Introduction

Other articles within the website which relate to particular aspects of this story are noted within square brackets in the text. Links to these articles can be found in the table towards the bottom of column 2

This article completes the story of the family of Isaac Beadsworth and Sophia Wise ("Concerning the Beadsworth family in Leicester: Part 1)" [Article A.] with their remaining two children, son Joseph and daughter Mary, both of whom had very large families themselves. In their time, they both moved over the River Soar into the developing and expanding West End of the city. This was the heartland of one of the authors who grew up there, albeit a couple of generations later, so knew its streets well. Both he and his sister received piano lessons at the hands of one of the participants in the 1950s. Frequent references will be made to St Paul's Church and to King Richard's Road. A personal view of both can be found in the articles "Growing up on Fosse Road North, Leicester" [Article B.] and "A walk down King Dick's Road - and back again" [Article C.]

The family of Joseph Beadsworth and Margaret Ann Goddard

Joseph Beadsworth was the third son to be born to Isaac Beadsworth and his wife Sophia Wise. His older brother, Isaac, by about three years had been named for a first born child named Isaac who had died at the age of 2 years. Joseph was born in 1843 whilst his father, a blacksmith, was working in Archdeacon Lane, a street in the poorer area of the Belgrave district of the city close to St Margaret's Church. By the time he reached his teenage years and the family had moved on to Thornton Lane, Joseph entered the boot and shoe trade as a finisher.

Joseph met and married Margaret Ann Goddard at All Saints Church on September 1st 1862. Margaret (also known as Margretta and listed on the marriage entry as Ann Margaret) was the daughter of mechanic William Goddard and Ann Margaret Clark. Her father had died ten years earlier at the aged of 32 when the family were living in East Bond Street. She had five known sisters, the oldest, Catherine Clark Goddard married William Hoyland at the same church three years later. William and Catherine's son, William, was to marry Clara Louisa Tilley in Cottingham in April 1908. (Clara was the sister of my great aunt, Beatrice Edith (Tilley) Craxford [- ADC]). Later in life Clara lived in Harlaxton Street off Narborough Road in the West End of Leicester. Their story is told in the article "A History of the Tilley family: Cottingham Part 2b, the family of Samuel and Mary Ann Tilley" [Article D.]

On the night of Sunday April 11th 1911, Joseph completed his official census form. The 1911 census for England and Wales was different from its predecessors in that the form was the first that the householder filled in himself rather than by the enumerator following an interview. Each census tended to contain unique questions and the 1911 form was no exception. In a section called "Particulars as to Marriage", there were three columns which asked about children born alive to the present marriage. Column 7 was "Total children born alive", to which Joseph entered 13; column 8 was "Children still living", here he put 6 and column 9 "Children who have died", his answer was 7. It has taken the combined resources of the previous census returns over the history of the family, the indexes of births introduced recently by the General Register Office which includes the mother's maiden name and the burial records from the Welford Road Cemetery in Leicester to identify all thirteen of their offspring.

After their marriage, Joseph and Margaret's first home was in Thornton Lane which ran from St Nicholas Street almost opposite St Nicholas' Church to Highcross Street. After a brief stay in Charlotte Street (one of the streets which was subsequently demolished to make way for the Great Central Street railway station) they moved a mile or so south west across town to West Street which ran between Lancaster Road and Princess Road. This became the family home for over twenty years. During that time, Joseph changed his occupation to being a mason's labourer whilst Margaret supplemented the family income with factory work first as a percha winder (gutta percha is a latex type of material somewhat like rubber obtained from the sap of trees) and then as a cotton winder. The turn of the century saw a move to Celt Street, the second side street inside Narborough Road after leaving Braunstone Gate, and then on to 63 Western Road.

Margaret died in the house in Western Road. She was buried (as Annie M Beadsworth) on April 6th 1916 in plot 1722 of Section O in Welford Road Cemetery. After Margaret's death, Joseph went to stay with his married daughter Harriet Bushell in Earl Howe Street. That is where he died on April 23rd 1922. He was interred by Margaret's side three days later.

Kate (1864 - 1867)

Joseph and Margaret's first child was born towards the end of 1864. A girl, she was named Kate. The little lass was destined not to live long. She died when they were living in Charlotte Street and was buried on April 29th 1867 in plot 298 of Section L in Welford Road Cemetery. The certified cause of death was given as convulsions due to effusion on the brain. It is possible that she had sustained an injury during birth or that she suffered from hydrocephalus. This plot was the Goddard family grave. As well as Mary's father William, it contained her maternal grandparents: John and Catherine Clark. Later it would house one of Kate's brothers and a mystery child, John Thomas Tilley, who was born in the Leicester Union Workhouse the illegitimate son of Ann Tilley, but who was living in East Bond Street when he died aged 8 months in April 1854.

William (1865 - 1935)

William was the first son to be born to Joseph and Margaret Ann, registered in the spring of 1863. By 1881 he had become a shoe hand. He left the family home sometime during that decade. For more about his family life see below.

Harriet (1867 - 1948)

Next daughter Harriett was born on October 10th 1866. As a teenager she was employed in a hosiery factory as a circular rib hand working on a stocking frame. She met John Bushell who had been born in Derby and who was ostensibly a salesman. They were married at St Mary de Castro Church on October 24th 1887. Her sister Alice acted as a witness. They made their first home in Coventry Street which runs parallel to Andrewes Street and Great Holme Street between Hinckley Road and King Richards Road. Between 1889 and 1900 they had five children: Edith (born in 1889); John Harold (1891); Janet Alice (1894); Richard Ernest (1898) and Margaret (1900). Sadly Richard Ernest died in the early months of 1899.

At the turn of the century their marriage appears to have broken up. Harriett had moved with her three daughters to stay with her brother Albert in Abbey Street. John, describing himself as a brewer's labourer, was lodging with William Fitchett and his family in Newton Road, Burton on Trent. Harriett continued working in the hosiery trade. By 1911 she had moved back in with her parents taking her two youngest daughters with her. After her mother died, she lived in the house in Earl Howe Street with her father and her now married daughter Janet and her husband Henry Daft. After her father died in 1922, Janet and Henry moved on to their own house in Livingtone Street but they maintained a workshop at the Earl Howe Street address. By the outbreak of the second World War, Harriett had moved again with Janet and Henry, who now had two daughters, to Overdale Road in the Knighton District. Henry was working as a lathe hand and Janet as a frame hand. Harriett died just before Christmas 1948. She was buried at St Mary Magdalen Church, Knighton on December 22nd 1948.

Son John Harold was born on October 14th 1891. Nothing appears to have been documented of his early years. On April 29th 1916 he married Fanny Oliphant at the Leicester Register Office. She had been born in Derby, the daughter of James Campbell Oliphant and Sarah Helen Hunt. She had a brother, Edward Hunt Oliphant who witnessed the marriage, and two sisters. They had moved to Leicester at the turn the century where her father had been a railway porter but had died in 1903. Fanny was employed as a hosiery trimmer. Living with them in Gladstone Street at the time of the 1911 census was Fanny's 88 year old grandmother, Fanny Hunt, who it was noted was born in Burton on Trent.

After their marriage they lived for a time in Syston Street and then in Erskine Street. They had one daughter, Betty, born on Christmas Day 1919. It transpired that their marriage was unhappy from the start. Fanny was subject to his frequent ill-treatment and in 1931 she left him. In October she sued for divorce in the Leicester Divorce Court and was granted a degree nisi. John Harold did not contest the evidence (7). Fanny and Betty had settled in Welford Road by 1939. Fanny was taken ill in 1962 and was admitted to the Leicester Isolation Hospital where she died on September 18th 1962. Her estate, valued at just under £ 2500 was left to her now married daughter Betty.

In the meantime, John Harold Bushell, working as a tic tac man at Leicester Racecourse, had moved to a house on the corner of Andrewes Street and Hinckley Road in the company of commercail traveller Francis Heathcote and warehouse packer Phyllis Payne. He was still living there when he died in 1966. He was buried on October 20th 1966 at St Mary Magdalen Church Knighton.

Alice (1868 - 1921)

Third daughter Alice was born in the summer of 1868. When old enough she followed her sisters into the trade as a hosiery reeler. In 1895 she married George Crane (no relation as far as is known to the large Crane family contingent who lived in Cottingham, Northamptonshire) who was a commercial traveller. He had been born in Manchester on July 22nd 1876. On July 14th 1893 he had enlisted for a short service posting as 4867 Private with the 3rd Battalion, the Leicestershire Regiment. After their marriage they made their home in Celt Street, next door but one from Alice's parents. Their son George Edward Crane was born in the last quarter of 1895 followed by a daughter Edna May in the summer of 1904. At the end of the decade, the family had moved half a mile to Harrow Road which runs between Narborough Road and Sykefield Avenue in the West End of the city. Alice became ill and died around Christmas 1921. She was buried in the family grave of plot 1722 of Section O at Welford Road Cemetery on December 17th 1921.

George married again to Frances Nellie Tolton at St Paul's Church on July 28th 1927. They lived for a time in Narrow Lane, Aylestone. George died in the Leicester Royal Infirmary on May 15th 1947.

Margretta (Martha) (1870 - 1872)

Joseph and Margaret Ann's next daughter was born in the spring of 1870 and registered as Margretta Beedsworth. The little lass was not destined to live long. She caught a respiratory infection which developed into pneumonia over four days and she died in West Street on October 13th 1872. Also known to the family as Martha, that was the name under which she was interred in plot 496 of Section N in Welford Road Cemetery along with several of her later siblings.

Ann Margaretta ( 1874 - 1941)

Although known to the family as Margaret, or variations of that name, their fifth daughter was born in the opening months of 1874 and appears in the birth registers as Ann Margaretta Budsworth. She was baptised, along with her younger brother Albert, at the Church of St Mary de Castro on May 22nd 1878. By the time of her seventeenth birthday she was working as a shoe fitter. At the turn of the century she moved with her parents to Celt Street. On July 31st 1909, she married William Ellis at the Church of The Martyrs in Westcotes Drive.

William Ellis was born in Leicester in 1863 and also worked in the shoe industry. He had previously married Harriet Simpson at the Church of St Mary de Castro on Christmas Day 1882. They had a son and a daughter. At the turn of the century the family were living in Bruce Street off Narborough Road. (coincidentally, the grandparents of one of the authors lived in Bruce Street in the 1960s. [- ADC]). Harriet died and was buried in plot 647 of Section T of Welford Road Cemetery on August 14th 1906.

After their marriage William and Ann Margaret with his two offspring moved to a house in Western Road between Celt Street and Ruding Road. Before the second World War, they moved about a mile west to Ashdown Avenue which branched off Henley Road between Glenfield Road and Aikman Avenue. Ann Margaret was first to die and was buried in the same plot of Welford Road as William's first wife. William survived her by 10 years, finally dying on February 22nd 1950.

Joseph (1872 - 1872) and Joseph (1876 - 1877)

Spaced either side of Ann Margaretta, Margaret Ann gave birth to two boys. Both were named Joseph. Neither of them survived very long. The first Joseph was born in the first week of 1872. He was clearly unwell from birth suffering from convulsions, perhaps as the result of a birth injury or hypoxia. He died on January 21st 1872 and was buried two days later in plot 298 of Section L of Welford Road Cemetery. The second Joseph was born in the spring of 1876. He survived for 12 months, also dying of convulsions, and was buried alongside his sister Martha on March 10th 1887.

Albert (1878 - 1953)

Joseph and Ann's ninth child was born in 1878 and baptised at the Church of Saint Mary de Castro on May 22nd the same year. In his early teens he was noted to be following in the footsteps of his brothers and was learning the shoe trade. This was not an occupation he was destined to maintain. By 1900 he had taken over the licence and livelihood of "The Old Cheese" beer house at 42A Abbey Street, a short street off Belgrave Gate near the city centre. This was known locally as Leicester's Irish Quarter. In 1893 Tom Barclay, a resident who became renowned for writing and publishing articles about his surroundings and way of life, (8) described the area "I went into Abbey Street where leaving out the slaughterhouses, marine stores and bakeries, the remainder are public houses and lodging houses. They are extreme, these Irish. I call in at the Old Cheese where most they congregate". In 1929 the Medical Officer of Health for Leicester had noted particularly that in the Abbey Street area the infant mortality rate was nearly double to city's average and that the incidence of tuberculosis, smallpox and scarlet fever were also much higher [Further Reading: 1.]. As noted previously, Albert was giving lodgings at the time of the census of 1901 to his sister Harriett and her brood after her split from her husband. In 1903, Albert was convicted of allowing drunkenness on the premises and was fined £1 or given the option of one month in prison (9)

Albert married Frances Packwood at the Church of St Mary de Castro on November 7th 1903. Frances was two years younger than Albert and the daughter of James Riley, a bricklayer's labourer, and his wife Sarah Ratcliffe. At the age of nineteen she was already a widow. She had married journeyman butcher Albert Charles Packwood on March 27th 1899 whilst she was living at 24 Abbey Street. A year later Albert Packwood was dead and was buried in plot 1396 of Section O of Welford Road Cemetery on June 26th 1900. The certified cause of his death was "Angina Ludovici, Bronchitis, Asphyxia". Ludwig's Angina (the alternative name for Angina Ludovici) is a severe infection causing cellulitis of the floor of the mouth and gross swelling of the neck. It usually starts as a dental infection and has a very rapid course (10).

Frances joined Albert serving at "The Old Cheese" until he gave up the licence in 1904. The couple moved to take over the licence of the "Earl Leicester" public house which stood on the corner of Brunswick Street and Wheat Street (12). Brunswick Street runs north from its junction with Humberstone Road. Frances had given birth to a daughter who was registered as Ethel Packwood in the first quarter of 1903 but who was brought up as Ethel Beadsworth. Between 1904 and 1910 the couple had two sons (Joseph Arthur, 1904 and Philip Richard, 1906) and two more daughters (Sarah Margaretta, 1909 and Frances Edith, 1910), although in the 1911 census Albert declared that they had six children living. Philip, Sarah and Frances were all baptised at a joint service at St Margaret's Church on May 22nd 1911. Frances died on July 22nd 1931. She was interred in the Riley family grave in plot 37 of Section D of Welford Road Cemetery on July 25th 1931. The "Earl Leicester" remained Albert's home and business, supported by his daughter, Frances Edith until his death in 1953. He was buried on February 5th 1953 at St Matthews Church. Probate was granted to son Joseph and daughter Frances on May 13th 1953 with his effects totally a little over £3000.

Sarah Margaretta married John Mansfield in the summer of 1926. Ethel followed a few months later at the beginning of 1927 marrying Albert Hackett. Joseph Arthur (now calling himself Arthur Joseph) had left to marry Elsie Lees in 1932. By 1939, Albert remained in charge of the "Earl Leicester" with daughter Frances serving behind the bar. Philip, still single remained at home. He married Gladys Tanner in 1943. After the death of her father, Frances Edith moved to Plymouth in Devon where she died in the spring of 2000. She never married.

