The surname of The Bard is quite common in the Black Country, and maybe some of todays Shakespeares can claim a clannish connection to the great man — not that a steely matriarch such as Mary Ann Shakespeare (left) would have needed to take any reflected glory from William, for she was undoubtedly a worthy person in her own right, certainly from a Black Country perspective.
Her great great grandson, Jonathon Taylor of Kinver, has supplied this photograph, taken when she was in her more senior years, circa 1910-20.
She was a woman chainmaker from Cradley Heath, and Jonathon says that she could well have been one of those who took part in the famous strike of 1910, featured in recent Bugles, and it is possible that she was one of those proud and resolute women shown in the photographs of gatherings of the strikers.
Mary Ann, maiden name Allen, was born in 1854 and died in 1934. She had sixteen children, including two sets of twins, and she worked in the chainshop until she was 65
