Gloucester House, 2 Gloucester Road

Occupants

Following the deaths of John and Emma Williams in 1897, the house was occupied by their grandson, John Henry Williams.

John Henry Williams - John was the eldest son of John Hodges Williams and his wife, Julia (nee Barrett).  He was born on 13th July 1871.  John was admitted to Thornbury Grammar School on 1st July 1883.  He was missing from the family home in the 1891 Census but was there in 1895 and 1896 when he claimed the right to vote because he had 'a joint tenement' in the house.  In 1896 he specifically claims that he owned a “shop and sitting room on the first floor and three shops and bedroom on first floor. Bedroom furnished, rest unfurnished.” He also said the rent for his property was £10 per year.  Interestingly, his claim was initially refused but there was a note on the form about the rent that the business was “worth considerably more – one of the best businesses in town; good situation many hands employed.”

In September quarter 1899 John married Emily Lilian Waites in the Bristol area.  The 1901 census shows that John Henry and his wife Lilian (who was born in Clifton and was aged 30) were the sole occupants of Gloucester House, apart from a maid, the 18 year old Kate Cook.

John Henry worked in the family tailoring business. and he continued living in Gloucester House until at least 1935.  The parish records show that John Henry and Emily Lilian had two children ;

John Arthur Merrick Williams who was baptised on 11th April 1902 attended a private preparatory school.  He commenced Thornbury Grammar School on 1st May 1911 and the school record shows that he was born on 10th March 1902.  There are no qualifications shown on his record and he left school on 20th July 1917 to become a junior clerk in an insurance office.

Leonora Margaret was baptised on 26th July 1905.  She became famous and when she died in Norwich in 2002 aged 97 her obituary appeared in "The Times".  It explained that after attending Thornbury Grammar she became a teacher at Byron House School in London.  During the Second World War, as Vice Principal of the school, she was responsible for evacuating a large number of children to Cambridge, and then taking thirty of these children on to Ottawa in Canada.  With two other teachers, Leonora, who became known as 'Willie' by the children had to struggle to house, feed and educate the children as well as regularly sending letters to their parents at home in England.  When in 1944 the children returned home, Leonora stayed in Canada with her husband, Rowley Hooper, whom she met and married in Canada in 1941.  Following her husband's death, Leonora returned to Bristol in 1952 with her daughter.  She later moved to Bromley where she had a successful career in the education of children with special needs. 

Having been occupied by the Williams family for almost 90 years, the house seems to have changed hands many times in later years.  Although we haven't seen the deeds of the house, we have extracted from the electoral registers the details of some of the people known to have lived in the house since the Williams family.  This information has been supplemented by the memories of local people.  Without seeing the deeds, we do not know whether these people occupied the house as owners or tenants.

1939 Adrian Morgan Squire and his wife Marion - Adrian was killed in the blitz on Bristol Aeroplane company works at Filton on 25th September 1940.  He was a Private in the 13th Gloucestershire (City of Bristol) Battalion Home Guard. The record shows he was aged 30, the son of George Frederick and Miriam Terry Squire of Chesham, Bucks. 

1946, 1947 John S Rocke and Sarah B Rocke

The Electoral Registers show that between 1948 and 1954 Gabriel and Alice Pippett lived in the house.  Gabriel (shown here in 1920) was born in Solihull in 1880. 

He was a talented artist, sculptor, illustrator and woodcarver. His work showed both Medieval and Pre Raphaelite influences and is mainly of a religious nature, including paintings at Douai Abbey and at the Sacred Heart Chapel at Oxford Oratory.  He also designed the mosaic over the door of the Catholic church of St Thomas More in Ilford.

One of his sculptures can still be seen in the statue of Madonna and Child over the doorway of St Mary's Church in Thornbury, which is shown here.  It was commissioned by the family of Frederick William  Davies in memory of his work there as churchwarden.  Gabriel also lived at  Hare Street House, Buntingford Hertfordshire where he founded a community of Christian craftsmen.  He died in 1962 aged 82 years.  He is buried in Droitwich with his wife, Alice, who died just two days before him, next to the church of the Sacred Heart whose mosaics he designed.

1957 and 1959 Mary and Terence Henderson

1960 Dorothy and Joseph Burge

1962 and 1965 Glyn and Marjorie Williams

1970 Maurice, Angela and Eileen Holland
 

November 1970 -June 2000  Ken & Kate Wilkins - click here to read Ken's notes on the history of Gloucester House

Arthur Neal mentioned that in the 50’s the house was occupied by “Russ Conway’s” brother.  Mair Johnson told us that she had met the lady of the house in the early 50’s and she recalled that she was the cousin of ‘the famous pianist’.  We have been unable to link any of the names of occupants traced so far with that of Russ Conway, whose real name was Trevor Stanford.

This page was last updated: 04/06/2011