Sarah Jane (1880 - 1880), Sabina (1881 - 1881) and Sabina Ellen (1885 - 1885)

In the space of five years Joseph and Margaret Ann suffered a triplet of tragedies. She gave birth to three daughters, all dying in infancy. The first girl of the three was born in February 1880 and was named Sarah Jane. In the summer she contracted a diarrhoeal illness from which she died on August 21st 1880. The second of the three arrived in July 1881. She developed a chest infection leading to convulsions and she died aged 4 months on November 16th 1881. The third, Sabina Ellen, was born in March 1885. She also contracted a diarrhoeal illness from which she died on August 26th 1885. All three were buried in Welford Road Cemetery alongside their dead siblings Kate and Joseph.

It was well reported that epidemics of scarlet fever, typhus, measles and smallpox regularly spread through towns and cities like Leicester in the Victorian and Edwardian era. In the days before knowledge of bacteria and the development of antibiotics, the cause of these epidemics was hotly contested. Talking about the outbreaks of summer diarrhoea, which killed one in four of Leicester's infants under the age of one year annually, the Medical Officer of Health between 1867 and 1874, Dr J. Wyatt Crane (no family relation as far as we know) did not believe in the infection theory but blamed it on the demands of factory employment preventing mothers from properly nursing their infants. However the cramped living conditions also shared space with small rudimentary slaughterhouses which had no proper sewage or refuse disposal or storage facilities. It is estimated that there were 104 such premises in Leicester in 1903. Now it is most probable that the outbreak of diarrhoeal diesase especially amongst the very young would have been caused by the bacterium Escherichia Coli (E. Coli): the so called "hamburger disease".

Ernest (1882 - 1913)

Joseph and Margaret Ann's penultimate child and last son was born in the winter quarter of 1882. By 1901 he too was working in the shoe industry as a finisher. He met and married Elizabeth Sanderson, the wedding taking place at St Margaret's Church on May 30th 1908. Elizabeth was the daughter of Joseph Sanderson, an iron foundry worker who had died in 1902 and Elizabeth Willis. The family lived in Burley's Lane close to St Margaret's Church and just around the corner from where his brother older Albert had run the "Old Cheese" beerhouse. Born in 1882, Elizabeth was a hosiery hand. After they were married they moved into a cottage on East Bond Street. They were not to have children. Ernest died on January 10th 1913 of pulmonary tuberculosis and was buried two days later in the Beadsworth grave site in Section O of Welford Road Cemetery. Elizabeth did not survive him for long. She died at the age of 33 years on February 19th 1916 of the same complaint as her late husband. Her married sister Charlotte was with her when she died. Elizabeth was buried alongside Ernest on February 24th 1916.

The family of William Beadsworth and Emma Hooker

During the 1880s, William left Leicester and headed for London. He found work as a boot finisher and found lodgings at 9, Treadway Street, a dismal street in the Old Nichol District of Bethnal Green which runs from Hackney Road through to Old Bethnal Green Road. Old Nichol was generally considered to be the worst slum of the East End, a group of twenty narrow streets of terraced houses squashed between Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal Green. There were seventy four shoemakers in the area in 1890. He met up with Emma, one of several children of James Richard Hooker, a woodcarver who lived just across the street at No. 30. They were married at the Parish Church of St Jude on August 4th 1888: William was 24, Emma was 19 years old.

After the service the couple settled briefly about half a mile to the west in Durant Street and then on to Ravenscroft Street. Very soon, Emma was pregnant and a baby girl, Emma Margaret, was born in the fourth quarter of 1889. Over the course of their marriage six sons and two more daughters arrived. Sadly their first born son, Joseph, born in November 1891 died the following year on November 12th 1892 having suffered from meningitis and exhaustion. Before the turn of the century, William moved his increasing family back to the Midlands. Initially they lived for some months in Moore Street but the 1901 census found them living in Moulton Road in the Kingsthorpe District of Northampton. In the early 1920s, the couple moved to Washington Street in the town. Emma had been suffering from increasing ill health for some time having been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. She died at home on February 26 1924 certified as exhaustion from the tuberculosis. William continued to live in Washington Street until his death on April 17th 1935.

Emma Margaret (1889 - 1981)

Emma was born on September 26th and baptised at St Jude's Church on October 20th 1889. She moved with the family to Northampton and became a boot machinist. She married Fred Walton in the summer of 1918 and had two children: a son also named Fred in 1921 and a daughter Alice in 1928. By the start of the second World War they had moved to Bebington on the Wirral where Fred worked as a packer at a soap factory. He was also a Special War Police Reservist with the Cheshire Constabulary.

After he retired the couple moved to Leicester where they lived in Biddulph Street off St Stephens Road in Highfields. Emma died in the summer of 1981. Fred outlived her by five years dying in 1986. His death was recorded in the Hinckley Registration District.

Albert (1893 - 1949)

First son Albert was born on October 9th and baptised at St Peter's Church, Bethnal Green, on October 29th 1983. Once the family had settled in Northampton he attended St Matthew's School in 1900 for a period of 6 months. As a teenager he started work as a clerk in a boot factory. During the first World War he served as Private 038913 with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He married Ethel Powell at St Alkmund's Church, Shrewsbury on November 11th 1923. They were to have three sons. By 1939, the family moved to Ickfield Road, Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Ethel died in the summer of 1939. She was 43 years old. At the commencement of the second World War, Albert was working as a boot and shoe maker and repairer. He died at home on January 11th 1949.

