FROM THE FAMILY ALBUM No.6

This is a great picture!  As we saw in a previous post cousin Mick Barrett manages a Kart racing team and this picture shows him and his family greeting champion driver Lewis Hamilton who himself started his career in Kart racing. Left to Right : Lewis Hamilton, Shelly Barrett (Mick's wife), Mick Barrett and his son Daniel.

WALTER ERNEST BRUNT

I accidentally stumbled across this interesting item which provides a nice little footnote to my previous piece on The Boer War. What you see above is a page from the military record of Walter Ernest Brunt. We have not encountered the Brunts yet but they are ancestors of my cousins Bern and Sue on their father's side. Walter was actually Sue and Bern's grand uncle.  To be exact the above is a page from his disciplinary record.  Walter volunteered for service in the regular army at the end of The Boer War. He had prior to enlistment been a member of  the 3rd Btn Royal West Surrey Militia and on joining the regulars he was posted to The Queen's West Surrey Regiment.  Walter was a Carman by profession and 18 years old when he joined up.  He was Five foot five and a half inches tall, weighed 115 lbs with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. His first year of service was spent in England but on 3 January 1903 he was posted to South Africa and did not return to England until 8 June 1904.  What makes Walter's army record so interesting is that he seems to have been quite a bad boy!  The offences started in 1902 with him going absent for the relatively short period of ninety minutes and there follows a string of entries for "late for parade" "being absent" "improperly dressed on parade" etc.  The first offence on the sheet shown above is for "insolence to an NCO"  but the second one is seemingly of a more serious nature as he was apprehended attempting to leave camp while unlawfully in possession of another soldier's kit with intent to sell it.  Despite this Walter continued to serve in the Army until 1915.

Bern Dell wrote :  I just read about monsieur Brunt on the blog. Now I know where my dad got it from. That write-up could easily have been about my dad in Egypt. Especially the bit about finding stuff that wasn't lost and then selling it!

THE BOER WAR

Herbert Bayliss, known as "Bert" was the youngest of eight children, six boys and two girls,  born to Charles William Bayliss and his wife Nancy. Herbert was born on 7 June 1883 at 7 Anatola Road, Upper Holloway. Like his brothers he began his career working in the building and decorating business with his father and grandfather. Herbert had a problem - he couldn't stand the smell of paint!  His mother passed away in 1898 and his father two years later. Charles William had been ill for some time and when he died the cause was given as Cancer of the Liver and "Exhaustion". Charles William died on 18 January at 42 Blenheim Road. The address is a bit of a mystery. He was attended at his death by his daughter Maude (Eleanor Maude) but she was married by this time and living with her husband in nearby Fairbridge Road so it is more likely that Charles William and his family had moved Blenheim Road sometime after 1891.

 At the time of his father's death at the beginning of 1900 Herbert Bayliss was not happy. It wasn't only the loss of his parent that was responsible for his condition. He was working as a house painter and hated it. His eldest brother,  Albert Charles (Charlie) had married in 1892 and moved to his wife's home at 6 Anatola Road and furthermore had taken a job as a Postman to secure a regular wage, leaving young Bert in the over protective care of his other brothers and sisters.  As well as working as a house painter with his brothers Bert took a part-time job as a groom with a firm called Beavis in Boothby Road, Upper Holloway. Beavis was in the coach-hire business and also operated "pirate" omnibus services - horse drawn buses which competed with the bigger transport companies on Holloway Road. It was Bert's job to groom and harness the horses. He also took the opportunity to learn to ride and drive coaches.


On 9 October 1899 Great Britain went to war with the Boers of South Africa. There were really two Boer Wars. The first, 1880-81, began after Disraeli annexed the South African Boer Republics - Transvaal and the Orange Free State in 1877. After making repeated attempts to repeal annexation, the Boers - descendants of Dutch settlers - under Kruger revolted and secured limited self goverment. After gold and diamonds were discovered in Transvaal tensions between the Boers and the British "ultlanders", aggravated by guerrilla raids and the repressive policies of the British governor of The Cape, became more intense. After the Boers attacked Cape Colony and Natal in 1899 the second war, which lasted until 1902 and would cost the lives of 20,000 British soldiers, was underway. British forces at Mafeking, Ladysmith and Kimberly were surrounded and besieged until relieved by forces under General Lord Roberts.

Boer Guerrillas

Seeing the outbreak of the war in South Africa - offering an escape from the smell of paint and a dominating family and, of course, adventure - young Bert volunteered for service in the Army.  Albert Charles was horrified and marched his youngest brother straight back to the recruiting office but the deed was done. Within a few days Bert found himself undergoing a very basic form of training before embarking for Cape Town with 7th Battalion 4th Middlesex Militia, Royal Fusiliers.


Seventeen year old Herbert Bayliss
Royal Fusiliers

According to Joyce Barrett, it was while on the troopship that Bert met Frederick Robert Parrott, another house painter, from Shoreditch. The two became great friends and Frederick would later play a significant part in family history.  Sadly, although I have discovered much about Frederick's life, I have found nothing to substantiate the story of that shipboard meeting and have found (so far) no record of any military service by Frederick Robert Parrott that goes beyond hearsay.


British troops on board ship bound for Cape Town

 By the time Bert arrived in South Africa the famous battles for the relief of Mafeking and Ladysmith were over and the great British offensive had begun.  Whether Bert saw action is unknown but he was probably with the victorious British troops when they took the capitals of the Orange Free State and Transvaal.

Bert returned to England in 1902 and went back to work for Beavis, this time as a driver working on the horse-drawn buses on Holloway Road. According to his daughter Ethel (my mother) his bus was drawn by two ex-fire service horses that used to accelerate to a gallop whenever they heard a bell.

The old Archway Tavern showing some of the
horse drawn buses that plied Holloway Road

Another relative who served in the British Army during the Boer War was Esther Abbott's elder brother, Henry George.  Born in Kentish Town in 1876, Henry George Abbotts was baptised in South Hampstead in 1880. He joined the army in August 1899 before the outbreak of  the South African war. Although no photos of Henry George are known to exist we can get a picture of what he looked like from his army records which tell us he was 5ft 6in tall with an expanded chest measurement of 42 inches. He had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. On his right forearm he had a tattoo of Brittania and on his left a Rose, a shamrock and a thistle. He had a scar on his right cheek.


British troops at the siege of Ladysmith.

Henry served in the Rifle Brigade and was present at the siege of Lady Smith.  Like his later brother-in-law Herbert he must have enjoyed the army life because in he later saw military service in the Great War.

One of the  nicest things about this blog is that it is helping people get in contact. Since discovering Mick Barrett's website I have now been in contact with him and he tells me that his son Daniel now has a little daughter called Sienna - another cousin for the family tree! Congratulations Daniel. 

I have also spoken to Mick's mother, Peggy, and although she has had some poor health recently she seems quite chirpy for an 88 year old. Alvin and I are going to visit her in August.

Also I'm now in contact with Cheryl cousin Alva's daughter and Alvin's niece.  The names keep rolling in!

A couple of blog regulars have asked me if it is possible to provide an index to the blog. If you want to see if a particular relative has been mentioned in one of the posts you can do this by writing the name into the the search bar which you will find at the top left hand corner of the main page, just above the title picture. Click the magnifying glass next to it and you will be taken to the posts where the person is mentioned. This will also work for street names or any other subjects

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING.....

Here's a family face you might not recognise - it took me a minute. Not seen him for years but this is Mick Barrett, son of Nibo (Fred) Barrett and his wife Peggy.  I've always known of Mick's interest in car racing since his very earliest days at the Peter Pan Go-Kart track in Southend on Sea as a tot and I knew he passed on his love of the sport to his son Daniel but I only had a vague idea of how that love had grown into a career. So, well done cousin!  Best wishes to you Mick and to Shelly - and Daniel looks pretty cool! Read about Mick and Daniel's career by clicking THIS LINK.

P.S. Mick, I think I still have your dad's old 8.mm films of your early days.

FROM THE FAMILY ALBUM No.5

Lovely picture of Arthur Bayliss and his wife Phyllis who were great ballroom dancers - seen here at a dance competition finals night during the 1950's. Fred anf Ginger wouldn't have stood a chance!

TRIVIA : SAINSBURY'S MECHANICAL COW, BRICKLAYERS AND THE PICKLE FACTORY.

Time for some pictorial trivia!  Polly Abbotts lived in  Queen's Crescent prior to her marriage. Queen's Crescent is one of London's street markets (still going today as you can see in the picture above) and holds a little place in London retail history. The Sainsbury family opened their original shop in Drury Lane but in 1873 the family moved to live above their new shop at 159 Queen's Crescent. This shop was a dairy selling milk, cheese, eggs and butter.


159 Queen's Crescent



When the shop was closed customers could buy milk through a device in the shop door known as a "Mechanical Cow".  A few years later a second shop was opened at 151 which specialised in ham and bacon which the family imported from Ireland and Denmark. From these modest beginnings sprung the giant supermarket chain we know today.

Jack Abbotts was a bricklayer so it seems appropriate to have a picture of some Victorian era gents engaged in similar work.



I was fascinated to learn that my grandmother Esther and her younger sister Daisy (whom I remember in old age) both worked in a Pickle Factory (*See comment below). I assume it was situated in the Archway area, but where?  I'd love to know.  So, in tribute to pickle factory workers everywhere....



An American pickle factory in the 1880's



THE ABBOTTS FAMILY

St.Mary's Church Thame Oxfordshire.

Mary Eele, known as "Polly" was born on 1 October 1846 in the town of Thame in Oxfordshire. She was one of at least six children born to Henry Eele and his wife Elizabeth (ex Gardener). The name is common one in Thame and is often spelled Elle. In the baptism records still held at the St. Mary's church (and viewed there by cousin Robin) the name, even for Henry's daughters, has both spellings.  Sometime prior to 1868 Polly made her way to London, whether alone or with her family in unknown. We know her whereabouts in 1868 because on 4 October  she married  John Abbotts at Holy Trinity Church, Haverstock Hill. On the marriage certificate  her address is given as 101 Queen's Crescent.

John Robert Abbotts was born at Crown Court, Cripplegate, London on 3 July 1848. Crown Court was probably a tenement similar to the one shown in the picture below.

Typical Victorian tenement, probably similar to Crown
Court where John Abbotts was born. The picture shows
a tenement in Popham Street, Islington which I visited
prior to its demolition circa 1970.

In 1861 the Abbotts family were living in New Court which was possibly situated on the present day site of The Barbican in Cripplegate.  By the year of his marriage the family had moved to Harmood Street near Chalk Farm. The house stood opposite Chalk Farm bus garage near the junction with Clarence Way.  After the marriage John (known as "Jack") and Polly moved to Langford Road where their first child, James, was born. We know little about Jack beyond the recording on the census of his employment as a "Bricklayer's Labourer" and later as "Bricklayer".  It has been mentioned in the family that Jack had either a club foot or had suffered an injury. On one of his daughter's marriage certificates after his death his profession is given as "Watchman".

Victorian cottage in Harmood Street today.

 Jack and Polly eventually, like the Bayliss family, moved to Highgate New Town where the lived at 20 Annesley Road, the next street to Anatola Road. and it was here in 1885 that the eleventh of their twelve known children, christened Esther, was born on March 17th.

Annesley Road showing Hargrave Park School
at the top end.

By 1891 the family have crossed Dartmouth Park Hill to live at 34 Colva Street and the census shows Polly and several of the daughters working as charwomen. In 1896, probably while still at Colva Street, Jack Abbotts died.  in 1901 Polly and her daughters are living in nearby Doynton Street (her eldest son, James and his wife Ada are listed as a separate family at the same address) and the two youngest girls, Esther and Daisy are working in a Pickle Factory. The year after the census, in 1902 Polly died and the following year her daughter Esther married the youngest of the Bayliss sons Herbert. They were my grandfather and mother and we will pick up their story soon.


