William Vallence

V is for Vallance

Well to be exact it is for William Vallance. We went on a walk between the showers and I thought I'd search Wilnecote old cemetery for perhaps a Vera. No luck, but I did find this wonderful slate gravestone. It is so beautifully carved. So Vallance it is.

I looked William up. It seems he was a manager of a sanitary pipe works. There were several clay works nearby; Gibbs and Canning, Skeys and Ensors. In 1901 he was living at Ibstock, where there are more factories for making things from clay.

I research Gibbs and Canning of Glascote, Tamworth, as a local history project. I'm always interested to hear from anybody with information about this very famous firm. You can see some of my work at http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/arodgers/gibbs_and_canning.htm.