In the same year as Captain Webb became the first man to swim the channel my Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Cooper, was born in Kempley, Gloucestershire on Sunday 14th of March in 1875 just when the primroses start to bloom; she was the third eldest of at least seven children of Allen and Elizabeth Lane. Allen’s family had live in Kempley for well over a hundred & fifty years prior to her birth. His parents Mathew & Mary Lane do not appear on the 1841 Census, the presumption being they had died fairly young in their late 30s or there about, so that as a seven year old he was been cared for by Uncle James and Sarah (nee Forty) Phillips at Coles Acre in Kempley. On the demise of his Uncle James, Allen and Aunt Sarah moved on to another part of the village. On the 1851 Census Sarah was described as a widowed shopkeeper, the shop was located next to Folly Farm on Kempley Green . On a later Census confusion is caused by the incorrect recording of Allen as Sarah’s grandchild. By 1871 Alan returns with his new family to live at Coles Acre but it now seems to have acquired a new name, Broadmarsh. Alan’s wife, Elizabeth was a Beavan born in Kingstone, Gloucestershire. They all lived squeezed into together in the rented two up and two down cottage which was described in a 1914 auction catalogue as constructed of timber brick and slate, with a large garden of about three quarters of an acre in size. It boasted a kitchen with a range, bread oven, Pantry, and Wash house with copper, a pig cot, or sty and an Elson closet. It’s very likely that Allen augmented the family income by growing as much of the food as he could manage along with keeping some livestock such as a pig and some chickens.
In 1891 aged 16 (although the census has her down as aged 18) Mary was working as a children’s nursemaid for Louis Upton Wooler, a Brewery manager at the Alton Court Brewery with a wife and five children who lived in Station Road, Ross on Wye
Pencraig Court
By 1901 she had taken a job as a housemaid at the Reverend Edward Hedley’s school in Rosehill, Lickey on the old road to Birmingham and from there she attained a position as sort of Major-domo at Pencraig Court on the Ross/ Monmouth Road in the household of Sir Humphrey DeTrafford. About that time she became on friendly terms with, a shepherd, Tom Cooper some eight years younger than her, who worked on a nearby farm in Bridstow for William Pearce of Ashe Ingen Court Farm, diagonally across the road from her employer’s home There is a good possibility that they got to know each other while attending the same church services in St Bridget’s Anglican church in Bridstow.
Elizabeth Lane nee Beavan 1845 - 1911
By the time of the 1911 census their relationship
had moved on, Tom was still living & working on the farm along with a fellow called John Beavan a relative of Mary, while she had now left her employment to look after Elizabeth her terminally ill mother at Broadmarsh. Her younger brother, Ben, (Benjamin Alec) who was employed as a cowman on a nearby farm was still living at home, which must have helped out with the house keeping. Elizabeth was the eldest of her parents, William & Elizabeth, Beavan, eight children, the family move around a bit, or more than Allen Lane's family did anyway, and the Beavan children were born in at least four different locations, which may suggest William had a change of employer quite often. Elizabeth is variously described as a domestic servant or as a Seamstress in the 1881 census. She had a shaky start in her late teens as will be revealed later on in our tale. She was certainly illiterate and as a consequence every ten years when the Census takes place her age changed, but most probably she was born around 1859 which matches the date on her Grave stone.
By the time of the 1911 census their relationship
had moved on, Tom was still living & working on the farm along with a fellow called John Beavan a relative of Mary, while she had now left her employment to look after Elizabeth her terminally ill mother at Broadmarsh. Her younger brother, Ben, (Benjamin Alec) who was employed as a cowman on a nearby farm was still living at home, which must have helped out with the house keeping. Elizabeth was the eldest of her parents, William & Elizabeth, Beavan, eight children, the family move around a bit, or more than Allen Lane's family did anyway, and the Beavan children were born in at least four different locations, which may suggest William had a change of employer quite often. Elizabeth is variously described as a domestic servant or as a Seamstress in the 1881 census. She had a shaky start in her late teens as will be revealed later on in our tale. She was certainly illiterate and as a consequence every ten years when the Census takes place her age changed, but most probably she was born around 1859 which matches the date on her Grave stone.
Between 1901 and 1911Tom & all his siblings had left their home in Birdsall North Yorkshire, with the exception of the eldest daughter, Mary, who kept house for their father, John Thomas Cooper, also employed as a shepherd. I have often wondered how Tom found his Shepherd’s job in Ross on Wye but there is no doubt he did. Birdsall was the place where John Thomas and his wife, Susan along with their five children, moved
to from Wold House, a very rural Yorkshire farm worker’s cottage, near Wharram
Percy, which is now represented by the ruins of a disused church and some old railway buildings. The place is now completely abandoned, although it is still regarded as a place of historical interest since a group of archaeologists spent forty years uncovering the ruins of the medieval village there. The ruins of Wold House may still be seen if one walks along the Wold Way.
to from Wold House, a very rural Yorkshire farm worker’s cottage, near Wharram
Percy, which is now represented by the ruins of a disused church and some old railway buildings. The place is now completely abandoned, although it is still regarded as a place of historical interest since a group of archaeologists spent forty years uncovering the ruins of the medieval village there. The ruins of Wold House may still be seen if one walks along the Wold Way.
St Bridget's Church
(Photograph taken by the late John Sheldrake)
By the time of the 1911 census their relationship had moved on, Tom was still living & working on the farm along with a fellow called John Beavan a relative of Marys, while she had now left her employment with the de Trafford family to look after Elizabeth her terminally ill mother at Broadmarsh. Her younger brother, Ben, (Benjamin Alec) who was employed as a cowman on a nearby farm was still living at home, which must have helped out with the housekeeping. Elizabeth was the eldest child of William & Elizabeth Beavan's eight children. As the family moved around a bit, or more than the Allen Lane family did, the children were born in four different locations, which may suggests William had a change of employer quite often. Elizabeth Lane is variously described as a domestic servant, a Seamstress, and a tailoress on the rarious1 censuses . She had a shaky start in her late teens as will be revealed later on in our tale. She was certainly illiterate and as a consequence on ever Census document her age changed, but most likely she was born around 1859 which matches the date on her grave stone. The other curious thing was that on a later census a younger sibling was also named Elizabeth. I suspect as she was born well over twenty years after our Elizabeth that she was wrong recorded as a daughter and may have been a granddaughter.
On the 21st of March 1912 seven months after her mother’s death, Mary Elizabeth
Lane and Tom Cooper got married in St Bridget’s Church, Bridstow. Her brother Ben who must have been supporting their mother's household followed her in matrimoy. As a side note, Mary gives her address at the time of marriage as Gararew, Bristow, which is on off the A40 Ross/Monmouth road. Tom's sister worked as a maid at that establishment, so I suspect Mary used the address as if she stated she still lived in Kempley they would have paid for two separated banns of marriage to be read in the church instead of one causing additional expenditure for a couple who were decidedly not well off as Tom was still working on the farm in Bridstow and Mary has left a blank space when recording her profession on the marriage certificate; however Mary used her contacts with the Alton Court Brewery, one of the biggest employers of labour in Ross on Wye at that time and got him fixed up with a job as a drayman with more money and with better prospects.
(Photograph taken by the late John Sheldrake)
By the time of the 1911 census their relationship had moved on, Tom was still living & working on the farm along with a fellow called John Beavan a relative of Marys, while she had now left her employment with the de Trafford family to look after Elizabeth her terminally ill mother at Broadmarsh. Her younger brother, Ben, (Benjamin Alec) who was employed as a cowman on a nearby farm was still living at home, which must have helped out with the housekeeping. Elizabeth was the eldest child of William & Elizabeth Beavan's eight children. As the family moved around a bit, or more than the Allen Lane family did, the children were born in four different locations, which may suggests William had a change of employer quite often. Elizabeth Lane is variously described as a domestic servant, a Seamstress, and a tailoress on the rarious1 censuses . She had a shaky start in her late teens as will be revealed later on in our tale. She was certainly illiterate and as a consequence on ever Census document her age changed, but most likely she was born around 1859 which matches the date on her grave stone. The other curious thing was that on a later census a younger sibling was also named Elizabeth. I suspect as she was born well over twenty years after our Elizabeth that she was wrong recorded as a daughter and may have been a granddaughter.
On the 21st of March 1912 seven months after her mother’s death, Mary Elizabeth
Lane and Tom Cooper got married in St Bridget’s Church, Bridstow. Her brother Ben who must have been supporting their mother's household followed her in matrimoy. As a side note, Mary gives her address at the time of marriage as Gararew, Bristow, which is on off the A40 Ross/Monmouth road. Tom's sister worked as a maid at that establishment, so I suspect Mary used the address as if she stated she still lived in Kempley they would have paid for two separated banns of marriage to be read in the church instead of one causing additional expenditure for a couple who were decidedly not well off as Tom was still working on the farm in Bridstow and Mary has left a blank space when recording her profession on the marriage certificate; however Mary used her contacts with the Alton Court Brewery, one of the biggest employers of labour in Ross on Wye at that time and got him fixed up with a job as a drayman with more money and with better prospects.
John Alick (Alec) Cooper
On the 27 October 1913 Mary bore their one & only child, John Alick (Alec). He was christened in St Bridget’s Bridstow, the same church where his parents had married in the March of 1912. Granny and her husband Tom moved to Lower Greytree to a semi-detached cottage at the end of a lane.
Lower Greytree derived its name from being one of the Hundreds. That is to say, the Hundred was a division of a shire of great importance in Saxon and Norman times. There was a Hundred Court presided over by the Hundred Reeve
acting on behalf of the King. The Court, in addition to dealing with disputes, levied taxes etc. Gradually its function was taken over by parochial and manorial administration under the Supervision of the Justices of the Peace. It had shrunk into almost nothing by the time the Coopers arrived.
On the 27 October 1913 Mary bore their one & only child, John Alick (Alec). He was christened in St Bridget’s Bridstow, the same church where his parents had married in the March of 1912. Granny and her husband Tom moved to Lower Greytree to a semi-detached cottage at the end of a lane.
Lower Greytree derived its name from being one of the Hundreds. That is to say, the Hundred was a division of a shire of great importance in Saxon and Norman times. There was a Hundred Court presided over by the Hundred Reeve
acting on behalf of the King. The Court, in addition to dealing with disputes, levied taxes etc. Gradually its function was taken over by parochial and manorial administration under the Supervision of the Justices of the Peace. It had shrunk into almost nothing by the time the Coopers arrived.
Tom Cooper 1883-1916.
Tom’s father, John Thomas came to spend his remaining last years living with Tom & Mary after working all his life as a shepherd. His wife, Susan had died aged 41 in 1903 twelve years before. He died at the beginning of 1915 and was buried in Ross churchyard. His grave stone was removed in the 1970s to make way for a fresh planting.
Tom’s father, John Thomas came to spend his remaining last years living with Tom & Mary after working all his life as a shepherd. His wife, Susan had died aged 41 in 1903 twelve years before. He died at the beginning of 1915 and was buried in Ross churchyard. His grave stone was removed in the 1970s to make way for a fresh planting.
A later addition of the original shrine to members of the Greytree
Community On the evening of Monday the 16th of July 1917, a year and 4 months before what is now known as Armistice day, Mary attended a ceremony in a Mrs Evans' garden. This was to celebrate the unveiling of a War plaque shrine funded by private subscription, including Mary. It was made from old English Oak and dedicated to all the local men who joined the forces in WW1. Mrs Evan was the widow of the Rev H St Hillier Evans, vicar of Brampton Abbot who lost his life after rescuing his son and another boy from the river Wye many years before. The son who was now an Army lieutenant was home on leave and unveiled the Memorial shrine.
Community On the evening of Monday the 16th of July 1917, a year and 4 months before what is now known as Armistice day, Mary attended a ceremony in a Mrs Evans' garden. This was to celebrate the unveiling of a War plaque shrine funded by private subscription, including Mary. It was made from old English Oak and dedicated to all the local men who joined the forces in WW1. Mrs Evan was the widow of the Rev H St Hillier Evans, vicar of Brampton Abbot who lost his life after rescuing his son and another boy from the river Wye many years before. The son who was now an Army lieutenant was home on leave and unveiled the Memorial shrine.