Mary "Polly" Eele Abbotts (1846-1902)
Photograph taken at J.W.Grosuch's studio in

Junction Road. Grosuch ruined his business

by his addiction to gambling on horse racing.

(Picture courtesy of Margaret Dalby)

FROM THE FAMILY ALBUM No.4

Dogs have always been favourite pets in our family and I'm sure many of us have fond memories of our canine friends. Here's a lovely picture of the latest family pooch. His name is Teddy and he is a Little stray who was taken in by cousin Treena's daughter Tabitha (thanks for the great picture!). Tabitha tried to find him a new home without success - not realising that there was no way Teddy would be going anywhere but where he was!  Teddy is now a member of the family and can be seen sleeping off 14 pints and a curry with Tabitha's daughter Verity.  If you have a favourite pet picture let me have a copy for the blog.

THE BAYLISS FAMILY IN 1881 : ANATOLA ROAD

Picture of the Victorian houses in Highgate New Town

just before demolition taken from the top of Archway

Tower.  Part of Anatola Road can be seen on the left of

the picture with Magdala Road on the right. Girdlestone

Road runs between them. Whittington Hospital is on the

right of the picture.

In the1881census Charles Bayliss was still living (as he would for the rest of his life) at 24 Hanley Road - soon to have its name changed. Hannah is still alive (she would die in 1887) and Elizabeth Ann is at home again - although she may have still been working as a domestic and just visiting her parents on census day. His son, Charles William and his wife Nancy had left Hanley Road West and for a while lived in Cottenham Road but by 1881 he had moved to 7 Anatola Road.  This street was situated on the left of Highgate Hill below the Whittington Hospital. Known at the time as Highgate New Town the area was mainly populated by people who had moved en masse from Somers Town, north of Euston Station, when many of the streets had been cleared to make way for the advancing railway. It is possible that Charles Bayliss actually owned the lease on the house in Anatola Road (he certainly did by the time of his death in 1898) where Charles William was living. The census tells us that, besides Charles William and his wife Nancy, the family now included Louisa (working as a laundress), Albert Charles (Plasterer's boy working with his father), Harry, Maude, William and George. There would be one more son born a few years later - my grandfather (possibly yours as well or at least you direct ancestor) Herbert. In later posts we will look into the lives of these children (and in Herbert's case quite considerable) detail.

Another view, this time showing Brunswick Road

Opposite number 7 Anatola was number 6, the home of the family of Oliver Dumayne, his wife Annie (ex Price) and their daughter, Minnie Rebecca. They were originally from Wales and had recently moved to Anatola Road from nearby Hargrave Park Road (later simply Hargrave Park) where Minnie had been born.Oliver was a police constable.  Minnie and Albert Charles Bayliss (Charles William's eldest son) became childhood friends and would marry in 1892.  Another significant event of the 1880's took place in nearby Annesley Road; this was the birth of Esther Abbotts in 1885. We will return to the Abbotts family in a future post.

Jack the Ripper

Some of the most dramatic events of the 1880's took place on the other side of London in the autumn of 1888 - the Jack the Ripper murders.  My late partner, Terry (Theresa) Burkett had a distant connection with these murders.  Her second great grand uncle, John Thomas Stride, was born in Sheerness, Kent in 1821.He was a carpenter by trade and in 1869 at St.Giles in the Field, London he married Elizabeth Gustafsdotter.As her name suggests Elizabeth was Swedish by birth, born in 1843.  By 1865 she appeared on Swedish police records as a prostitute. She came to England to work as a domestic servant.

