Bull Plain, Hertford, 1921

Credit: Caroline Churton

With the release of the 1921 census comes the opportunity to see how the occupancy of properties in Bull Plain changed over the previous 10 years since the last census was carried out. A few of the businesses and residents remained the same, but a comparison with an earlier article on this site, Bull Plain, Hertford, 1911, as well as reference to trade directories of the time show that there were indeed some changes.

The numbers of the relevant properties are highlighted in bold in this article. The even-numbered properties are located on the east side of the street and the odd-numbered ones on the west side.

There are no records in the 1921 census of the occupants of Nos. 1, 2 and 3, but Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire, 1922 lists the dispensing chemists Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) Limited at No. 3, as well as at their premises in Maidenhead Street. In 1888 a private company had been formed and money was needed to finance the firm’s expansion. After this the shops traded as Boot’s ‘Cash Chemists’, which allowed customers to pick drugs off the shelves and pay for them in cash at the till, no doubt distinguishing them from the more expensive pharmacies.

There was still a confectioner’s shop at No. 4, but according to both the 1921 census and Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire, 1922 this was now run by Arthur Chapman, 71, who was originally from Chiddingstone in Kent. He lived on the premises with his wife Mary, 71, from Appledore in Kent, whose occupation is described as ‘home duties’, and their daughter Nellie Ida, 44, also from Kent, who assisted her father in the business. However, two other trade directories, Simson’s Hertford and Ware Directory, 1920 and Herts and Essex Trades Directory 1923-4 list confectioner Samuel Gee, who was the occupant in 1911, still at this address.

The only reference to the occupants of No. 5 is in Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire, 1922, which lists some furniture dealers, the Chapman Brothers, here.

Advertisement in Simson’s Directory, Guide and Reference Book, 1924-5 (credit: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies)

Thomas Edward Ellis was still living at No. 6 in 1921, but had apparently remarried. His wife Selena [?], 27, was from Little Canfield in Essex originally, and the couple had a young son, Thomas, 1, who had been born in Hertford. Her occupation is described as ‘home duties’ and Thomas senior still worked as a hairdresser, although as the advertisement here shows by 1924 he was also a tobacconist.

There was a new occupant at No. 7. Thomas McLoughlin, 57, lived there with his wife Ida, 38, and their son Henry James, 4. Thomas was a draper’s manager employed by Edgar Carruthers of Bishop’s Stortford, but he worked at Bon Marche in Fore Street, Hertford.

Frederick James Bass Rowley still lived at No. 8, but his wife Mary was no longer alive, and he no longer had a live-in servant.

In 1911 the Pamphilon family occupied No. 18, but by 1921, according to the census, the eldest son Harry, 38, was now living at No. 9 with his own young family. He had married a Hertford girl, Agnes Emily, 27, in 1915 and they had two children – Harry Manolo, 4, and Joan Maria, 1, both of whom had been born in Hertford. Harry worked as a plumber and decorator, but he is also described as a builder in Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire, 1922 and as a fire brigade superintendent in Simson’s Hertford and Ware Directory, 1920. Living with the family was Harry’s brother James, 37, whose occupation is given as a ship’s steward for the P & O Company, but who was currently out of work.

Advertisement in Simson’s Hertford and District Directory, 1920 (credit: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies)

No. 10, uninhabited in 1911, was now occupied by George Creasey & Sons, commercial printers, stationers and die stampers, having moved from Nos. 7 and 9 where this business was located in 1911. Services that the firm offered were bookbinding and ‘artistic and plain commercial printing, copperplate and lithographic printing’.

In 1911 Horace Webb was listed in the census as living in St Andrew Street in Hertford and working as a newsagent and fruiterer, but by 1921, according to the census, it would appear that he had moved to No. 11 Bull Plain. He and his wife Jessie had had a second child, Herbert George, 9, but no longer had a boarder living with them. His occupation is now listed as a bricklayer, although somewhat confusingly he is still referred to as a greengrocer in both Simson’s Hertford and Ware Directory, 1920 and Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire, 1922.

No. 12 was listed as uninhabited in 1911, but by 1921 it was the home of Joseph Seymour, 73, from Brixton in London, whose occupation is described as a museum attendant, and his wife Eliza, 75. Previously, according to the 1911 census, the family had lived at No. 18 Maidenhead Street in Hertford, and Joseph was described then as a taxidermist/naturalist. One of their children, Harold Victor, 27, was still living with them. He had now progressed in his career from being a printer’s apprentice to a printer compositor employed by George Creasey & Sons Printers at No. 10 Bull Plain.

The boot maker Herbert Morris Reynolds and his wife Clara were still living at No. 13 in 1921, but they now had a second child, Mabel, 8, born in Hertford. There is no mention of the nearby property at No.14 in any of the relevant records, but as this was listed as a warehouse in 1911 it can be assumed that this had not changed by 1921.