Esther (1896 - 1913)

Second daughter Esther was born in the winter months of 1895. She was at home in Kingsthorpe in 1911 although not in work. She died aged 17 years on July 13th 1913. The cause of her death was registered as Phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis) and cardiac disease.

William Joseph (1897 - 1917)

William and Emma's next son was the last of their children to be born in London. He was baptised William Joseph in Shoreditch on June 6th 1897. By the time the family were settled into Moulton Road, thirteen year old William was working in a shoe factory as a clicker. At the outbreak of hostilities, William signed his attestation papers for three years service on September 7th 1914. He became Private 15858 of the 7th Battalion, the Northamptonshire Regiment. "D" Company of the Battalion was raised by Edgar Mobbs (1882 - 1917) who was an international rugby player. It initially comprised 250 sports people and became known as the "Sportsman's Company" or "Mobbs Own" (15). William was appointed as an acting unpaid lance corporal in January 1915.

The Battalion was sent to France at the beginning of September 1915 and saw action at Loos. His appointment to paid lance corporal was approved in the field on October 12th 1915 and was appointed to Corporal, again in the field, on January 26th 1916. There was heavy action on the Somme during 1916 but William suffered from a pyrexial illness in August of that year and for a time was repatriated back to England. He was back with the 7th Battalion again in June 1917 and was wounded in action on July 31st 1917, the first day of the Battle of Ypres, and reported as missing. His body was never found. After the war he is commemorated on Panels 43 and 45 of the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres, Belgium [Further Reading: 4.].

Alice May (1899 - 1974)

Alice was born on April 9th 1899, the first child to arrive after the family moved in Northamptonshire. She was baptised in a combined service with her three younger brothers at the Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Kingthorpe on February 23rd 1910. Little else is known of her early life. She married Albert Dark, a railway clerk who was 27 years older that she was, in the spring of 1937 in Beeston, Nottinghamshire. They settled in Ireton Street in that town. The marriage lasted 12 years, Albert dying in the spring of 1949. As she aged, Alice moved into the care of an Old Peoples' Home in Watnall, Nottinghamshire where she died on August 17th 1974.

Joseph (1900 - 1991)

Next son Joseph was born in Northampton in the early months of 1901. He was baptised in the joint service on February 23rd 1910. In adult life he became a motor driver. He embarked at London onboard the P&O vessel SS Berrima on September 3rd 1925 bound for Fremantle, Western Australia. He married Kathleen Winifred O'Connor in Australia on October 9th 1943. They settled in Perth, Western Australia and had one known son. He died on April 10th 1991.

Horace (1902 - 1942)

Penultimate son, Horace, was born on May 23rd 1902 and was part of the quadruple baptism on February 23rd 1910. In 1925, he married Gladys Wright (who had been born on December 30th 1900). They were to have a son (Rodger, 1939) and four daughters (Jeanne, 1926; Marjorie, 1927; Barbara, 1928 and Wendy, 1940). Horace earned a living as a mineral water salesman. Gladys was a seamstress and occupied herself making clothes for both her own and her friends' children. Horace had contracted tuberculosis while quite young and was basically unwell throughout his life. He died in the summer of 1942. Gladys lived on in Northampton until 1989.

Harold (1908 - 1994)

The last of William Beadsworth and Emma Hooker's children was son Harold, born on March 4th 1908 and baptised on February 23rd 1910. By 1931 he moved to the Wirral on Merseyside and was staying with his married sister Emma Margaret Walton and her husband Fred. There he married Stella Joan Ascroft in Bebington on January 26th 1935. It is not certain what paths the couple took after after that. Harold died in Nottingham in the second quarter of 1994. Stella died in Kidderminster on August 15th 2001.

Continued in column 2...

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Added - August 19th 2020
Revised and updated: August 24th 2020

The family of Mary Beadsworth and John Henry Gill Headley

Mary was the eighth child and penultimate daughter of Isaac Beadsworth and Sophia Wise born in the winter months of 1854 when the family were still living in Bath Lane. Throughout her life she was known to all around her as Polly and she will be so called here. Like her sister Sarah, Polly started working as an elastic winder whilst still a teenager. She was just 20 years old when she met and married John Henry Gill Headley at the Church of St Mary de Castro on Christmas Day 1873. John's brother Thomas and Polly's sister Sarah acted as witnesses. John was the son of Joseph Headley who had an established bakery business in Great Holme Street. At the time of their marriage John was working in the family firm.

Members of the Headley family had been involved in baking bread in Leicester since 1796. John Henry's father Joseph Headley was born in Leicester and married Mary Jane Bennett from Market Overton in Rutland, at St Nicholas Church on December 20th 1847. He was initially the keeper of "The Baker's Arms", a beer house on Bath Lane (18). They had three sons during the 1850s (including Thomas, 1853 and Samuel, 1859) and a daughter (Annie, 1863) and at the end of that decade had moved to Knighton Street which ran alongside the Infirmary and established a bakery business there with Mary Jane's assistance.

