Frederick Hackwood

Frederick William Hackwood FRHS (18 April 1851 – 4 December 1926) was a teacher, antiquarian, journalist, and prolific non-fiction writer who produced more than 30 books. He was born in Wednesbury in the West Midlands of England and served that town as a justice of the peace, historian, and councillor. He wrote for the "Wednesbury Herald" for twenty years.
Early life.
Frederick Hackwood was born on 18 April 1851 at 69 High Street East, Wednesbury, to Enoch and Sarah Hackwood. His father was a tailor and the family had moved to Wednesbury from Stoke-on-Trent in the mid-18th century. The family's origins in Staffordshire were said in Hackwood's obituary to date back to the 13th-century. An ancestor, William Hackwood, worked with John Flaxman in producing designs for Josiah Wedgwood.
In 1868, Hackwood gained admission to St. Peter's Teachers Training College, Saltley.
Career.
Hackwood was appointed headmaster of the Wednesbury parish church schools in 1872. Subsequently, he became headmaster in 1878 of the Dudley Road Board School, Birmingham, and then of Soho Road Board School in 1888. He retired from this final post in 1916.
His first book was "Notes of Lessons on Moral Subjects, a Handbook for Teachers in Elementary Schools" (Nelson, 1883) that he explained in the preface was necessitated by the Department of Education's guidance in 1878 to School Inspectors that they should pay special attention to moral teaching and not hesitate to recommend a reduction in the government grant if schools were found lacking in that respect. Accordingly, the book included lessons on Honesty, Obedience to Parents, Temperance etc. It received a wide circulation, including in the United States and Australia.
Hackwood wrote over 30 non-fiction books, most numerously on the history of the Black Country and West Midlands of England, some of which were produced in editions as small as 25 copies. He was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the William Salt Archaeological Society. Towards the end of his life he wrote a number of popular history books for T. Fisher Unwin such as "Old English Sports" (1907), "Inns, Ales, and Drinking Customs of Old England" (1909), and "The Good Old Times. The Romance of Humble Life in England" (1910). He wrote for the "Wednesbury Herald" for twenty years and for many other journals. Two of his pseudonym's were "Old Woden" and "Muz".
He co-founded the Wednesbury Institute in 1884, founded the Horticultural Society, and in the early 1870s set up the town's first football club, Wednesbury F.C., later known as Wednesbury Strollers F.C. He was a player himself but lost interest in the game after it became professional.
He was a justice of the peace, a freemason, and served on Wednesbury Borough Council as an independent radical from 1887 to 1893.
Personal.
In 1874, Hackwood married Sarah Phoebe Simkin and they had a son, Harold, and a daughter, Louisa. They lived at Comberford Lodge, Bridge Street, Wednesbury, until a fire at a nearby colliery resulted in a move to Handsworth.
Death and legacy.
In his later years, Hackwood lived near his son at 2 Veronica Road, Balham, south London, where he died on 4 December 1926 at the age of 75. His funeral was at Streatham Cemetery. An oil painting of Hackwood by T. Murray Bernard Bladon is in the collection of Sandwell Museums.
Selected publications.
The publications of Frederick Hackwood include: