Number 6 Gloucester Road

The Pitman Family

We believe that the Pitman family lived in Laburnum House in Gloucester Road in the 1920's.

The Pitmans - we have been told that George Pitman was born in Bedminster in May 1875 and educated at St Mary Redcliffe School in Bristol.  He moved to London and in 1916 at the time of the death of his first wife, Kate, nee Hardy, he lived in Camberwell.

George returned to this area to live and work in Alveston.  He was a motor engineer and seems to have worked at a garage which is now Berkeley Vale Motors.  He married his first wife's sister, a widow named Minnie Pegg, in 1918 at Alveston Church.  Later he set up his own business as a motor engineer in the large workshop building adjoining number 6.  He appeared in the trade directory in 1923 under the name of 'Thornbury Garage'.  George and Minnie Pitman appear in the electoral registers for Gloucester Road from 1921 to 1925.  We believe that it is very likely that George and Minnie would have lived in number 6.  The house and adjoining workshop were both owned the Hodges Estate and there were other times later when the two buildings were let to the same person. 

There is some confusion over how long the Pitmans lived in Laburnum House.  They are not listed in the electoral registers for the Gloucester Road after 1925.  Minnie is listed in trade directories as a dressmaker in St John Street in 1927 to 1935, but there is no record in electoral registers of the family living there.  We have also seen a family bible which suggests they may have been living in the High Street in 1927.  However, family and friends remember the family as having lived in Laburnum House and there is photographic evidence and a copy of a dog licence which suggest that they continued to live there until 1934.

The Council Infants School records show that their daughter, Lily Kathleen born in 1921, started at the school in 1926 and left in 1928.  We have a copy of the reference given to her by Mr Nicholls when she left school.  It is dated 26th September 1934.  It describes the young Lily as a "girl of more than average ability" and says "her moral character is irreproachable".  The photograph on the left shows Lily with her dog.  She appears to be standing outside Laburnum House.

George and Minnie  moved back to London in 1934, where tragically Minnie was killed during the Blitz in 1940.  George returned to Bristol around 1950 where he married for a third time.  He later moved to live with his daughter, Isabel Stephens, in Alveston where he died in 1952.