Latest addition of the Greytree memorial. On the 15th of March 2011 two of Mary's Grandsons, my brother Michael & I attended a rededication ceremony along with other descendants of those whose names are inscribed on memorial after refurbishment by the owner of the property Mr John White. The ones marked with a cross lost their life during the War
Ross on Wye War memorial with Tom Cooper name on the base
(There is a memorial plaque in the Church In1916 Tom went to Hereford to sign up as a volunteer in the King's Own Liverpool Regiment. The Military Service Act came in on the 17 February of 1916. The introduction of the bill comprised a tacit acceptance on the part of the government that the previous approach to military service “voluntary registration” had failed to generate sufficient new recruits to stem the flow of losses on the various British battlefronts around the world. He seems to have signed on prior to been called up so as not to have been conscripted.
(There is a memorial plaque in the Church In1916 Tom went to Hereford to sign up as a volunteer in the King's Own Liverpool Regiment. The Military Service Act came in on the 17 February of 1916. The introduction of the bill comprised a tacit acceptance on the part of the government that the previous approach to military service “voluntary registration” had failed to generate sufficient new recruits to stem the flow of losses on the various British battlefronts around the world. He seems to have signed on prior to been called up so as not to have been conscripted.
Copy of the photograph sent to Mary
A year or after the shrine was unveiled being a day or so after the 11 of September 1917 while Mary was bathing their by now two year old son, Alick, there was a knock on the door, & a copy of the British Army casually form B104-82 was delivered to her. It informed her that Tom had been killed. She had to get on & look after Alick as there was nobody in the immediate vicinity she felt she could to share her initial grief with. It seemed Tom had been hit by Shrapnel. His British army records stated he had been killed in the Field, "cause of Death killed in action". At the time he would have been buried locally. There seems to have been several addition of the form all giving the casualty's name Rank and number along with the name of his Unit followed by the message one of which stated the following:- "It is my painful duty to inform you that a report has been received from the War Office notifying the death of..... The report is to the effect that he was killed in action. By His Majesty’s command I am to forward the enclosed message of sympathy from His Gracious Majesties the King and Queen. I am at the same time to express the regret of the army council at the soldier’s death in his Country’s service. I am to add that any information that may be received as to the soldier’s burial will be communicated to you in due course. A separate leaflet dealing more fully with the subject is enclosed"
A year or after the shrine was unveiled being a day or so after the 11 of September 1917 while Mary was bathing their by now two year old son, Alick, there was a knock on the door, & a copy of the British Army casually form B104-82 was delivered to her. It informed her that Tom had been killed. She had to get on & look after Alick as there was nobody in the immediate vicinity she felt she could to share her initial grief with. It seemed Tom had been hit by Shrapnel. His British army records stated he had been killed in the Field, "cause of Death killed in action". At the time he would have been buried locally. There seems to have been several addition of the form all giving the casualty's name Rank and number along with the name of his Unit followed by the message one of which stated the following:- "It is my painful duty to inform you that a report has been received from the War Office notifying the death of..... The report is to the effect that he was killed in action. By His Majesty’s command I am to forward the enclosed message of sympathy from His Gracious Majesties the King and Queen. I am at the same time to express the regret of the army council at the soldier’s death in his Country’s service. I am to add that any information that may be received as to the soldier’s burial will be communicated to you in due course. A separate leaflet dealing more fully with the subject is enclosed"
Canada Farm Cemetery Belgium
He was eventually re-interred in the Canada Farm Cemetery with his comrades. He had initially signed up as Part of the Kings own Liverpool Regiment. They had departed Britain from Folkestone and landed in Boulogne after two months or so he was seconded into the 78th Labour Corps. Although we cannot be specific about Tom's role in the Corps he would have had to take part in activities such as drain, wire, build in the trenches. Open and maintain communication lines often across captured territory, carry water, bombs, ammunition and other supplies across no man's land as well as bury the fallen, and so on. Most of the men transferred into the Labour Corp were judge to have some minor ailments Tom's army medical describes his physical development as moderate, he weighed in at 149 lbs. and was 5'.9 3/4'' high and had some "Slight" ailments such as varicose vanes, bunions, and curvature of the spine. He was classified as "C2" (Able to walk* 5 miles, see and hear sufficiently for ordinary purposes) *Not march The next classification down was "C3" (Only suitable for sedentary work). None of this kept him away from the dangers of been on front line. In total he had spent 184 days in the army. In the April of 1917 he had filled out a standard WW1 army Will giving all his property to Mary, who sign a receipt accepting his personal effects in the February of 1918 which consisted of a watch and chain, photos and letters as well as a religious book, most probable an army personal issue bible. Sadly I don't know what happened to his papers.
He was eventually re-interred in the Canada Farm Cemetery with his comrades. He had initially signed up as Part of the Kings own Liverpool Regiment. They had departed Britain from Folkestone and landed in Boulogne after two months or so he was seconded into the 78th Labour Corps. Although we cannot be specific about Tom's role in the Corps he would have had to take part in activities such as drain, wire, build in the trenches. Open and maintain communication lines often across captured territory, carry water, bombs, ammunition and other supplies across no man's land as well as bury the fallen, and so on. Most of the men transferred into the Labour Corp were judge to have some minor ailments Tom's army medical describes his physical development as moderate, he weighed in at 149 lbs. and was 5'.9 3/4'' high and had some "Slight" ailments such as varicose vanes, bunions, and curvature of the spine. He was classified as "C2" (Able to walk* 5 miles, see and hear sufficiently for ordinary purposes) *Not march The next classification down was "C3" (Only suitable for sedentary work). None of this kept him away from the dangers of been on front line. In total he had spent 184 days in the army. In the April of 1917 he had filled out a standard WW1 army Will giving all his property to Mary, who sign a receipt accepting his personal effects in the February of 1918 which consisted of a watch and chain, photos and letters as well as a religious book, most probable an army personal issue bible. Sadly I don't know what happened to his papers.
- Tom’s War Grave stone
In 2012 another of my brothers, Peter and I, accompanied by our wives, visited Tom’s war Grave. His was slightly different than the Graves which lined the Grave Yard row-upon-row in so much that at the base of his Grave stone there was an addition inscription reading
“One who was ever Kind and Gentle" -
Mary must have arranged to have it inscription
Jim Alice Alma & Lesley Mary went to stay with Aunt Alice, her youngest sister Alice who lived in Birmingham, after a while Alice must have got tired of her sister’s depression and gave her stiff talking too, and sent her back to Ross to get on with her life, Alice being the complete opposite to Mary, round in shape and of a cheerful disposition, with her husband, Jim Wallace, happily working as Silversmith and their two Children Alma & Lesley. There was a piano in the front-room, which making Alice an object of envy. Mary was Slim and took life very seriously, but none the less had her admirers including a Mr Pickles who ran a chemist shop in Ross, remembered more for his interesting name than his personality. Alma was a biggish sort of woman who blotted her copy book with Mary when, on one of her visits with her mother, she asked to keep a small cup with a broken handle to mix her mustard in. This was exactly what Mary used it for, & so she would have had to go out and buy a replacement one, and then break the handle off. She was not best pleased to say the least. Mary lived the rest of her life on a War Widow’s pension and the Egg business. Alice would regularly visit her in the autumn & return home laden with baskets full of Mary’s Victoria plums and damsons to be converted into jam which hopefully lasted till next year picking.
War memorial in St Mary’s Church, Kempley
Mary had already lost a family member on 14 February 1917 her youngest brother, Ben. Although we cannot be sure of Private 27502 Benjamin Alec lane’s part in WW1 conflict what we can say is that Conscription for military service for married men under the age of forty-one years was brought in May 1916. Benjamin’s battalion “C” Company the 4th service Battalion of the South Wales Boarders was by then based in Mesopotamia. He died on 14th of February 1917 and he demise is commemorated on the Basra Memorial Mesopotamia, now Iraq, which has more than 40,500 members of the Commonwealth forces listed, who died in the operations in Mesopotamia from the autumn of 1914 to the end of August and whose graves are unmarked.
Mesopotamia
By the 12th of February 1916 the South Wales Borders transferred to Mesopotamia, to join the force being assembled near Sheikh Sa'ad for the relief of the besieged garrison at Kut-al-Amara. After the British failed to relieve it earlier on in the war by this time General Maude the new commander-in-chief had completed his organization of the force. The 4th Battalion took a leading part in his victorious advance, smashing though the Turks in the Battles for the recapture of Kut-Al Almara which was recaptured by 24/02/1917. Ben had lost his life ten days before that victory.
Private 27502 Benjamin Alec Lane
By the 12th of February 1916 the South Wales Borders transferred to Mesopotamia, to join the force being assembled near Sheikh Sa'ad for the relief of the besieged garrison at Kut-al-Amara. After the British failed to relieve it earlier on in the war by this time General Maude the new commander-in-chief had completed his organization of the force. The 4th Battalion took a leading part in his victorious advance, smashing though the Turks in the Battles for the recapture of Kut-Al Almara which was recaptured by 24/02/1917. Ben had lost his life ten days before that victory.
Private 27502 Benjamin Alec Lane
Kempley War Memorial
The villages of Kempley arranged to have a more prominent Memorial erected to the nine men from that community who lost their lives in both the World Wars. In the November of 2014 a ceremony was held which was attended, by among others, 25 of the 27 descendants of Ben lane. Angela Owens, one of Ben Lane’s Great-granddaughters tells us the ceremony was really well thought out and very poignant. My daughter, Seren, and my sister's son, Adam, were among people chosen to read out poems; I gave a little speech saying what the day meant to us; my younger daughter, Rosina, helped unveil the stone and a young, local bugler played the last post. It was all very moving and the people of the area were very welcoming
The villages of Kempley arranged to have a more prominent Memorial erected to the nine men from that community who lost their lives in both the World Wars. In the November of 2014 a ceremony was held which was attended, by among others, 25 of the 27 descendants of Ben lane. Angela Owens, one of Ben Lane’s Great-granddaughters tells us the ceremony was really well thought out and very poignant. My daughter, Seren, and my sister's son, Adam, were among people chosen to read out poems; I gave a little speech saying what the day meant to us; my younger daughter, Rosina, helped unveil the stone and a young, local bugler played the last post. It was all very moving and the people of the area were very welcoming
The Italian Garden of Penoyre
Before joining up Ben worked as one of ourteen gardeners in Penoyre, Cradoc, Wales, His residence was know as the Bothy, or outhouse in other words a structure often occupied by a young unattached gardener, but not in Ben's case, who was required to be on hand at all times to keep the boilers going at all times as well as operating the Green house sun blinds. Ben was very proud of the work he did in the Italian Garden for his employer named McClintock.
Now there was an attempted assassination of Queen Victoria by a fellow named Francis who was found guilty of high treason and condemned to death.When he was sentenced he fainted into the arms of the jailer. However in the end there wasn't any proof of an intent to kill or wound the Queen (Francis's pistol wasn't loaded). On 1 July 1842, he was reprieved and his sentence commuted for one of Transportation for Life, “with hard labour". It is said that Queen Victoria believed that his reprieve would encourage others to behave in a like manner. McClintock was involved with the commutation of the sentence. As a consequence when he retired he only got a Knighthood instead of a peerage. When checking out this story I found eight examples of attempted assassinations of Queen Victoria. So I have put it down to work as in progress for the moment. Now that's the story my late father, Alick, told me so there will be some truth in it some where.
Before joining up Ben worked as one of ourteen gardeners in Penoyre, Cradoc, Wales, His residence was know as the Bothy, or outhouse in other words a structure often occupied by a young unattached gardener, but not in Ben's case, who was required to be on hand at all times to keep the boilers going at all times as well as operating the Green house sun blinds. Ben was very proud of the work he did in the Italian Garden for his employer named McClintock.
