14 Gloucester Road

It is extremely difficult to say accurately who was living in each house in the 1851 census and in the 1861 census the house appears to be vacant.

The 1862 rate book shows that one of John Hodges’s sons, James Hodges, had moved here from 16 Gloucester Road.  After this time, the house was rented out to tenants during the time it was owned by John Hodges and the Williams family.  We have traced some of these families through analysis of census records and electoral registers.

The Knight family – in 1871 and 1881 censuses the house was occupied by Henry and Louisa Knight.  Click here for more information.

Mrs Godwin – the Special Drainage District Rate Book of 1885 shows that a ‘Mrs Godwin’ was the tenant for a short while.  It doesn’t tell us any more to help identify her but it seems likely that she was Mary Ann Godwin, the widow of George Godwin, the Thornbury vet.  In the 1881 Census, Mary Ann was visiting her husband’s partner George Paradise Mallett (see below) in his house at 18 Gloucester Road.  We suspect George Paradise Mallett took over the house after Mary Ann.

George Paradise Mallett – by the 1887 and 1890 Rate Books the tenant was George Mallett and the 1891 Census tells us more about him – Read more

Mary Sanigar – in the 1901 census, the house was occupied by Mary Sanigar.  She was on her own there, but described as “the housekeeper”.  The trade directories show George Paradise Mallett (see above) as being in Gloucester Road until 1904.  It is our guess that he was still renting the property and using it for his vet’s business in Thornbury whilst he was actually living at Nibley Green, in which case, Mary Sanigar would have been looking after George’s house in his absence.  Mary Jane Sanigar was baptised 18 June 1851, the daughter of John Sanigar, a labourer, and his wife, Mary.  In the 1881 census, she was shown as Mary J Sanigar, aged 27, the housekeeper to George Stinchcombe in Lower Morton.  At that time her mother, Mary Sanigar, a widow aged 65 years was also living at the same house.  Her mother died aged 85 and she was buried on 2nd February 1885.  Mary continued to be a servant and by 1891 she was working for William Bennett and his family in Alveston.  She was described in the 1901 census as being aged 47 years, a single woman born in Thornbury.  She died in Thornbury in 1908 after what seems like a life of hard work and poverty at the early age of 56.  She was buried in Thornbury Cemetery on 4th May 1908.  She had died in St John Street.  She was buried in the same grave as Frances Cook Saniger who died in 1929 aged 76.  Frances would appear to be Mary’s sister.

Kenneth Barker – by the 1905 and 1907 rate books they show that the tenant of the house was Kenneth Barker.  Kenneth Barker was a veterinary surgeon in Thornbury.  He had been born in Pitsmoor in Sheffield about 1878.  Kenneth was the son of Elijah Barker, a surgeon and his wife, Mary Ann.  In the 1881 census they were living at Brightside, Sheffield.  The FreeBMD website shows that Kenneth Barker married Mary Diana Laver in Thornbury in 1907.  Mary was born in Edington near Bridgewater in Somerset about 1879.  The electoral registers of 1908 and the 1910 Rate Book indicate that he remained in Gloucester Road and they were living in the house at the time of the 1911 census.  By the 1911 census they had a daughter, Elizabeth Mary D born in Thornbury in 1908 (who was away from home on the night of the census staying in Falfield with a Laver relative), a son, John Chesman Barker, born in Thornbury in 1910.  They had another, child, Donald K Barker in 1917.  The Gazette of 18th June 1914 says that Kenneth Barker was fined for “being the driver of a horse and carriage and being in such a position as not to have control over the horse.”  This must have been shortly before he left the country as in 1914 he was recorded as crossing to Quebec and it was noted he was travelling for ‘Militia purposes’.  The entry notes that he was a veterinary surgeon, so presumably he was there to care for the horses.  The passenger lists available on the Ancestry website show that Kenneth crossed the Atlantic a few times.  In 1915 he sailed from Avonmouth to Boston in April on SS Englishman and in November he sailed from Liverpool to Boston on SS Bohemian.  Kenneth Barker appeared in the Roll of Honour in the Gazette of 1915 as a soldier in the First World War.  Kenneth died on 1st February 1932 aged 52.  He was living at Newton Lodge, Rockhampton at the time of his death.  His son, John Chesman, a physician, died on 27th September 1935 aged 25.  Mary died on 30th November 1961 aged 83.  All three of them are buried in the churchyard of St Oswald Church, Rockhampton.

