107 Hartopp Road (and a little about 109 too..)

Hartopp Road was built during the 1890s and is made up mainly of three bedroomed houses with entrance passageways and some very nice front doors, where they still remain. Possibly the first occupants of number 107 Hartopp Road – which still boasts its original front door – were the Hobbisses.

Henry Hobbiss (1845-1930) was a jobbing gardener who had been born at Monks Kirby in Warwickshire and his wife was Ellen nee Hands (c1845-1914). Henry and Ellen had no children but generally took in boarders, such as Harry Taylor (c1880-) who was a fellow gardener born in Billesdon. They even took care of children, such as John William Henry Patrick (1901-) who lived with the Hobbisses in 1911. Ellen seems to have been a caring person. In 1903 she tried to help one of her boarders, or perhaps another young person she knew elsewhere, to get a position working in a hotel on the Isle of Wight. She advertised in the Isle of Wight County Press and South of England Reporter:

Young person, 28, requires engagement in good hotel as an Assistant Housekeeper or bar, relieve office & c., experienced, good references, comfortable home, Ventnor preferred. Write E H 107 Hartopp Road, Clarendon Park, Leicester.

Although a gardener by trade, Henry also ran a boot leather grinding business from home between 1903 and 1910. He advertised its sale in a local newspaper on 20th June 1910:

FOR SALE genuine Boot Leather Grindery Repairs; established 7 years; giving up through illness. – 107, Hartopp Road, Clarendon Park.

Sadly Ellen met with a fatal accident on her way to chapel in May 1914, aged 69. She stepped off a tram on London Road at the corner of de Montfort Street and in front of a passing motorcyclist. She told her husband the rider was not to blame and he was later exonerated by the coroner. Ellen’s leg was broken and she died in hospital a few days after. Henry re-married five years later and lived out the rest of his days at 156 Clarendon Park Road, which was the home of his new wife, Emma Pole (c1876-1939).

First World War—1937

Clarendon Park-born engineer Ernest Garner (c1893-1963) and Caroline May Clabburn (c1890-1966) married in Caroline’s home town of Norwich in 1913 and returned to live in Leicester, where they had daughter Edna May (1915-2000) in 1915. They purchased number 107 Hartopp Road some time between 1915 and 1917. A few years later Ernest’s parents Benjamin “Bennie” (c1852-1931) and Fanny (c1850-1936) moved from 67 Avenue Road Extension to number 109 Hartopp Road. By now Bennie was retired, but he had previously been a bus proprietor and ran a horse drawn bus service to Clarendon Park before the tram tracks were laid and was a well known figure in Leicester. The buses were drawn by three horses each and were known as the “Bennie Garner” buses. After his retirement Bennie was able to devote most of his time to cricket and following the Fernie hunt on foot. After his death in 1931 Bennie’s funeral service was held inside the house, which was crowded with family and friends.

Bennie Garner

In 1937 Ernest and Caroline sold up number 107 and moved back to Norfolk. The house was advertised for sale in the Leicester Evening Mail described as “well-built, freehold, six-roomed house, with large private yard…owner leaving town.” A similar house in Hartopp Road was advertised for sale at £325 in February 1939 (if only house prices were still as favourable…), yet when Ernest died he left an estate worth just £69.

1937-1960+

After the Garners left the house was bought or rented by Norman Harold Musson (1906-1947) and Lilian Victoria nee Tebbutt (1901-1974). Norman and Lilian had married at Clarendon Hall Baptist Church in June 1928 and had a young daughter, Eileen Laura (1933-1974). Before marriage Lilian had been a well-known singer in Leicestershire Baptist church circles, for example she helped raise money for the restoration of Countesthorpe Baptist Church by singing at a concert in 1923. She continued to be an active member of Clarendon Park Baptist Church Operatic Society, performing across Leicestershire, throughout the 1930s.

Ernest died in 1947 – not at home but at the General Hospital – five years before the wedding of his daughter Eileen to greengrocer Kenneth Sharp (1930-2002) in 1952 at St John the Baptist Church. The newlyweds moved in with Lilian at 107 Hartopp Road for a while but sometime between 1960 and 1962 they all moved to live together at 102 Lorne Road, where Kenneth kept a shop selling fruit, vegetables and flowers, along with Eileen and Kenneth’s three young sons. Lilian died in 1972.

1962+

Pat and Susan Kennedy at 107 Hartopp Road in 1962

David and Patricia Kennedy nee Yarham moved into number 107 in 1961-1962. The Leicester Chronicle reported in January 1963 that Pat had lived in New Parks before her marriage. She said of Hartopp Road that “It’s nice down here…Up until now I haven’t got to know an awful lot of people but the ones I have met seem nice. It seems a kind of change-over street. Older people who have lived here a long time have died, and younger people with their families are moving in.” David worked for a soft drinks firm and had a keen interest in photography. Together they had baby Susan (1962-). By 1975 the family had moved to another part of Clarendon Park.

More About Horace William Hind (1894-1916)

Way back in 2010 I wrote an article about the history of one of Clarendon Park’s businesses – W T Hind, dispensing chemist of 76-78 Queens Road (currently the daftly named Well Pharmacy) and 44 Montague Road (which is the Montague Road frontage to the same shop). In the article I mentioned Horace William Hind, son of William Tom Hind who founded the business in 1888.

