I think I can safely say that my genetic make-up, in parts of its configuration, is down to a malfunctioning umbrella. At least this is what I gather from my Aunt Evelyn’s brief account of how her parents, my paternal grandparents got together.
But before we get into the umbrella business, please meet my grandmother, Alice Gertrude Eaton, a grocer’s cashier from Streatham, London (I have a notion that it was an early Sainsbury’s store because the emporium’s founders, John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury had the policy that ‘lady clerks made the stores run better’), and grandfather, Charles Ashford, head gardener, born in Twyford, Hampshire. You have seen them in their latter years in my earlier posts from the walled garden (see: #1, #2)
In many respects they are an unlikely couple. Alice was a city girl through and through. She is perhaps unusual, too, in that, as a young woman, she had a responsible cashier’s job in a big grocery store. There were racy theatrical connections too. Her customers were the music hall stars of the day (The first Sainsbury store was in the theatrical quarter of Drury Lane so this may well have been where she worked). G H Elliott, a well known variety star, whose trademark act (I’m sorry to say) was to perform minstrel-style with blacked up face and wearing a white dinner suit, was also some sort of relative. He made his first recording in 1904, and had a long recording career. Alice was very proud of the family association. Then one of the witnesses on her marriage certificate is her older brother, Charles Kisber Eaton, a professional cricketer. It seems their father, also Charles, a plumber gas-fitter, had backed the winner of the Epsom Derby in 1876, the year his son was born. Kisber was the famous, Hungarian-bred racehorse that also won the Grand Prix de Paris the same year.
Charles Kisber Eaton: it’s quite a name. The Eaton family then, it seems, had a bit of urban edge, the kind of street-wise flair that grandfather did not. He was a countryman, my aunt said, to the soles of his well polished boots. And so how did he end up marrying a Streatham girl? Well here is the backstory according to my aunt:
I must now tell you a bit about my father.
He was born in a village called Twyford, near Winchester, the second son of a family of eight – four boys and four girls. He left school when he was 12 years old, and went to work at Twyford Vicarage as a pantry boy. He got up in the morning at 5 am – sometimes earlier – stoked the kitchen fire, cleaned all the boots and shoes. Next he filled the coal scuttles, got the wood and paper ready for laying the fires and all before cook and the house maids appeared at 6.15. Next job was to clean the front steps and polish the brass on the front door, and then sweep the drive down to the front gate. After this he had to help the maids carry cans of hot water for the family to wash or bathe.
After breakfast there were knives to clean, followed by further fetching and carrying for the rest of the day. Twice a week he would have to walk into Winchester (5 or 6 miles each way) to collect a special brown loaf for the vicar’s wife. The coach man would very often pass him on the way, but was not allowed to pick up little Charlie Ashford. But he was well fed at the vicarage and grew into a tall, strong boy.
Perhaps he grew tired of all the household chores for when he was about fifteen he went to work at a great house called Arle Bury Park, at Arlesford, north of Winchester.
This time Charlie Ashford went for outdoor work and became a garden boy, one of a staff of eight. There he lived in the gardeners’ bothy with some of the other men and boys, and had to take turns preparing meals for his elders. He was reasonably happy there, for although strict, the head gardener was a kind man who saw that the boys were fairly treated and taught to be good gardeners.
After several years of learning his trade, he went to Streatham in London, to a big house in Leigham Court Road where he worked for the proprietor of the Church Times. It was a good job with plenty to do, and he could spend his spare time exploring 1900s London.
And so here we have countryman, Charlie, roaming London’s streets in his spare time. The 1901 census has him lodging on Barcombe Avenue, Streatham. By now he is 26 and his landlady is Louise Eaton, a 54-year old widow, who is ‘living on her own means’. She is Alice’s mother, and the means appear to be income from running a boarding house. It is a substantial red-brick three-storey terrace house. Alice is also living there with her three sisters Ellen, Harriet and Jessie (the last two are listed as dressmakers) and brother Charles, of race horse fame and the professional cricketer. There are three other boarders besides Charlie, all gardeners. And at the time of the census there are also two visiting grooms. A full house then.
My own feeling about Charlie Ashford is that he was a taciturn, self-contained man, who needed a bit of a prod when it came to courting young ladies. Perhaps Alice, who was nine years younger, had worked this out. Perhaps her sisters had dared her. In any event, one Sunday afternoon at Barcombe Avenue, when it was too rainy for Charlie to go out on his usual city explorations, there was a loud knock at his door. When he opened it, there before him was a slim young girl in her Sunday best. She was flushed and agitated. She thrust an umbrella into his hand and stammered, ‘T-t-take my umbrella. The t-t-top’s come off’.
