources available is the 1851 census for Norfolk on CD-ROM. This web site includes a map of Norfolk showing the distribution of the Ives surname throughout Norfolk in 1851.

Researching family history often turns up the unexpected. One such incident has been the discovery of a set of old photographs that may have once been in William�s possession. Apparently, they were taken in Norfolk at one of the many country houses that can be found in the county. After a search, lasting two years it has been possible to identify Merton Hall as the location of the photographs. We have yet to discover the connection with Merton Hall and find out who are on the photographs.

There already exist a number of published Ives family trees. The most notable one I have found is the Ives of Norwich pedigree with several members of this family serving as mayors of the city. They appear to have been part of the 18^th century nouveau riche, obtaining their wealth from the woollen trade. This wealth enabled them to build Catton Hall on the outskirts of Norwich in 1780 and is situated in Catton Park, which was the first commission of Humphry Repton (1752-1818), the leading landscape gardener of that time. Although this Ives family is not related to ours, I have include their family tree on this site as a matter of interest.

I hope you find this web site both informative and interesting.

Frank Ives jnr., March 2002
frank_ives@hotmail.com

Latest Updates

6th January 2007

Updated Old Photographs.

1st August 2006

Updated Mayors of Norwich.

25th August 2004

Added Church Registers (Marriages).

9th May 2004

Added Church Registers (Burials).

4th April 2004

Added Church Registers (Baptisms).

3rd January 2004

Updated Family Tree.

16th March 2002

Added History.

23rd February 2002

Added Merton Hall.

19th March 2001

Site moved to http://www.ives55.btinternet.co.uk.

10th September 2000

Added Norfolk Country Houses.

18th March 2000

Added Determining Relationships.

5th March 2000

Added Old Photographs.

19th February 2000

Updated Norfolk 1851 Census.

27th January 2000

Added Mayors of Norwich.

15th January 2000

Added Norfolk Churches.

27th February 1999

Web site created.