Sydney Spurdle - Gwersyllt Colliery

I've just realised that I've got it wrong saying that Sydney Spurdle moved to North Wales to work at Gresford Colliery as work to develop Gresford coal mine didn't begin until 1907. This took four years - work to extract the coal began in 1911. He must have actually have worked at Gwersyllt Colliery or a nearby colliery when he first arrived. I have to be honest and say I didn't even know Gwersyllt had a colliery! Apparently it was in operation by 1881, which would tie in with the arrival of Sydney in Gwersyllt.

It could be that he also worked at Gresford Colliery - I wish my grandad Sid Spurdle (Sydney's son) was still around to ask.  However, there were big gaps in my grandad's knowledge of Sydney, perhaps because Sid would have only have been about 11 years old when Sydney died in 1918 aged 51 years old. When you think about it, without knowing Spurdle aunts, uncles and grandparents etc it is no wonder that our family have always known so little about our Spurdle relatives and ancestors.

I have always been interested in the Spurdle name as I have had a life time of people saying 'Spurdle - that's an unusal name' to me. And also being brought up in Wales it also stands out as being a very un-Welsh name! I have never met a Spurdle that I am not closely related to - until the days of the internet I wasn't even sure whether there were any other Spurdles out there! My grandad and his four sons had black hair and dark complexions - an almost Mediterranean look that has always made we wonder whether these 'dark' looks are in the Spurdles genes?