From Essex and Herts Observer, 14 December 1918: RETURNED PRISONER’S DEATH. – Pte. David Button, 23. M.G.C., who had returned to Dunmow, from Germany where he had been a prisoner of war since April, died at his home on Sunday. His case was hopeless, due to the starvation he had undergone in Germany and the hardships he endured.
Grave of David William Button, aged 26,
Private in the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
and also of the Essex Regiment,
buried in St Mary’s Churchyard, Great Dunmow
Census 1901 – Parsonage Down, Great Dunmow
Henry Button, head, married, aged 58, occupation bricklayer, born Great Dunmow
Elizabeth Button, wife, married, aged 45, born Great Dunmow
Henry Button, son, aged 11, born Great Dunmow
William Button, son aged 8, born Great Dunmow (assume this is David)
Census 1911 – Parsonage Down, Great Dunmow
William Hoy, aged 78, married 7 yrs, occupation old age pension, born Essex, Dunmow
Elizabeth Hoy, aged 56, married 7 yrs, born Essex, Dunmow
Henry Button, stepson, 20 years, single, butchers man, born Essex, Dunmow
David Button, stepson, 17 years, single, farm labourer, born Essex, Dunmow
From the rural beauty of Great Dunmow’s Parsonage Down to the horrors of the trenches and a Prisoner of War camp in Germany. Parsonage Down, 2012 Parsonage Down, 2012 Parsonage Down, 2012
David is commemorated on Great Dunmow’s War Memorial.
Of all my postcards, my most treasured one is the one below. The image on the front is a boring country scene of Wandsworth Common, South London in 1907 – nothing remotely interesting. But it’s words mean so much to me. The recipient of the card was a Mrs Kemp of the Royal Oak, Great Dunmow (her full name Alice Kemp nee Parnall) and the sender was her niece, Elsie (her full name Elsie Parnall Cole). A few years ago, the husband of Alice’s great-granddaughter found the postcard on the internet and sent it to me. Me, the great-niece of the sender, Elsie, of Wandsworth. More than one hundred years after it was first sent, the recipient’s descendant returned it to the sender’s descendant. And by a strange quirk of fate, I was by then living in Great Dunmow, totally unaware of my family’s previous connection to the town. So the card has come home to Great Dunmow a hundred years after it was first sent to the town.
Postmark: Wandsworth, 23 Feb 1907 D. A. Ma heard from A.B that you had all been very queer. Hope you are quite well by this. Weather has been very cold & severe suppose it has been the same with you. Ma’s eyes are emproving [sic] very slow. G is pulling a tooth out. With love Elsie.
The ‘Ma’ was my great-grandmother, Louisa Cole nee Parnall, Alice’s sister and Elsie’s mother. The ‘G’ who was pulling a tooth was my young grand-dad, George, then aged only 8 – a man I never knew as he died when I was two.
Sadly, the story of the Kemps of Great Dunmow includes the loss of two beloved sons, Harold and Gordon, killed in action during the Great War.
James Nelson Kemp (husband of Alice Kemp nee Parnall), standing outside his pub, the Royal Oak in Great Dunmow.
Postcard of James Nelson Kemp standing in the doorway of his pub. His son, Gordon Parnall Kemp on the pony and trap. Photo taken sometime between James’ arrival at the Royal Oak in c.1906 and his departure in c.1911. The postcard identified in the local newspaper, the Dunmow Broadcast in August 1978.