And so it began. Alice and Charlie were married in September 1905 at St. Leonard’s Church, Streatham Common. In January 1910, their first child, my father, Alexander Charles Ashford was born. Here we have another ‘grand’ name, although to be fair to my grandmother she had simply wanted to call him Alec. For some reason the vicar thought this was not a real name, hence the Alexander. My father always told me that when he joined the armed forces in WW2, and the recruiting sergeant asked for his name, the scathing response on hearing it had been ‘And who the devil do you think you are? A ruddy author?’
In fact my father was always a fame-seeker, hoping to be ‘discovered’ at every turn. Perhaps it was his mother’s tales of meeting people like Marie Lloyd in her shop, or hearing her admiring talk of G H Elliott. He was anyway a ‘mummy’s boy’, and increasingly so as he persisted in earning his father’s disapproval. Alex rather revelled in the tale of the day when his father grew so enraged, that he threw an axe at his wayward son.
And now for the full picture from which I extracted the portraits of Alice and Charlie. Here, between them, is Alexander Charles aged three. As family portraits go, I feel this is quite striking:
And next, here is a photo taken around 1919 when grandfather was engaged as head gardener at Redhurst, and moved his family from Streatham to live in a country estate cottage. Alex is eight or nine here, and isn’t he so pleased to pose – and with that barely felt touch of his mother’s protecting hand on his shoulder:
This next photo is of Charlie by himself at Redhurst and was also taken around 1919. Perhaps he does have a bit of dash after all:
But mostly his life was about doing the ‘right thing’ without making a big show of it. I discovered among my aunt’s papers a little book that was Charlie’s school prize at the age of six. The inscription to the little boy in this ‘improving’ slender volume is telling. I think he probably took its message well and truly to heart: waste not, want not…
*
And finally another glimpse of the kind of man he was. The following is an inscription from a gravestone in the village graveyard of his Twyford birthplace that he has written down, perhaps from memory in later life. I think the word ‘earth’ should be ‘death’, but either way these words still resonate:
This world is a city with many a crooked street.
Earth is a market place where all men meet.
If life were a merchandise that men could buy,
The rich would live, and the poor would die.
As for Alice, she spent much of her life from middle age onwards as an invalid, and died aged 65. It is not clear what ailed her exactly, but the burden of care usually fell on my teen-aged Aunt Evelyn. Evelyn was born when Alice was 40, thirteen years after Alex. My mother used to say that Charlie claimed that Evelyn wasn’t his when he first found out that Alice was pregnant again. Evelyn herself said she grew up feeling that her parents had reached a stage in their life where they didn’t want to be bothered with rearing a child. She said she never knew her father with anything other than his snow-white hair.
And so were they a happy family? Who can tell? This last photo from Evelyn’s album would seem to say so. And yet…?
copyright 2015 Tish Farrell
Tish Farrell 
Reblogged this on First Night History and commented:
A fascinating glimpse of English family history at the turn of the century from Tish Farrell.
Many thanks, for the reblog, Sarah.
Fascinating, Tish
I did enjoy this….wonderful photographs and memories and a superb portrait of an English family before the world went completely mad. Thank you.
Yes, you are right, Janet. The world has gone bonkers, hasn’t it? And I don’t think this is simply the jaundiced view of being older. And as to work ethic, my grandfather was meticulous in his practice, and had a great sense of self-worth in consequence. Not only that, the world bloomed and blossomed beneath his hands.
Yes, Tish…nothing to do with being older…the world has gone bonkers. We are so fortunate to remember a different way of being….Thank you so much…
I forgot to say…how clear the work ethic was in those days…..
I’m enjoying these series so much. 🙂
I’m really pleased to hear that, Celestine. How are you?
I’m dong good, Tish. Working on a few things that never seem to see the light of day. 🙂
They will, if you keep having a go at them. Some things take a lot longer than others to hatch than others 🙂
Too true. 🙂
Tish, I really enjoy reading about your family history. What fun to know so much about it! Thanks for sharing.
janet
Thanks very much for your appreciation of same, Janet.
A fascinating read, Tish….
What wonderful pictures and family history you have. I am envious of very little in this world, but I envy you this.
Thank you, Marilyn. Only as I’ve been writing these pieces have I been realising quite how lucky I am to have had an aunt who ‘kept’ things.
Wonderful history and photos Tish 🙂
Thank you, Gilly.