Recently I was lucky enough to find this postcard sent to Horace William on the occasion of his 9th birthday in 1903. It reads “Wishing you many happy returns of your birthday from Grannie” and is addressed to Queens Road. Incidentally, the postcard was sold from America. I wonder how it found its way there?

Horace William was the eldest child of pharmacist William Tom Hind (1866-1944) and Lizzie nee Smith (1871-1967), next door neighbours who married at St Peter’s Church in Belgrave in January 1894. He was baptised at St John the Baptist, Clarendon Park, as were his siblings Arthur Henry (1897-1989), Frederick Leonard (1900-1978), Edith Evelyn (1903-1988), Kathleen Muriel (1907-1986) and Eric Austin (1913-1989).

“Grannie” of the birthday postcard was either Horace’s paternal grandmother Jane Wilson Hind, nee Warner (1842-1912), or his maternal grandmother Martha Smith (c1848-1931). Both lived next door to each other at numbers 53 and 55 St Peter’s Road respectively.

Horace attended Wyggeston School and afterwards studied to become a pharmacist like his father. He began medical studies at Leicester Municipal Technical School in September 1913 and was still a student when he joined the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment on the 1st September 1914 as Private 2548. He was promoted to the rank of Corporal in May 1915. Between April and October 1915 Horace sustained a number of injuries and was hospitalised several times, including once for influenza.

Described by his superior officer as “a fine manly young fellow, liked by all who knew him,” Horace was posted wounded and missing following the charge of the Midland Brigade on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. It was first hoped that he was a prisoner of war but on Christmas Eve 1915 the Leicester Evening Mail reported “Mr and Mrs W T Hind, of East Avenue, Clarendon Park, have received information from the Territorial Record Office that the War Office have announced the death of their eldest son, Corporal Horace William Hind, of the 1/4th Leicesters. He fell in the great encounter on October 13th. Corporal Hind, who was 20 years of age, joined the Territorials when war broke out. He was an old Wyggestonian.”

Horace’s poor parents had a difficult time with the military authorities, who initially sent the personal effects of a different soldier, Corporal Ockenden, instead of Horace’s watch, fountain pen and New Testament which they were expecting. It must also have been upsetting in 1925 when Horace’s exhumed body was re-buried at Cabaret-Rouge Cemetery, Souchez, near Arras.

Evidently someone remembered Horace fondly enough to keep hold of his 9th birthday postcard.

101 St Leonards Road, From A Postcard

I came across this photographic postcard of what was an unidentified house, produced by a Leicester printer, on Ebay a couple of years ago. I have had quite a bit of luck with identifying these in the past, but particularly so with this one as the house turned out to be not 100 yards from my own front door. It’s 101 St Leonards Road, which was built in 1887, one of a pair with number 99 making “Belton Houses” (very grand). I really love finding these photographs of working class houses and re-connecting them with their history. This one will eventually find its way to the records office so it will be forever safe.

101 St Leonards Road c 1910 with Dorothy May Greaves (left) and Kate Stretton

101 St Leonards Road looks to have been first lived in by Henry Stretton (1864-1936), who was born in Warwickshire and worked as gas labourer for Leicester Corporation, his wife Catherine “Kate” Stretton nee Moore (1868-1950) and their son Henry Moore Stretton (1896-1975).

In 1905 Rose Ellen Greaves nee Hobbs (1871-1905), who lived at 114 Hartopp Road with husband Arthur Francis Greaves and her three surviving children, died and was buried in the churchyard at St Mary’s, Knighton, where her second son Arthur Reginald Greaves (1901-1902) lay resting.  At some time between 1905 and 1911 but probably soon after Rose’s death, Henry and Kate adopted Eva Clara (1892-1923), Harry Ernest (1899-) and Dorothy May Greaves (1904-1987). It’s not clear what happened to Arthur Francis Greaves, who was father to Harry and Dorothy but probably not to Clara who was six when Rose – six months pregnant with Harry – married Arthur.

I believe that the woman in the postcard is Kate Stretton, holding hands with little Dorothy who looks perhaps 4 years old. That, along with the clothes they are wearing, dates the photo at around 1910. It’s telling that Kate was pictured with Dorothy and not her own son Harry, who would have been a young teenager. How kind of Kate and Henry to take in three orphaned children with all the extra work and expense involved. Eva went out briefly to work as a domestic servant in the home of headmaster Samuel Scattergood at 165 Knighton Road, but otherwise all of the children lived at 101 St Leonards Road until they either married or died, and yet I can’t find any connection between the Strettons and Rose Ellen to explain why they adopted her three children. Perhaps they were friends or maybe Kate and Henry felt their family was not complete with just one surviving son.

It must have been a busy household. Henry Moore Stretton worked as a gardener’s errand boy before marrying Lucy Eileen Slater and leaving home in 1919. Eva lived out in domestic service for a while but then came home and worked a shop assistant for grocers Simpkin & Jones. Harry Ernest worked for H E Allsopp hosiery manufacturers on Charles Street and Dorothy was a packer for J Goddard, manufacturing chemist, Station Street.

