The Genealogy of Fred Moor

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In The Beginning....

So far as we have been able to trace (Circa 1600/1700), my family originated as cobblers in the Clint and Ripley areas of Yorkshire. They lived in small villages, where perhaps there would be two other cobbler families. Interestingly, in the 1800s, my family, and the male line of my wife's family (Wood) were both living in Yorkshire in villages less than five miles apart, and both doing the same work. It is most likely that they would have known each other.

Ripley Circa 1986

During the period of the industrial revolution in England, masses of the population migrated from rural villages into the northern Lancashire towns which were establishing around the spinning and weaving industries made possible by mechanisation and power looms. The need for village cobblers must have diminished, and one of my ancestors, John Moor, set out from Yorkshire to make his fortune in the new town of Colne in Lancashire, near to Burnley. Sadly he did not make his fortune, and died a pauper. They must have been hard times. He left a wife and children, one of whom was called Christopher.

83 Ormerod Rd

I imagine life with a family and no husband in those times, would have been very difficult. Perhaps it was this experience of early life which fired up Christopher to succeed, who knows?, but succeed he did. He became a greengrocer, supplying fruit and vegetables to the rapidly growing population of Burnley and Colne. He had a market stall at first, then a shop. Eventually the family moved from small terraced houses to a larger one on the suburbs in Ormerod Road.

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He also had quite a large family. Two sons, Thomas and Joseph in particular, would go on to inherit the family business and create an empire of some significance. In time they founded T&J Moor. (Later T&J Moor & Sons). Eventually they split their interests, Joseph moving west to Blackpool, and Tom west and a little south to Southport. Perhaps typically, they were following the wealthy mill owners away from the industrial grime to the seaside resort towns which were growing in wealthy residents on the coast.

Their migration could have been for the same reason, to escape the industrial environment, but I think they saw the real money moving away, and followed it. Tom established a shop in Southport called Moors Market. It was a forerunner of to-day's supermarket, but restricted to sales of fruit and vegetables. Pile it high and sell it cheap. The philosophy worked.

Tom Moor

Nile Bank, Southport

By the time of the second world war, Tom's family had eleven farms in England, and a further eleven in the Channel Islands. He had a chain of shops throughout east and west Lancashire, an ocean going yacht called "Pommona" (scholars will recognise a link with the potato), and a house in Southport, called Nile Bank with, amongst other features, a ballroom and tennis courts. There was even a Moors Market in Poole on the south coast.

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He had several children, one of whom was my father, also called Fred Moor, but, in the way that happens in families, there was a rift when my father was in his mid twenties. This rift widened over the years and became a full break by the time he was in his mid forties, and before I was born. To the best of my knowledge, there was never any contact between him and his family for the rest of his life, and it is only since his death that my curiosity about his and my background has been assuaged.

Having spent many years learning (the hard way!) how to go about genealogical reasearch, Barbara and I now offer a range of research and consultancy services to others. If you are interested in having some research done in Lancashire or Yorkshire, follow the link to Heritage Research.

Fred Moor Snr.

My Pedigree: Starting at to-day
Fred Moor (1947 - )	Born Wales.	Originally a gardener, then Director of Tourism and Leisure, now a Consultant.
Son of
Fred Moor (1900 - 1978).	Born Burnley, Lancs.	Florist, greengrocer.
Son of
Thomas (Tom) Moor (1860 - 1940).	Born Burnley, Lancs.	Greengrocer.
Son of
Christopher Moor (1832 - 1887)	Born Burnley, Lancs.	Weaver, then Fruiterer and Greengrocer.
Son of
John Moor (1793 - 1869)	Born Ripley, Yorkshire.	Cordwainer (shoemaker).
Son of
Christopher Moor (1760 (?) - 1864)	Born Ripley (?) Yorkshire.	Shoemaker (?).
Probably son of
Christopher Moor (1721 - 1810).	Born Hampsthwaite, Yorkshire.	Shoemaker.
Probably son of
Christopher Moor born circa 1650	A Quaker. Living and buried at Hardcastle Garth, Yorkshire.

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fredmoor@hostweb.org.uk

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