Laburnum Terrace

James & Hannah Hall of 10 Gloucester Road

The 1881 census shows the tenants of number 10 were now James and Hannah Hall.

In the 1851 census, James and Hannah had been living in Kington in what we believe to be the Cross Hands, a beerhouse.  This was located at the junction of Oldbury Lane and Kington Lane.  The census shows that James was a cider dealer and it was Hannah who ran the beerhouse.

By 1861, the family had moved to Chepstow where James and Hannah ran the Royal Oak.  We know when they returned to Gloucestershire because the 1871 census shows that the family had moved to Thornbury and taken over The White Lion in the High Street.  James’s son, Josiah aged 36, was running the pub.  James himself although he was shown as the head of the household, aged 59 was referred to as “a retired innkeeper”.  By 1880, the Special Drainage rate book shows that James Hall and his family had become tenants of George Hodges in this house in Gloucester Road.

Rosetta Champion, the daughter of James and Hannah was the wife of James Champion of Alveston.  They married in Bristol in 1858.  The 1861 census shows that he was the publican of The Swan Inn in Chepstow.  Also in the household was their son Walter and James’s mother Elizabeth who was the proprietor of land in Henbury Devonshire.  In 1881 whilst Rosetta was living with her parents in Thornbury, James was shown as a butcher in Chepstow area.

The family did not stay in this house very long.  The Special Drainage Ratebook of 1885 shows that the house was unoccupied.  By the time of the 1891 census, James and Hannah had moved to Castle Street.  Hannah died the next year in March 1892 aged 84 and James died in 1895 aged 82.

This page was last updated: 03/10/2008