Four of Joseph's children, Elizabeth Dance (1824-45), John Dance (1826), William Henry Dance (1835) and Hannah Louise (1838) were born in Devon and Alice Ann Dance (1842) and George Joseph Dance (1841-42) at Clearwell. 

Joseph's younger son, William Henry Dance (1835),  appears on the 1851 Clearwell census with his mother and sisters. The 15 year old is listed as a farm labourer and apparently the sole bread-winner. His widowed mother Ann was described as a pauper.

When William married Cirencester girl Ann Harding at Pembroke in March 1856, he was a private in the North Gloucester Militia. Their main barracks were based in Cirencester.     see    Militia

"In July 1852 orders were given to re-raise the Gloucestershire Militia. In October 605 men assembled for training. With the start of the Crimean War the Militia were called up for service on 26th December 1854 and some men were taken into regular regiments. A second draught of men was taken in 1856."

Clearwell Caves

The North Gloucester Militia were carrying out garrison duties at Pembroke Dock which at that time was serving as a dispersal and arrivals garrison for troops from the Crimea. They had marched there into the Hut Barracks in February 1856.

The Crimean War lasted from 1853 till February 1856 and William's Regiment returned to Cirencester in May 1856. The battalion was stood down on June 12th 1856.

The 1851 census records Ann Harding (1832), born at Baunton near Cirencester, the daughter of William and Rachael Harding, was employed as a domestic servant at Richmond in Surrey. On the 1856 marriage certificate she gave her residence as Cirencester and dressmaker her occupation.

William and Ann Dance settled in the Clearwell area from 1856 till 1862. Young Joseph was baptised at Clearwell on the 17th of March 1857 and was the first of four children born there.

William Dance worked  as an iron miner and we are fortunate today to have an iron mine to visit at nearby Clearwell Caves. It ceased iron ore extraction in 1930, and is now open as a popular tourist attraction. In addition to the fascinating and unusual caves and caverns where scenes for both Doctor Who and Torchwood have been filmed, one can also see the working conditions that William Dance and other 19th century miners would have experienced.

The Hardings

Ann Harding was born at Baunton, Gloucestershire on the 28th of July 1832. She was baptised at Cirencester on the 23rd of September of that year. Her parents were William Harding who was born around 1771, probably at Baunton, and Rachel Bond (1801c) from the Cotswolds village of Crudwell in Wiltshire, a few miles south of Cirencester. 

William was 60 years old when he married  30 year old Rachel at Baunton on the 3rd of August 1831 and was no longer alive at the time of the 1851 census. One of them had a son from a previous relationship who was named as George Harding (1829) on the 1841 Baunton census.

Two more children were born at Baunton, Ann Harding (1832) and William Harding whose birth date was June 17th 1836.

William Harding (1836) was a witness at the 1856 Pembroke Dock wedding of his sister Ann and militiaman William Dance.

He married Cirencester born Esther Richings (1838) at Cirencester in March 1861. They had five children, all born at Cirencester. On the 1871 census his occupation was given as a 'stone sawyer' living at Cirencester. Sometime after 1871 the family migrated to the USA and settled in Massachusetts.

George Woodruff Harding  - born 1906

Baunton Church ©  Peter Moran

St John's Church, Pembroke Dock © Colin Bell  

How Gloucester's Crimean soldiers looked. The Militia had silver lace-work

Cirencester Barracks.  Home to the North Gloucester Militia.

The Band of the North Gloucester Militia at Cirencester in the 1860s

Miners' houses at Ruspidge near Cinderford

Gloucester Street, Cirencester

Around 1863 William's  family had moved closer to Ann's Cotswolds birthplace and in 1871 were living at Gloucester Street, Cirencester where he was employed as a labourer.

Tragically he died in the autumn of 1871 at the age of only 36 leaving Ann with seven children to take care of.

Two of her young sons were already employed, 14 year old Joseph as a messenger, and 10 year old William, an errand boy.

Within a few months her youngest infant Kate, who was born earlier that year, also died.

William and Ann's children were :

Joseph 1857

William 1858

John George 1860

Hannah Elizabeth 1862

Rachel 1863

Hester 1866

Anne 1867

Kate  1871-1872

William's widow Ann Dance remarried in 1879. He was Wiltshire born widower Henry Major (1836), a plasterer, who was born at Hankerton in Wiltshire and had been left with four young children when his wife Emma Major (1838) had died at Stratton in 1874. 

In 1900 Henry's son Eden James Major (1869) married his step-sister, William's daughter, Hannah Elizabeth Dance (1862) at Horfield, Gloucestershire.

Henry Major died at Cirencester in 1919 and Ann in 1917.

William & Ann's son William Dance who was baptised at Clearwell in June 1858 also became a soldier. He joined the 31st Brigade of Infantry in November 1875 and remained a private until leaving in 1882. During that period his regiment served in India. When returning to civilian life he was employed as a stonemason. William married a Cirencester sawyer's daughter Fanny Bennett (1863) at Cirencester in 1888 and settled there. Their home in 1901 was at Coxwell Street. The couple's eight children were all born in that area.