Eva Clara Greaves died at 101 St Leonards in 1923 aged just 31 and was buried at Welford Road Cemetery.  Henry Moore Stretton’s wife Lucy became unwell and was nursed at St Leonard’s Road before finally dying in 1927 at the Infirmary. He remarried in 1930. His second wife was May Kinton May Kinton (1899-1975). Henry Stretton died in 1936 and was buried at Saffron Hill Cemetery. Kate lived out her days at 101 St Leonards Road and died in 1950 at Hillcrest nursing home aged 82. She was buried alongside Henry at Saffron Hill.

After Kate died, adopted daughter Dorothy May probably lived in the house for a time (although I still can’t get to the records office to check). She died in 1987 whilst living at Saffron Court supported accommodation on Southfields Drive.

<1960 – 1975

After Dorothy left, the next occupants of 101 St Leonards Road were the Kinton family. I have found no connection to May Kinton, who married Henry Moore Stretton, but it does seem an unlikely coincidence that unrelated Kintons should have moved in after the Stretton/Greaves left. Charles Archibald Kinton (1892-1967) was a poster writer who had lived as a small boy at 90 Montague Road. Charles married Emma Helen Poperly (1886-1975) at St Peter’s Oadby in 1914, and initially lived at 6 Linton Street. It looks from the value of their estates when Charles and Emma died that they owned 101 St Leonards rather than renting. Charles died in the house in 1967 and Emma died in 1975, not before installing the first telephone line in 1971.

Around the time that the Kintons lived in St Leonards Road the Leicester Chronicle ran a regular feature called “Down Your Street,” interviewing residents of a particular road and giving snippets of history. In 1963 the Chronicle featured St Leonards Road – which gives a flavour of what it was like to live there. Ron Allsopp, resident of number 106, said “These old homely back streets, with their obliging corner shops, are giving way to an impersonal streamlined modern way of life.” Mrs Weston of number 54, who had lived in the road for 56 years, said “We are mostly elderly folk who live down here. You could almost call St Leonards Road a street of widowed ladies! You used to be able to see fields from here once. Now there isn’t a field for miles.” Times have certainly changed.

101 St Leonards Road, December 2020

34 Cradock Road

Mostly when I research the history of a house it is because I have stumbled across an interesting fact or because it’s particularly appealing to me architecturally or in some other way. For some reason the urge took me to research number 34 Cradock Road, which turns out to be a very ordinary house (I like the brickwork under the roof and the fact that most of the stonework has never been painted) with very ordinary occupants. And there is nothing wrong with that. Since it was built in 1888 – one of a pair with number 36 making “Ivy Cottages” – at least 11 children were born in the house and at least 7 people died there.

1888 – about 1900

The first occupants of number 34 appear to have been the Graham family. James Graham (1859-1928), a printers compositor, married Catherine Welsh (c1858-1937) in 1882. Together they had 12 children plus one adopted son. These were Mary Agnes (1882-), Catherine Elizabeth (1884-1923), John William (1885-), Lilian Harriett (1887-), Nellie (1890-), Lucy (1890-1893), James Stephen (1891-1914), Nora (1893-1919), Edith Charlotte (1894-1896), Cyril Joseph (1895-), Benjamin (1897-1937) and a stillborn child in April 1898. Their adopted son was Freddy Edge (1904-). Of these, all except Mary and Freddy, were born at 34 Cradock Road. Little Lucy and Edith died there. The family moved to 186 Gresham Street in either 1899 or 1900. During the Grahams’ tenure the house was sold by auction twice – first in April 1893 and again in May 1896, both times along with number 36. The combined rental value was £23 8s.

c1900 – 1911

When the Grahams moved out, the Grains moved across the road from where they had been living at number 25 Cradock Road. Bricklayer John Grain (c1844-1901), his wife Sarah Ann nee Batchelor (c1843-1926) who was blind, and their daughter Ada (c1873-1901), a tailoress, moved to live next door to John and Sarah’s son Tom and his young family. John and Sarah were originally from Great Glen. Sadly Ada died at 34 Cradock Road in February 1901, followed by her nephew little Percy Grain (1900-1901) aged 19 months who died next door at number 36. Then John died at home on 23rd April 1901 aged 57, just a few days after the census was taken. They were all buried at Welford Road Cemetery. The rest of the Grains continued to live at number 36 until after the Second World War, with John and Sarah’s grandson Albert William Grain (1907-1973) – also a bricklayer – and his wife Margaret nee Scott (1911-1973) living at number 31 Cradock Road until Margaret’s death aged 97 in 2009. I didn’t know Margaret but I do remember when the original windows and front door were replaced with white uPVC, which must have been soon after her death.

Returning to number 34 – by 1911 it was the home of engineer’s fitter Frederick Walter Harrison (1876-1943) and Ellen Holt (1872-1951) who married at St John the Baptist in July 1908. Ellen worked as a waitress before she got married and both gave their address as 109 St Leonard’s Road, which was the grocer’s shop owned by Ellen’s father George Holt. Ellen and Frederick had no children. In 1911 they had a lodger – shop assistant Emily Caroline Leverington (1881-). I wonder if she worked in George Holt’s shop. Emily had been engaged to marry railway shunter John George Carter in 1907 but the wedding was called off at the last minute and he died two years later in an accident at work.

c1915 – 1950s

John Thomas Whitaker

The Whitaker family moved to 34 Cradock Road during the First World War. John Thomas Whitaker (1880-1943) had married Edith Laurie Giles (1886-1966) at St Andrew’s, Jarrom Street, where daughters Edith Lilian (1908-1930) and Phyllis May (1912-1940) were baptised. Son John Ernest was born in January 1919 and baptised at St John the Baptist. John Thomas worked for Leicester Corporation for over 40 years, first as a tram driver, then driver and finally inspector. The two girls both died as young women, following illness.

