High Street, Ware, 1911 (Part 4)

This is the last of four articles, each of which looks at who was living in Ware High Street in 1911. This one covers the second half of the even-numbered buildings on the north side, from No. 58 to No. 120.

Advertisement in ‘Ware & District Almanack 1916’ (credit: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies)

There was a jeweller’s shop at No. 58. Albert Joseph Ketterer, 42, from Ware, was a watch and clock dealer. He was single, as were his two sisters and brother, all of whom lived with him on the premises and assisted him in the business. Bertha Theresa, 36, Rose Agnes, 31, and Joseph, 24, had also all been born in Ware. Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire (1910 and 1912 editions) list a watch maker by the name of Constantine Ketterer at this address ‒ this was their father and the brother of  Joseph Ketterer Snr, whose shop was at No. 35 in the High Street. Both had been born in Germany, but Constantine had died in 1906.

No. 60 was the location of the former John Barleycorn public house, but by 1911 this had closed and the building was uninhabited.

Arthur Henry Reeve, a boot and shoe maker, had a shop at No. 62 (now a Grade II listed building). He was 36 and was originally from Roughton in Norfolk. His wife was Alice, 35, from Amwell, Hertfordshire, and they had two children, Alice May, 10, and Arthur James, 6, both of whom had been born in Buntingford, Hertfordshire.

According to the local business directories and the census enumerator, there was a coffee house at No. 64 (now a Grade II listed building), whereas the census itself describes this 7-room property as a dairy shop. It was occupied by dairyman Walter Lee, 51, from Ware, his wife Ellen, 41, from West Lynn in Norfolk, who assisted him in the shop, and their four children ‒ Walter, 15, Annie, 23, both of whom assisted their parents in the shop, Frederick, 8, and Cecil, 3. All the children had been born in Ware.

No. 66 (now a Grade II listed building) was the site of the Ware Motor Garage, T N (telephone number?) 31 Ware, the proprietor of which was Arthur Davis Skipp. The building was formerly the Lion & Wheatsheaf pub, but Arthur Skipp converted it in c. 1909.

There was a chemist at No. 68. James Henry Stanley Lewis, 31, a chemist and pharmacist originally from Allendale in Northumberland, lived on the premises with a housekeeper, Jane (?) Aldridge, 73, who was born in Hackney in London. One of his products was Lewis’ Indigestion Relief, which, he claimed, gave ‘instant and lasting relief’.

There are no records for No. 70 in the census, but this was the site of the former corn market and later town hall. At No. 72 there was a butcher’s shop, Stallabrass Brothers, who also had a shop in Hertford. There are no records in the census or the local trade directories for No. 74 and No. 76 either. Nos. 70, 74 and 76 are now Grade II listed buildings.

This plaque identifies the site of the former corn market and later Town Hall (credit: Caroline Churton)

Looking west and showing Stallabrass Brothers’ butchers shop at No. 72, the former Town Hall building (credit: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire  (1910 and 1912 editions) list James Newton Lambert, confectioner and stationer, at No. 78. An advertisement in the Ware & District Almanack (1916)  describes him more fully as a newsagent, bookseller and stationer. It also reveals that the items he sold included bibles and prayer books, war maps and histories, newspapers and magazines, notepaper, envelopes and a good selection of greetings cards. This building, and Nos. 80 and 82, are all now Grade II listed buildings.

There is a listing in Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire  (1912 edition) for a draper’s shop at No. 80 under the name of Arnold Thomas. He obviously did not live on the premises in 1911, however, as the census lists the large Stanley family occupying the six rooms (apartments) in this building. Michael Stanley, 68, originally from Hereford, who worked as a clerk at a nursery, was married to Annie, 68, from Dawley in Shropshire, and they had eight children, one of whom had died. Several of them still lived at home, including Amy, 35, Blanche, 30, and Minnie, 33, all born in Hertford, who were single and had no occupation. Another daughter, Gertrude, 40, also born in Hertford, was married to Arthur Turner, 37, from Waltham Abbey, Hertfordshire. Neither had an occupation, according to the census, but they had a young child, Vera, 4, who had been born in Falmouth in Cornwall. Michael and Annie also had a young adopted son, James Curtis, aged just 5. Until about 1908 this building had been the Oriental Tavern.

In the census enumerator’s list there is an unnumbered property following the entry for No. 80. It refers to offices under the name of C. Hunt, which most likely relates to the solicitor’s firm of Chalmers-Hunt & Davies (listed at No. 80 in the 1916 edition of the Ware & District Almanack). According to Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire  (1910 and 1912 editions), Joseph Chalmers-Hunt was a ‘solicitor & commissioner of oaths & perpetual commissioner, clerk to justices, to burial board, to the guardians & assessment & school attendance committees of Buntingford union & Buntingford Rural District Council’; Norman Grant Chalmers-Hunt was a ‘solicitor, clerk to Buntingford Sub-Committee of the Hertfordshire Local Pension Committee, joint clerk to Ware Grammar School for Girls & clerk to Ware charity estates & deputy clerk & registrar to the Ware Burial Board’; and Robert Owen Davies was a ‘solicitor & joint clerk to Ware Grammar School for Girls & clerk to Ware charity estates’.

There is no main census entry for No. 82 (or any references in the local trade directories).

William Powell, 43, from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, who was a watch and clock maker, had a shop at No. 84. This is now a Grade II* listed building.

