• Thomas Bailey was born in the Forest of Dean
• I was born in the Forest of Dean
• Thomas moved to The Potteries seeking work when the there was unrest in the mining industry in The Forest in the 1860s/70s
• My Dad moved his family to the The Potteries when the mining industry in the Forest was becoming exhausted in the 1950s
• Thomas met and married Sarah Sherwin and returned to The Forest with his bride.
• It has always seemed to me that there  was already a lovely connection with Stoke-on-Trent in my Mum's history long before we left Yorkley.
• I will probably never know if Mum was aware of this connection when she left Gloucestershire.

The following notes are from my Family Tree, courtesy of Terry Hayden, GGGrandson of Thomas Bailey and Sarah Ann Sherwin:

From the autobiography  of Derrick Sherwin Bailey : 'Thomas did not follow his forebears and seek work on the land, but found employment in the coal mines of The Forest. 

Because of unrest in the mining industry, he and a friend went to The Potteries to look for work. He found a job with William Sherwin, a middleman or contractor, or "butty collier" as such miners were called. 

In consequence he met and married Sherwin's daughter, Sarah Ann. 

At the time of the marriage at Bethesda Methodist Chapel in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Thomas was living in Bow Street, Hanley and Sarah Ann, 24, was in domestic service in Market Street, Hanley. 

The marriage certificate describes Thomas as a widower, but no trace of a previous marriage can be found. 

When the (coal mine) trouble was over in The Forest Thomas took Sarah  to live back in "his own country". They made their home in Rose Cottage, Oldcroft, Viney Hill. At first they rented their cottage but on the 1st June 1889 Thomas acquired it for a consideration of £20 from the owner, George Page, a builder of Melbourne, Victoria. He was probably related to Thomas through his Grandmother Emma Page.