“Sir, The picture in the June Broadcast of Stortford Road shows the Royal Oak and the donkey & cart being driven by Gordon Kemp, the son of J N Kemp who used it for delivering. This was probably taken about 1912. My parents and myself took over the Royal Oak (Mr and Mrs W F Strutt) in 1912 and we kept the donkey for a short period. The garden in front & steps remained till 1931 when my father met with a fatal accident on corner of Rosemary Lane and my mother left. The boards across said J N Kemp supplies the public with their requirements and there was a tin mug attached to the pump near the gate into the yard. Memories of the past. Many thanks Ella M Edwards (Mrs) nee Strutt, Pippbrook Gardens, Dorking, Surrey“
Gordon Parnall Kemp, born Edmonton 1887, killed in action 26 September 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres (the Battle of Passchendaele). Gunner of the Royal Garrison Artillery, 186th Siege Battery – from 5 September 1917 to 17 December 1917 the 186th Siege Battery was serving under 33rd Heavy Artillery Group. From the Essex Chronicle, 19 October 1917:
“Mr J N Kemp for many years a resident at Dunmow and now of Yarmouth has received the sad news that his second son, Gordon, has been killed in action in France.“
Voormezeele Enclosures No.1 And No.2,
West-Vlaanderen, nr Ypres, Belgium
Memorial Tablet -by Siegfried Sassoon (1918)
Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derby’s scheme). I died in hell –
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,
And I was hobbling back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duckboards: so I fell
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light
At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,
He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;
For, though low down upon the list, I’m there;
“In proud and glorious memory” … that’s my due.
Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:
I suffered anguish that he’s never guessed.
I came home on leave: and then went west…
What greater glory could a man desire?
Harold James Parnall Kemp, born Edmonton 1885, of the British South African Police Force, killed in action German East Africa (now Zambia) 28 May 1916. From the Essex Chronicle, 9 June 1916:
“Mr J N Kemp of the Golden Lion, The Conge, Great Yarmouth for many years resident in Dunmow has received information from the British South Africa Co that his son Harold has been killed in action with the Northern Rhodesian Force. Harold was educated at the Dunmow Church Schools. He started in life with the late Mr F J Snelland at his death continued with Mr Gifford, under whose instructions he became very proficient and acting on Mr Gifford’s advice obtained a situation in the Council offices at Sidcup where his instructions stood him in good steed. From there he joined the R.S.A. Police and became the manager of the Police Review. When he had served his time he obtained a good situation with Messrs. Arnold and Co of Salisbury and London. On the outbreak of the war he volunteered for active service and now, alas, his end. He was a member of the Dunmow church choir from his school days up to the time of his leaving Dunmow and he will be remembered as singing solo in the old church the Sunday before his departure for South Africa.“
From ‘Frontier Patrols – A history of the British South Africa Police and other Rhodesian Forces‘ by Colonel Colin Harding C.M.G., D.S.O. 1938
‘In the general advance of 23rd May, 1916, the Nyasa-Rhodisia Field Force were detained to undertake the three following operations: viz., Colonel Hawthorn was deputed to attack Ipiana, Colonel Rodger, Mwembe, and Colonel Murray was entrusted with the attack of Namema, 26 miles north-east of Abercon. …none of these operations met with any notable success, for the Ipiana garrison retired without presenting any opposition, the Mwembe garrison opposed our advance for two days and then escaped, and the Namema investment after the duration of a week was rendered futile by the flight of the garrison. On the morning of May 26th, 1916, the time and date selected for an attack on Namema by the Rhodesians, whilst A and B Forces had carried out their instructions, C Force had lost direction and failed to reach its allotted position till the following day. Then rather late in the operation it was discovered that Namema was held by a considerable enemy force and situated in such an invulnerable position that to attack with the present force would have been suicidal; consequently tactical positions were established with the idea of completing the investment of the enemy.
It is with much regret I record that this abortive operation cost us the lives of Corporal Hoal and Privates Kemp, Steele and Short; whilst the Germans lost their commander, who was captured and subsequently died of wounds he received during the engagement. It was on the 3rd of June that the enemy succeeded in breaking through our lines, and, making their escape northwards, were without avail hotly pursued by our troops.’
