The Lewisham origins of the Coles can be traced from the census records for the
potteries and brickyards in Green Lanes, Tottenham. These show that Daniel Thomas Cole, who later went on to work alongside another branch of the
Cole family there was born in Lewisham, Kent. According to his 4 March 1821 baptismal record from the parish of St Mary, Lewisham, the occupation of his father, Thomas Cole, was tile maker, address Loampit Hill.
The main brick and tile making area at Lewisham at the time was Loam Pit Vale. (This information is courtesy of David Cufley. For his work on a brickmakers' index, see www.davidrcufley.btinternet.co.uk.) So we can assume that Thomas worked the potteries at Loampit Vale in Lewisham (now part of Greater London). Thomas Cole's genealogical origins are of particular importance in this research because he was probably the son or nephew of our earliest confirmed Cole ancestor, potter Daniel Cole who worked in and around Islington (Somerstown or Somers Town and the parish of St Pancras) before moving to Tottenham. Sadly the Lewisham Local Studies Library and archives were unable to help with genealogical data for Thomas. My visit yielded no Coles in the surviving rate books and hardly any potters or brickmakers in Loampit Hill in the 1841 census. (Time did not allow exploration of the side streets, and the later censuses seemed likely to be of less value since, by then, the family had moved away.) David Cufley's index did list a George Cole, brickmaker, in the 1881 Lewisham census. He was age 24 and born in Millwall, Middlesex, but available records show that he was born to a line of cutlers, rather than brickmakers, although there was a Clerkenwell connection (near Islington where Daniel Cole lived in the late 1700s). In Lewisham Local Studies Library I found some black and white prints from what must have been beautiful old watercolours of the local brickmaking and kilns, painted by James Bourne. However, copying was not permitted. Brickmaking in Lewisham ceased in the 1880s. |