One of the most notable changes in Bull Plain since the 1911 census occurred in 1917 when the Bull Inn, at No. 15 and after which the street had been named, closed its doors for the final time. The building subsequently became the home of George Parnett, 33, originally from Brighton in Sussex. He was a dairyman and he worked on the premises with his wife Thirza [?] Jane, 37, from Brockley in London, who assisted him in the business. They had a young daughter, Margaret Mary, 1, who had been born in Redhill in Surrey, and George’s widowed mother Mary, 64, from Appledore in Kent, also lived with the family. Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire, 1922 refers to George’s dairy specifically as The White House Dairy, which in 1911 had been based at No. 3 Bull Plain with different personnel, but confusingly another later directory, Herts and Essex Trades Directory 1923-4, records that The White House Dairy was still at No. 3 at that time and still producing ‘high-class dairy produce, nursery milk a speciality’.

No. 16 was most likely still a warehouse in 1921, but No. 17 had changed hands by then. It was now occupied by Alfred George Walker, 40, a flour miller working for G. Garratt & Sons at the Sele Roller Mills in Hertford. He was married to Edith Mary, 34, and they had a 9-month-old baby daughter, Betty Mary.

No change at No. 18, where Hertford Museum was (and still is) located, with Robert Thornton Andrews as its curator.

No. 19 was still the home of the Johnson family, but some of the occupants had changed. Robert, now working for Hertford Gas Company, and his wife Emily were still there, as were five of their children: Mary, occupied with home duties; Alfred, employed as a carman for Morris & Son in Fore Street, Hertford; Violet, who worked in the binding department of Simson & Co. in Hertford; and William and Henry, both still at school. In addition, there were now two new children – Richard S., 8, who had been born in Hertford, and Douglas J. Hale, 1, born in London, who was adopted. Also still living at No. 19 were the eldest daughter, Emily, and her new husband Herbert E. Game, 22, from Ware in Hertfordshire, who worked as a house painter employed by Suckling Builders, based at premises in New Road, Ware.

There is no record of the occupant of No. 20 in the 1921 census, but Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire, 1922 lists a private resident, Miss Thornton, now at this address.

A new family had moved into No. 21. H.  J. Wright, 56, was employed as a carman and he lived there with his wife Mary, 51. Both had been born in Hertford, as had their eight children. The eldest, also called Mary, 26, worked at home, and Ethel, 23, was employed as an envelope cutter at Simson & Co.’s envelope works in St Andrew Street, Hertford. Two of the sons, Harry, 19, and Fredrick, 17, were also carmen, working for their father. The younger children – Ada, 14, Lily, 13, Mabel, 10, and Ernest, 7 – were presumably still at school.

Henry Thomas Adams, 64, from Hampton Wick in Middlesex, lived at No. 22 with his wife Ann, 71, from Chalk in Kent. He was employed as a club steward at the Conservative Club in Bull Plain and her occupation was ‘home duties’. Living with them was their daughter Daisy, 30, who had been born in Hunsdon in Hertfordshire and who appeared to have no specific occupation. Their other daughter, Ethel Pring [?], 37, also born in Hunsdon, who worked as a dressmaker at home, had married Joseph Richard Edmund Freeman, 38, from Oxford, and the couple also lived at No. 22. Joseph’s occupation is listed as a farm hand, but at the time of the census he was out of work and living on means, having formerly worked in Australia.

No. 23 was listed as a warehouse in the 1911 census and presumably this was still the case in 1921. The census records then jump from No. 23 to No. 35a and there do not appear to be any records for the intervening properties in the local directories either. No. 35a would appear to be still occupied by wood dealer Thomas Wilson and his wife Eliza – although there are significant discrepancies in the ages given in the two censuses for both of them.  No. 35b was now the home of Sarah Minard, 79, from Starch Green in Middlesex. Living with her were her daughter and son-in -law, Matilda and Henry Locke, aged 49 and 67 respectively. Matilda had been born in Cobham in Surrey and her husband, a builder’s clerk working in Friern Barnet, was from Combe Wood in Surrey,

There were new occupants at No. 37 too, although they were not new to the street, having previously lived at No. 29. Joshua Allum, now 68, was still employed as a ground labourer, working for Sir George Faudel-Phillips on his estate at Balls Park, Hertford. Living with Joshua was his son Henry William, 32, born in Wormley in Hertfordshire, who worked as a labourer for a firm of contractors, Wallace & Sons, based in Knebworth. Two of Joshua’s six daughters were also still living at home – Dorothy Mabel, 24, was a housekeeper and Bertha Pretoria, 19, worked as a machine hand employed by Gilbertson & Sons in Hertford.

There are no records for No. 38 and no change for No. 39, where Eliza (Elizabeth) Burgess still lived with her son Joseph, now 29, who at the time of the census is described as an ex-soldier but currently not employed.

Finally, although not listed in the census and without a street number, Lombard House at the far end of Bull Plain was still the premises of the Conservative & Liberal Unionist Club.