Now there was an attempted assassination of Queen Victoria by a fellow named Francis who was found guilty of high treason and condemned to death.When he was sentenced he fainted into the arms of the jailer. However in the end there wasn't any proof of an intent to kill or wound the Queen (Francis's pistol wasn't loaded). On 1 July 1842, he was reprieved and his sentence commuted for one of Transportation for Life, “with hard labour". It is said that Queen Victoria believed that his reprieve would encourage others to behave in a like manner. McClintock was involved with the commutation of the sentence. As a consequence when he retired he only got a Knighthood instead of a peerage. When checking out this story I found eight examples of attempted assassinations of Queen Victoria. So I have put it down to work as in progress for the moment. Now that's the story my late father, Alick, told me so there will be some truth in it some where.
Benjamin Alec & Rosina Lane with children, Mary & Alan
Ben courted and married Rosina Sleeman, Aunt Rose; they had two children Alan & Mary. After Ben’s sad demise Rose got the Penoyre, Cradoc Gate House concession, in other word she was allowed to live there at no cost other than minor duties on the gate. The last time I saw her she was well over a hundred of age years & living in a
terraced cottage in Beckon, opposite the the old Postern School Cathedral, next door to her daughter, Mary and husband, Percy Vaughan. She told me that when she achieved her Century the children from the local primary school were marched though her front door, then around her, rather like one would view an ancient monument, and then off they went through her back door, along the lane through the back of Mary’s house and out through her front door back on to the street. Mary & Percy had three daughters all married with children. However Alan remained a bachelor. To find out some more information on Ben's life go to "the Moment Centenary Project web site" and tap in Ben Lane into their search box.
Ben courted and married Rosina Sleeman, Aunt Rose; they had two children Alan & Mary. After Ben’s sad demise Rose got the Penoyre, Cradoc Gate House concession, in other word she was allowed to live there at no cost other than minor duties on the gate. The last time I saw her she was well over a hundred of age years & living in a
terraced cottage in Beckon, opposite the the old Postern School Cathedral, next door to her daughter, Mary and husband, Percy Vaughan. She told me that when she achieved her Century the children from the local primary school were marched though her front door, then around her, rather like one would view an ancient monument, and then off they went through her back door, along the lane through the back of Mary’s house and out through her front door back on to the street. Mary & Percy had three daughters all married with children. However Alan remained a bachelor. To find out some more information on Ben's life go to "the Moment Centenary Project web site" and tap in Ben Lane into their search box.
Aunt Rose must have applied for Ben's War medals posthumously as he was awarded the British War medal along with the Victory Medal. Mary seems to have followed her lead and applied for the same medals as Tom have a similar entitlement. The receipt for Tom's medals was dated 30 June 1921 quite a time after the war had finished .There is a similar receipt for Tom's remaining possessions, a watch and chain, photographs and letters along with a religious book date Febuary1918 signed Mary Cooper, Battle Lodge, Nr Brecon. She must have been staying with Rose and her family at the time. Both the widows would have received a commemorative plaque and scroll as illustrated below
He whom this scroll Commemorates was numbered among those who at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them endured hardship, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, given up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those who come after see to it. * That his name is not forgotten
Frank Stevens’ Folden steam Lorry in 1912
Another of Mary’s sisters, Edith, married Frank Stevens from Fleet in Hampshire. He ran steam traction engines delivering goods
in that area before changing over to a petrol-engine lorries. They lived in Ambrose Cottages Connaught Road (formerly Fleet High St) Frank appears in the Fleet local directory from 1923-1950 a haulage contractor although Ambrose cottage is listed from 1910.It is probable that Frank appears in the above photograph
Another of Mary’s sisters, Edith, married Frank Stevens from Fleet in Hampshire. He ran steam traction engines delivering goods
in that area before changing over to a petrol-engine lorries. They lived in Ambrose Cottages Connaught Road (formerly Fleet High St) Frank appears in the Fleet local directory from 1923-1950 a haulage contractor although Ambrose cottage is listed from 1910.It is probable that Frank appears in the above photograph
Albert & Frank Stevens
Frank and Edith had two boys, Albert & Frank. ‘Bert’ the eldest seemed to do bits and pieces of jobs for various members of the family. I am not sure whether he got paid or not. He decorated the walls of Mary’s boxed in stairway which must have pleased her as she talked about it for years afterwards. I remember visiting Alec’s cousin Molly in the late 1960’s where I met Bert who was now in his sixties. He was very frail and had to have the first cup of tea from the pot due he said to him weakening his stomach by drinking tea kept hot all day by hanging it on the door of the boiler of the steam traction engine he used to drive for his dads’ transport company. His other claim to fame, in our family anyway, was that he promised to make my eldest brother Michael a go-kart which only took him five years to make.
Frank and Edith had two boys, Albert & Frank. ‘Bert’ the eldest seemed to do bits and pieces of jobs for various members of the family. I am not sure whether he got paid or not. He decorated the walls of Mary’s boxed in stairway which must have pleased her as she talked about it for years afterwards. I remember visiting Alec’s cousin Molly in the late 1960’s where I met Bert who was now in his sixties. He was very frail and had to have the first cup of tea from the pot due he said to him weakening his stomach by drinking tea kept hot all day by hanging it on the door of the boiler of the steam traction engine he used to drive for his dads’ transport company. His other claim to fame, in our family anyway, was that he promised to make my eldest brother Michael a go-kart which only took him five years to make.
lan and Elizabeth Lane’s Grave Stone
Two of Mary’s brothers, James and William, known as Jim and Bill immigrated to the America and were at one time successful established as grape farmers. They returned home in the mid nineteen-twenties for a visit, and were much admired by other family members as they were able to afford the cost of purchasing their parent’s grave stone some ten years or so after they were buried. It can still be seen today in St Mary’s Kempley although the inscription is rather worn. This Norman Church is famous for its frescos. Eventual Jim and Bill’s farm went belly up. In later life Ben used to write to Alick with tales of taking part in some of the America gold rushes. He left his gold watch to Alick which turned out almost worthless & some American Care home fees which were never paid. He must have had a good sense of humour as on a visit to Mary’s home he was provided with one of her a chicken dinners. It would have been one of her own fowls slow cooked with her home produced vegetables & gravy like no other. Alick, who was a small boy at the time, must have been standing watching Bill eat his dinner who asked him “Do you like chicken Boy? Good then you can watch me eat it!”
1891 sees Jim (James) Lane employed as a ploughman in Breinton, Herefordshire, his brother, Bill (William) aged 12 years old is still living at home with his mum and dad in Kempley. Ten years later in 1901 Bill is now employed as a Carter for a corn dealer in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, whereas Jim can be found listed in the April of 1905 as emigrating to Canada on the SS Halifax as a farm labourer as part of the British Bonus Scheme. The British Bonus was a commission paid by the Canadian government's Immigration Branch to steamship booking agents in the United Kingdom and in European countries for each suitable immigrant who purchased a ticket to sail to Canada. The immigrants themselves did not receive the bonus, although those who settled on western homesteads did receive a separate monetary bonus upon proof of settlement.
In October of 1911 James is recorded as returning on the SS. Megantic from England to Quebec City then traveling onto Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. The shipping list also tells us he had spent the previous two years or so at Swan River, a township in Manitoba which produced agricultural, logging and forestry products. This is where there is a good probability that the photograph of Jim kindly supplied by Allan Beavan originated.
Two of Mary’s brothers, James and William, known as Jim and Bill immigrated to the America and were at one time successful established as grape farmers. They returned home in the mid nineteen-twenties for a visit, and were much admired by other family members as they were able to afford the cost of purchasing their parent’s grave stone some ten years or so after they were buried. It can still be seen today in St Mary’s Kempley although the inscription is rather worn. This Norman Church is famous for its frescos. Eventual Jim and Bill’s farm went belly up. In later life Ben used to write to Alick with tales of taking part in some of the America gold rushes. He left his gold watch to Alick which turned out almost worthless & some American Care home fees which were never paid. He must have had a good sense of humour as on a visit to Mary’s home he was provided with one of her a chicken dinners. It would have been one of her own fowls slow cooked with her home produced vegetables & gravy like no other. Alick, who was a small boy at the time, must have been standing watching Bill eat his dinner who asked him “Do you like chicken Boy? Good then you can watch me eat it!”
1891 sees Jim (James) Lane employed as a ploughman in Breinton, Herefordshire, his brother, Bill (William) aged 12 years old is still living at home with his mum and dad in Kempley. Ten years later in 1901 Bill is now employed as a Carter for a corn dealer in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, whereas Jim can be found listed in the April of 1905 as emigrating to Canada on the SS Halifax as a farm labourer as part of the British Bonus Scheme. The British Bonus was a commission paid by the Canadian government's Immigration Branch to steamship booking agents in the United Kingdom and in European countries for each suitable immigrant who purchased a ticket to sail to Canada. The immigrants themselves did not receive the bonus, although those who settled on western homesteads did receive a separate monetary bonus upon proof of settlement.
In October of 1911 James is recorded as returning on the SS. Megantic from England to Quebec City then traveling onto Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. The shipping list also tells us he had spent the previous two years or so at Swan River, a township in Manitoba which produced agricultural, logging and forestry products. This is where there is a good probability that the photograph of Jim kindly supplied by Allan Beavan originated.
In the September of 1933 James travelled from Southampton to Queens in New York on the RMS Empress of Britton the shipping list tells us he was naturalised at the Superior Court in Frisco in 1931,in other words he was now an American citizen.Bill’s Citizenship document are shown on the left. He died in the March of 1967 in Fresco. His mother’s maiden name is recorded as Beavan so we came be sure we have got the correct person.
The photograph below provided by Allan Beavan seems to fit Bill’s description on his naturalisation Papers. Bill left Alick Cooper (My father) a pocket watch of no particular value and his carer presented Molly Davis with a bill for outstanding fees, Alick advised her to write back to the carer and explain she was a widow with no surplus cash to pay other people’s debts.
Jim’s death record has not turned as yet.
The photograph below provided by Allan Beavan seems to fit Bill’s description on his naturalisation Papers. Bill left Alick Cooper (My father) a pocket watch of no particular value and his carer presented Molly Davis with a bill for outstanding fees, Alick advised her to write back to the carer and explain she was a widow with no surplus cash to pay other people’s debts.
Jim’s death record has not turned as yet.
Jack Davis & the twins George and Molly
Aunt Sally (Sarah Jane Lane), was Mary eldest sister; she married Jack Davis, & they lived at the Nurseries, a set of terraced houses with large country style gardens at the front of the house on the way to Lower Greytree. The 1901 census tells that Jack was a boot boy at the White Swan hotel, Ross on Wye. Ten years later he is recorded doing a similar task but this time at the Royal Hotel in Ross on Wye. One of the nice things about doing this web site is receiving contributions from other family members Susan Vallender’s tale:- “The other day I was having a sort-out, as you do, and had another look at a medal I had which I had always assumed wasn’t a family piece, however on this occasion I took a closer look and found on the back the name of John Davies, my Great-grandfather, after a bit of research I discovered it was a masonic vitruvian medal so I got in touch with the local lodge secretary and he was able to provide me with further details, it seems that it was called a centenary jewel and had the date 1913 on the ribbon, one hundred years ago. He was really interested in it, as this year is their bi-centenary. At the time it appears that as John Davies was a hotel boots at the Royal Hotel in Ross and that he was granted a dispensation (I think that is the phrase) entitling him to membership. As the medal was gathering dust in my drawer I decided to donate it to their archives. They were really pleased to accept it. We met then at Royal Hotel in Ross today and resented the jewel to them. It’s such a long time since I had visited Ross on Wye so it all made
was a really good day out”.
Aunt Sally's Children and Alick Cooper
Rear left to right William or "Bul" and Annie aka Nancy Davies
Front line the twins Mary Hilda Aka Molly and George Davies with Alick Cooper in the middle
My sister, Helen, and I used to be taken into see Sally and Molly. Aunt Sally always enquired whether we would like "a drop of effervesce” in other words Corona orange, cherry and lemon favoured fizzy drinks delivered strait to the door with no "e" numbers in those days to bother about, the bottles had ceramic tops and a rubber washer with metal clips to hold it all together in the same style as Grolsh beer today, it came in wooden crates with money back on returned bottles. Aunty Sally was even thinner than Mary and would say to Helen “I wish I had some of your fat” although I never thought of Helen as being that fat just that Aunty Sally was very small.