Great Dunmow’s War Memorial with the names of the Kemp brothers
I have long been a collector of old postcards – those evocative images conjuring up a bygone era. Originally, I was only interested in the pictures and scenes depicted on the front of the cards. But over the years my interest has switched to the messages on the back. Who are all those faceless people with their messages of ‘I’ll be home for tea’ and ‘I will be catching the 2pm train’?
Many many years ago, I bought a collection of First World War silk post cards. Within that collection are 12 cards all from the same man and are addressed to either his mother or his father. Each postcard is signed, ‘Your loving son, Fred’ and were sent to 101 Manor Road, Leyton, Essex in 1916.
It is interesting how Fred’s tone is different to his father than it is to his mother. To his mother, he writes of the weather in France and his sister, Winnie. To his father, he writes of ‘the line’, peace and Zeppelin raids (in 1916, there were several Zeppelin raids over Essex). The postcards cover the period from May to December 1916 during Fred’s time in France. So they cover the period of the Battle of Somme which started on 1 July 1916. I do not know if Fred took part in the battle – his postcards do not reveal this or any information on the trenches or the battles he took part in or the terrible conditions he lived through.
Read Fred’s cards and wonder at the sacrifice his generation made.
5/5/16 Dear Mother Just a card to let you know I’m all OK. Hope you are the same. We are having lovely weather, today sweltering hot. Will write and tell you all the news soon. Heaps of love & kisses. Your loving son, Fred In the top left corner is written: Just this minute received parcel thanks very much
France, 17/6/16 Dear Mother Just a card to let you know I’m still around & well. Have you been getting my letter safely of late? Have just heard from Nancy that she hasn’t had a letter for about 10 days. I rather think the mail has been held up somewhere. Haven’t any news so thought you’d like a card.
Best love & kisses to all. Your loving son, Fred
France, 27/6/16 Hello Mother Still another card for your collection. Do you like these? We are still having rotten weather, showery all the time. Hope all are well. Best love & kisses. Your loving son, Fred
France, 12/7/16 Dear Mother Received Winnie’s letter safely yesterday. How’s everything at Leyton. Was very glad Nance managed to get down on Saturday. Would not have minded if I could have strolled in during the afternoon. Was too bad though. Winnie was disappointed at not seeing her beau. Hope everyone is well. Best love to all Your loving son, Fred France, 21/7/16 Hello Dad Thought you might like a card from this side. Are you keeping well? Markers are beginning to look quite cheerful all along the line aren’t they? Guess they’re going to rob you of August Bank Holiday this year. Never mind. I expect everyone will make up for it when peace is declared. Please thank Winnie for her letter. Will write her later. Weather here is still rotten but am getting used to that now. Best love & kisses to all. Yrs etc, Fred France, 23/7/16 Hello Mother, Just a card to let you know I’m all OK. Weather a little better for a change. Did John manage a visit to Winnie this week? Hope all are well. Best love & kisses to all Yrs etc, Fred
France, 5/8/16 Hello Dad Hope you are keeping well. Did you get a glimpse of the Zepps during this last Raid? Am still keeping OK but wouldn’t mind a few days holiday. Guess you’ll miss Winnie for the next week or so. Best love to Mother & yourself Yours etc, Fred
France 10/8/16 Dear Mother Hope you & Dada are well. Do you miss Winnie very much? I had a letter from her the other day & seems to be having a good time apart from a few mosquito bites. Have been having some lovely weather lately the best this year. Best love & kisses Yrs Fred France, 3/11/16 Dearest Mother, Just another card to put in the album & to let you know I’m OK. The weather here is fierce nothing but rain. I wonder whether its any better over home. Will be writing you soon. Best love to all, hoping everyone is well. Yr loving son, Fred France, 4/11/16 Hello Dad Hope this card will find you in the best of health. The weather here is nothing but rain all the time. I haven’t had very much time lately for writing so must forgive me for keeping you so long without a card. Best love & kisses to all at home Yr loving son, Fred France, 6/11/16 Dearest Mother This card is going to bring you good news for I am leaving for the Base today. I may have some better event than that a little later. Don’t write again till you hear from me. Hope all are well. Have been enjoying contents of Winnie’s parcel. Best love & kisses to all Yr loving son, Fred Hastings, 22/12/16 Hello Mother, A card to wish you all a pleasant Xmas. Its too bad I could not get home but still cheer up. I shall be with you very soon now. Expect to be spending the day with some residents in town so won’t be so badly off. Best love & heaps of kisses Your loving son, Fred
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I have not been able to track Fred in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour, so hopefully Fred survived the Great War and returned home to his loving mother, father, and sister Winnie. A Frederick H Sargeant married Annie F Page, West Ham, September quarter 1917 – is this our Fred? In the death indices, the only Frederick Sargeant with (nearly) the correct age and location died in March quarter 1954 aged 63 in Romford. Is he our ‘loving son, Fred’? I wonder why he was in Hastings at Christmas 1916 – perhaps this a convalescent home – had our Fred been wounded?