Elizabeth Gustafsdottor Stride in 1872

Her marriage to John Thomas Stride seems to be an on off affair and they separated several times but reunited in 1881 when they appear on the census living at 69 Usher Road in Bow, East London. John Thomas would die in the East London Sick Asylum in 1884 after which Elizabeth drifted into Whitechapel where she survived working as a house cleaner, seamstress and sometime prostitute and was known as "Long Liz Stride". She took up with a man named Michael Kidney. On the night of 30 September 1888 she was seen by several witnesses outside Dutfield's Yard in Berners Street, Whitechapel.  She seems to have had an argument with a man (possibly Kidney) but the man left. Later that evening a cart driver taking his horse and wagon into the yard found Elizabeth's body. Her throat had been cut. Many believe that she was the third victim of the notorious Jack the Ripper and that the killer was still in the yard. Disturbed by the arrival of the cart driver the Ripper slipped away. Frustrated by his inability to carry out his usual mutilations, he traveled across Whitechapel into The City where he claimed his fourth victim. I personally subscribe to the theory that "Long Liz" was the victim of either a domestic (Kidney has been suggested as a possible suspect) or of a violent attack by one of her pickups.

Berners Street, Whitechapel (now Henriques Street).

The cartwheel on the wall marks the entrance to

Dutfield's Yard

Contemporary artist's impression of the

discovery of Elizabeth's body.

Whatever the truth about Elizabeth's death she has a place in history as one on the five "canonical" victims of The Ripper. She was buried on October 6th in grave 15509 (Square 37)  at the East London Cemetery in Plaistow where it can be seen today.

GOING UNDERGROUND : ARCHWAY STATION

Archway Station Junction Road entrance

photographed in 2006

If, like me, you grew up in the Archway area, seeing it as it is now just increases the nostalgia for the past. Archway Undergrond Station (or "Tube Station" as we called it) played a very important part in our lives. My father actually worked there, met my mother there during the Blitz,  and it was the last place I ever saw him (Southbound platform), also it was, along with the buses, our gateway to a wider world. The Northern Line took us south to the West End - for pleasure and for work. I can still remember every station to Tottenham Court Road - Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Camden Town, Mornington Cresecent, Warren Street, Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road and if you press me I could go further. Between Kentish Town and Camden Town, if you pressed your face to the window and looked into the darkness you could catch sight of a disused station as the train sped through its ghostly, deserted platforms.  Archway Station with Uncle Arthur's wet fish shop opposite the Junction Road entrance, was originally known as Highgate Station - taking its name from the nearby streets which were known as Highgate New Town (I'll explain that more in my next post) - and only became Archway Station in 1941 when the Northern Line was extended and Highgate became the next station up the line near Highgate Woods. Here are a few wonderfully evocative pictures all taken at Archway Station over the years.

Almost the same angle as the earlier picture, this

shows the Junction Road entrance prior to the

name change.

Passengers on the Up escalator in 1932

The Highgate Hill entrance before the name change.

The ticket hall in the 1950's

*All photographs on this post are copyright of the London Transport Museum photographic collection and are intended only for illustrative purposes. Prints of any of these photographs may be purchased from the London Transport Museum Shop or from their website.

MARLBOROUGH ROAD TRIVIA

I like to discover trivia about places and streets where members of our family lived and while writing my post on Marlborough Road (below) I completely forgot to mention a famous name who gave the street a little spot of its own in history.

Marie Stopes (above) was a pioneer of sex education and birth control. She trained as a scientist at University College London but the failure of her first marriage led her to study sex education and contraception. In 1918, she published a controversial but popular book, ‘Married Love’, and in 1921, she opened the first birth control clinic in Britain in Marlborough Road, Holloway. The clinic, which remained there until 1925, offered free services and advice to married women. Marie Stopes International now operates in more than 30 countries.

FROM THE FAMILY ALBUM No3

One from my personal album showing me (on the right) wearing the beautiful High Mass vestments in my role as Sacristan at St.Alban the Martyr in Westcliff on Sea. Also in the picture are Mother Phyllis Owen and Fr.Phil Roberts. The occasion was the dedication of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham in memory of my predesessor, Bill Sanders. If you have a personal picture you'd like to feature in this spot, e-mail it to me.

THE BAYLISS FAMILY IN UPPER HOLLOWAY 1871

Marlborough Road today showing houses typical

of the period when the Bayliss Family first

moved there.

