Up until 1876 the owners of the house appeared to live there.
Richard and Caroline Salmon – the 1876 Rate Book show house was occupied by Richard Salmon. The 1881 and 1891 censuses show that they continued to live here with their children. They were still living there at the time of the 1894 Rate Book, but by 1899 they had moved to 12 Pullins Green. Read more about Richard and Caroline
Charles Eddington – in the 1901 Census the house was occupied by Charles Eddington, a composite printer aged 32 and his wife, Flora aged 32. Charles was born in Thornbury on 8th April 1868, the son of Thomas Eddington, a painter and his wife, Elizabeth. In 1880 Charles failed to gain a scholarship to attend Thornbury Grammar School, but in 1882 the newspapers reported that he had obtained an ‘Edwards Scholarship’ which enabled him to join the School. It had the annual value of £6 and enabled him to study there for three years.
Charles was very musical and appears to have become interested in bell ringing at a fairly young age. The photograph here shows the bellringers of St Mary’s Church in 1887 and Charles is in the back row on the end at the right.
In 1891 the Census showed that Charles was living with his parents at 28 Castle Street. His father, Thomas was a house decorator, his elder brother Edward was a printer and stationer and solicitor’s clerk. Charles was a printer-compositor and his younger brother, Robert was a carpenter. We have been told that Charles used one of the buildings at the back of 28 and 28A Castle Street as a printing workshop.
The 1899 Rate Book shows Charles as the occupant of 48 High Street.
Charles Eddington 1912
Charles’s wife, Flora (or Florence) Burnell was born in Cannington, Somerset on 6th March 1869. They married on 16th August 1899 in Bristol. Flora was the daughter of Richard Burnell a gardener who had died before she was married. They had one son, Raymond Thomas born on 7th August 1900. A daughter, Ivy Gwendoline, was baptised on 10th June 1903 when Charles was still living in Pullins Green. The baptism record shows his wife as Florence. We have no further records of Ivy Eddington.
Charles played the cornet and there are several photographs of young Charles together with the Gleemen or as a member of the Thornbury Brotherhood (see image on the right taken in 1912). We also have below a copy of a photograph of Charles as a member of the Thornbury Society of Change Ringers taken in 1897. There is a thumbnail image of this photograph on the left below. Please click on it for a larger image. You will note that Charles is disabled and used a crutch at this time. He was an active member of the Workingmen’s Club, of which he was an officer at various times. A newspaper article of October 1896 shows that he had combined his interests by playing the cornet at a concert of the workingmen’s club.
Thornbury Bellringers 1897
On December 18th 1903 the newspaper reported that Charles Eddington was one of the people fined for refusing to have their children vaccinated against smallpox. Compulsory vaccination had been enforced in England since 1853. This was a controversial issue as although smallpox caused large scale fatalities and terrible disfigurement some parents obviously had concerns for the risk to their children of vaccination and others resented compulsion as an attack on human liberty.
Charles Eddington obviously had good cause to be concerned about his children. The records of the Council Upper School show that Raymond started there in 1908 (his address was given as High Street) but he left to be educated privately because he was “consumptive.”
Photograph by Eddington
The trade directories from at least 1897 show that Charles Eddington was a photographer.
An article in the Cheltenham Chronicle of September 1901 tells a story about Charles Eddington. It seems that that summer a young lady who was leaving the area came to Thornbury to have her photograph taken by Charles Eddington. She needed to have the photograph printed there and then as she was leaving the very next day. It seems that Charles did not have the necessary plates to hand and he had to obtain them from the chemist James Spencer Palmer who had a business nearby. When the plate was developed it showed a transparent ghost of a lady standing behind the subject of the photograph with her arm touching the shoulder of the young lady in front. Charles apparently didn’t want to frighten the young lady so he sold her another print. However he seems to have made money selling copies of the spirit photo at ‘a couple of shillings apiece’.
He is known to have taken several photographs of the Thornbury Gleemen Society, of which he was a member. We have one of his other photographs shown here. Please click on it for a larger photograph. You will notice that his address as a photographer is given as Castle Street. The 1905 Rate Books shows that by that time Charles was renting 15 The Plain from Francis Gayner. The house at 15 The Plain was sometimes said to belong to Castle Street. We understand that Charles had a photographic studio in the back garden of this property. This building had glass panels in the roof to provide suitable lighting.
By the 1910 Rate Book he had moved again, this time to 41 High Street, two doors up from the junction with Soapers Lane, a property he was renting from his uncle Thomas Anstey.
The 1911 Census shows that he and his family lived in the High Street. Charles aged 42 was married with two children and working as a printer and stationer. Raymond and Ivy were at school. Janet Bryant aged 20 lived with the household and was an assistant in the shop. In that Census his wife Flora was visiting family in Newbury, Berkshire. She was staying with Jesse Burnell and his wife Rachel on their farm.
Charles Eddington appears in the 1913 Electoral Register but not in the 1914 or later Prewett’s Street Directories. The school records of the Council Upper School show that Ivy Eddington was enrolled in the school in 1911 but left in 1913. The reason given was that the family had left the district.
The website of ‘Historical Treharris District, What amenities were available 1910-1920‘ shows that Charles Eddington was a painter in Bedlinog in Glamorgan. The website also shows the damage done to Hylton Terrace in 1913 by the tornado. Charles and his family may have arrived at a bad time as the 1921 Census in Wales shows that Charles and Flora were living at 29 Hylton Street, Bedlinog. Charles was working as a printer, stationer and photographer. Their two children, Raymond aged 20, a haulage man who was out of work and Ivy aged 18 who was helping at home, still lived with them
Charles Eddington died in East Glamorgan in 1939 aged 70. The 1939 Special Register for England and Wales shows that the widowed Flora was living with her married daughter Ivy and her husband Thomas Jones a colliery onsetter. They lived in Oakland Street in Gelligaer in Glamorganshire. Flora Eddington died in 1964 aged 95 in East Glamorgan.
The 1939 Special Register for England and Wales also shows that Raymond had become a colliery haulage engineer and lived with his wife Mary and their son Vivian Charles who was still at school.
Arthur Charles Pitcher – the 1905 Rate Book shows that the house was occupied by Charlie Pitcher – Read more about Charles and Annie Pitcher
Eunice Davis – the next occupants which we know of were Eunice Davis and her daughter, Mary Ann. Miss Higgins remembers that they lived there. The Rate Book of 1910 shows that Eunice Davis was the tenant. The 1911 Census shows Eunice was a widowed dressmaker aged 60. She was living at 7 Pullins Green with her daughter, Ann Davis, a dressmaker aged 22 and son, Albert, a shop assistant aged 20. Eunice died in 1920 and in 1926 Rate Book her daughter Mary Ann was listed as the occupant. Click here to read more
William James and Hilda Victoria Short – in 1927 William and Hilda were occupying the house. William was born on 8th April 1902, the son of William Short, a railwayman, and his wife, Florence Matilda (nee Burchell). Hilda died in 1936 and William re-married and moved to Dursely in 1937. Click here to read more
The Hughes and Lewis families – from 1936, the house was occupied by the same family for 60 years. Click here to read more