Aunt Sally (Sarah Jane Lane), was Mary eldest sister; she married Jack Davis, & they lived at the Nurseries, a set of terraced houses with large country style gardens at the front of the house on the way to Lower Greytree. The 1901 census tells that Jack was a boot boy at the White Swan hotel, Ross on Wye. Ten years later he is recorded doing a similar task but this time at the Royal Hotel in Ross on Wye. One of the nice things about doing this web site is receiving contributions from other family members Susan Vallender’s tale:- “The other day I was having a sort-out, as you do, and had another look at a medal I had which I had always assumed wasn’t a family piece, however on this occasion I took a closer look and found on the back the name of John Davies, my Great-grandfather, after a bit of research I discovered it was a masonic vitruvian medal so I got in touch with the local lodge secretary and he was able to provide me with further details, it seems that it was called a centenary jewel and had the date 1913 on the ribbon, one hundred years ago. He was really interested in it, as this year is their bi-centenary. At the time it appears that as John Davies was a hotel boots at the Royal Hotel in Ross and that he was granted a dispensation (I think that is the phrase) entitling him to membership. As the medal was gathering dust in my drawer I decided to donate it to their archives. They were really pleased to accept it. We met then at Royal Hotel in Ross today and resented the jewel to them. It’s such a long time since I had visited Ross on Wye so it all made
was a really good day out”.
Aunt Sally's Children and Alick Cooper
Rear left to right William or "Bul" and Annie aka Nancy Davies
Front line the twins Mary Hilda Aka Molly and George Davies with Alick Cooper in the middle
My sister, Helen, and I used to be taken into see Sally and Molly. Aunt Sally always enquired whether we would like "a drop of effervesce” in other words Corona orange, cherry and lemon favoured fizzy drinks delivered strait to the door with no "e" numbers in those days to bother about, the bottles had ceramic tops and a rubber washer with metal clips to hold it all together in the same style as Grolsh beer today, it came in wooden crates with money back on returned bottles. Aunty Sally was even thinner than Mary and would say to Helen “I wish I had some of your fat” although I never thought of Helen as being that fat just that Aunty Sally was very small.
Aunt Sally & Molly both looking a lot younger than I remember
Aunt Sally had a few good sayings such as "don't pull a face when the clock chimes the hour or it will stay like that." I don't suppose it true, but on the other hand I have never put it to the test. She had an interesting recipe for treating warts, which was to get up at five o'clock in the morning, and collect some slugs from the garden, then place them over the offending warts to make them go away. Recent studies have shown that Slug mucus contains peptides which not only act as natural antibodies, but also stimulate many elements of the immune system. Which is all vey good but it is the getting up at five o'clock I don't like.
Aunt Sally had a few good sayings such as "don't pull a face when the clock chimes the hour or it will stay like that." I don't suppose it true, but on the other hand I have never put it to the test. She had an interesting recipe for treating warts, which was to get up at five o'clock in the morning, and collect some slugs from the garden, then place them over the offending warts to make them go away. Recent studies have shown that Slug mucus contains peptides which not only act as natural antibodies, but also stimulate many elements of the immune system. Which is all vey good but it is the getting up at five o'clock I don't like.
Nancy & John Skippon with their niece, Grace Davies in the middle
Nancy had been romantically let down by a railway signalman, so she knew that, just like Mary, that all men were up to no good, except Alec and his sons of course. Nancy eventually married a widower called Joseph Skippon eighteen year older than her and lived in a large house in Barnwood on the outskirt of Gloucester. Sadly Nancy suffered badly from arthritis in later life. Skippon worked as a shoe-shop area manager, and was an amateur phrenologist in other words he studied people heads reading their character from the skull. Most of phrenology's basic premises have been vindicated to some extent, however it has also been described as "a pseudo-science of the present day"
Nancy had been romantically let down by a railway signalman, so she knew that, just like Mary, that all men were up to no good, except Alec and his sons of course. Nancy eventually married a widower called Joseph Skippon eighteen year older than her and lived in a large house in Barnwood on the outskirt of Gloucester. Sadly Nancy suffered badly from arthritis in later life. Skippon worked as a shoe-shop area manager, and was an amateur phrenologist in other words he studied people heads reading their character from the skull. Most of phrenology's basic premises have been vindicated to some extent, however it has also been described as "a pseudo-science of the present day"
William or Bul Davies
Bul Davies married Winifred May Phillips, and they lived all their married life in Over Ross St. His hobby was being part of a barbershop duo with the son of Usall’s monumental mason in Ross. As most of the British Military records were destroyed by fire and due to his very common name I have been unable to uncover his military record as yet. There is another photograph in existence with him dressed in some sort of regalia which I presume is part his Buff's dress. The Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes is one of the largest fraternal organisations in the UK which was started in 1822 and is known as the Buffs to its members. Their motto is "No Man Is At All Times Wise." Sadly his wife May died aged thirty five. There was not enough time available for Alix to get there and back from school to Lower Greytree at lunch time so May very kindly provided his lunch consisting of a boiled egg ( presumably provided by him Mum, Mary). Bul remarried and moved to Gloucester. Bul & May had one child, a nice looking girl called Grace, who married Eric Price James who served in the Royal engineers he took part in the D Day landings, and was serving in Antwerp when their only child, Susan was born.
Grace James Nee Davies As a child Grace lived a lot of the time with her grandmother, Aunt Sally, as her mother was in service. In the 1950s Grace, & her husband, Eric Price James & their daughter share a home with her father, William & step-mother, Agnes in Gloucester. Before she got marriage Grace joined the army in 1941 and serving in the ATS. The Auxiliary Territorial Service (for women) was for non-combatant duties with military units doing motor driving, clerical and other services calling for energy and initiative. They received smaller rations (by 20%) to men in the Army and just 66% of the pay of a man of the same rank. ATS recruitment was aimed at women aged between 18 and 43 with a desire to serve their country and in 1941 the ATS was incorporated into Army regulations which demonstrated the status that the organization had achieved. At the end of December 1943, there were over 200,000 women serving in the ATS with 6,000 officers taking part more than 80 trades.
George Davies and Ivy Ester nee Francksen
Bul's young brother, George, married in his early twenties.
They had two boys. When the war came he either joined up or was called up into the army. George was a Desert Rat during the war, i.e. he was a driver in the seventh armoured brigade who fought their way though North Africa, Italy then onto Germany where he met Elfrieda, a German soldier’s widow who he smuggled out of East Germany while still on active service. Due to this entanglement His wife divorced him, George & Elfrieda were involved in a motoring accident where she sustained pelvic injuries thereby stopping her having children and carrying on her profession as a nurse.
Bul's young brother, George, married in his early twenties.
They had two boys. When the war came he either joined up or was called up into the army. George was a Desert Rat during the war, i.e. he was a driver in the seventh armoured brigade who fought their way though North Africa, Italy then onto Germany where he met Elfrieda, a German soldier’s widow who he smuggled out of East Germany while still on active service. Due to this entanglement His wife divorced him, George & Elfrieda were involved in a motoring accident where she sustained pelvic injuries thereby stopping her having children and carrying on her profession as a nurse.
Elfriede Davies & Grace Price nee Davies
On one occasion when he was on leave from the Army he went to visit his Aunt Mary to show off his full dress uniform, but she would not let him in the house until he took “those boots off.” He once turned up at our front door with a ten ton lorry after having done a delivery to ICI Billingham to stay the night. In the morning he gave every all my siblings a lift to the school bus stop, which caused an minor sensation with the other pupils, sadly I was off school due to been ill with yellow jaundice so mist out on that excitement. When Nancy, George's elder sister died her spouse, John Skippon who survived her by three years , asked Molly, George's by then widowed Sister, to keep house for him on the understanding he would leave her his newly acquired Bungalow on the Ledbury road but she refused & Elfrieda got the job instead, and so eventual inherited the Bungalow, which she left it to a local German family instead of George. Following Elfrieda demise George met Ruby, a local farmer’s widow who looked after him until he in turn passed away. I only met her once and she gave me this one piece of advice "do not eat bought chicken pies" as she had worked in the factory that made them so knew what went in them. By that time George was blind due to untreated glaucoma
On one occasion when he was on leave from the Army he went to visit his Aunt Mary to show off his full dress uniform, but she would not let him in the house until he took “those boots off.” He once turned up at our front door with a ten ton lorry after having done a delivery to ICI Billingham to stay the night. In the morning he gave every all my siblings a lift to the school bus stop, which caused an minor sensation with the other pupils, sadly I was off school due to been ill with yellow jaundice so mist out on that excitement. When Nancy, George's elder sister died her spouse, John Skippon who survived her by three years , asked Molly, George's by then widowed Sister, to keep house for him on the understanding he would leave her his newly acquired Bungalow on the Ledbury road but she refused & Elfrieda got the job instead, and so eventual inherited the Bungalow, which she left it to a local German family instead of George. Following Elfrieda demise George met Ruby, a local farmer’s widow who looked after him until he in turn passed away. I only met her once and she gave me this one piece of advice "do not eat bought chicken pies" as she had worked in the factory that made them so knew what went in them. By that time George was blind due to untreated glaucoma
Molly & Roy Taynton
To the rear of the photograph going left to right Roy’s brother, nephew, father, mother, brother and two unknown girls, William Davies
Front row Nancy, Roy, Molly, her mother, Grace Davies,
Molly married Roy Taynton, a well liked man, who hunted and fished, a proper county man, with a garden full of vegetables, he kept some vicious looking ferrets that were inclined to bite you if they had the opportunity. The photograph of their wedding belied what tragedy was to befall Molly. Roy committee suicide in 1965, Roy had gone missing for several days and family members such his niece Grace & her husband had been busy over that time searching for him. On considering why Roy ended his life it can be pointed out that his eighty-six year old father had died earlier in that year and this could have been one of the factor that tipped him over the edge. One of Roy’s brothers, Jack Taynton was the licensee of the "Ye Man of Ross" an Inn at No 2 Wye St in Ross. . The name commemorates the life of John Kyrle a highly regarded local Philanthropist (see Wikipedia for more details if required). Their father, John Taynton worked in Raynors a department store on the west side of the Market Place in Ross near the old Market house log since demolished. He would look after family members in times of shortage after the war with hard to get bed linen & the like. He supplied Alicks' new wife with linen during the war without demanding any ration card which was a great kindness as he could have got into a lot of trouble. John's wife, Charlotte was a French nurse maid in a rich Ross household before her marriage to him. She ended her days in a lunatic asylum possibly Burghill in Hereford; although now-a-days she may well have gone into a care-home.
To the rear of the photograph going left to right Roy’s brother, nephew, father, mother, brother and two unknown girls, William Davies
Front row Nancy, Roy, Molly, her mother, Grace Davies,
Molly married Roy Taynton, a well liked man, who hunted and fished, a proper county man, with a garden full of vegetables, he kept some vicious looking ferrets that were inclined to bite you if they had the opportunity. The photograph of their wedding belied what tragedy was to befall Molly. Roy committee suicide in 1965, Roy had gone missing for several days and family members such his niece Grace & her husband had been busy over that time searching for him. On considering why Roy ended his life it can be pointed out that his eighty-six year old father had died earlier in that year and this could have been one of the factor that tipped him over the edge. One of Roy’s brothers, Jack Taynton was the licensee of the "Ye Man of Ross" an Inn at No 2 Wye St in Ross. . The name commemorates the life of John Kyrle a highly regarded local Philanthropist (see Wikipedia for more details if required). Their father, John Taynton worked in Raynors a department store on the west side of the Market Place in Ross near the old Market house log since demolished. He would look after family members in times of shortage after the war with hard to get bed linen & the like. He supplied Alicks' new wife with linen during the war without demanding any ration card which was a great kindness as he could have got into a lot of trouble. John's wife, Charlotte was a French nurse maid in a rich Ross household before her marriage to him. She ended her days in a lunatic asylum possibly Burghill in Hereford; although now-a-days she may well have gone into a care-home.
Roy & Molly Taynton
Roy Taynton gave my eldest brother, Michael his first fishing lesson on the Wye. Everybody liked Molly she was a sweet and very kind lady who always most welcoming when you turn up at her door
Roy Taynton gave my eldest brother, Michael his first fishing lesson on the Wye. Everybody liked Molly she was a sweet and very kind lady who always most welcoming when you turn up at her door
Oles barn Restaurant, Wilton part of which had been Willam John Beavan’s home
Another of Marys' relatives was Walter Beavan. He came into this world as a result of a relationship her mother had prior to marring her father Allen. He is recorded as been a member of the Lane household on the 1871 Census wrongly described, or perhaps not, as a son-in-law, ten years later by the time he had got to the age of 15 years he left home to become a farm worker. His relationship with the family was never discussed openly as it would be to day. As an adult in 1911 he worked on the same farm in Bridstow as Tom Cooper. He married Bella, (Isabella Higginson) & they had two girls Agee (Agnes Cecilia) and Nellie (Clara Eleanor), and a son name William Allan Beavan who moved to Ashbourne in Derbyshire which I have only recently found out about after one of his descendants contact this web-site.
Another of Marys' relatives was Walter Beavan. He came into this world as a result of a relationship her mother had prior to marring her father Allen. He is recorded as been a member of the Lane household on the 1871 Census wrongly described, or perhaps not, as a son-in-law, ten years later by the time he had got to the age of 15 years he left home to become a farm worker. His relationship with the family was never discussed openly as it would be to day. As an adult in 1911 he worked on the same farm in Bridstow as Tom Cooper. He married Bella, (Isabella Higginson) & they had two girls Agee (Agnes Cecilia) and Nellie (Clara Eleanor), and a son name William Allan Beavan who moved to Ashbourne in Derbyshire which I have only recently found out about after one of his descendants contact this web-site.
Walter John Beavan
They lived close to the Wilton Bridge on the Ross/ Monmouth road. This is probably where Mary got her distrust of men. Walter Beavan certainly did not trust them, and kept them away from his daughters so that they never married. He died in the early 1930s. He was described by Alick as a very morose looking man & his secret was very well kept within the family.
They lived close to the Wilton Bridge on the Ross/ Monmouth road. This is probably where Mary got her distrust of men. Walter Beavan certainly did not trust them, and kept them away from his daughters so that they never married. He died in the early 1930s. He was described by Alick as a very morose looking man & his secret was very well kept within the family.
Clara Eleanor Beavan AKA Nellie
By the time I was acquainted with the family there was only Nelly left she was living in a house with a stable door at the front close to Wilton Bridge and in the same street as the Kings Head Hotel. She had a large kitchen table in a room similar to Mary Cooper's one. However this table had a kitten playing with a cotton reel hanging down from its base. On one occasion after my sister, Helen, & I had spent the day with her in home Nelly took us back to Granny’s house using a short cut along the side of the railway just as a train decided to come along the line, Nelly made us hide in the tall grass of the embankment to keep the engine drive from seeing us. I found it bad enough hearing the thundering roar of the train going by, never mind the thought of the engine drive stop his train to chase after us! Aggie worked on Ross market on a fruit and veg stall, when Alick called in at the shop she worked at he was always given a nice cheerful smile and a generous measure of whatever product he purchased. In her latter years Nellie moved into the cottage next door which is shown in the above photograph.
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By the time I was acquainted with the family there was only Nelly left she was living in a house with a stable door at the front close to Wilton Bridge and in the same street as the Kings Head Hotel. She had a large kitchen table in a room similar to Mary Cooper's one. However this table had a kitten playing with a cotton reel hanging down from its base. On one occasion after my sister, Helen, & I had spent the day with her in home Nelly took us back to Granny’s house using a short cut along the side of the railway just as a train decided to come along the line, Nelly made us hide in the tall grass of the embankment to keep the engine drive from seeing us. I found it bad enough hearing the thundering roar of the train going by, never mind the thought of the engine drive stop his train to chase after us! Aggie worked on Ross market on a fruit and veg stall, when Alick called in at the shop she worked at he was always given a nice cheerful smile and a generous measure of whatever product he purchased. In her latter years Nellie moved into the cottage next door which is shown in the above photograph.
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William Allan Beavan's son Maidley Allan Beavan, who never used his first name, was born on the 7th of November 1915 above a tea shop situated at 18-19 the High Street Ross on Wye run by William & his mum Lucy Isobel (nee Sellars).Lucy was from a family of painters and decorators in Ashbourne. William had apparently had moved there from Ross to help run a dairy and tea rooms in Dig Street which was managed by his Uncle Charlie Henry Higginson and it was here that he met Lucy and they were married at the local parish Church of St. Oswald. They then decamped to Ross to run their own business, but all was not well with Lucy, who was unable to settle in Ross missing friends and family in Ashbourne and it seems they moved back to Ashbourne when Allan their first son was quite young as his first school was in Ashbourne. They took up residence at 35, Belper Road where their second son, Cecil Walter Beavan was born on the 17th of June 1920. Allen married Marie Stubbs who was living at the time at Gate Farm in the same Road in 1941 when he was on leave from his army service in WW2. Marie's parent had previously farmed at Ivy House Biggin-by-Hartington near Buxton, the house was described in a recent sale broacher as a six bedroomed grade 1 listed country house formerly a 19th coaching Inn. Allan loved visiting Ross on Wye and felt a strong connection with the place even though he probably did not remember his early life there. Most of the family including grandparents William & Lucy, Parents Allan & Marie and the children visited Ross in the summer holidays. Allen & Marie rented a caravan in Wilton behinds Bennetts Garage where they had a caravan park. In the late fifties the Cooper family stayed in the same park so it could have been a case of ships that pass in the night.
Mary Jones nee Cooper 1885-1955
Mary Jones nee Cooper, Tom’s sister, found employment as a servant at Ganarew House, a private home which is now a Care home it was just a bit further along the Monmouth Road passed Ross, which is the same address as her new sister-in- law, Mary gave on her marriage certificate. She eventually married Police Sergeant Lenny Jones. After Lenny retired from the Police force they had a house build called Fernleigh at Cawdor Hill, Ross on Wye, which was a ten minute walk up the hill from Mary Cooper’s home. They had one further move to a newly built terrace House even closer to her sister-in-Laws, Mary’s home called Birdsall Villa. Their son Hedley ran a Market gardening Business at their old property Fernleigh., which must have had quite a bit of land attached to it Hedley married a school teacher called Mary Price & had two children the eldest been Susan Amanda. Sadly Hedley died aged 45 & Mary his wife sold the property & moved to Wales & is believed to have re-married.
Mary Jones nee Cooper, Tom’s sister, found employment as a servant at Ganarew House, a private home which is now a Care home it was just a bit further along the Monmouth Road passed Ross, which is the same address as her new sister-in- law, Mary gave on her marriage certificate. She eventually married Police Sergeant Lenny Jones. After Lenny retired from the Police force they had a house build called Fernleigh at Cawdor Hill, Ross on Wye, which was a ten minute walk up the hill from Mary Cooper’s home. They had one further move to a newly built terrace House even closer to her sister-in-Laws, Mary’s home called Birdsall Villa. Their son Hedley ran a Market gardening Business at their old property Fernleigh., which must have had quite a bit of land attached to it Hedley married a school teacher called Mary Price & had two children the eldest been Susan Amanda. Sadly Hedley died aged 45 & Mary his wife sold the property & moved to Wales & is believed to have re-married.
Louie Long nee Cooper born 1895
Another of Tom’s sibling, Aunt Louie, had dealings with Mary, although she was initial on the disapproval list due her early profession before she got married which was been a screw at Wormwood Scrubs. Louie married a fellow called long & they had a son called Philip who Alick used to spend some of his
summer holiday with at their home in Port Slade near Hove in Essex. Philip, who became a merchant seaman sadly died at a fairly young age of TB. Aunt Louie was last seen working in a hotel in Hereford presumably after the loss of her husband, or perhaps he was away in the services.
Another of Tom’s sibling, Aunt Louie, had dealings with Mary, although she was initial on the disapproval list due her early profession before she got married which was been a screw at Wormwood Scrubs. Louie married a fellow called long & they had a son called Philip who Alick used to spend some of his
summer holiday with at their home in Port Slade near Hove in Essex. Philip, who became a merchant seaman sadly died at a fairly young age of TB. Aunt Louie was last seen working in a hotel in Hereford presumably after the loss of her husband, or perhaps he was away in the services.
Childhood Memories of our Granny, Mary Elizabeth Cooper
I remember travelling down over night from North East England and as the sun began to dawn one could see through the hop fields the view over the Wye valley arriving at Lower Greytree just as the eight o’clock pips were heard on the radio, accompanied with the smell of freshly fried bacon cooking on the range. To get to Granny’s house we went though a railway arch then over an un-manned level crossing with stories of long remembered past accidents, including a tale of the midwife, whose car stalled in the middle of the crossing with no time to escape the train coming down the line and it not been able to stop in time thus dragging her still inside the car along the track. On the 31st of October 1964 the last train left Ross for Hereford and Gloucester. Granny was long gone by then. The roadway, directly after the crossing, been situated a the bottom of a hill was somewhat sandy in nature, and Granny would on occasion despatch one her eldest grandchildren with a bucket to harvest this highly regarded product, it was piled up at the side of her front garden ready for use. It's possible that she let him do this just to keep him busy, although sand may have been used as a scourer on her hearth in front of the range. Sand was used much more as a general cleanser in Georgian times, due to soap been taxed, making it a luxury product which could stretch an ordinary household budget. If you were unable to access the product yourself the Sandman used to deliver it, sometime when you wake up in the morning you get what feels like a bit of grit in our eye, perhaps the sandman had visited you in the night! Back to our tale, You took the first turning on the left after the crossing passing a house named Rosebank on the corner, one of Granny's egg customers, along the un-made up lane before it wound its way up Cawdor Hill to Aunty Mary Jones’s home at the top going passed the turn off to Mrs Evans house, who had accompanied Granny to our father, Alix’s degree ceremony at Bristol University. Granny was far from been a well travel women and this was probably the furthest she had travelled away from home. Mary was taught to read and write at a Dame school costing a penny a week. Her mother, although a good seamstress, was not even able to sign her name on her marriage certificate. So she knew the “good of Education,” and was determined that Alec was going to get plenty of it. She once spent the equivalent of one week’s pension on a geography book she felt would do Alec some good. Mrs Davis from the top of the Lane said Alix was so precious that he should be enclosed in a glass dome.
I remember travelling down over night from North East England and as the sun began to dawn one could see through the hop fields the view over the Wye valley arriving at Lower Greytree just as the eight o’clock pips were heard on the radio, accompanied with the smell of freshly fried bacon cooking on the range. To get to Granny’s house we went though a railway arch then over an un-manned level crossing with stories of long remembered past accidents, including a tale of the midwife, whose car stalled in the middle of the crossing with no time to escape the train coming down the line and it not been able to stop in time thus dragging her still inside the car along the track. On the 31st of October 1964 the last train left Ross for Hereford and Gloucester. Granny was long gone by then. The roadway, directly after the crossing, been situated a the bottom of a hill was somewhat sandy in nature, and Granny would on occasion despatch one her eldest grandchildren with a bucket to harvest this highly regarded product, it was piled up at the side of her front garden ready for use. It's possible that she let him do this just to keep him busy, although sand may have been used as a scourer on her hearth in front of the range. Sand was used much more as a general cleanser in Georgian times, due to soap been taxed, making it a luxury product which could stretch an ordinary household budget. If you were unable to access the product yourself the Sandman used to deliver it, sometime when you wake up in the morning you get what feels like a bit of grit in our eye, perhaps the sandman had visited you in the night! Back to our tale, You took the first turning on the left after the crossing passing a house named Rosebank on the corner, one of Granny's egg customers, along the un-made up lane before it wound its way up Cawdor Hill to Aunty Mary Jones’s home at the top going passed the turn off to Mrs Evans house, who had accompanied Granny to our father, Alix’s degree ceremony at Bristol University. Granny was far from been a well travel women and this was probably the furthest she had travelled away from home. Mary was taught to read and write at a Dame school costing a penny a week. Her mother, although a good seamstress, was not even able to sign her name on her marriage certificate. So she knew the “good of Education,” and was determined that Alec was going to get plenty of it. She once spent the equivalent of one week’s pension on a geography book she felt would do Alec some good. Mrs Davis from the top of the Lane said Alix was so precious that he should be enclosed in a glass dome.