We pick up the story of our family in 1871. As we saw in a previous post, by 1861 the family had finally moved into Islington - Charles to Bemerton Street and his newly married son to Blundell Street.  Towards the end of the decade they were to move again. This time the move was to Upper Holloway, the area which, as we have seen, was commonly called Archway, taking its identity from the road bridge that spanned Archway Road.  Over the years various descendants of Charles Bayliss would live in many of the streets in the area but three streets will dominate the story - Marlborough Road, Anatola Road and Pemberton Gardens.  For the purpose of this post we need concern ourselves only with Marlborough Road. When Charles Bayliss and his family made the move to the area it was to houses in Hanley Road West.  Hanley Road was split by the main thoroughfare of Hornsey Road - to the north was Hanley Road and, if my sense of direction is correct, to the south-west was Hanley Road West.  This was the situation when the Bayliss family settled there. Marlborough Road did exist but ran only from Holloway Road to the point where the street divided to become Hatchard Road and Hanley Road West.  Sometime in the 188o's came the introduction of  postal area numbering. Upper Holloway, including Hanley Road West, became N.19 while Hanley Road became N.4. To save confusion it was decided that Marlborough Road would be extended to take in Hanley Road West.  This, of course, called for a renumbering of the houses.

Marlborough Road today showing the  Prince Alfred

public house. The Two houses owned by Charles

Bayliss (now demolished) were situated next to

the pub where the white car stands.

In 1871 Charles Bayliss was living at 24 Hanley Road West in a house one door away from The Prince Alftred public house. Charles would eventually buy the lease of this house and the one next door which would respectively become 135 and 137 Marlborough Road. Living with Charles at the house are his wife Hannah and children John and Amelia. The house is shared with two other families, those of George Tomeson, a builder, and George Manevill, a painter. Elizabet Ann, who years later would marry Charles Scotcher and move into 135 Marlborough Road) is still working as a domestic servant, no longer in Studd Street but now at 58 Essex Road for the James family, Mr.James being an ironmonger. I have been unable to trace the whereabouts of Elizabeth Ann's sister, Frances Mary.

Charles' son, Charles William, and his wife Nancy are living at 35 Hanley Road West. Their children are listed as Louisa, Albert, John and three month old baby, Henry. Like his father, Charles William's profession is listed as Plasterer. They share the house with two other families, the Hewitts and the Barretts. The Barretts, as we shall see later, were, despite the name, not related to later Barretts within our family. There is reason to believe that both Charles and Charles William were working for the builders firm of A.E.Etheridge in Holloway Road. Whether employed their permanently or just hired for specific jobs is unknown.

A modern map of the area. The Prince Alfred Pub (marked with red dot) with
 the Bayiss houses next door is situated on the corner of Marlborough Road

 and Sussex Way (then known as Cottenham Road). The exact

position of 35 Hanley Road West is uncertain.

By this time it seems likely that Charles Bayliss also had a steady income from the rents of the leasehold he held on his former address at 66 Bemerton Street.  In the following years Charles would take out mortgages on several other Islington houses, including two in nearby Cottenham Road and another Anatola Road so it is fair to assume that the Bayliss family, if not rich, were comfortable by the standards of the time.

TELLING TALES.

Archway showing the Tavern with Highgate Hill to the left with St.Joseph's Retreat visible at the top of the hill.

The history of London fascinates me. My bookshelves bend under the weight of books about the history of the city, its churches, its criminals, its streets, public buildings, development and walks. I even collect fiction that has a strong London background - books like Michael Moorcock's Mother London or the novels of Peter Ackroyd  and Iain Sinclair - I am even referred to in Sinclair's novel Down River as "a scholar I once knew". I'm not named in the novel but have a copy inscribed by the author which acknowledges the fact. I am, like Ackroyd and Sinclair, drawn to the darker side of the metropolis's history, the shadowy places, the eccentics, the myths and legends of the city - Springheel Jack, Jack the Ripper, The Tower of London, the street gangs,the highwaymen,the ghosts, organised crime, but there is much more to the history of the streets of London. We are the trustees of the stories that our parents and grandparents told us and if we don't tell them they will dies with us. Stories like my grandfather (and possibly yours) heroically stopping a runaway horse in Windermere Road, chasing a burglar through a wood yard or joining his brothers for an impromptu game of midnight football in Anatola Road. We all have stories we remember (yes you do!) and we should pass them on, preferably we should write them down.  Developers and politicians may try to determine the shape of the city but its real history is made in the streets by ordinary people.