1891 Census – 31, London Lane, Hackney Alfred Sargeant, Head, aged 43, born 1848 Shoreditch, occupation Fancy Cabinet Maker
Amelia Sargeant, Wife, aged 37, born 1854 Marylebone
Alfred J Sargeant, Son, aged 5, born 1886 Westbourne Park
Frederick H Sargeant, Son, aged 2, 1889 Hackney
1901 Census – 101 Manor Road, Leyton, Essex
Alfred Sargeant, Head, aged 50, born 1851 Shoreditch, occupation Cabinet Maker
Amelia Sargeant, Wife, aged 43, born 1858, Marylebone
Alfred Sargeant, Son, aged 16, born 1885 Kensington, occupation Printer Compositor
Frederick Sargeant, Son, aged 12, born 1889 Hackney
Winifred Sargeant, Daughter, aged 6, born 1895 Hackney
1911 Census – 101 Manor Road, Leyton, Essex
Alfred Robt Arthur Sargeant, Head, Married, aged 62, born 1849, occupation Carpenter
Amelia Elizabeth Sargeant, Wife, Married, aged 57, born 1854
Winifred Sargeant, Daughter, Single, aged 16, occupation dressmaker
Marriage Records Frederick H Sargeant to Annie F Page, West Ham, September quarter 1917
Death Records Alfred Joseph Sargeant, aged 22, died September quarter 1908 (West Ham)
Amelia Elizabeth Sargeant died in 1926 (West Ham) Alfred R A Sargeant died in 1927 (West Ham)
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This Saturday, 14 July 2012, heralds the much awaited ancient custom of The Dunmow Flitch whereby couples from all over Britain (and, in recent years, the world) come to Dunmow to persuade a formal court that they have not wished themselves unwed for a year and day. If they win the court case, and persuade the judge and jury of their love for each other, then they win a ‘flitch of bacon’ (a large side of cured pig). This court is very formal with a judge, jury and barristers: one barrister defends the Pig, and the other is for the couple. Any couple who wins the Flitch is said to be ‘bringing home the bacon’ and is carried aloft on the ancient Dunmow Flitch chair by ‘yeomans’ in a parade through the streets of the town . Once the parade arrives in the market place, the winners of the Flitch have to kneel on pointed stones and say The Oath.
The Flitch Oath You shall swear by the Custom of our Confession
That you never made any Nuptial Transgression
Since you were married Man and Wife
By Household Brawls or Contentious Strife
Or otherwise in Bed or at Board
Offended each other in deed or in word
Or since the Parish Clerk said Amen
Wished yourselves unmarried again
Or in a Twelvemonth and a day.
Repented not in thought any way
But continued true and in Desire
As when you joined Hands in holy Quire
The Sentence
If to these Conditions without all fear
Of your own accord you will freely swear
A Gammon of Bacon you shall receive
And bear it hence with love and good Leave
For this is our Custom at Dunmow well known
Though the sport be ours, the Bacon’s your own.