Ross Grammar School founded in 1901 Alix became the first boy from Ross Grammar-school to go to University, where he met Thursa Mander and eventually married her & had six children. Mary was always unsure about another woman being involved with her son. She always provided Thursa with breakfast in bed which was very nice but on the other hand it kept her away from Alix for just that bit longer so did not impinge on the mother & son intimacy.
The photograph shows Grannies' Home which was on the left hand side of the semi. To get there we would go along the top of the lane past Mrs Drinkwater’s house, one of Granny’s egg customers, & then Mrs Preedie who earn a living taking in
washing, I think she may have lost a number of children due to consumption. We turned left down the Lane to the dead end meeting the railway track running alongside Granny’s house.
Granny was seventy one years old when I was born, the third grandson and so I only knew her as an old rather grumpy old lady who seemed to love us dearly. Her home at Lower Greytree consisted of a semi-detached property, two up and two down with a scullery come-kitchen on the back surrounded by fields on two sides boarded on another one side by the Ross/Hereford Railway. Greytree had been quite a substantial land area at one time but had shrunk to almost nothing but one of the suburbs of Ross on Wye.
There was a red brick wall in front of the house with a wooden gate that always had to be shut in-case any stray goats got into the garden, not that I ever saw even one stray or otherwise for that matter. The wall was very handy for grandchildren to stand on and wave to the trains going by unless granny caught you doing so. She had a large overgrown lilac bush in the centre of a small lawn in front of the House.
The front door was never opened, except when we left to go back up North after enquiries were made, as to, if we were going past the Black House, the answer was always yes as it was on the main route home along Overross Road meeting the Ledbury Road and on to a crossroad where stood a group of buildings, a pub named the Travellers Rest, a Smithy, and the Blackhouse, a place which supplied stands to rest the coffin or corpse before burial, also Professional mourners, and Sin Eaters, who were poor people who would eat a meal of bread & beer over the corpse which transferred the deceased sins over to the living for the price of six pence there by stopping the dead rising after burial.
Then a large man-sized handkerchief would appear from her pocket followed by a sniff & a good blow of her nose, and a tear in the corner of her eye.
washing, I think she may have lost a number of children due to consumption. We turned left down the Lane to the dead end meeting the railway track running alongside Granny’s house.
Granny was seventy one years old when I was born, the third grandson and so I only knew her as an old rather grumpy old lady who seemed to love us dearly. Her home at Lower Greytree consisted of a semi-detached property, two up and two down with a scullery come-kitchen on the back surrounded by fields on two sides boarded on another one side by the Ross/Hereford Railway. Greytree had been quite a substantial land area at one time but had shrunk to almost nothing but one of the suburbs of Ross on Wye.
There was a red brick wall in front of the house with a wooden gate that always had to be shut in-case any stray goats got into the garden, not that I ever saw even one stray or otherwise for that matter. The wall was very handy for grandchildren to stand on and wave to the trains going by unless granny caught you doing so. She had a large overgrown lilac bush in the centre of a small lawn in front of the House.
The front door was never opened, except when we left to go back up North after enquiries were made, as to, if we were going past the Black House, the answer was always yes as it was on the main route home along Overross Road meeting the Ledbury Road and on to a crossroad where stood a group of buildings, a pub named the Travellers Rest, a Smithy, and the Blackhouse, a place which supplied stands to rest the coffin or corpse before burial, also Professional mourners, and Sin Eaters, who were poor people who would eat a meal of bread & beer over the corpse which transferred the deceased sins over to the living for the price of six pence there by stopping the dead rising after burial.
Then a large man-sized handkerchief would appear from her pocket followed by a sniff & a good blow of her nose, and a tear in the corner of her eye.
Plums The side of the house was painted black,
which had something to do with damp proofing, as opposed to the rest of the exterior walls which were white, alongside the path next to the wall was a ditch
running besides the boundary privet hedge next
to the rail embankment, which must have been some fifteen to twenty foot high. Growing close to the wall there was a line of lavender plants with a clump of mint in the corner. Lavender bags seemed to appear all over the house The back garden must have been the length of two or three cricket pitches & broader than her half of the semi with a brook, or drainage ditch to the rear of the garden. There was an overgrown willow hedge on eitherside of the brook, which had been planted years ago to hold back any erosion cause by the flow of the water. Six or seven foot infrount of it was the chicken run with the two enormous Plum or damson trees inside it. When Granny got older they got to be a bit of a nightmare as she was unable to gather them all up. So they were left on the ground and the chickens ate then, which in turn gave them the runs thereby stopping them laying eggs so, the trees had to come down. The entire enclosure was fenced off with a six foot or so wire mesh. The supporting poles were made out of the willow hedge the problem was they were inclined sprout roots turning the poles into trees. Even with the high fence there was always a danger that the chickens could still escape by flying over the top fence. So she clipped their wings removing the white part of their wing quills which was like clipping your finger nails in that it did not hurt at all.
The Chicken house backed onto an old disused pigsty where discarded crockery was kept ready to be smashed when a piece of household crockery broken as everybody knew thing came in threes. She also kept her garden tools in the pig style there. I remember Sickles and Scythes along with sheep shearing clippers and the usual stuff such as a hoe, rake and a spade and so on, which I sometimes wondered if had belonged to Granddad as tools of his trade
Adders
As kids we were instructed to keep an eye open for Snakes and if you came across one slithering around the garden you had to chop its head off and hang it up in a tree till sundown. It seemed they had a particular liking for mother’s milk so we had to be particular vigilant when pregnant ladies were observed as this was when such products came available to snakes. I never observed at snake hanging around granny's place never mind a pregnant lady for that matter.
There was a large vegetable plot with a line of raspberry canes at one end. The resulting fruit tasted delicious with the cream off the top of the milk you got in those days. Runner beans climbed up bamboo canes, potatoes, carrots, cabbages and the like were in plentiful supply.
As kids we were instructed to keep an eye open for Snakes and if you came across one slithering around the garden you had to chop its head off and hang it up in a tree till sundown. It seemed they had a particular liking for mother’s milk so we had to be particular vigilant when pregnant ladies were observed as this was when such products came available to snakes. I never observed at snake hanging around granny's place never mind a pregnant lady for that matter.
There was a large vegetable plot with a line of raspberry canes at one end. The resulting fruit tasted delicious with the cream off the top of the milk you got in those days. Runner beans climbed up bamboo canes, potatoes, carrots, cabbages and the like were in plentiful supply.
Near the back of the house was a yellow three sided privet abour screen containing a small lawn, where Granny could sit safe & secure in the knowledge that any passing man walking along the line would not be able to see you. Between the house and the hedge there was a modest sized flower garden which my memory says grew nothing but primroses. The soil was very black thanks to the addition of all the soot swept from the coal burning fire’s chimney importuned from the chimney sweeper who I imagine was quite happy to get rid of the stuff
Mary Elizabeth Cooper in the early 1960s Granny and her next door neighbours Bill and & Francis Owens shared a hand operated water-pump that provided really good tasting spring water. It started to fail when Granny was in her middle eighties and needed to be primed
with two buckets of water to provide three. Now she knew the previous one had lasted twenty or so years & she wasn’t going to get the full benefit of it at her age. So she refused to pay her half share for the pump. However Dad, Alick, secretly made the money up at a later date. Mind you, she was right, she did not get another twenty years out of it, then neither did the Owens because as soon as the opportunity arrived after
Granny departure from this world they got hooked up to mains water & electricity.
with two buckets of water to provide three. Now she knew the previous one had lasted twenty or so years & she wasn’t going to get the full benefit of it at her age. So she refused to pay her half share for the pump. However Dad, Alick, secretly made the money up at a later date. Mind you, she was right, she did not get another twenty years out of it, then neither did the Owens because as soon as the opportunity arrived after
Granny departure from this world they got hooked up to mains water & electricity.
Granny in her younger days
At the back of her home was her coal house which also contained a forty-five gallon drum of paraffin, she got a penny a gallon discount for bulk purchasing. It was used for cooking, heating & lighting. When darkness fell she lit her Aladdin oil lamp which was places on the table in the middle of the room. It gave a warm glow along with the fire in the range. Candles were used for lighting elsewhere in the house. Most days she would go for a walk collecting stick to use as kindling to get the fire going. although in the winter it probable never went out. The train track running along the side of the house was a useful source of wood, as the wooden chocks that fitted onto the clamps to keep the line from working lose that bolted the track on the wooden sleepers would fall out every now and again, so if you could get to them before the maintenance crew could put them back
At the back of her home was her coal house which also contained a forty-five gallon drum of paraffin, she got a penny a gallon discount for bulk purchasing. It was used for cooking, heating & lighting. When darkness fell she lit her Aladdin oil lamp which was places on the table in the middle of the room. It gave a warm glow along with the fire in the range. Candles were used for lighting elsewhere in the house. Most days she would go for a walk collecting stick to use as kindling to get the fire going. although in the winter it probable never went out. The train track running along the side of the house was a useful source of wood, as the wooden chocks that fitted onto the clamps to keep the line from working lose that bolted the track on the wooden sleepers would fall out every now and again, so if you could get to them before the maintenance crew could put them back
We were escorted to bed by Granny with a lighted candle in an enamel candle holder. We were never scare of the dark mainly because it was never ever crossed your mind to be so. On the other hand as we never visited her in the winter and experienced long dark nights there. The back door of the house led to the scullery which contained two large terracotta pitchers one containing the hard spring water of the area for drinking, and the other contained soft-rainwater collected from the roof in an oak barrel situated next to the Coal house and was used for washing. There was a paraffin stove with two burners along with some kind of paraffin oven on a low shelf forcing her to almost crouch every time she wanted to check the food cooking inside the oven, which she did constantly as it was very difficult to control the temperature. Her various pots and pans stored near by in a cupboard with a curtain instead of a door, I wonder if it was made out of orange boxes? In one corner there was a boiler used to supply hot water on wash days. Fly paper hung down over a work bench looking rather like rolls of un-coiled film covered in small currants stuck to the sticky surface.
A Kitchen Range Similar to the range at Grannys'house
On entering the living-room you saw Granny’s bed next to the window at the rear of the house, and in front of a cupboard in the alcove next to the Range. The bed
had to be moved to access rarely use things stored inside it. To the right was the kitchen range, which was feed on the best sort of coal “Staffordshire blue,” or wow-be-tide former Police Sergeant Lenny Jones of the Ross and district constabulary, but now manager at the Phoenix Coal Yard, situated near the railway station, and answerable to Aunty Mary, Granny’s sister-in-law. The range had two ovens. The lower one was used for such purposes as drying wood or sticks to be used as kindling or drying egg shells, which were kept to be mixed with corn to provide extra calcium in the chicken feed. Now that’s what I call recycling! The kindling sticks after been dried out were then ready to relight the fire on the rare occasions when it went out. The top oven was used to warm or slow cook. The flat irons would go in the top oven to warm them up ready for that days' ironing. Another of her environmentally friendly uses of resources was after reading old copies of the News of the World kindly donated by Aunt Sally she tore the up into strips & hung them up for use on the door of the outside privy no expensive toilet paper for her!
