NAIL making was once Bromsgrove's principal trade involving not only men, but also many women and children.

During the 19th century behind the High Street and in the roads running off it, there were many courts and yards packed with workers. The nail trade was also concentrated in Bournheath, Catshill, Lickey End and Sidemoor.

Nailers usually rented their cottages and nailshops from nailmasters. The master supplied the forge and bellows, but the worker had to supply his own bench and tools and pay to maintain them.

Iron was fetched in 60lb bundles and taken home with the week's order of what was needed. When the completed work was returned middlemen, known as foggers, did not always treat the nailers fairly. They gave little allowance for wastage and were sometimes found to have tampered with the scales to reduce the amount of money they paid out.

In the Midlands we are lucky to have good sources of information about the nail trade. One of the best-known pieces is an article by Robert Sherard, which appeared in the White Slaves of England series, in Pearson's Magazine in 1896. When Sherard asked one Bromsgrove woman what amusement she had in life he was told: "There is none for me; bed and work is all we get."

For many years when it came to finding work, it was said that for most people it was nails or nothing.

But there were other opportunities for some as various businesses were established. More than 300 people, mostly women, were employed at the Button Factory from the 1830s onwards. Some found jobs at the Wagon Works in Aston Fields.

The opening of the Austin Motor Works in the early 20th century provided new opportunities and many Bromsgrove men found work there.

There was a lint mill at Charford from the 1870s, a boot and shoe factory in Worcester Road from the 1890s and a steam laundry, which operated from 1903 until 1973, on the site now occupied by the Jet Garage and Focus DIY in Birmingham Road.

What do we have left to remind us of our nailmaking heritage? Some former nailer's cottages are still recognisable - a few even have their nailshops attached. There is a clock depicting a nailmaker on the outside of Boots the Chemist in the High Street.

Bournheath has the Nailer's Arms pub. Nail making equipment and artefacts can be seen at Bromsgrove Museum and Avoncroft Museum in Stoke Heath has a reconstructed nailshop that once stood in Melbourne Road, Sidemoor.

An intriguing query has recently been the subject of discussion amongst a group of family historians descended from local nail makers. Between 1867 and 1908, at least 50 boys in the local district were given the first name Ashwell. What started this trend?

The name was rarely used elsewhere in the country during the same period. The first family to use the name locally was the Cranes of Sidemoor. They were staunch Methodists so perhaps they named their baby in honour of a preacher.

Some research on the internet has produced a theory. Perhaps the answer may be that the first Ashwell was named not after a Methodist preacher, but after Benjamin Yate Ashwell, a man born into a Birmingham brass founding family who became a Church Missionary Society missionary to the Maoris.

In 1867, he returned to England for a short time. Did he preach in the local area during his visit and make such an impression that babies were named after him? Does anyone know the answer?