It should be noted that prior to 1840, there was little activity on the western bank of the River Soar. The middle decades of the nineteenth century showed rapid expansion with major civil engineering projects and housebuilding taking place spurred on by the ever expanding population, the deteriorating living conditions and the swaithes of epidemics which repeatedly bathed the town. The main route in that direction was the Hinckley Road which followed the line of an old turnpike. A new bridge replaced the old West Bridge in 1861. The Dannett Hall estate which had stood on the far side of the Bow Bridge since the 1300s was bought up and demolished. The old Watt's Causeway which ran through it became King Richard's Road and by 1868 streets of houses from the bridge to Coventry Street had been built. In the 1890s a new railway line was built linking Nottingham with Marylebone in London. This included the building of the Great Central Street Station and a one and a half mile long blue brick and girder viaduct to cross the river and the West Bridge area. Joseph Headley obviously saw the opportunities this raised and by 1861 he had moved his family and the bakery business across the River Soar to Great Holme Street.

After their marriage, John and Polly made their home in Lemington Street which lay between Great Holme Street and Coventry Street. Over the course over the next 25 years of their marriage, Mary presented John with eleven children. As the estate of streets expanded westwards to reach the Fosse Road, a new church was built on the corner of Glenfield Road and Kirby Road and dedicated to St Paul. Originally planned with a slender spire reaching a height of 190 feet the ground was found to be not stable enough to support the weight and the church was left with a truncated tower at its eastern end. It was consecrated on November 1st 1871 and John and Polly soon joined the congregation. The first incumbent, who was in post for 40 years was Canon James Mason. Aided by his first assistant priest, the Reverend R.B. Sankey they baptised the first five of their children [Further Reading: 2.]. (Interesting curiosity: Richard Sankey lived across the road in Fosse Road North in a house which, half a century later, became the family home of one of the authors for 40 years [- ADC] ).

As his parents aged, so John progressively took over the running of the business with his brother Thomas. By the early 1880s, they had moved into the premises in Great Holme Street. There they stayed for nearly 20 years. Both his parents died in 1888 and were buried (Joseph on March 31st; Mary Jane on July 18th) in plot 151 of Section G in Welford Road Cemetery. The business became increasingly successful and well known. Just before the turn of the century John and Polly moved again, taking over the premises of baker and grocer Edward Creasey on the corner of Andrewes Street and Arundel Street. In 1899, the firm won a number of awards including a challenge cup and medals in local and national competitions, a fact which they advertised in the Leicester press on several occasions the following year (21). John however did not survive long into the new century. He had been troubled for some time with a deteriorating heart condition. He lived just long enough to see the baptism of his last born son. He died on December 12th 1903 (from "morbus cordis; syncope and exhaustion") and was buried four days later in plot 822 of Section M in Welford Road Cemetery. He was 49 years old.

Polly lived on in Andrewes Street looking after the business and her younger children. In 1911 she was employing two assistant bakers. The firm also owned The Pavilion in the Western Park for which she provided catering services assisted by her two oldest sons. The park, measuring some 185 acres, lies between Hinckley Road and the upper end of Glenfield Road. The Pavilion at its centre, now a Grade II listed building, was built in the early nineteenth century. Polly remained in Andrewes Street until about 1930. In her declining years she moved to be with her now married daughter Clara in Daneshill Road. She died there on August 29th 1932 and was interred with her husband three days later.

Joseph Christopher (1874 - 1939)

John and Polly's first son was born in the early months of 1874 when the family was living in Great Holme Street. He was baptised, along with his brother Thomas by the Reverend Sankey at St Paul's Church on January 7th 1878. He married 20 year old Rose Ellen Lee on February 17th 1895 at St Paul's Church. She was the daughter of framework knitter William Lee and gave her address as 8 Muriel Road which ran from Kirby Road opposite the end of Daneshill Road to Glenfield Road. By the turn of the century Rose had presented him with two children, Arthur (1896) and Nellie (1898). Another daughter, Elsie was born at the beginning of 1901. The couple's first home was in Dane Street which ran between Andrewes Street and Great Holme Street, where Joseph described himself as a journeyman baker, although at the time of the 1901 census, young Arthur was an in patient at the Infectious Disease and Isolation Hospital in Groby Road. However he was well enough to join his two young sisters for a combined baptism ceremony on May 10th 1901 at St Pauls Church. A second son, Joseph Christopher, was born on August 21st 1907. The family moved by 1911 across the Hinckley Road to a house just inside Ridley Street. That became their home for the next 30 years.

Joseph went into partnership with his brother Thomas. The 1938 edition of Kelly's Directory of Leicester has them still managing the business in Andrewes Street. Joseph died in the autumn of 1939. After his death Rose continued to live on in Ridley Street for some time. She died in the Barrow upon Soar district of Leicestershire in the spring of 1947.

Son Arthur studied law. In 1928, he set up a firm as a solicitor and a Commissioner of Oaths in Millstone Lane in the centre of town. By 1960, the firm had moved into premises in New Walk. Arthur died in the winter of 1971. The firm continues in operation to this day with branches in Hinckley and Lutterworth.

Thomas (1875 - 1946)

Second son Thomas was born on December 21st 1875. In due time he too became a baker. In 1898 he married Annie Amelia Franey. She was the daughter of wheelwright Henry Franey who was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire but was living in Peterborough which is where the wedding took place. Thomas and his bride returned to Leicester where they set up home in Latimer Street, directly across Hinckley Road from Andrewes Street and the next one west to Ridley Street. A daughter, Hilda Agnes was born in 1899 and baptised at St Paul's Church on November 5th the same year. By 1911, Thomas had moved into 2 Arundel Street to be closer to the family business. That remained their long term family home, He continued working as a journeyman baker with his brother Joseph until the onset of the second World War. Annie was admited to the Leicester Royal Infirmary where she died on August 2nd 1943. Thomas survived her by less than three years, dying in the early months of 1946.

