Nelson & His World

I am always interested in any connections between the Midlands counties and Nelson's Navy.

The other day I was glancing in a history of West Bromwich and spotted the following - in the context of Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars:



Both Smethwick and Oldbury are just a few miles to the West of Birmingham.

I never associated Collingwood with anywhere other than the North East.

I had meant to buy a biography a while back but never got round to it. Does anyone know of any connections between Collingwood and this area - even if it goes back into the mists of time.

Or has this author got his facts "confused".

MB

Mark:

I've had a quick look at Max Adams' biography of Collingwood, 'Admiral Collingwood, Nelson's Own Hero', but there is no mention of a family connection with Smethwick or Oldbury. He says that the family were 'of ancient Northumbrian stock'.

It is strange how these fictions arise. Maybe there was a collateral female relative who married into a Midlands family or something like that?

I think the author has got his admirals mixed up:

Collingwood was indeed from ancient Northumbrian stock, and Newnham Collingwood provides considerable detail, which may not necessarily be 100% correct, but more recent biographies have not cast any doubt on it.

Tony

Very well spotted.

Seems that it was somewhere earlier in the 1600's that his Cornwallis ancestors were associated with these 2 properties.

Even I . . . . in my maddest moment . . . . couldn't claim Cornwallis as a Midlander.

No time to go contacting the author of the West Bromwich book - so that error will have to remain there uncorrected.

Thanks again

MB

While looking for something else, I came across another strange (and possibly true?) connection between Nelson and Birmingham: his buttons (!) and those of many another famous personage, were made by Firmin's of Birmingham! Real Nelson's Buttons, that is, (unless they had a sideline in sweets .)

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 707196.ece

Mark: the sources look convincing but you know how journalists often get things like this wrong. I bet you can find something stowed away on the orlop deck of Birmingham Reference Library to confirm/refute this!