You do a great line in post titles. But that’s not all. You write beautifully, and we get two for the price of one, because there’s Aunt Evelyn’s voice too. The photo of your father with your grandparents is a beauty. I hope there are many more “tales from the walled garden.”
Thank you so much, Meg. I think there may be one or two more tales. I do so wish I’d spent more time with my aunt.
We always do, I think. I could encounter mine now as a fellow-grownup, rather than a child still – even ask some of the questions suggested by my curiosity about her maiden-aunthood and what sustained her.
As soon as I saw another “walled garden” story I put on a cup of coffee and sat down to enjoy this lovely drift back into the times of your family. What images and scenarios your words evoke. How lucky to have so much saved memorabilia to search through. Like Aunt Evelyn I was born when my Mother was 41 and 13 years after my sister and the photo of Charlie with the waistcoat and pocket watch draped across reminds me so much of my father who died when I was 10. But he always wore a trilby not a straw boater. I will look forward to more stories from the walled garden, a delicious trip down memory lane to an age when family and work ethics were so important
It’s a treat to find that there is so much common ground between these pieces and fellow bloggers’ own family histories. And thank you for being such a dedicated reader of same. I’m learning quite a lot as I write them, and dredge from my memory things that my aunt has told me.I’m increasingly sure that we need to remember the way we once lived – the real history.
One of my regrets is because I left England at 19 y.o. I never had those conversations of discovery with my Mother, being a gypsy I have never accumulated or saved pieces of past memorabilia. I think that is why I do enjoy your series.
What a fascinating post, Tish. Thank you for sharing these stories that give a good picture of how life could be in times before ours.
You are most welcome, Tiny. As I said to pommepal, I’m learning a lot too.
Great to have such detailed history. We have mariners, blacksmiths and farmers in the family, but not the details.
Yes, it’s the details that are like gold dust. And I really have so few details when it comes down to it – just tantalizing fragments. But thank you for your appreciation.
Wonderful read, as usual. The research and photos so well presented!
Thank you, Bumba.
An engaging retelling of your family’s history. Don’t you just love the way very young boys once had long curls and wore dresses ?
I don’t think grandfather was very impressed though. I believe there was a bit of a battle with grandmother on getting Alex’s locks cut.By contrast, Evelyn at the same age, i.e. around 3 years, cut her own long hair off with her mother’s nail sisters. There’s even a photo – after some tidying up of course.
Oh dear! Your grandfather appears to have a rod in his hands in the final photo……in case Evelyn should misbehave?
🙂
Wonderful social and family history Tish. And precious photographs.
Thanks, Rebecca.
Great pictorial history! Enjoyed reading about the family! Isn’t it just amazing how hard they worked and how spoiled we are nowadays? Carrying hot water for baths and on and on…was their normal day! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, people worked such long hard hours, and for very little. Thanks for reading 🙂
I am so enjoying these stories Tish. In telling your family history you give us such a vivid picture of these people and the world they lived in. Cheers, Su.
That’s such a compliment coming from you, Su. Your Shaking the Tree blog has been an inspiration to me. 🙂
Thank you so much Tish. I think we share the same vision (not sure that’s quite the right word) of how family history can be presented — especially for a wider (than family-only) audience. I’ve neglected Shaking the Tree lately — but am feeling the need to put aside some time to do more research. Thanks again. Cheers, Su.
Happy or not, they just ‘got on with it’, didn’t they, Tish? I love the stammering, forward young slip of a thing 🙂 I hope he made her happy.
I’m not so sure that he did, Jo, 😦
Rats! 😦
How wonderful that you have so many pieces to add to your understanding of your family history. You’re right about the early family photo. What a great heirloom to have! I find family history fascinating, It’s one of the reasons behind the cookbook. I wanted future generations to know more than our names decades after we’re gone.
Yours is such a valuable enterprise, John. It was one of the things that attracted me to your blog in the first place – cooking infused with family love and tradition. Which reminds me, somewhere I have my grandmother’s little notebook with her recipes in. Now I need to go and hunt it out.
How do you write stuff like this? Held me spellbound from the first.
When I began to read about Charlie the pantry boy I immediately imagined a book. Or you as the narrator for a film showing those scratchy jerky images that fades to more modern cinematography.
Lovely story, Tish.
You are so very lovely, Ark. You read with such attention which is very heartening, and encouraging. Thank you. As to the how, I suppose I adopt a ‘godlike’ position, and try to resurrect and recompose people from the pieces that I have 🙂
Lovely addition to the series.