Annie (1878 - 1945)

Daughter Annie was born in Leamington Street and was baptised at St Paul's Church by Reverend Richard Sankey on October 16th 1878. At the same ceremony, Rose, the daughter of James and Polly's sister Alice Gilbert, was also baptised. She spent her adult life living and assisting in the Andrewes Street shop and managing the refreshment rooms at the Pavilion at Western Park. She had to give evidence at the Police Court in June 1917 after a youth had stolen her handbag containing keys and money from the Pavilion kitchen (22). Annie never married. She died on January 31st 1945 and was interred in the family plot. Her effects were left to her younger brother William.

Clara (1880 - 1963)

Clara was born on February 29th and baptised at St Paul's Church on July 15th 1880. Also present at the same time was Rose, daughter of Samuel (John Henry's bother) and his wife Harriet Annie West. By the time the family had moved to Andrewes Street, she was working as an assistant in the shop. She married 28 year old Walter Warner at St Paul's Church on May 14th 1901, the ceremony performed by Canon Mason after Banns had been read. Her brother John Henry and sister Alice acted as witnesses. Clara was a devoute Christian and member of the congregation. The couple made their home in St Dunstan Road, a cul de sac off Wentworth Road opposite the Fosse Road Recreation Ground. They had two children: a son, Leslie Walter (born on December 13th 1901 and baptised on February 2nd 1902) and a daughter Marjorie (born on May 21st and baptised on June 25th 105).

Walter Warner was a manager for pawnbroker John William Case who had shops in Braunstone Gate, Fitzroy Street and King Richards Road. More than once in the course of his work he was called upon to give evidence against a person prosecuted for theft and attempting to pawn stolen goods (23). By 1909, the family had moved to 34 Daneshill Road which remained the family's home for at least the next seventy years. Daneshill Road which runs between Fosse Road Central, arising opposite Arundel Street, and Kirby Road was part of the westward development of the town in the late 1890s. For several centuries the Daneshill area was supposed to be the haunt of Leicester's bogeywoman, Black Annis. This old hag was reputed to live in a cave and suck the blood of innocent children (24).

At first, son Leslie Walter had ambitions of entering the priesthood and spent time in Rome. However something changed his mind and he returned home and became a school teacher. Daughter Marjorie never married and continued to live at home. She studied music and was awarded the L.R.A.M. (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music) diploma. She taught music to pupils on a piano in the parlour of Daneshill Road. Hers was a busy practice as results of successful pupils in the Examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music published in the local newspaper testify (25). She was a strict teacher and on occasion would tap errant fingers with a ruler if the piece was not played properly. Marjorie remained firm friends with her second cousin Alice Madge Weston (the daughter of James Weston and Alice Gilbert) and they were almost the same age. Madge, who could not drive, used to go on holiday with Marjorie and her brother Leslie.

Walter died on April 20th 1937. Marjorie and her mother lived on together until Clara died on November 2nd 1962. Marjorie died there on August 29th 1982.

Alice (1882 - 1953)

Third daughter Alice was born on March 27th and baptised on November 5th 1882. This was a joint service with Harry, the son of Thomas Headley and Mary Bagshaw, conducted by Canon Mason. As a teenager she followed into the family business and in 1911 she was assisting at the confectionary counter. On June 8th 1914, Alice married David Edward Eames at St Paul's Church, witnessed by her brothers William and Joseph Christopher. David was a pawnbroker's assistant, presumably working for the same firm with his brother in law, Walter Warner. The couple had no children. At the end of the 1930s, David had become manager of a pawnbroker's shop and they had moved to Beaconsfield Road which connects Sykefield Avenue with Narborough Road. Alice died in the early months of 1953. David lived on in Beaconsfield Road for another 12 years, dying on September 3rd 1965.

Agnes (1883 - 1959)

Fourth daughter Agnes was born on October 14th 1883 but her baptism was deferred until John and Polly's next child arrived. She married Charles Drackley Geary, a carpenter, at St Paul's Church on February 4th 1906, her brother Joseph Christopher and sister Alice standing as witnesses. Her husband gave his address as Tyrrell Street which runs parallel to Fosse Road North from Bosworth Street to Paget Road. It does appear that Agnes in the mid trimester of a pregnancy at the time of the marriage and that sadly she delivered a baby which was stillborn on June 25th 1906. A burial to that effect is recorded in the annals of Welford Road Cemetery in plot 282 of Section A1. They made their home in Buckingham Street and by 1910 they had two daughters (Nora, 1908 and Alice Mary, 1910). For a time Charles worked as a van driver for the bakery. During the first World War he enlisted and trained as a gunner with the Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery. He saw action on the Macedonian Front in 1917. Upon his demobilisation in 1919 he returned to his occupation as a carpenter and joiner, the couple remaining in Buckingham Street. Sadly, their older daughter Nora died on January 11th 1920 having contracted acute rheumatic fever and pericarditis aged 12 years. Agnes died in the spring of 1959; Charles followed her in the winter of 1962.