Joseph Marshall – the 1921 census lists Joseph Marshall as living in this house.  He was described as an ‘old aged pensioner’, a widower aged 74 who born in Leicestershire.  He was living with his widowed daughter, Mary Ferrer who was aged 49 also from Leicestershire and a boarder, Philip Clark Jeffery, a motor engineer from Portland.  He was employed by the Berkeley Vale Motor Company at Alveston.  The 1925 Valuation book has Joseph Marshall listed as living in the house.  The electoral registers from 1918 to 1925 shows Joseph living in Gloucester Road.

We are assuming that Joseph was the same person as living in Olveston in the 1911 census.  He was then a corn merchant aged 64 born in Leicestershire in 1846.  This Joseph married Florence Staley (the daughter of a farmer, Robert Etherington Staley) in Thornbury in 1906 and Florence died in 1912 aged 46.  The burial register shows she was still living at Olveston where she had died but she was buried in Thornbury Cemetery.

The Rutters – Ethel Francis Howell Rutter and Georgiana Louisa Rutter rented the house from about 1926 to 1937.

Win Jenkins told us she remembers delivering newspapers to 14 Gloucester Road when it was occupied by a Miss Rutter, a teacher at the Council School at Gillingstool, and her mother.

The 1926 Rate Book shows ‘Miss Rutter’ as the occupant of the house.  According to the electoral registers, the house was occupied from 1927 to 1937 by Ethel Francis Howell Rutter and Georgiana Louisa Rutter. We confirmed that Ethel was Georgiana’s daughter.

Georgiana was baptised in Donhead St Andrew in Wiltshire on 6th March 1853.  She was the daughter of John Howell and his wife Jane.

The 1861 Census shows her as aged 8 still living in Donhead St Andrew in Wiltshire.  Her father, John Howell, was, a National Schoolmaster, Parish Clerk, and Assistant Overseer.  The 1871 Census shows that she had continued to live in Donhead St Andrew where her father was said to be a parish clerk and overseer.

The marriage of Charles Joseph Rutter and  Georgiana Louisa Howell took place in Wakefield on 30th August 1873.

Charles Joseph Rutter was born in Peckham Rye, Surrey in 1850.  He was the son of James J Rutter, a paymaster and purser in the Royal Navy and his wife, Mary A (nee Ellis).  In 1851 the Rutters were living with Mary’s parents in Deptford in Kent.  In the 1871 Census, two years before his marriage, Charles was working as a corn merchant’s clerk and boarding at a house in Wakefield in 1871.  This presumably explains why they were married in Wakefield.

Their son Henry Charles Howell Rutter was born in Chorlton in Lancashire in the September quarter of 1874.  John Joseph Howell Rutter was born in 1877.  Sadly he died the same year.  The 1881 Census shows John Joseph and his two year old sister, Ethel, were visitors in the household of Samuel and Caroline Howell in Donhead St Andrews.  Charles and Georgiana’s daughter, Ethel Frances Howell Rutter had been born in Wakefield in 1878.

We were unable to trace Georgiana in the 1881 Census definitely but there is a “Georgina Butler” of the right age and born in Donhead St Andrews who was living in Iwerbe Courtney in Dorset.  This may be her but we have no confirmation of that.

By 1891 she was living in the household of  Alfred and Ada Pippen in Reigate in Surrey.  Georgiana was listed as a married woman and as a bookkeeper.

Georgiana’s husband, Charles Joseph Rutter, was an accountant lodging in Lambeth in Surrey in the 1881 Census but there was no indication of why he was not living with his wife and family.  We may have finally solved the mystery when we found him in the 1891 Census.  He was then living at Nether Hallam in Sheffield and his occupation was rather unusual; he was a Catholic Priest which might indicate why the family had broken up.

