13 Pullins Green

Oliver Higgins - The Blacksmith

Oliver Higgins was born in Coaley, near Dursley in 1863.  He was the second son of Jephthah and Charlotte Higgins who had a large family: four sons and seven daughters.  Jephthah was a blacksmith and he moved from Coaley to live in Falfield around 1865.    

Three of their sons, Jeptha, Oliver and Luther, followed in their father's footsteps and became blacksmiths.  We think that their fourth son, Gilbert, also became a blacksmith, but he died in 1888 aged 21.

We were delighted to see a number of photos of the Higgins family.  Some of these were too good to leave out of this website although, apart from Oliver, none of the other members of the family had connections with Pullins Green.

The first of these shows two of the other sons as blacksmiths (thought to be Jeptha and Gilbert).  The two other photos show the identical twins who were given the unusual names of Blanche Phyllis and Phyllis Blanche.  Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge.

Oliver chose to carry out his business on Pullins Green in Thornbury.  In September 1885, he undertook to rent the 'shoeing, jobbing and blacksmiths business now carried out by Mark Williams' together with the workshops for six months, and thereafter to rent the 'whole of the dwelling house and premises now occupied by Mark Williams'. 

On 15th November 1886 Oliver married Mary Ann King who was known as 'Polly'.  The marriage took place in the Congregational Church, Thornbury.  At some time between 1890 and 1894, Oliver bought the property he had previously been renting from the joint owners, H. W. J. Carter and G. M. Williams.

We understand that for many years Oliver carried out many of blacksmithing tasks actually in the lane outside his forge.  He was forced to make other arrangements and acquired the fields behind the Baptist Chapel which he used for grazing his horse and for putting the metal rings onto cart wheels.

On 18th April 1916, Mary Ann died aged 56 years.  Oliver married again.  His second wife was Emily Winifred Champion, shown here on the left.  She had been born in 1884.  In 1901 she was a servant for Elizabeth Williams in Weston Super Mare. Click here to read more about the Champion family

The trade directories show that Oliver extended his interests into the coal business, operating from the Thornbury Railway Station.  This side of the business was managed by Oliver's son, Nelson who had returned from the War with shrapnel wounds.  We have been told that Nelson had difficulties maintaining the business and that he sold part of his round to Alfred Davis in 1928 and when he finally gave up around 1935, the rest of the coal business was sold to Edward George Watts.

Oliver eventually retired as a blacksmith. The business was continued by Oliver's assistant, Fred Pearce, and then by his son, Donald until it finally closed in the 50's.

Oliver died in 1942 aged 77 years.  Emily died in 1975 aged 94 years.