John Ernest & Pamela Whitaker

After the 1950s

John Ernest Whitaker worked as a hosiery order man at Samuel Farmer and Co, Northampton Square. In his free time John played for Newarke Athletic Football Club. At the outbreak of the Second World War John joined the 1st Leicestershire Regiment as a private soldier and served in India. He was later transferred to another regiment and promoted 2nd Lieutenant. Declared missing after the Japanese invasion of Singapore and was still missing when his father died at home in March 1943, of heart failure. In August 1943 it was finally known that John was a prisoner of war in Japanese hands and he was fortunate to make it home at the end of the war. John married Pamela Warrington (1928-), who lived 4 doors down at number 40 Cradock Road, in January 1949, at St John the Baptist Church. They had a son, Michael, in 1953. In November 1949 number 34 was sold by auction, again with number 36, this time promoting “modern drainage.”

By 1960 34 Cradock Road was occupied by Mrs Clara Whitaker. I don’t know if she was any relation of John Ernest Whitaker but it seems highly likely. Unfortunately I can’t get the records office to check because…Covid, Christmas, life…but maybe in 2022 I will get the chance.

The Woman and the Wealth Behind St John the Baptist Church

A while ago someone got in touch with me to ask whether I knew how Miss Sarah Barlow, who gave £8000 for a church to be built in Clarendon Park, happened to have the money to do so. I didn’t know, so I did a bit of digging.

Sarah’s parents were Lemuel Barlow (c1750-1801) and Rebecca Morris (c1764-1826), who married at All Saints on 4^th November 1782. They had eight children – Mary (1783-1825), John Clay (1786-1863), Ann (1788-), Sophia (1790-), Elizabeth (1793-), Sarah (1796-1801), Robert (1799-1853) and Sarah (1801-1886). Our Sarah was the youngest, born just three months after her older sister of the same name died in 1801 aged 4. Lemuel died in November of the same year, aged 51, so Sarah never knew her father. He was buried at St Margaret’s.

Rebecca remarried after 18 months. Her second husband was William Bosworth. Rebecca and the younger Barlows moved to Sanvey Gate, where Rebecca died in 1826. After Rebecca died Sarah moved into the home of her eldest brother John Clay Barlow, who was a coal and timber merchant who also owned properties in Rothley and Leicester which he rented out. They lived at Horsefair Street between 1841 and 1849 and at Prebend Street from 1851 to 1853. By 1861 John and Sarah lived at Leamington, which is where John died – unmarried – in 1863 aged 77.

Sarah was extremely attached to John and clearly missed him badly after he died. She dedicated a window to John at St Mary’s, Knighton. In 1878 she paid £600 for a new lifeboat to be built and named the “John Clay Barlow.” This was one of two National Lifeboat Institute lifeboats funded by Leicester benefactors and stationed at Hartlepool of all places. In 1881 the John Clay Barlow saved the life of three men from the schooner Thomas and three men from the Yorkshire Lass, which had run ashore near the Beacon Rocks. However Sarah’s most glorious memorial to her brother was the erection of St John the Baptist Church. I have sometimes wondered who chooses the saint to which a church is dedicated. It’s pretty clear in this case isn’t it. St John…

As an aside, Sarah’s second brother Robert seems to have been a much more interesting character. He was just two years older than Sarah and emigrated to America soon after the death of his mother, but not before establishing Barlow’s Rooms, a well used venue for meetings and lectures of all kinds including in 1838 the first public lecture of Owenite Socialism by E Nash. Robert was an elected Freeman’s Deputy and was active in trying to end the misuse of the Freeman’s income from Freeman’s Common. He died in Virginia in 1853.

After her beloved brother died, Sarah lived alone apart from servants. She rented and lived at 5 Upper King Street, opposite Holy Trinity Church, from 1882 until her death. No wonder she felt inspired to build a beautiful church after having to look at Holy Trinity all the time, which is surely one of the ugliest churches ever erected.

As well as founding a lifeboat and a church, Sarah established an almshouse in Knighton Drive to accommodate 4 poor women of good character, although she didn’t name it the John Clay Barlow almshouse.  Sarah died after a short illness on 7th May 1886 aged 84. Her funeral quite rightly took place at St John the Baptist on 13th May. The weather was very poor and the congregation was small. The Leicester Journal described the funeral in some detail – the 90th psalm was sung, as well as the hymns Jesu, Lover of My Soul and O God, Our Help in Ages Past. Sarah’s body was placed in a polished oak coffin with brass mountings in the family vault at St Mary’s churchyard. The Leicester Journal published Sarah’s obituary, describing her as “a lady whose name is well known as one of our local philanthropists…a most munificent contributor to the various charitable institutions in the town.”