This 17th-century gabled building, identified here as John Gilpin’s House, was also known as the Blue Boot Stores and was located at Nos. 84-88 (credit: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies)

Alfred Grattan, a boot maker, had a shop next door at No. 86 (and also at No. 88), but he did not live on the premises. No. 86 (which consisted of eight rooms in apartments) was occupied by Mary Culver, a 90-year-old widow from Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire. and her daughter Isabel Eliza, 59, born in Ware, who was employed as a needleworker.

There was a tobacconist, Charles Phillips, at No. 90, and next door at No. 92 William Campbell had a hairdressing shop.

Local man Ernest William Nicholls, 26, a wholesale and retail fruiterer and greengrocer, had a shop at No. 94 (now a Grade II listed building). He was married to Elizabeth Mary Jane, 31, who was originally from Battersea in Middlesex, and she assisted him in the business. They lived in the 5-room building with their son Bernard Lawrence, 4, and daughter Alice May, 2, both of whom had been born in Ware, and their niece Mary Bridle, 11, who was from Keighley in Yorkshire.

There are no specific entries for No. 96 in either the local trade directories or the main census, but there is an entry for an unnumbered empty shop between Nos. 94 and 98 in the enumerator’s list. No. 96 is now a Grade II listed building.

Two sisters, Alice and Annie Sewell, ran a ‘toy and fancy business’ or ‘fancy repository’ at No. 98, also now a Grade II listed building. Alice, 59, and Annie Marie, 53, neither of whom had married, were originally from Alford in Lincolnshire.

Next door at No. 100 was Henry Allum’s butcher’s shop. Henry, 34, from Wadesmill, Hertfordshire, lived on the premises with his wife Catherine, 34, from Ware, who assisted him in the business, and their two daughters ‒ Hilda, 11, who had been born in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and Ellen, 9, born in Ware. Bennett’s Business Directory  (1911-12 edition) describes Henry as a family butcher and tells us that he sold ‘home-made sausages’ and ‘dairy-fed pork’, and that families were ‘waited on daily’.

The Wine Lodge public house could be found at No. 102. Ernest Rogers, 40, from Hackney in Middlesex, was the licensed victualler, and he lived on the premises with his wife and family. His wife Ada, 30, was originally from Plumstead in Kent, but both their sons ‒ Charles Ernest, 7, and Sydney James, 3 ‒ had been born in Kingston in Surrey. A widowed aunt, Annie Taylor, 66, from Twickenham in  Middlesex. also lived with them in the 5-room building.

View of the High Street in 1915 looking east and showing the distinctive gabled building at No. 104 (credit: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies)

There is no specific entry for No. 104 in the main census, but the entry following the one for No. 102 on the enumerator’s list refers to a General Post Office, which was not occupied by any residents.

According to Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire  (1910 and 1912 editions)there was a linen draper’s shop occupying Nos. 106, 108 and 110, under the name of George Henderson Jn. In the census, however, No. 110 is given as the address of John George Henderson, 65, draper and outfitter, from Ware. Living with him in this large 13-room building were his wife Marian Augusta, 62, originally from Brighton in Sussex, their son John Francis, 35, born in Ware, who was also employed as a draper and outfitter working from home, and one domestic servant, Ellen Smith, 17, from Bramfield, Hertfordshire. On the night of the census a visitor, Jane Grace Goringe, 50, a married lady of private means from Ditchling in Sussex, stayed with the family. George and Marian had had seven children, of whom George Henderson Jn, mentioned above, was the eldest.

Henry Youngs, 42, from West Lynn in Norfolk, had a baker’s shop at No. 112. He and his wife Ada Edith, 41, from West Bilney in Norfolk, had had a large family ‒ no fewer than 12 children in total, although two of these had died ‒ and they all lived in a 7-room house. The older surviving children, who were all working, were Grace, 20, an assistant baker in the shop, Ethel, 19, a shop assistant in a stationer’s, Ada, 18, an assistant in a dressmaker’s shop, and Hilda, 15, an assistant in a millinery shop. Three of the younger children ‒  Ruth, 12, Harry, 11, and William, 8 ‒ were all at school, and the babies of the family were Enid, 3, and twins Pansy and Ivy, who were just 7 months old. All of the children were born in Ware.

There appear to be no listings for No. 114 in either the census or the local trade directories, but at No. 116 there was a fruiterer and greengrocer’s shop run by local Ware resident Frederick William Baker, 37. He and his wife Florence, 26, from Hertford, had two young children ‒ Florence, 6, born in Hertford, and Walter, 3, born in Ware. Living with the family at the time were Florence Middleton, 14, who was Frederick and Florence’s niece, and a boarder, Ernest Trundell, 22, from Hertford, who was employed as a general labourer. Bennett’s Business Directory  (1911-12 edition) lists Frederick Baker also at No. 118 (there is no census record for this number), but by 1912, according to that year’s edition of Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire , a Mrs Elizabeth Pike was trading as a greengrocer from this address.

Advertisement in ‘Ware & District Almanack 1916’ (credit: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies)

The last property listed for Ware High Street in the census is No. 120. George Abel Yorke, 36, a local man from Ware, was a prize-winning blacksmith and lived here with his wife Lucy, 36, from Compton in Somerset, and their family. They had three children ‒ William George, 9, Leonard, 7, and Margaret Hilda, 5 ‒ all of whom had been born in Ware. George’s mother, Sarah, 75 and a widow, from Feering in Essex, lived with the family and was also a  ‘shoeing and general smith’.

 

Click on each picture to enlarge.

See also separate articles on the High Street, Ware, 1911: Part 1 (Nos. 1-53), Part 2 (Nos. 55-111) and Part 3 (Nos. 2-56).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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