[This last line is normally said to great rousing cheers from the watching audience.]
If you are in the area of North Essex, I do recommend watching one of these very funny and witty trials. Sadly, this year’s trials will be without the lovely agony aunt Claire Rayner, who died in 2010. She was always tremendous fun at the Trials and gave a wonderful performance to the audience. It was fitting that during the last Dunmow Flitch in 2008, she and her husband took ‘home the bacon’ as they successfully fought their case that they hadn’t argued for a year and a day. She will be much missed at this year’s Trials.
The ‘custom of the flitch’ appears to have started in the twelfth or thirteenth century by the prior of the priory at Little Dunmow – although no evidence has survived to verify this. The first recorded mention of the Flitch is by William Langland in his 1362 ‘The Vision of Piers Plowman’ and his contemporary, Geoffrey Chaucer in his ‘Canterbury Tales’. Both of these authors, writing in the fourteenth century, use words that imply that this custom was, at the time of their writings, well known.
In ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’, Chaucer said
The bacon was nat fet for hem, I trowe, That som men han in Essex at Dunmowe.
Confusingly, there are two places next to each other in Essex called Dunmow: Great Dunmow and Little Dunmow. During the medieval and Tudor period, Little Dunmow was normally styled as ‘Dunmow Parva ’ and Great Dunmow was ‘Muche Dunmow’. It was within Dunmow Parva that there was Austin priory which, according the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, had the net value of £150 3s 4d. The priory was dissolved in 1536 under the Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries. However, before it was dissolved, there is recorded instances of the Dunmow Flitch taking place at the Priory in 1445 and 1510.
During the eighteen century, the ancient custom of The Flitch was moved from the village of Little Dunmow to the nearby town of Great Dunmow where it is now held every four years.
British Pathé film archive
The Pathé film archive has some interesting silent film-reels of the Dunmow Flitches held in the 1920s at Ilford: 1920s Dunmow Flitch
Postcards and magazine articles
Dunmow Flitch
A Note on the Flitch Trials held between 1890-1906, and 1912-1913 Between the years 1890 to 1906, and 1912 to 1913, the Dunmow Flitch was held every year within the town and the events of the day reported in newspapers such as Essex County Chronicle, Essex Standard, Essex County Standard, Pall Mall Gazette, and The Sketch. From these newspapers, the author Francis W Steer of the Essex Record Office in his book The History of the Dunmow Flitch Ceremony drew up a list of all those that took part in the Trials. This list includes those that claimed the Flitch, members of the jury (young men and women of the area all under 18), barristers and judges. The judge, barristers, and jury were all chiefly from Great Dunmow and its surrounding villages.
Sadly, these lists contain the names of sons, brothers, lovers, and husbands of many who marched away to war in 1914 never to return to home. One such person was my grandfather’s cousin, Harold James Nelson Kemp, son of the James and Alice Kemp, first of the White Horse, then of the Royal Oak. On the 1st August 1904 Harold was one of the young jurymen for the Flitch Trials held in a meadow near the Causeway in Great Dunmow. On 28 May 1916, he was killed in action in German East Africa (now Zambia). His brother, Gordon Parnall Kemp, was killed in action the following year in the mud and gore of Passchendaele (the 3rd Battle of Ypres).