Sarah does seem to have been a bit of a character. Despite her wealth – she died with an estate worth over £47,000 even after building churches, boats and almshouses – she always lived fairly frugally with just one or two servants. One of these was Elizabeth Hall (c1825-), whose mother Frances was remembered in Sarah’s will to the tune of 19 guineas. After many years of service Elizabeth herself was in line for an annuity of £20 a year until Sarah revoked the bequest, perhaps because of some falling out. Just before her death Sarah decided to give Elizabeth Hall £460 instead. Sarah changed her will five times before she died, including giving her great nieces and nephews the princely sum of £100 each. She took those £100s straight from the pockets of The Society at Leicester for Indigent Old Age, The Leicester Infirmary, The Leicester Dispensary, Mr George Muller’s orphanage at Bristol, the Church Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society – all originally line for £100 each and all revoked in 1879.

The rest of Sarah’s estate – mainly real estate at Earl Shilton and Leicester – went to Charles William Cooper (1842-1899) of Leicester, except for £5000 which was placed in trust for ten blind women of good character. Charles was for many years honorary physician to the Leicester Infirmary. I haven’t been able to find a family link between Sarah and Charles but it would make sense if he was a great nephew.

If you have reached the end of this and wondered why I still haven’t answered the question of how Sarah become possessed of enough to build St John the Baptist church, let me tell you that it’s because I don’t know. Sarah’s father Lemuel didn’t leave a will that I can find and there is little else to say about him except that I imagine he was a well off manufacturer of some kind, as his sons certainly had money and property. When John Clay Barlow died in 1863 he left his sister £25,000 but Sarah amassed at least the same amount by other means. It may well be that she lived so frugally that her income greatly exceeded her expenses. Whatever the case, it’s a great thing that she built a beautiful church for Clarendon Park.

Postcard to 31 Howard Road

 

Postcard sent from Walton on Thames to John Cox of 31 Howard Road, 30th July 1910.

I love finding old postcards sent to a Clarendon Park address and so I was pleased to see this turn up on Ebay last week. In July 1910 twenty year old Sydney Ellis wrote to his “dear aunt and uncle” Ada Cox (1877-1960) and John Cox (1872-1957) at 31 Howard Road from his holiday in Walton-on-the-Naze on the Essex coast. Sydney enquired after their son, his 12 year old cousin Roland Cox (1898-1970) and someone called William/Willy who I have not been able to trace, but it sounds as though he was in a bad way.

31 Howard Road

Ada Palmer and John Cox married at St John the Baptist, Clarendon Park, in 1897. Ada was born in Leicester whereas John originally came from Oldbury near Birmingham.  Ada had worked as a warehouse girl before marriage and John was a photographer. Roland, their only child, was born in 1898.  They moved to 31 Howard Road some time between 1901 and 1911. John’s family lived nearby in Montague Road and Edward Road and his father Luke and sister Laura (I will write more about Laura some time…she married a German man who was taken prisoner of war during both world wars) would eventually settle in Howard Road. To begin with, John worked in someone else’s photographic studio. By 1914 he had set up his own photography business at 104 Narborough Road. John died in 1957 and Ada in 1960.

The front side of the postcard

Our author, Sydney Ellis, was born in Leicester in March 1890 to parents John Ellis (c1866-) and Emily nee Palmer (1865-). Emily was Ada’s older sister. Sydney was baptised at St John the Baptist, Clarendon Park but the family moved to Colchester in Essex soon after. Sydney attended Colchester High School and then Colchester Technical Institute, where he passed exams in “Steam and Maths.” At the same time – from age 14 – he was apprenticed to Messrs Davey and Paxman in Colchester, then for a year (1911-1912) with crane manufacturers Messrs Herbert Morris in Loughborough. Sydney then stayed as Resident Engineer in Loughborough for three years until 1915, when he joined the Ministry of Munitions as a technical assistant. This work was centred on trench mortar shell fuses and as such he was exempt from active service.

However on 22nd January 1918 Sydney joined the Army as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers Trench Warfare Department, with whom he served in France. His service record is lost but the good news is that he survived – when I first started researching this postcard I experienced the usual dread and was relieved to learn that Sydney made it.

After the war Sydney returned to civilian engineering. On 10th February 1927 and at the age of 36, Sydney married Elsie May Overton (1901-1979), who was eleven years his junior. They moved into a semi detached house near the seafront in Frinton on Sea, which they named Overton Cottage in honour of Elsie. It is still called that today. Two sons were born in 1932 and 1939. Sydney worked as as a sales representative for engineering products.

Sydney died on 26th May 1966, still living at Overton Cottage. Elsie May died in 1979.

 

 

 

 

 

 

27 Avenue Road Extension….Veg Shop to Chip Shop

27 Avenue Road Extension, currently Vicky’s Chippy.

Someone was kind enough to leave a comment on a recent post, asking whether I knew anything about 27 Avenue Road Extension as relatives of theirs were grocers who lived there. I finally have time and headspace to look at local history again so I had a quick peep and found that number 27 Avenue Road Extension is currently Vicky’s Chippy, on the corner of Queens Road. The first I can find out about the property is that it was a shop premise in 1891 but stood empty. The Ball/Lister family were the first occupants after this and stayed for 60 years.

William Ball (1827-1899) married farmer’s daughter Hannah Clarke (c1838-1897) at Newbold Vernon church 30^th December 1858. They had eleven children and lived at Newbold Vernon, where William kept a butchers shop on the main road. At some time between 1881 and 1891 William, Hannah and the youngest children Harry (1872-1945), Eleanor (1874-1958), Agnes (1876-) and Cicely (1878-1945) moved to number 33 Avenue Road Extension. William had retired from butchery – which sounds more dramatic than it probably was – whilst Harry and the girls worked in local factories. After a while William and Hannah got the shopkeeping bug again, moved three doors down to number 27 and started a small greengrocers. Number 27 had three bedrooms, two downstairs living rooms and of course the shop.

