Arthur Charles & Annie Pitcher
Arthur Charles Pitcher was the son of Walter William Pitcher and his wife Anna Maria (nee Williams). He was born on April 2nd 1876. He seems to have used the name Charles or Charlie in preference to Arthur. In the 1881 census he was aged 5 living in the family home at 12 Gloucester Road. In 1888 he failed to gain a scholarship for admission to Thornbury Grammar School, but he was successful the following year and was admitted on 14th January 1889. By 1901 Charlie was a coach-builder and carpenter in his father’s firm now based at their house at 24 Gloucester Road.
In 1903, Charles married Annie Symes, the daughter of Charles Symes who ran the seed shop business on The Plain. (Note: Charles’ brother, Augustus Ernest also married an Annie Symes, this one the daughter of Bernard Symes, the tailor in the High Street. The Annie’s were first cousins. Charles and Annie had three children: Christopher Walter on 27th October 1906, Arthur Bernard born on 12th October 1909 and Gerald Charles in 1917). At least two of the boys, Christopher and Arthur went to the Grammar School like their father. The school records show that Christopher left on 18th October 1922 to take technical classes in relation to electrical engineering.
We have two albums of photographs of the Pitcher and the Symes families.
The 1905 rate book shows Charles was living in the house which he was renting at 7 Pullins Green. He didn’t stay there long, by 1910 rate book he had moved to the High Street.
Charlie changed careers after he was taken ill and needed a lighter job. He applied for, and got, the position of sub-postmaster at a salary of £165. The earliest record of him being at the Post Office is the Prewett’s Almanack of 1909. The directories show he supplemented his income running a stationers shop and the 1939 trade directory suggest he is also running the Library. Charlie carried on being sub-postmaster for 47 years! The Post Office was then located at 28 High Street, in what is known locally as ‘Pye Corner’.
The 1921 Census shows Arthur Charles Pitcher aged 48 and a sub postmaster and stationer. His wife Annie was 39. They had three sons at this point; Christopher ‘Wallie’ Pitcher aged 14 and Arthur Bernard Pitcher aged 11. Both were in full time education. The youngest boy was Gerald Charles aged only 3. The house had 8 rooms.
During the Second World War Charlie was a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service and an ARP Warden.
Charles had many other activities. He was interested in music and was a member of the Thornbury Gleemen. As a town councillor for almost 20 years, he became mayor in 1916/17. He was deeply involved in the ‘Battle of the Pump’ where he fought hard for the retention of the Pump in middle of The Plain. He was a keen bowls players and Secretary of Thornbury and District Men’s Club, Thornbury Town Social club and Thornbury Town Football Club. Apparently it was very dangerous to stand near Arthur when ‘the Town’ were playing as his legs tended to fly out in all directions. He was also interested in local history being an active member of The Society of Thornbury Folk and their chairman for several years.
Annie died aged 61. She was buried in Thornbury Cemetery on 3rd February 1943. There was a sad obituary in the Gazette which referred to the “years of suffering” that she endured. It adds that ‘her illness had prevented her from taking any part in the public life of the town’. Their three sons were bearers at her funeral. At that time, Chris Pitcher was a Sub-Lieutenant, Arthur Bernard was in the Royal Naval Reserve and Gerald was a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery.
Charlie married again in Brentford in the September quarter of 1944. His new wife was Jessie Blanche Davies, the daughter of Charles Henry Davies who had been a a sergeant at the police station in Thornbury High Street at the time of the 1901 census. Jessie was a pupil teacher at the time of this census and she went on to become a teacher in the Council School. The Electoral Rolls show that Jessie lived with her parents in Gloucester Road (now number 17).
We understand she had been assisting Charles in the Post Office. John Nicholls who was the son of the headmaster of the Council School recalls Jessie Davies, who taught the reception class. He said she was “pleasantly plump and almost always smiling”.
Charles died in July 1960 and is buried with Annie and sons, Christopher (who died aged 62 in Bingley, Yorkshire in July 1969) and Arthur at Thornbury Cemetery. Jessie continued living in Pye Corner until at least 1965. She died in December 1967 aged 81.
These memories of Charlie were printed in the Bristol Evening Post 9 March 1956:
“Arthur Charles Pitcher, sub-postmaster for 47 years, dates back to a time when history loomed large in Thornbury like the castle at the bottom of the main street. He is celebrating is 80th birthday on Easter Monday April 2nd.
“Of course, we mayors had no official standing,” said Mr Pitcher. “We all met, mayor and aldermen, once a year for the court leet. We elected a mace bearer, a cider taster, a searcher and seeker of leather, a carnal (meat inspector) and four constables – for Kington, Tytherington, Falfield and Thornbury. We used to have a jolly good dinner. It was a wonderful job. It showed how the old people used to rule the town before there were magistrates and they ruled the roost.
“As times go on”, he sighed “and we old cussers die off, people won’t know it ever happened”.
Mr Pitcher was mayor in 1916 and 1917. “I used to choose the mayors” he said. “Sir Algar Howard, Lord of the Manor would ring up from Thornbury Castle and say : ‘Who are we going to have this time?’
“After the dinner and election, we used to process with the newly elected mayor and see him home. There was a fine mace which used to be fetched from the castle before the leet and there were mayoral robes. One of my predecessors got over fond of the robes and hung onto them” said Mr. Pitcher, “so I never had any.”
Mr Pitcher had plenty of other shafts to his bow besides being mayor. One of the most exciting and the same time significant was the affair of the pump. Thornbury possessed a magnificent pump. It had a beautiful piece of ironwork round it. It had a canopy and lamp. It stood right in the middle of The Plain (a road junction in the centre of the town) and held up the traffic. So, the Rural District Council decided to move it. The townspeople were furious. They felt that they should have been consulted first.
Mr Pitcher was in the fore of the affray. He pointed out that the pump made the road safer for pedestrians as it formed an island. But the pump was moved, and the fight was on. There were in fact two or three free fights. Some of the lads found the pump and it was triumphantly paraded down the street on a cart – driven by a member of the district council. The council passed a vote of censure on him.
The pump was put back. “We used to go and guard it at night,” said Mr Pitcher. But though they went to law about it, they had to give up, for it was found that the pump never should have been put in the middle of the street in the first place.
But there was a significant end to the dispute. “I old the council that if they moved the pump, I’d move one of them” said Mr Pitcher. And move one he did. He was on the council for nearly 20 years. He was chairman of many committees and appropriately he had a great deal to do with bringing water and sewage to Thornbury. He was also chairman of the parish council and was on the board of guardians of the hospital. There was no end to his activities.
“You see” he told me “I’m a coachbuilder by trade. My brother still works in the firm of W.W. Pitcher and Sons. But I was taken ill and needed a lighter job, so I applied for the post office – the sub-postmaster had just died – and got in. Now think yourself a skilled craftsman and then put yourself behind a counter and sell penny stamps.” Yes Mr Pitcher had to have something more to do. “You see that bed” he said. “I finished that one night and my eldest son was born on it the next day. Near thing.”
But it wasn’t such a light job being a postmaster. Mr Pitcher used to work from 6am until 10pm with the telephone. There were seven subscribers when he started. His salary was £165 a year”.