Mr J N Kemp of the Golden Lion, The Conge, Great Yarmouth for many years resident in Dunmow has received information from the British South Africa Co that his son Harold has been killed in action with the Northern Rhodesian Force. Harold was educated at the Dunmow Church Schools. He started in life with the late Mr F J Snelland at his death continued with Mr Gifford, under whose instructions he became very proficient and acting on Mr Gifford’s advice obtained a situation in the Council offices at Sidcup where his instructions stood him in good steed. From there he joined the R.S.A. Police and became the manager of the Police Review. When he had served his time he obtained a good situation with Messrs. Arnold and Co of Salisbury and London. On the outbreak of the war he volunteered for active service and now, alas, his end. He was a member of the Dunmow church choir from his school days up to the time of his leaving Dunmow and he will be remembered as singing solo in the old church the Sunday before his departure for South Africa. From Essex Chronicle 9 June 1916
Mr J N Kemp for many years a resident at Dunmow and now of Yarmouth has received the sad news that his second son, Gordon, has been killed in action in France. From Essex Chronicle 19 October 1917
I have long resisted the temptation to publish any stories from my own non-Essex family history on my blog. But today, because of this post with images of Spitalfields Market and Brushfield Street on the delicious Spitalfields Life blog and the recent BBC programme about the market traders of New Spitalfields Market, I can resist no longer. For the first time on my blog, I will be publishing a non-Essex story from the Victorian period. Although, if you persevere to the end of this post, you will see how this post is most definitely related to my interest in the local history of Great Dunmow.
I must be among a very rare number of 21st Century Londoners who can visit the East London home of my ancestors and walk in their steps. Many of my Victorian ancestors lived in the street of Bishopsgate in the City of London and its neighbouring street, Brushfield Street. Whilst I can no longer visit my ancestors’ substantial Victorian Bishopsgate home and factory, as it was compulsory purchased and swept away in the 1880s by the powerful Great Eastern Railway so they could build the mighty Great Eastern Hotel in its place, I can still visit my ‘ancestral’ home in Brushfield Street on the edge of Spitalfields Market. This market is an ancient market that lies on the edge of City of London and for centuries, was THE fruit and veg market of London. Sadly, now, as is the fate of many other ancient markets, it is the home of swanky boutiques, shops and posh eateries with house-prices to match. If you want to read about the history of the area, then I do recommend the Spitalfields Life blog.
One of the major roads next to Spitalfields Market is Brushfield Street. Up until the 1870s, Brushfield Street’s name was ‘Union Street East’. Halfway down, on the right-hand side is a parade of shops all dating from the 18th century. Many readers of my blog may be familiar with the restored lovely Victorian frontage of the food shop A Gold and the next door women’s fashion shop, Whistles.
Restored shop front of A. Gold, Brushfield Street
Brushfield Street
If you do know these two shops, have you ever looked up above their signage and spotted a small plaque on the wall in between the two? This is a plaque from 1871 marking the Christchurch Middlesex parish boundary.
Christchurch Parish Boundary marker in Brushfield Street
And here is the same plaque from a photo I took about 20 years ago before the area was redeveloped.
Brushfield Street
Brushfield Street in the late 1990s
There on the wall for all of London to see, is the name of my great-great grandfather, R. A. Cole!
Robert Andrew Cole was a grocer and tea-dealer – living above his shop and trading from the shop which is now Whistles. Robert Andrew, along with his wife, Sarah Elizabeth (nee Ollenbuttel) and their five children, William, Sarah, Margaret, Robert and Arthur, all lived in Brushfield Street/Union Street East for some 30 years from the 1850s until the 1880s when the market was redeveloped and Robert Andrew Cole retired to Walthamstow. As an aside, I do find it ironic that today’s swanky redeveloped Spitalfields Market is now known as Old Spitalfields Market. In Robert Andrew Cole’s day, it was a brand spanking new, and perhaps an unwanted market with posh new buildings! Its very existence and construction was probably one of the reasons why the Coles gave up their shop and retired to the countryside of Walthamstow.
For many years, Robert Andrew Cole was also a churchwarden of the nearby stunning Hawksmoor church, Christchurch, Spitalfields and also the Governor and Director of the Poor of the parish of Christchurch Spitalfields. So he must have been amongst some of the wealthiest of this poor east London parish. In circa 1869-1870, Union Street East was renamed to Brushfield Street, and it is possibly the renaming of this street which lead to the church boundary being marked in the wall in 1871. Hence churchwarden R. A. Cole’s name was recorded for posterity in the brick-work and fabric of Brushfield Street. He must have been a very proud man when his name was unveiled!