An early print of Archway. Junction Road is in the bottom

left-hand corner. The big building on the corner is the

 originalArchway Tavern.

I suppose we are all drawn to the area where we grew up. For me that is Upper Holloway. I've returned there a few times in recent years but much of what I remember is vanishing. Upper Holloway, London N.19, or more simply "Archway" is situated in the north-west of Islington at the western end of Holloway Road. On an island in the middle of the road stands The Archway Tavern marking the spot where five roads converge. If you approach from the east up the aforementioned Holloway Road, directly ahead of you is Highgate Hill which leads steeply to the old village of Highgate.  Slightly to the right is Archway Road with its "suicide bridge" archway which gives the area its name. To the north is St.John's Way which leads to Crouch End and to the south is Junction Road which leads to Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Camden Town and on to Tottenham Court Road and the West End. 

Whittington Stone and Cat

Archway is very much a crossroads - all these roads seem to be leading away from from the area, there is very little sense of "coming to".  Our family came to the area in the mid-1860's. It was the final London destination on their twenty year journey from Gloucestershire and I will write more about that in the near future.  Every area of London has its legends, its myth and even its murderers (Dr.Crippen lived in neighbouring Lower Holloway and one of the infamous "Brides in the Bath" murders took place in Bismark Road [(later Waterlow Road] just off Highgate Hill) but, perhaps, the most potent local legend is the story of another native of Gloucestershire who made his way to the area.  According to legend (and the famous pantomime based on it) Dick Whittington was a poor boy who came to London in the 14th Century to make his fortune.  Having failed to do so he set off on foot to begin the long journey home, accompanied, only by his faithful pet cat.  When he got to the bottom of Highgate Hill he rested on a milestone and heard the sound of Bow Bells ringing far away in the City. In his imagination the bells told him to "turn again Whittington" and predicted that he would be "thrice Lord Mayor of London".  Dick returns to the city, makes his fortune (in a foreign adventure that involves his cat and an army of rats),  marries a rich merchants daughter and does become Lord mayor of London three times.   The legend has little to do with fact although Richard Whittington was a very real person who was actually Lord Mayor of The City four, not three times. He was a great reformer and philanthropist and endowed many charities - some of which are still in operation today.There seems to be no cat involved in the true story (read it by clicking this LINK) and no real reason to connect him with Highgate Hill. Certainly he came from Gloucestershire but there is no evidence that he was at any time in his life poor.  But if you go to Archway you will find the milestone complete with black cat, you will find two public houses named after Whittington and a hospital. Until the 1960's there was also The Whittington College Almshouses - perhaps connected with one of Whittington's endowments.

Dick Turpin

Another, more notorious, figure connected with the area (tenuously and with even less justification) is the notorious highwayman and cattle thief, Dick Turpin. My mother used to tell me that he had a hideout under Archway bridge despite my protestations that Turpin was hanged in 1739, well before the building of the first bridge, let alone the structure that stands there today.  These were famous figures, but the recording of tales about ordinary people - our forebears - are equally important as social history. Even the recording of the memories of the streets where we lived as children have a value, what are your school memories? work memories?  That is real history.  I will, in the future, be writing about the street I grew up in - will you? I was lucky in that my mother told me a lot about her life (although some important aspects she kept very secret) but oh how I wish I could ask my grandmother about her early years. Don't let our descendants have the same regret.