On entering the living-room you saw Granny’s bed next to the window at the rear of the house, and in front of a cupboard in the alcove next to the Range. The bed
had to be moved to access rarely use things stored inside it. To the right was the kitchen range, which was feed on the best sort of coal “Staffordshire blue,” or wow-be-tide former Police Sergeant Lenny Jones of the Ross and district constabulary, but now manager at the Phoenix Coal Yard, situated near the railway station, and answerable to Aunty Mary, Granny’s sister-in-law. The range had two ovens. The lower one was used for such purposes as drying wood or sticks to be used as kindling or drying egg shells, which were kept to be mixed with corn to provide extra calcium in the chicken feed. Now that’s what I call recycling! The kindling sticks after been dried out were then ready to relight the fire on the rare occasions when it went out. The top oven was used to warm or slow cook. The flat irons would go in the top oven to warm them up ready for that days' ironing. Another of her environmentally friendly uses of resources was after reading old copies of the News of the World kindly donated by Aunt Sally she tore the up into strips & hung them up for use on the door of the outside privy no expensive toilet paper for her!
Wright’s coal tar soap
Granny’s niece, Molly would come up to the house & put brown paper on Granny’s back and ironed her arthritis away.
There was a blackened kettle on the fire bubbling away, which supplied most of the hot water needs for the household. Baths were a major operation. The tin bath was brought in from the scullery & filled with hot water from the boiler then topped up with extra hot water from the kettle when necessary. We would takes turn, oldest child first, youngest last, getting scrubbed clean by Granny & Mr Wright’s efforts, of the Wright’s coal tar soap fame.
Her radio was on top of the cupboard behind her bed and above that were shelves holding her tea service decorated with bright yellow primroses, her torch was kept on top of cupboard on the opposite side of the range. They were probably the only bits of
technology that separated her from her Victorian origins. She did not want the bother and expenses of electricity, although a substation hummed its song no more than quarter a mile away in the last ten years of her life, and the opportunity for mains-water was turned down causing her next door neighbours, the Owens, to lose out as well.
There was a table & chairs in the middle of the room where all our meals were served. A blanket was places on the table, them an oil cloth, followed by a table cloth, then individual place settings, consisting of a table mat, more oil cloth & a napkin. When darkness came the oil lamp was lit sending a warm glow around the room. On the opposite side of the room to her bed the other cupboard with the torch on to containing such things as tinned peaches, McVities Digestive Biscuits, her home made fruit cake Spare batteries for the torch & such like. She had once asked the assistant at a hardware shop how many flashes she would get out of a battery before it went dead. He had told her 580 just for the sake of something to say, and as a consequence she would curse anyone who used them up unnecessarily.
Granny’s niece, Molly would come up to the house & put brown paper on Granny’s back and ironed her arthritis away.
There was a blackened kettle on the fire bubbling away, which supplied most of the hot water needs for the household. Baths were a major operation. The tin bath was brought in from the scullery & filled with hot water from the boiler then topped up with extra hot water from the kettle when necessary. We would takes turn, oldest child first, youngest last, getting scrubbed clean by Granny & Mr Wright’s efforts, of the Wright’s coal tar soap fame.
Her radio was on top of the cupboard behind her bed and above that were shelves holding her tea service decorated with bright yellow primroses, her torch was kept on top of cupboard on the opposite side of the range. They were probably the only bits of
technology that separated her from her Victorian origins. She did not want the bother and expenses of electricity, although a substation hummed its song no more than quarter a mile away in the last ten years of her life, and the opportunity for mains-water was turned down causing her next door neighbours, the Owens, to lose out as well.
There was a table & chairs in the middle of the room where all our meals were served. A blanket was places on the table, them an oil cloth, followed by a table cloth, then individual place settings, consisting of a table mat, more oil cloth & a napkin. When darkness came the oil lamp was lit sending a warm glow around the room. On the opposite side of the room to her bed the other cupboard with the torch on to containing such things as tinned peaches, McVities Digestive Biscuits, her home made fruit cake Spare batteries for the torch & such like. She had once asked the assistant at a hardware shop how many flashes she would get out of a battery before it went dead. He had told her 580 just for the sake of something to say, and as a consequence she would curse anyone who used them up unnecessarily.
Eggs and Jam
On the opposite side of the room to the Kitchen range was a boxed in staircase made up of black stained tongue & grooved boards with a walk in cupboard come-pantry under the stairwell. Attached to the latch on the outer side of the cupboard door was a piece of string that went over the top to the inside,
Granny had once been accidentally locked in the cupboard by a two year old Alick falling against the door. This would not be allowed to happen again! Two large framed photographs were hanging on the wall, one was Granddad, dressed up looking like a gentle looking Victorian bank clerk, & the other was Alick as a child in what I would describe as a little Lord Fauntoroy costume sitting on a piano stool. Things that were no used every a day were kept inside this cupboard such as spare plates, best dishes, home-made raspberry jam & the like. Now Alick was extremely fond of jam and as a child once a day he helped himself to a spoonful, but what he had not considered was that jam was only produced for Sunday tea so the seven missing spoonfuls were noted!
On the opposite side of the room to the Kitchen range was a boxed in staircase made up of black stained tongue & grooved boards with a walk in cupboard come-pantry under the stairwell. Attached to the latch on the outer side of the cupboard door was a piece of string that went over the top to the inside,
Granny had once been accidentally locked in the cupboard by a two year old Alick falling against the door. This would not be allowed to happen again! Two large framed photographs were hanging on the wall, one was Granddad, dressed up looking like a gentle looking Victorian bank clerk, & the other was Alick as a child in what I would describe as a little Lord Fauntoroy costume sitting on a piano stool. Things that were no used every a day were kept inside this cupboard such as spare plates, best dishes, home-made raspberry jam & the like. Now Alick was extremely fond of jam and as a child once a day he helped himself to a spoonful, but what he had not considered was that jam was only produced for Sunday tea so the seven missing spoonfuls were noted!
The jardinière
A bureau stood in front of the cupboard, fitting snugly between the door for the cupboard & the door for the boxed-in-stairs. Underneath the bureau was a jardinière full of eggs all dated & checked for imperfections for sale to Granny’s customers up the Lane. During the war when eggs were on short supply Alick & Thursa were moved from Billingham to Dowlas in Wales by his employer, ICI, there was a regular egg run to Ross to raid the jardinière. When they were unable visit Granny she would send the eggs by post after first packing then in the egg cartons of the time, as they had not invented the oval shaped containers of today the cartons were divided into squares & packed with cotton wool, she then boxed them up which in turn was placed in a calico bag. The eggs were rarely broken accept in one occasion when the postman put the parcel though an open upper window when nobody was at home and even then only a couple of them were cracked. If Granny had a glut of eggs she used to preserve them in isinglass. They were stored point down making sure they were completely covered by the liquid, they could last for months on end and were used for baking as they had a slight off taste about them.
A bureau stood in front of the cupboard, fitting snugly between the door for the cupboard & the door for the boxed-in-stairs. Underneath the bureau was a jardinière full of eggs all dated & checked for imperfections for sale to Granny’s customers up the Lane. During the war when eggs were on short supply Alick & Thursa were moved from Billingham to Dowlas in Wales by his employer, ICI, there was a regular egg run to Ross to raid the jardinière. When they were unable visit Granny she would send the eggs by post after first packing then in the egg cartons of the time, as they had not invented the oval shaped containers of today the cartons were divided into squares & packed with cotton wool, she then boxed them up which in turn was placed in a calico bag. The eggs were rarely broken accept in one occasion when the postman put the parcel though an open upper window when nobody was at home and even then only a couple of them were cracked. If Granny had a glut of eggs she used to preserve them in isinglass. They were stored point down making sure they were completely covered by the liquid, they could last for months on end and were used for baking as they had a slight off taste about them.
Granny and Alick On the adjacent corner of the room to Granny’s bed there was a door opening out to the passage leading to the front-door it containing a commode, where one was allowed to perform number ones, but not number twos!
Leading off the passage was the front-room with a horse hair chaise-lounge and windows that rattled when a train went by, there was another jardinière this time with as aspidistra inside it standing on a Victorian plant stand in front of the window. A large metal chest full of corn to feed the chicken stood in the corner next to a black Victoria fire place which I never remember having a lighted fire lit in it. Some of the floor board were rotten, probably wood-worm, so you had to be careful where you stood.
Leading off the passage was the front-room with a horse hair chaise-lounge and windows that rattled when a train went by, there was another jardinière this time with as aspidistra inside it standing on a Victorian plant stand in front of the window. A large metal chest full of corn to feed the chicken stood in the corner next to a black Victoria fire place which I never remember having a lighted fire lit in it. Some of the floor board were rotten, probably wood-worm, so you had to be careful where you stood.
One of Granny's statutes which she kept in the front bedroom.
Upstairs there were two rooms. The front bedroom had a large Victorian black cast iron double sized bedstead with brass knobs on top of the bed ends, with a feather matrass which sank in the middle, but none the less very comfortable. A goes-under was in the usual place. At the backend of WW1 “there were three in bed”. Granny had some land girls billeted on her, described to me forty years after the event as very good girls, but she did not want any more! They would have provided a bit of much needed income and if you consider Granny as a child was part of a family nine living, in a two up two down house in Kempley three in a bed would not have seemed overcrowding. The Woman’s land army was establish in 1917 to work on the farms after a failed harvest with resulting food shortages and the lack of available male farm labour caused by the war. The girls seemed to have a marked effect on her in that as a fourteen year I was instructed not to bring any of those girls up here! Not that I had a store of them in the first place. One of my brothers had to leaving his then girlfriend, who later became his wife at a coffee bar in Ross, when he went to visit the old lady.
In one corner of the bedroom there was a wash stand with a basin on top with a water jug underneath. In the other corner stood a table, and standing on top was a watch-maker cabinet that Alick kept his repair kit and various other bits and bobs. There was a copy of some Somerset Maugham short stories on a small table upstairs which my sister, Helen, was caught reading only to be told it was not the sort of book a young lady should be reading as it had tales of evil men who smoked drank & gambled on an Atlantic liner in other words just the sort of book we all enjoy. I have no memory of the back bedroom probably because I never slept in there. Every week the rent was sent off to the landlords, the Jones family, somewhere in Wales & a receipt was sent back. After many years had gone by the receipts stopped coming so Granny and the Owens stopped sending off the rent with the hope that it would be forgotten about but after about six months a solicitor got in touch with them, it seems the Jones had died, but they had to continue paying the rent to the next of kin. A few years after Granny died the Owens bought the property and it has only just recently been sold onto a developer. (in 2007 or there abouts)
For entertainment we were despatched next-door to see Mrs Owen, (who used to take round a Sunday dinner to Granny when she was by herself, I am not sure if Granny paid for it but is was the sort of things they did in those days) after knocking on their door and replying to the enquiry “How are you progressing now?” we would ask politely for a loan of the blocks. They were a sort of old fashioned wooden Lego, but without the bobble bits. A Rupert annual was always available for perusal along with an old Victorian style illustrated story-book about a girl who would not cut her hair or clip her nails and as a consequence burnt to death, I imagine Granny though that this was a good moral tale to keep us on the straight and narrow. I suppose it works as I have short hair and cut nails Granny had a print of a Victorian girl with long silken hair and standing next to her was a Lassie type dog on the wall next to her living room table. I always wondered if it was the same girl before she had gone wrong She watched TV very occasionally at Mrs Predies. On one occasion Alick & Thursa appeared on a early Panorama TV program in a short piece about improvements in living standard in the late1950s Granny made sure she did not miss that one. She had one simple rule for clothing which was the same on as Henry Ford had for his cars "any colour you like as long as it's black" Thursa bought her a navy blue cardigan for Christmas but had to take it back as not quite the right colour.