Brushfield Street with Hawksmoor’s Christ Church in the background
However, despite their standing in the community, the Cole’s time in Brushfield Street was not an entirely happy time. Two of the Cole children, Sarah Elizabeth and William Henry, succumbed to a devastating outbreak of scarletina– at that time a deadly infectious disease for many who caught it. Both children were buried in Tower Hamlets Cemetery on 2nd August 1857. William was aged only 22 months and Sarah was a month short of her 4th birthday. One can only imagine the pain and horror of their parents along with their fear and hope that their only surviving child, Robert, then aged 5, wouldn’t also fall victim to this terrible disease. This must have been an awful time for this one Victorian family living in the shadows of Christchurch Spitalfields and the fruit and veg market. However, their son Robert, didn’t become another victim (for, if he had, I wouldn’t be writing their story, as he’s my great-grandfather). Eight months after burying their two children, a new child, Margaret was born, and a further year later, Arthur was born. Sadly, Margaret also didn’t survive childhood and once again, in 1869, this small family of Union Street East buried one of their own in one of the two Cole family graves in Tower Hamlets Cemetery.
I have often pondered the fate of this small east-end family. Of the five children, only two survived into adulthood, and of those two, only one had children of his own. Arthur Cole died a bachelor in his 50s and was buried in the second Cole family grave in Tower Hamlets cemetery alongside his mother, grandparents, great-aunts, and great-uncles – true Londoners who had worked, lived and died in the eastend of the 18th and 19th century. Robert Andrew Cole, grocer and tea-dealer of Spitalfields Market, was buried in the same grave as his three children who hadn’t survived childhood. Robert Cole, the only child of Robert Andrew and Sarah Elizabeth Cole who went on to marry and father his own children, married Louisa Parnall. Louisa was a member of a fantastically successful Welsh family of industrialists and philanthropists who had a substantial Victorian clothes-making factory on Bishopsgate: the Parnalls of Carmarthenshire and Bishopsgate.
As I said at the start of this post, it is not often a 21st century person can visit the home their Victorian ancestors within the East End of London. However, not only can I visit my ancestors home, but I can also see them and almost feel and touch them. Here are three members of the Cole family of Spitalfields Market in their Sunday-best finery, captured forever through the lens of the east-end photographer, Elias Gottheil, sometime in the mid 1860s.
Robert Andrew Cole, born 10 February 1819, Anthony Street, St George in the East, east London, baptised 7 March 1819 in the parish church of St George in the East. Married 25 December 1850 St Thomas’ Church, Stepney to Sarah Elizabeth Ollenbuttel. Died March 1895 in Walthamstow. Buried in one of two Cole family graves in Tower Hamlets Cemetery. Grocer and tea-dealer of Spitalfields Market for over 30 years. Upper churchwarden of Christchurch Spitalfields c1870-74, member of several parish committees such as the committee founded by G. Fournier in the 1840s to carry out charity-work, and Governor and Director of the poor of the parish.
Robert Cole – eldest child of Robert Andrew and Sarah Elizabeth (nee Ollenbuttel) Cole, born 4 May 1852 in Tunbridge Wells (I have no idea why he was born here). Married 11 January 1880 in St Thomas, Mile End Old Town to Louisa Parnall (great-niece of Robert and Henry Parnall of Bishopsgate). Died 17 June 1927 in Raynes Park, South London. Buried in Putney Vale Cemetery, London. Grocer and teadealer.
Margaret Cole, baptised 28 March 1858 at Christchurch Spitalfields. Buried 20 January 1869 in Tower Hamlets Cemetery aged 11 years. The child in this photo looks to be about 7 or 8 years old, which dates all three photos to approximately the mid 1860s.