William 1888

Georgina 1890

Walter  1892

Ethel 1895

Elsie  1897

Arthur  1898

Edith  1900

Florence 1902

Their son William Dance (born 19th of August 1888) followed in his father and grandfather's footsteps and also became a soldier. In January 1909 he joined the Army Ordnance Corps where he gave his trade as a carpenter and joiner having served a five year apprenticeship at Cirencester. 

The Ordnance Corps employed him in that trade and he went on to train at Aldershot and the Curragh where he appears to have added wheelwright and coach-building experience to his tradecraft. He was transferred to the Reserve in 1911.

He arrived in Canada as a coachbuilder during June 1912 on board the Mongolian. He appears to have been with a party of at least 11 young men who were mainly in the wood-working trades and destined for a new car manufacturing plant in Amherstburg. Unfortunately any dreams he had of joining Canada's fledgling car industry were soon dashed. By the time the migrants had arrived the new plant had ceased production and the company went into liquidation a short time later.

Amherstburg  is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario. It is approximately 16 miles south of the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan.

Late in 1911 the Two-in-One Auto Company had been formed by a group of Detroit promoters and a few local Canadians. 

The concept of a vehicle that could easily be converted from a passenger car to a light truck appealed to the people of Amherstburg, enough so that the town took a major financial role in the Canadian Two-in-One Auto Company.

The Amherst 40, their only automobile, was promoted as the first conventional looking touring car that could easily be converted into a truck. By August of that year one prototype, built from imported parts, was near enough completion to pull a broken-down vehicle almost 20 miles over rough roads back into town. By August 24th the completed 40 h.p. vehicle was displayed to the town and a few days later it was shipped off to be displayed at the Canadian National Exhibition. 

Production workers were advertised for in British newspapers.

In September the Detroit promoters were dropped for refusing to pay their share of the stock. Two more cars were completed before the company was forced into bankruptcy. 

William Dance was an experienced carpenter and coach-builder and one would guess he would not at that time have experienced any difficulty in finding employment. At some point he moved to Revelstoke in British Columbia and was married around that time.

In September 1914, and during World War I, he signed up to join the 102nd Rocky Mountain Rangers, part of the Canadian Army. By that time he was  a wheeler by trade, and living at Revelstoke. His army application form indicates 12 years previous UK military experience serving with the AOC and the Gloucestershire Yeomanry.

The photo above shows Revelstoke in 1915. It is now a major skiing and mountaineering resort.

At this stage I have no idea whether William Dance survived the 1st World War or if he has any descendants. Tom

Joseph and Elizabeth's children were -

Kate Dance

1886          

born Cirencester

Archibald Victor Dance

Annie Dance

1887

born Cirencester

Beatrice Dance

Florence Dance

1888

born Cirencester  died 1898

Reginald Joseph Dance

Joseph and Hannah's children were -

William Dance

1898

born Cirencester

Clarice Dance

1899

born Cirencester

Hannah and Frederick's children were -

Emily Leadbeater

1904

born Littledean Hill, Cinderford

William's son John George Dance (1860) married Calne born Bessie Wiltshire (1863) at Cirencester in 1882.They moved to Curzon Street, now part of the A4, at  Bessie's home town of Calne in Wiltshire. Between 1883 and 1893 seven of their children were baptised there. His occupation in 1891 was listed as 'fireman-stationary engine'. 

On the Trowbridge, Wiltshire 1901 census he was a 'stationary engine driver'. His son John (1885) was shown as an 'engine cleaner' which I believe was part of the training before becoming an engine driver. At the time of the 1901 census it appears they had only recently moved to Trowbridge as their 3 month old son William was listed as being born at Calne.

The 1911 census shows John & Bessie living at 1 Cherry Grove, Rowbarton, Taunton. John is employed as an engineer at a creamery. His son William's occupation is 'stoker' and Herbert's as 'engine cleaner'. His eldest son John George Dance (1885) also an engineer at a creamery, is living nearby with his new wife Trowbridge girl Florence Bishop at 24 Belgrave place in Taunton.

Around 1914 the family was back in the Trowbridge area. 22 year old Dennis Dance married Winifred Wright there that year. 

The Dance's connection with Camberwell, London seems to have started in 1909 when Bessie Lavinia (1887) married Londoner William Fulford (1886). In 1925 John Dance's widow Bessie Dance married William Fulford's father, also named William, whose wife Louisa had died in 1909, and moved to his home at Camberwell. 

This firm had a major impact on Calne which lasts to this day. Internationally famous as bacon curers, pork pie and sausage manufacturers, Harris's was eventually recognised by Royal Appointment. The firm expanded during the early part of the 20th century, eventually dominating the town both physically and economically.

Economic success and industrial dominance had some negative impacts, particularly on the built environment. Some of Calne's oldest and most beautiful buildings were demolished in the 1920's to make way for the enormous Harris factory buildings.

The Harris Factory in 1984       Paul Gulliver 

In 1983 the Harris Company closed the large factories which had dominated the town as employers and architecturally for over 200 years. This left a void in the town's physical fabric and its social heart, since Harris's, as the major employer, had also provided many social and recreational facilities.

John George Dance born 1885, (centre) with brothers

John George (1885) in  primary school - probably at Calne