Shropshire Star

A historic building, condemned as unfit for human habitation, was a family home for more than 100 years. Toby Neal gets a rundown on life at the Engine House.

There was no water, no electricity, the ceilings were high, the stairs rickety, and to cap it all it was condemned as unfit for human habitation. But for over 100 years the historic Engine House at Pontesford was the home of the family of Sue Davies of Shrewsbury.

Memories were brought flooding back by a photo used in Pictures From The Past which shows several of her ancestors outside the property. Among them is her great-grandfather Samuel Evans.

“We know that he was born there in 1853,” said Sue, who spent her childhood at the Engine House, but was not actually born there.

“I was born in 1946 at the Wrekin Hospital. I never knew my father, who was an Italian prisoner-of-war who worked at Bromley’s Farm, at Pontesford. I don’t even know his name, other than that it was Tony.”

Sue’s mother Bertha Davies had lived at the Engine House with “Aunty Polly” - Mary Ann Evans.

“She was my mum’s aunty, so she would be my great-aunt. Aunty Polly was against mum having an illegitimate child and did not want anything to do with her. The Pontesbury doctor arranged for mum to go into a home for unmarried mothers at Myford House, Horsehay.

“When I was about three months old she went to work at Meeson Hall, where she lived-in as a parlour maid.

“Before I was five Aunty Polly fell and broke her hip. Mum went back home to look after her. So we moved to Pontesford, probably about 1950. I lived at the Engine House from the age of four until 1975.

“I think the first thing to say is that it was never meant as a house. How we lived in it as long as we did, I will never know. It was condemned. The council offered us council houses. They tried to evict us.

“It was three storey and downstairs was a big room. It had a little pantry going off it. Half of the flooring was red brick and the other half was boards.

“It had a huge oak beam going through it and a great big hook where they hung the pigs when they had killed them.

“Very rickety stairs led to the first floor, which was two bedrooms. Then the top room, as we called it, was just one big room.

“There was no electricity, and we had to carry water from the next-door neighbour’s well.

“There was a coal fire, and it had a cellar. I was always told I could not go down there because there would be water in it and rats. I never did go down it.

“There was like a little trivet in front of the fire with brass across the front. You could put saucepans on there and hang the kettle. There was a side oven. How mum coped I don’t know. When you look back you realise what hard work it was for her. I suppose we never knew differently.

“We had a paraffin stove to boil the kettle on - people would come just as you made the fire up and it would take ages to get bright and heat anything - and we had a privy round the back.

“The ceilings were very high. There was a big dining table like you get in farmhouses. You could put a chair on it and stand on it and still not reach the ceiling.”

Adjoining the property was a workshop used by Fred Langford, an undertaker.

“I used to watch him make the coffins and do the tar. Everybody who knew him said he looked as though he would be next in the coffin as he never looked well.

“Outside the house, just 4ft in front, was a ‘jacky pit’ as they call it.”

It was gradually filled up with rubble.

Sue’s traceable family connection with the Engine House began in 1853 when her great-grandfather, Samuel Evans, was born there. It had been a pumping engine house associated with the Pontesford Colliery, but was a dwelling by the time of Samuel’s birth.

Samuel, a carpenter, is the bearded gentleman on the picture we published. He had 11 children, three of whom are with him.

Sue thinks the one on the left is Dick Evans, a carpenter, who died in 1916 - probably in war service although she does not know the details - and on the right is Samuel Evans junior.

She thinks the woman is Annie Evans.

She said that the Engine House had been sold by the Earlsdale estate in 1953 - they had been tenants up until then - and was bought as a family home by the Evans family.

Aunty Polly died in 1958 and Sue and her mother moved out in 1975 to the luxury of a modern home.

“I worked for Sun Alliance and I was the first single lady to get a mortgage.”

Out of curiosity, Sue has returned to the Engine House, although not recently. She recalls that a lot of expensive work was needed to make the site safe and she was rung up and asked how deep the “jacky pit” was.

“Having seen it as a child, I said 25ft to 30ft deep. In fact it was 200ft deep.”

Meanwhile Mrs Elsie Hayward, 89, of Pontesford, remembers Sam Evans senior as “Papa” Evans, and has a different identification for the woman on the picture.

“We just called him Papa. I don’t know why. I’m sure the woman is Nellie Evans, who married a man called Joseph Davies.”

Mrs Hayward, nee Carswell, said: “I lived next door, in a small cottage called Engine Cottage, which is right up against Engine House. They say years ago that it was the pay office.”

Mrs Hayward did go into Engine House.

“I never went up into the top bedroom though. I was nervous of the height.”