50 Montague Road where George’s father John Lister kept a fishmongers shop

William and Hannah’s daughter Eleanor married Fishmonger’s son George Alfred Lister (1874-1958) at St John the Baptist in 1895. They moved into number 35 Avenue Road Extension. George was a tailor’s presser and Eleanor had worked in a fancy hosiery factory until her marriage. They had a son, Alfred Reginald (1898-1978) whilst living at number 35. After Eleanor’s father William died, she and George moved into number 27. Eleanor took over the running of the greengrocers shop. They had another three children – Hilda Maude (1899-1983), Doris Lillian (1907-1990) and Daisy Eleanor (1910-2007), all baptised and later married at St John the Baptist.

In 1915 an accident took place in the house but I can’t work out who was the unfortunate Mary Ball who in September “was removed to the Infirmary on Saturday afternoon suffering from injuries to her head caused by a fall,” according to the Leicester Daily Post. Mary must have been a relation of Eleanor’s but whether living in the house or just visiting I can’t say.

It must have been a fairly crowded house too. Eleanor’s brother Harry Ball moved back to 27 Avenue Road Extension in 1918. He married Clara Bromage (1884-1958) in 1904. They lived in Edward Road and had four children together but, for whatever reason, Harry left Clara in 1918 and never lived with her again. The children stayed with Clara. Harry continued to live at number 27 until his death in 1945.  One Joseph Pearson lived there between 1925 and 1930, perhaps a lodger.

Eleanor died in 1958 after which George moved to number 110 Avenue Road Extension at some point, presumably because he didn’t want to continue running a shop. George died in 1965 and was buried along side Eleanor and her parents in St Mary’s churchyard.

Due to the lockdown I am not able to follow the story of number 27 much further, but I do know that it was already a chip shop by 1971, run by D P Joannou who also installed the telephone line. The shop front was enlarged in 1984 and the first illuminated signage was installed in 1985. It probably hasn’t changed much since. It went by the name of Sunny Blue Chippy when I first moved to Clarendon Park, which always seemed a bit incongruous with the surroundings! I don’t frequent Vicky’s Chippy (I prefer Grimsby’s) but I know that it has many aficionados and hope that the business survives these strange times.

Tragedy at Trentham, 47 Queens Road

Trentham aka 47 Queens Road

Almost every house I look into has some kind of tragic story and number 47 Queens Road is no exception. The house was built in 1889 and was bestowed with the name ‘Trentham.’ In June 1889 Trentham was available for rent at £38 per year. It was taken by 30 year old Thomas Pearse Trethewey (1858-1894) and his wife of a month or so, Alice nee Evans (c1863-1930). Thomas was the recently appointed minister of Clarendon Park Congregational Church on the corner of London Road and Springfield Road. He and Alice had moved from Sheffield to take up the appointment in April, leaving behind Abbeydale Church where he had been much loved.

Thomas was well liked by his Leicester flock too. The deacon described him as

Clarendon Park Congregational Church

popular and able. But he had a tendency to disappear for periods, being low in spirits and sometimes troubled with delusions of being in insurmountable debt. One Tuesday evening in November 1894 Thomas left his wife at home without a word and walked to Blaby railway station, carrying no luggage. After a couple of days he was traced to the Liverpool area and was thought to have sailed for America. On Sunday morning the deacon announced to Thomas’s congregation that he was missing. His body was found on Monday, drowned in Lake Windemere. Thomas left letters in his pockets that described how he purposefully travelled there, to the place he had enjoyed visiting with his wife and mother and law, to drown himself in the dark and cold. He was worried about a debt of £270. He hoped Alice would forgive him. He was 32.

Poor Thomas, and poor Alice. In December she was forced to sell their belongings, the contents of Trenthham, which were described in an auction catalogue: “Superior  modern furniture and appointment…including a nearly new dining room suite of six chairs, two easy chairs and couch, covered in morocco leather…a number of etchings, photographs and sketches…full-size brass rail bedstead…stained glass hall lanthorn…hip bath…lawn mowing machine, etc.”  Alice left Leicester, moved back to Sheffield to live with her parents and died, still a widow, in 1930.

After the Tretheways departed, the Bray family moved in. They were Harry (1859-1931), solicitor with his own practice Bray and Price, his wife Lizzie Jessie nee Turner (1863-1946) and children Cecil Francis (1885-1964), Harry Gerard (1887-1964), Amy Ethel (1889-1973), Winifred Jane (1891-1969), Marian, (1894-1960), Bessie M (c1896-) and two servants. I assume Harry was one of the early founders of Bray and Bray, whose headquarters are near the city centre today. The Brays advertised for a servant in June 1897: “General Servant (Good) wanted. No washing. – Address B, ‘Trentham,’ Queens Road Leicester.”