We have been advised by Bert Merts of Arnheim that Charles was not a Roman Catholic priest as we assumed but a priest of the Catholic Apostolic Church, sometimes called Irvingites, after the protestant Scottish minister Edward Irving.  The were (and still are) expecting the second coming of the Lord.  Charles Joseph Rutter was probably a priest in the Sheffield Catholic Apostolic Church, Victoria Street.  Today the church is owned by the University.

However by 1901 Charles appears to have given up the occupation and is shown as ‘living on his own means’ in Nether Hallam, Yorkshire.  He died there on 29th August 1910 aged 60.

Georgiana appeared in the 1901 Census where she was shown as living at 45 Chepstow Place, Paddington.  She was described as married, aged 48 and working as a ‘monthly nurse’ for Elsie Farrer with whom she was living.  Georgiana’s birthplace was given as Donhead St Andrew, Wilts.  In the Census of 1911 Georgiana was described as a widow aged 58 and she and Ethel were living at Durley in Sidlesham, Chichester.

Not only did Charles and Georgiana Rutter not live together, but neither of them seems to have been living with their daughter whilst she was still a child either.  In the Census of 1891 Ethel Rutter was visiting a family called Reville in Lambeth.  In the 1901 Census she was boarding at a house in Sherbourne, Dorset where she was an assistant schoolmistress.

The Census of 1911 shows that Ethel was reunited with her mother who was then living at Durley, Sidlesham, Chichester.  Ethel was an assistant schoolmistress aged 32 employed by the County Council.

It appears that  Georgiana Rutter and her daughter moved to Thornbury in 1926.  They brought with them the name of the house in which they were living; at least it was where they were living in the 1911 Census.  They named the house ‘Durley’.  Henry Smith who as a young lad lived next door at number 16 told us that the name was still written above the front door when the Garns were living there during the War.

Ethel became the Head of the Council Infants School on 6th December 1926.  John Nicholls, the son of the headmaster of the Council School, remembers Miss Rutter as Headmistress of the Infants School part of the Council School.  He described her as small with grey hair in a bun and a pince-nez.  He said that she always seemed to dress in dark green, except on Sundays when she dressed in black to go to Church.  He said that she seemed very serious and very old, “until you took account of her mother, Mrs Rutter with whom she lived in Gloucester Road.”  John Nicholls was under the impression that Mrs Rutter had been a headmistress too and described her as usually in black with a “pudding basin hat” and a walking stick.

John (Jack) Pridham recalled that in 1934 when his mother first took him to the Council School, ‘the Infants School was really one large room with the area divided in the ratio of 1:2 by a large sliding door.  Miss Davies taught the new entrants in the smaller space and the elderly (she may have been 45!), grey-haired, darkly dressed, Miss Rutter, worked with the six year-olds in the larger area.  Miss Rutter also lived in Gloucester Road but her spider-like appearance did not attract me and my early reaction was to hope that I could stay with Miss Davies for ever!  Whilst in Miss Davies’ class it was difficult not to look through the glass door to Miss Rutter’s domain.  There was little to catch one’s fancy in the larger room except a big sand tray near the window where the children made hills and roads and added paper houses and lead – yes lead – toy soldiers and animals.  It was also the stepping stone to the ‘big school’ which had to be taken asap.  In 1935 we joined Miss Rutter and the sand tray, and our small tables were replaced by the two-seater desks.  The nature of the work escapes me although I think sums in books took over from sums on cards and of greater importance’.

In October 1934 the school was connected to the sewerage system by means of mains drainage.  The previous arrangements had consisted of a bucket affair with a wooden seat.  Ethel, writing in the school log book, with masterly understatement, described the new installation thus:  “the sanitary arrangements have been amended“.

On the 30th September 1938 Ethel Rutter retired as Head of the Infants School.  The Schools assembled and she was presented with a cheque.  We are not exactly sure when the Rutters left Thornbury nor where they went to live.  Georgiana died aged 99 in Shaftsbury, Dorset on 16th February 1952.  Ethel Frances Howell Rutter died on 15th February 1952 whilst living in Torcroft Pawlett Somerset.  Probate was granted to Reginald Howell company director and Mabel Loise Linck widow.