AMELIA BAYLISS AND THE HUNT FAMILY

Henry Hunt

In a previous post we learned that Charles and Hannah Bayliss were in 1861 living in Upper Bemerton Street in Islington. Among his children listed on that document is Amelia who was born at an unknown address in Somerstown (hopefully this will be revealed when I get her birth certificate). We know very little about Amelia's early life at the moment beyond her birth date -  6 February 1855 and too my knowledge no photos of her exist.  Sadly, what we do know about is her tragic death.  On 11 August 1877 Amelia Bayliss married Henry Hunt, a mast builder, at the Baptist Chapel in Holloway Road, Upper Holloway, North London. Their son, Frederick Henry, was born 7 April 1878.  Following the birth, Amelia suffered thirty hours of fits and on 18 April Amelia died of High blood pressure.  That unfortunately is where Amelia leaves the story.  Henry, left with a baby son, remarried two years later to Adela Marks and their first child is born the following year.

Adela Marks

Henry Hunt then made the decision to emigrate with his new family and they sailed on the ship "Assaye" and they arrive in Sydney on 3 September 1881,  but Frederick Henry, the son of his first marriage is not with them, Henry having made the decision to leave his son in London. Henry continues in his trade as a builder and at some point loses much of his money with a building project in the Blue Mountains.  Henry then took his family to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia during the Gold Rush.  In 1900  Henry opened three tea rooms in Perth and then in 1903 he decided to build a biscuit factory.  Looking for an accountant for his proposed business Henry sends to his son, Frederick Henry, in London.

Frederick Henry Hunt,

the son of Amelia Bayliss and Henry Hunt

Frederick is now twenty-five years old and married to Kate and has a baby daughter named Evelyn. Fred is an accountant but is also a talented musician and plays in the London Philharmonic. He decides to join his father in Australia.  While the factory is being built, Frederick works in a Perth Jewellery shop. The biscuit Factory is a great success.  Sadly, Frederick died from a leaky heart valve in 1932 at the age of fifty-four.

His father, Henry, followed in 1935.  With nobody to carry on the biscuit factory the business was sold to Mills and Wares, Australia's premier biscuit manufacturer to this day.  The Hunt family continue to live in Perth, Western Australia to this day and I am grateful to Frederick Henry Hunt's grandaughter, Alison, who is proud of her Bayliss blood, for the information in this post.

Kate Hunt, wife of Frederick H. Hunt

GOOD NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER

Good news from Australia! This morning I spoke to cousin Iris in Australia. Now everybody in the family are in touch again. There are a few people I'm not in direct contact with but we know where they are through their parents or brothers and sisters. This blog has been more successful than I ever dreamed and finding that so many people are now linked in one way or another has been a wonderful bonus. I'm sure everybody here in England (not forgetting those in Italy, New Zealand and Spain) send their best wishes to Iris, Mike and their son Graham.

A CAUTIONARY TALE

Studd Street today.

Here's a little insight into the problems of researching old documents. A few posts back I said that in 1861 Elizabeth Ann Bayliss, age 14, was working as a servant for a comb manufacturer named James Mitchell in Mudd Street, Islington.  Not being familiar with this street, I consulted THE A-Z OF VICTORIAN LONDON which reprints G.W. Bacon's very detailed survey maps of the city in 1888.  No mention of Mudd Street.  I returned to the original Census document of 1861 and yes, it looked like it was clearly "Mudd Street."  I decided to work back through the census pages until I found another street in the area - one I was familiar with or one that was listed in the A-Z.  The first on I found was Theberton Street. Quickly I turned back to the mysterious "Mudd Street" and realised that the census taker's handwriting really said "Studd Street".  Well, I must have been laughing for a full five minutes. Why?  Because I worked in Studd Street for 32 years!  If number 6 Studd Street, where Elizabeth Ann worked, was one of the surviving Victorian houses in the street (there is a number 6 but the street was possibly renumbered in the 1880's) then I walked past it every time I went to work!  In the above picture you can see some of the surviving Victorian houses on the right hand side of the street - the present number six being about half way along.  At the far end of the street you can just see the yard of the old Northern District Postal depot where I worked. I believe the site was occupied by a builder's yard belonging to the firm of Dove Brothers in 1861.