By 1899 the Brays had moved to Narborough Road and widow Adela Martha Wykes nee Bramley (1856-1908) lived at Trentham. Adela lived with her adult children William Bramley (1881-1932), Lillie Marian (1881-1972), Gerald Davis (1883-1962), Alfred Douglas (1885-), Adela Ellen (1888-1975), her sister in law Fanny Davis Wykes (1860-1928) and a servant. The Wykes were partners at printing company Johnson, Wykes and Paine.

Printed by Johnson, Wykes & Paine

After Adela died in 1908 her children William, Lillie and Adela lived on at 47 Queens Road until 1912 when William got married.

In 1912 Dr Louis Edward Staynes (1869-1945), physician and surgeon, took the house at an annual rent of £32 a year (£6 less than the Tretheways paid in 1889). Louis was a wealthy GP whose single brothers and sisters lived at Avenue House, Avenue Road. Louis himself lived at Avenue House until 1912 and returned to live there after the First World War, when Trentham was sold in January 1919.

Next came the Hirsts. Arthur Hirst (c1870-) was a grocer. He, his wife Henrietta nee Wheatley (1870-1956) and their children Edith Winifred (1899-), Enid Gertrude (1900-1974), Arthur Vernon (1901-), Hettie Gladys (1903-2000), Lilian (1907-) formerly lived in a much smaller shop and house at 64 Montague Road. They had moved away by 1939 and unfortunately that is as much as I can trace of 47 Queens Road until the records office is open again.

The Corner Shop at 77 Howard Road

Welcome to the first lockdown edition of YourHistories, where you will have to imagine what the buildings I am talking about look like today because I can’t get out to photograph them. Luckily we have this super postcard showing what number 77 Howard Road looked like c1908. It’s the corner shop with the blind open on the right hand side. Today it’s a lovely private residence and a fine example of what developers could do with lovely old shop premises instead of bricking up the big windows and installing poky, cheap white UPVC replacements.

77 Howard Road has come full circle. It was built as a private residence, converted to a shop in 1903 and back to a private residence again (actually split into two houses) in 2010. The first occupants I could find were commercial traveller Robert Duncan Henderson (1874-1936), his wife Kathleen Robinson (c1875-), their children John Duncan (1899-) and Robert William (1900-) and Kathleen’s mother Sarah. Robert William may even have been the first baby to be born in the house. They didn’t stay long though, because by October 1901 the Holyoakes lived at number 77. Alfred Weston Holyoake (1865-1904), Millicent Elizabeth Orgill (1869-1944) and their children including Colin Weston Holyoake (1902-1966), who was perhaps the second baby to be born at number 77, moved in but soon left for Portland Road.

I don’t know who converted the building to a shop – perhaps the landlord thought he could get more rent for a shop than a house – but Mrs Amelia Beedle, nee Lunn (1855-1941) was the first shopkeeper, in 1903, starting a long tradition of selling sweets. Amelia was a widow with six children. In 1906 another widow, Mrs Elizabeth Eaton, sold vegetables and confectionary but presumably made a bad job of it as she was gone by 1907. Then followed:

1908 – 1910 Former hotel proprietor George Bumpstead (c1841-1910) and Eliza (c1848-1912)  sold groceries and confectionary from number 77 but lived in Wolverton Road. George died in February 1910 and the business closed.

1910 – First World War George Edward Pritchard (1852-1924), wife Emily Hubbard nee Bent (1861-1949) and their children Annie Marian (1899-1988) and Ernest John (1902-1988) – grocer and confectioners. It’s not clear when they left number 77 but it was some time during the war.

1918 – 1954 James Cave (1884-1959) and Annie Caroline nee Randall (1895-1981), daughter Joyce Alma (1925-2006). In November 1919 James was granted a business loan of £100 by Sir Thomas White’s charity. They sold groceries and sweets.

1954 – 1959 Raymond Dadley Venn (1909-2006) and his wife Florence Mary Law (1915-) married at St John the Baptist, Clarendon Park in 1940. He was a clerk and she was a hairdresser. They lived at 77 Howard Road from 1954 and sold groceries and confectionary. Daughter Susan was born in 1955.

1960 S J Last, grocer.

1961 – 1962 Mary Elizabeth Smith.

1963 – 1973 Robert Charles Sibson (1915-1996) and Gladys M nee Randell (1916-) and their three sons. Robert had worked as a shop assistant in a pork butchers in 1939 before serving as a soldier during the Second World War, while Gladys worked in a hosiery factory.

1974 -1994 Longest standing residents the Patel family moved to number 77 in 1974.  Lallubhai, Dahiben, Hashmukhbhai, Rajeshkumar, Vijay K, Minaxi L, Jayesh K, Manaxi L, Sangeeta and Bharti Patel ran a general grocers, confectioners and off licence. After the Patel family left the premises remained empty and in fairly poor condition. You could still see shop fittings and old posters inside what is now the current occupants’ sitting room when I moved to Clarendon Park in 2005 and the old illuminated off license sign still hung outside. I wish I had taken a photo. A neighbour told me about Mr Patel – presumably Lallubhai – and what a friendly chap he had been.