Ethel Selina Garn – occupied the house from about 1937 to about 1961.  Read more

The Cockings – by 1965, the electoral registers show that Ethel Garn had gone and the house was now occupied by Dennis W Cocking and his wife, Yvonne.  We know nothing about the Cockings.

The Abrahams – by 1968 the house was occupied by Edgar Maurice Abrahams and his wife, Frances.

Edgar was known by the name of ‘Pat’.  Pat and Frances had previously been the publicans at the Anchor at Morton.  When Frances’s health deteriorated Pat chose to retire in 1968 when the couple moved to 14 Gloucester Road.  She died in May 1968 aged 49.

When we took over number 18 Gloucester Road in the 1970s, Pat was living in number 14 on his own.  We never got to know him as we never saw him out of his house.  He died aged 68 and was buried on 4th June 1983.  Click here to read more

The Williams – the 1986 electoral register shows that the house was occupied by a young couple, Richard G and Lynda J Williams.  They only stayed a year or so before moving on when they bought their own house.

Lil Pearce (2nd left) & Don (middle)

The Pearce family – we knew Don and Lil Pearce very well and were fond of them.  We’re embarrassed to say that we can’t recall the wonderful stories they told us about their lives.  We wouldn’t wish to say anything wrong so we’ll hope that someone who can tell us more information will get in touch.  Donald James Pearce was born in New Malden near Kingston on Thames in 1915.  We understand from a family tree posted on Ancestry website that Don’s parents were Ernest Wilfred Pearce and his wife, Nell (nee Warren).

In 1939 Don married Lillian Gertrude Barron in the Prescot area near Liverpool.  Lillian was born in Prescot on 25th June 1915.  She was the daughter of Henry Wesley Barron (an assistant analytical chemist at the time of the 1911 Census) and his wife, Edith (nee Pennington).  Lil attended Holly Lodge School in Liverpool.  Don and Lil had six children: Christopher J born in 1939, Pamela Kay born in 1942, Ann Vivian born in 1944 (she died in 1944), Diane J born in 1945, Timothy P born in 1948, and Simon P who was born in 1956 in the Hatfield area.  We don’t know why the family moved from Liverpool to Hatfield, nor why they later moved to Gloucestershire.

Don and Lil had a great love of life.  Before moving to Thornbury they ran the Fleece a public house in Hillesley near Wotton under Edge.  Don and Lil both loved music and their interest appears to been passed down to their children.  Chris is a jazzman, a member of Bristol’s Blue Note Jazz Band for 30 years from 1976 and in 2002 Chris set up his own band, Frenchman Street Band which is still performing.  Tim is a chorister, a singer with the Dursley Male Voice Choir.  As a neighbour in Thornbury, Don always displayed a deep interest in local and world events and in the lives of those around him.  He was particularly fond of children and was very good to our two boys and regularly provided them with foreign stamps to add to their collections.  We didn’t see so much of Lil as she became ill and was housebound for much of the time she was in Thornbury.  Don carried on cheerfully coping with the difficulties.  His old world charm and courteous nature made him popular with neighbours who helped them and with local shopkeepers.  On one occasion when a lady on the till at Safeway supermarket helped Don in packing his purchases, he wrote a letter to Safeway expressing his gratitude.  The photograph on the right is of Don and Lil saluting a rather embarrassed gas-man who worked through exceptionally cold weather to restore the gas supply to the terrace.  Their neighbours Edna and Reg Vowles stand to the right of them

Don and Lil carried on living in the house until their deaths.  Lil died in 2001.  After Lil died her ashes were taken by the family and scattered in various places that had been important to her, including on the pitch at Anfield in her home town of Liverpool and in New Orleans, a town she dearly wanted to visit because of her love of jazz.  Don died in 2004.  His funeral was a lively affair accompanied by lots of music, just the way Don would have wanted it.

The Dodds – the next tenants of the house were Richard Dodd and his wife, Michelle (nee Hart) who married in 2004.  Their son, Jacob was born in 2011.  They moved away in 2013 when the landlady put up the house for sale.