Robert Cole
Louisa Parnall
Robert Cole and Louisa Parnall. Tintype photos possibly taken at their betrothal, before their January 1880 marriage. It was Louisa Parnall’s sister, Alice Parnall, who along with her husband, James Nelson Kemp, left East London to live in Great Dunmow, first in the White Horse and then the Royal Oak. And, whilst I was researching the Parnall family and the Kemps of Great Dunmow in the Essex Record Office, I stumbled across the town’s Tudor churchwarden accounts and thus sparked the flame of my passion in discovering the lost voices of Tudor Great Dunmow.
If you are ever fortunate enough to be in the Spitalfields Market area of East London, take a stroll down Brushfield Street and look at the plaque there marking the parish boundary of Christchurch, Middlesex. Then look into the windows of Whistles women’s clothes shop and imagine the Victorian tragedy and triumph that went on between those four walls and the drama of the daily family life of the grocer and tea-dealer, Robert Andrew and Sarah Elizabeth Cole.
Parsonage Downs is an area in the north of the town of Great Dunmow. As these pictures shows, it is one of the prettiest areas of Great Dunmow.
In medieval times, the area was dominated by the manor of Newton Hall (owned then by Mr Kynwelmarshe). In more recent times, in the first part of the twentieth century, Newton Hall was owned by Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy. Lord Byng unveiled Great Dunmow’s War Memorial in July 1921. Today, many younger Great Dunmowians will know this area very well as the site of their school – the Helena Romanes Secondary School.
Edwardian Parsonage Downs, Great Dunmow. All postcards below are in the personal collection of The Narrator. Newton Hall postcard was posted in 1905. The second postcard below is a similar view to the second photo above.
Genealogist Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers runs a great website for genealogists. He suggests ‘Daily Blogging Prompts’ to help inspire bloggers to write genealogical posts. In the spirit of one of his Prompts, Follow Friday, my post today contains my top 10 Essex related websites for genealogical and local history research.
2. Ancestor owned or ran a pub in Essex? Try Pub History
Royal Oak pub in Great Dunmow. Left picture has the figure of the landlord, James Nelson Kemp (my grandfather’s uncle), and the right picture is of his son, Gordon Parnall Kemp (my grandfather’s cousin), killed in the Great War and commemorated on the town’s War Memorial along with his brother, Harold.
4. The early-modern witches of Essex: http://www.witchtrials.co.uk/ (This site also contains an essay by me which I wrote when I first started my research into witchcraft in early-modern Essex – see if you can spot it!)
10. Website with links to early-modern and modern Essex: Genmaps – Essex
And, of course, if your ancestor lived in early-modern Great Dunmow, then this website, Essex Voice Past!
Another one to add to my list! Update 9 March 2012 at 19:30: I’ve realised I’ve made a glaring admission in my Top 10. This one is definitely up there amongst my favourite sites.
Was you ancestor in a workhouse? This is an amazing site, be prepared to lose a few hours pouring over it!: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/
Have I missed any of your favourites? Let me know…
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Grave of David William Button, aged 26,
Propaganda Poster © IWM (1919)
Parsonage Down, 2012
Parsonage Down, 2012
Parsonage Down, 2012
David is commemorated on Great Dunmow’s War Memorial.
Postmark: Wandsworth, 23 Feb 1907
James Nelson Kemp (husband of Alice Kemp nee Parnall), standing outside his pub, the Royal Oak in Great Dunmow.
Postcard of James Nelson Kemp standing in the doorway of his pub. His son, Gordon Parnall Kemp on the pony and trap. Photo taken sometime between James’ arrival at the Royal Oak in c.1906 and his departure in c.1911. The postcard identified in the local newspaper, the Dunmow Broadcast in August 1978.
Voormezeele Enclosures No.1 And No.2,
France, 12/7/16
France, 21/7/16
France, 23/7/16
France, 5/8/16
France 10/8/16
France, 3/11/16
France, 4/11/16
France, 6/11/16
Hastings, 22/12/16