In the 1951 when the Festival of Britain was on my sister Helen and I stayed with Granny while the rest of the family went off to London to see the spectacular. It must have been quite a lot for an elderly woman in her mid-seventies to manage & Granny could be a bit scary to small children. I had moved a bit of drain pipe that fed her oak barrel used for collecting rain water from the roof about quarter of an inch or that’s what it felt like to me & she spotted it straight away and went though me like a dose of salts. She showed me a cane she used for closing the curtains which she said if your grandfather had been alive he would have beaten you with it on & on she went. One thing I know, I never touch that pipe ever again. One of Aunt Rose’s daughters stayed with granny for a while with another girl who blamed her for some minor thing out of spite & she got the same treatment.
Upstairs there were two rooms. The front bedroom had a large Victorian black cast iron double sized bedstead with brass knobs on top of the bed ends, with a feather matrass which sank in the middle, but none the less very comfortable. A goes-under was in the usual place. At the backend of WW1 “there were three in bed”. Granny had some land girls billeted on her, described to me forty years after the event as very good girls, but she did not want any more! They would have provided a bit of much needed income and if you consider Granny as a child was part of a family nine living, in a two up two down house in Kempley three in a bed would not have seemed overcrowding. The Woman’s land army was establish in 1917 to work on the farms after a failed harvest with resulting food shortages and the lack of available male farm labour caused by the war. The girls seemed to have a marked effect on her in that as a fourteen year I was instructed not to bring any of those girls up here! Not that I had a store of them in the first place. One of my brothers had to leaving his then girlfriend, who later became his wife at a coffee bar in Ross, when he went to visit the old lady.
In one corner of the bedroom there was a wash stand with a basin on top with a water jug underneath. In the other corner stood a table, and standing on top was a watch-maker cabinet that Alick kept his repair kit and various other bits and bobs. There was a copy of some Somerset Maugham short stories on a small table upstairs which my sister, Helen, was caught reading only to be told it was not the sort of book a young lady should be reading as it had tales of evil men who smoked drank & gambled on an Atlantic liner in other words just the sort of book we all enjoy. I have no memory of the back bedroom probably because I never slept in there. Every week the rent was sent off to the landlords, the Jones family, somewhere in Wales & a receipt was sent back. After many years had gone by the receipts stopped coming so Granny and the Owens stopped sending off the rent with the hope that it would be forgotten about but after about six months a solicitor got in touch with them, it seems the Jones had died, but they had to continue paying the rent to the next of kin. A few years after Granny died the Owens bought the property and it has only just recently been sold onto a developer. (in 2007 or there abouts)
For entertainment we were despatched next-door to see Mrs Owen, (who used to take round a Sunday dinner to Granny when she was by herself, I am not sure if Granny paid for it but is was the sort of things they did in those days) after knocking on their door and replying to the enquiry “How are you progressing now?” we would ask politely for a loan of the blocks. They were a sort of old fashioned wooden Lego, but without the bobble bits. A Rupert annual was always available for perusal along with an old Victorian style illustrated story-book about a girl who would not cut her hair or clip her nails and as a consequence burnt to death, I imagine Granny though that this was a good moral tale to keep us on the straight and narrow. I suppose it works as I have short hair and cut nails Granny had a print of a Victorian girl with long silken hair and standing next to her was a Lassie type dog on the wall next to her living room table. I always wondered if it was the same girl before she had gone wrong She watched TV very occasionally at Mrs Predies. On one occasion Alick & Thursa appeared on a early Panorama TV program in a short piece about improvements in living standard in the late1950s Granny made sure she did not miss that one. She had one simple rule for clothing which was the same on as Henry Ford had for his cars "any colour you like as long as it's black" Thursa bought her a navy blue cardigan for Christmas but had to take it back as not quite the right colour.
In the 1951 when the Festival of Britain was on my sister Helen and I stayed with Granny while the rest of the family went off to London to see the spectacular. It must have been quite a lot for an elderly woman in her mid-seventies to manage & Granny could be a bit scary to small children. I had moved a bit of drain pipe that fed her oak barrel used for collecting rain water from the roof about quarter of an inch or that’s what it felt like to me & she spotted it straight away and went though me like a dose of salts. She showed me a cane she used for closing the curtains which she said if your grandfather had been alive he would have beaten you with it on & on she went. One thing I know, I never touch that pipe ever again. One of Aunt Rose’s daughters stayed with granny for a while with another girl who blamed her for some minor thing out of spite & she got the same treatment.
When Alick was a teenager there were two cinemas in Ross. One was a converted theatre where the seats in the stalls were more expensive & the other one had always been used as a picture house so the stalls were the cheapest seats. It seemed the fun thing to do was to sneak passed the usherettes to the more expensive seats depending on which cinema you had gone too. All of the early films were silent until the Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson came to Ross in about 1928. Jolson's prophetic opening line, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain't heard nothin' yet!" were the first words spoken which so enthralled Alick he watch the same film three time in one sitting.
Granny had a county cure for most things. Coconut oil rubbed into one’s hair prior to a vigorous brushing stopped baldness. It worked for Alick anyway. She collected & dried lavender from her garden & filled small bags with it then put the bags in the linen cupboard to keep thing smelling nice.
There was always inexpensive treats such as bread and hot full-cream milk sprinkled with sugar in special mugs. When Alick was a child he would go to a farm up the top of the lane over a style though a field or two to collect the milk and on the way back he would take a swig out of the top of the can as the cream had settled on the top. I believe the bread was delivered about twice a week by a smiling baker calling at the back door with a basket brimming with all sorts of white bread, none of that brown so called health stuff we are fed now a days There was no sliced bread in those days so Granny would clasp a large white loaf to her bosom then smother the top with lovely yellow butter before commencing to cut a slice. She stared in the corner furthest away from her drawing the knife towards her, then niftily lifting the perfectly even slice using the knife on to the plate before starting again.
As an additional treat milk-bread was purchased as a Sunday tea-time treat it was in shape and size rather like a family sized tin of pineapple chunks with extravagated rippled sides. Milk instead of water was used in its manufacture to make it light in texture hence the name milk bread. Other treats included tinned peach covered in cream off the top of the milk. Jelly Served with bread and butter would you believe? Rice Pudding was served after the rice had been soaked for hours on end to make it soft, then slow cooked, not that there was any alternative way of cooking it in her household, the main consideration being who would get the skin off the top of the rice pudding which was an absolute delight.
Her chicken’s made the Sacrifice for our digestive pleasure, although she would look annoyed if they had not finished their useful lives in other words still have eggs inside then. For breakfast there were fresh boiled eggs with white hand cut bread soldiers spread with the lovely yellow butter and if she felt like spoiling us there was tea sipped from her Saucer, only Typhoo tea would do from her special Typhoo tea caddy. She used a silver coloured sieve to make sure no tea leaves ended up in her tea cup. The used leaves were always thrown on the rose garden near the water pump. I can't remember her sitting down with us to eat a meal although when my elder brother Michael staid with her during his summer holidays and she shared the table with him on those occasions.
Granny had a county cure for most things. Coconut oil rubbed into one’s hair prior to a vigorous brushing stopped baldness. It worked for Alick anyway. She collected & dried lavender from her garden & filled small bags with it then put the bags in the linen cupboard to keep thing smelling nice.
There was always inexpensive treats such as bread and hot full-cream milk sprinkled with sugar in special mugs. When Alick was a child he would go to a farm up the top of the lane over a style though a field or two to collect the milk and on the way back he would take a swig out of the top of the can as the cream had settled on the top. I believe the bread was delivered about twice a week by a smiling baker calling at the back door with a basket brimming with all sorts of white bread, none of that brown so called health stuff we are fed now a days There was no sliced bread in those days so Granny would clasp a large white loaf to her bosom then smother the top with lovely yellow butter before commencing to cut a slice. She stared in the corner furthest away from her drawing the knife towards her, then niftily lifting the perfectly even slice using the knife on to the plate before starting again.
As an additional treat milk-bread was purchased as a Sunday tea-time treat it was in shape and size rather like a family sized tin of pineapple chunks with extravagated rippled sides. Milk instead of water was used in its manufacture to make it light in texture hence the name milk bread. Other treats included tinned peach covered in cream off the top of the milk. Jelly Served with bread and butter would you believe? Rice Pudding was served after the rice had been soaked for hours on end to make it soft, then slow cooked, not that there was any alternative way of cooking it in her household, the main consideration being who would get the skin off the top of the rice pudding which was an absolute delight.
Her chicken’s made the Sacrifice for our digestive pleasure, although she would look annoyed if they had not finished their useful lives in other words still have eggs inside then. For breakfast there were fresh boiled eggs with white hand cut bread soldiers spread with the lovely yellow butter and if she felt like spoiling us there was tea sipped from her Saucer, only Typhoo tea would do from her special Typhoo tea caddy. She used a silver coloured sieve to make sure no tea leaves ended up in her tea cup. The used leaves were always thrown on the rose garden near the water pump. I can't remember her sitting down with us to eat a meal although when my elder brother Michael staid with her during his summer holidays and she shared the table with him on those occasions.
The Skippons' wedding 1932 (John Skippon, unsure, Nancy Skippon, unsure, Sally Davies, William Davies, Grace Davies, May Davies? and Molly Davies)
Whenever we stayed at Greytree, she always ordered three different sorts of bread, one variety for the chickens, one for us, and her special bread. I remember going with her and Alick to Nancy Skippon’s house for tea, Granny brought her special bread of course. She was enjoying a good conversation with Nancy on the subject of how evil men were, when she caught sight of me eating a slice of her special bread and remarked with the sound of heavy censure in her voice “look at that boy eating my bread I knew he was just waiting his chance to get it while my back was turned.” In Granny’s world one was not to go into pubs as that was common, so that going to the King’s Head for morning coffee had to be a closely guarded secret, however using a hotel or going to a coffee bar was acceptable. On occasions a screw topped bottle of Alton Court beer would appear on the lunch time table, not I hasten to add purchased by Granny. Although I never saw her drinking it she always seemed to have a half consumed bottle of a produced originally called "Lieberg's Extract of Meat and Malt wine" but remarketed as "Wincarnis" which was advertised as "the World greatest wine tonic and nerve restorative" it was 17 per cent alcohol which may have improved it's advertised benefits. She had a number of medications on hand such as Rinstead pastels & some large pink lozenges possible strident tablets all contained in the very nicest of tins which she saved for her eldest Grandchild, Michael.
My other family based web-sites are as follows: http://shward-brewery-sheffield.weebly.com/ http://thomas-strong-romsey-brewer.weebly.com/ http://henry-waterland-mander-grave.weebly.com/ http://foxalmshouses.weebly.com/ Incidentally many thanks to Weebly for providing the web-site it's much appreciated, & to all the contributors who have assisted me paint this picture of past lives.
Whenever we stayed at Greytree, she always ordered three different sorts of bread, one variety for the chickens, one for us, and her special bread. I remember going with her and Alick to Nancy Skippon’s house for tea, Granny brought her special bread of course. She was enjoying a good conversation with Nancy on the subject of how evil men were, when she caught sight of me eating a slice of her special bread and remarked with the sound of heavy censure in her voice “look at that boy eating my bread I knew he was just waiting his chance to get it while my back was turned.” In Granny’s world one was not to go into pubs as that was common, so that going to the King’s Head for morning coffee had to be a closely guarded secret, however using a hotel or going to a coffee bar was acceptable. On occasions a screw topped bottle of Alton Court beer would appear on the lunch time table, not I hasten to add purchased by Granny. Although I never saw her drinking it she always seemed to have a half consumed bottle of a produced originally called "Lieberg's Extract of Meat and Malt wine" but remarketed as "Wincarnis" which was advertised as "the World greatest wine tonic and nerve restorative" it was 17 per cent alcohol which may have improved it's advertised benefits. She had a number of medications on hand such as Rinstead pastels & some large pink lozenges possible strident tablets all contained in the very nicest of tins which she saved for her eldest Grandchild, Michael.
My other family based web-sites are as follows: http://shward-brewery-sheffield.weebly.com/ http://thomas-strong-romsey-brewer.weebly.com/ http://henry-waterland-mander-grave.weebly.com/ http://foxalmshouses.weebly.com/ Incidentally many thanks to Weebly for providing the web-site it's much appreciated, & to all the contributors who have assisted me paint this picture of past lives.