From Clarendon Park Adult School to a Remarkable Quaker Family

Did you know that Clarendon Park once contained an Adult School? I didn’t even know such a thing existed but a chance mention in a newspaper got me searching. The Adult Schools movement began in the second half of the nineteenth century, when members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) established Sunday morning schools across the country to instruct in reading, writing and Bible study. The movement provided non-denominational, but religiously-based education for the working classes and as such Clarendon Park was the ideal location for an Adult School. By 1889 there were ten schools in Leicester with over 500 members. A wooden hut in Avenue Road Extension – Clarendon Park Mission Room, erected c1881 – was the venue for adult teaching of both sexes (but never together) from about 1883-4. One of the founding teachers was Miss Hannah Margaret Stafford (1852-1905) of Elmsleigh Hall, Stoneygate, who taught for over 20 years until just before her death in 1905.

The standard of teaching and discussion was high. In March 1897 the Mens’ Morning Class discussed the oppression of Cretan Christians by Turkey and urged the British government not to support the Turkish cause. There was a whist league in competition with other adult schools (Clarendon Park lost to the Paradise Mission in 1908) and a cricket team. There was also a thriving football team for many years – Clarendon Park Adult School FC.  Sadly at least two team members were killed during the First World War – Private Arthur Bree of 252 Avenue Road Extension  (killed in action 16th August 1917 aged 21) and Private Frank Owen Tighe of 10 Westbury Road  (killed in action on 17th July 1916 aged 22).

It was the social changes that took place after war that began the decline of the Adult Schools movement. In Leicestershire membership of mens’ groups fell by 38% between 1921 and 1937 and after the second world war this only worsened, partly due to competing leisure activities but also because there was more adult education provision on offer. Clarendon Park Adult School had closed by 1970 and the premises were used by Knighton Park Table Tennis Club. The wooden hut was demolished in 1979 and replaced with a brick building.

As always with these articles I start with one small thing and end up finding out hugely fascinating stories.  So I’d like to tell you now about a man who was involved in leading Clarendon Park Adult School and who as a consequence took Adult Schools to other parts of the country and even to New Zealand.  Edwin Gilbert was born in Oadby High Street in 1859 and baptised at Oadby Parish Church on 9th Sep 1860. His parents were Martha Bromley (c1834-1906) and Edward Gilbert (c1834-1914), who was a Baptist minister connected with the chapel in Charles Street. Edwin had two sisters including Elizabeth, who later ran a shop at 192 Clarendon Park Road.  Edwin married Lilla Ireland (1857-1938) in 1880. The couple initially lived with Lilla’s father at Crescent Street. Edwin worked as a commercial traveller. They had three children: Elsie Lilla (1881-1973), Harry Edwin (1887-1977) and Leslie Howard (1892-1987).

In July 1895 Edwin became involved in the Adult Schools movement and with Clarendon Park Adult School in particular. I don’t know whether this was because he had already joined the Society of Friends, or whether his work in this area led him to become a Quaker, but the two were strongly linked whichever order they happened in. He received an invitation from “a humble old man,” a member of the school.  Soon after the Gilberts moved to Salisbury. They returned to live in Leicester in around 1897, settling first at 111 Clarendon Park Road and then by 1903 at 198 Clarendon Park Road. Between 1901 and 1904 Edwin worked as a registration agent for the Liberal Party and from 1902 he took a salaried role in the Leicestershire Adult Schools Union and was later described as being the “leading mover in its extension work…He combined enthusiasm, a wonderful power of attracting men and organising ability.”

Meanwhile daughter Elsie trained and worked as a nurse, firstly at Gilroes Hospital for Infectious Diseases and then in Birmingham, before marrying Quaker doctor Joseph Tyler Fox. On leaving Leicester the Gilberts moved to Bournville where they lived during the War. This was not surprising as Edwin was by now an associate of the Cadbury family who were involved in Quaker philanthropic work. By 1911 Edwin was the national organising secretary for the Adult Schools movement and in 1913 he visited New Zealand, establishing Adult Schools there.

Edwin’s obituary in The Times later stated “In the years just before the War, he arranged interchange visits of British Adult School members and German workmen in the interests of international understanding.  Although the effect of these seemed lost during the War, it was found afterwards that the memories of them often facilitated the relief work of the Society of Friends in Germany.” At the beginning of the war Edwin worked with other Quakers to provide relief – including education – for ‘enemy aliens’ interred in camps. He joined the actively anti-war Birmingham city branch of the
Independent Labour Party in 1916. Later Edwin was asked to take charge of a prison for conscientious objectors at Warwick and afterwards at Wakefield Prison. He resigned following a  revision of the regulations brought additional unnecessary hardship on the objectors. Son Leslie volunteered with the Red Cross in France as an orderly in the Friends’ (Quakers) Ambulance Division, an extremely dangerous job but avoiding fighting. Meanwhile daughter Elsie joined her husband on a visit to Russia in 1916 with Dr Tyler Fox acting as chief medical officer to the Friends’ War Relief Expedition.

Immediately after the War Edwin joined a party of Quakers in visiting Germany  to investigate conditions in children’s homes and hospital. Gilbert shared their experiences in a newspaper article to raise awareness and raise relief funds, quoting Frederick Merttens: “The little babies were a heart breaking sight…and we turned away too overcome for words.” In 1919 Edwin helped to found a community centre in Plymouth called Swathmore Hall. He was appointed President of the National Adult School Union in 1922.

Edwin and Lilla lived in Thurmaston during the 1920s, moving to Bournemouth in 1930 where they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Edwin died on 2nd December 1933 a few days after undergoing an operation at the Royal Victoria Hospital. After Edwin’s death Lilla moved to York. She died in 1938.