John Henry Gill (1886 - 1964)

Next son John Henry was born on February 26th 1886 and was baptised along with his sister Agnes on March 15th 1887. By 1901 he was working in the family firm as a baker's assistant. On July 29th 1909 he married 21 year old Mary Elizabeth May at St Paul's Church. They made their home in Dane Street, close by where his older brother Joseph Christoper had begun his married life. At some stage, John Henry had enlisted with the Leicestershire Yeomanry and prior to 1911 had achieved the rank of Corporal. At a training camp held in May 1912 he was promoted to the rank of Lance-Sergeant of B Squadron (26). At the outbreak of the war he signed his enlistment papers with the 2/1st Leicestershire Yeomanry on October 12th 1914 which, in 1915, became part of the 2/1st North Midland Mounted Brigade: mounted because of its use of bicycles. He was appointed Squadron Sergeant Major Instructor of Musketry based at Melton Mowbray on April 22nd 1916. In the summer of 1916 he moved to the 3/1st Leicestershire Yeomanry which was based at Aldershot. He was promoted to 255353 Company Sergeant Major, in a section which was known as the Leicester Cyclists and was moved to Canterbury. A further promotion ensued and by the time of his demobilisation in 1919 he held the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major of the 3rd Leicestershire Yeomanry (28). He returned to Dane Street and that would be his home for at least the next 30 years.

Mary Elizabeth had three daughters (Marjorie May, 1910; Annie May, 1912 and Gladys May, 1915) and a son John William, born in February 1925 but died on November 3rd same year from acute gastroenteritis. Mary became pregnant again towards the end of 1929. In the late stages, she started to develop complications and she was admitted to the unit at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. She went into premature labout and on June 11th 1930 she suffered from an incomplete miscarriage. A post partum haemorrhage ensued from which she died. In 1933, John married again to Grace Clara Webb who was born in Croft, Leicestershire to bricklayer Frederick Webb and his wife Lydia. John and Mary had two children: a son Anthony (1934) and a daughter, Jacqueline (1938). Still in Dane Street, at the outbreak of the second World War John was a conductor for Leicester City Transport. He also served as an Air Raid Protection Warden whilst Grace was in the Civil Nursing Reserve. John died at home on February 4th 1964. As she grew older Clara moved into shltered accommodation at Nuffield House in Barclay Street which runs parallel to Beaconsfield Road along Fosse Road South. She died there on April 22nd 1974.

Fred (1888 - 1965)

Fred was born on June 30th and baptised on November 25th 1888. He too became a baker with the family firm. He did spend a short period of time in North America examining trends and ideas in the baking business in the New World. He travelled to New York on S.S. Baltic on June 20th 1912. While there he became involved with the Jehovah's Witness movement. On his return to England he brought back the concept of sliced and wrapped loaves which he introduced into the business.He married Estella Boyce in Leicester in the autumn of 1916. For a time they lived in Front Street, Birstall. During the late 1920s and early 1930s they moved to Bradbourne Road in North Evington close to Spinney Hill Park. Preparation of the Register in September 1939 found them in residence at the Pavilion on Western Park where Fred declared himself to be a Master Caterer and Voluntarily Minister of the Gospel. The couple remained childless. Fred died in the summer of 1965. After the death of her husband Estella also moved into Nuffield House in Barclay Street where she died on May 11th 1978.

William (1889 - 1962)

William Headley was born on May 21st 1889. He remained at home with his mother after his father died. Curiously, the entry for him on the 1911 census lists his occupation as "tailor". He never married. In due time he took over the running of the business, living throughout in Andrewes Street. In 1939 his still single sister Annie was with him as his housekeeper. The business was taken over during the war years and during the 1950s the premises were occupied by a series of beer sellers. After his retirement, William went to live in Rowan Street, one of the string of parallel streets in Newfoundpool running between Pool Road and Beatrice Road. He died there on July 30th 1962, his effects being left to his brother John Henry.

Albert Edward (1897 - 1908)

John and Polly's penultimate son was born in the early months of 1897. He was baptised November 5th 1899 along with Hilda Agnes, the infant daughter of Joseph's brother Thomas and his wife Annie Amelia Franey. It appears that through 1907 and early 1908 he had become increasingly unwell with neck stiffness, headaches, nausea and sensitivity to light. Sadly he succumbed on July 14th 1908, the medical diagnosis being cerebral tuberculosis. He was buried in the family plot on July 17th 1908.

Reginald (1903 - 1996)

Final son Reginald was born towards the end of 1902 and was baptised on October 2nd 1903 at St Paul's Church just 10 weeks before his father died. In his early twenties he moved out of the city to take a farm labouring job near Market Harborough. There he met Susan Ann Fox, the daughter of traction engine driver Samuel Harvey Fox from Horn Mill near Empingham in Rutland. They were married at St Wilfred's Church, Kibworth Beauchamp on Christmas Day 1925. They made their home in the nearby village of Thorpe Langton. They had two children: a son Ronald (1931) and a daughter Sarah (1934). During the 1930s Reginald worked away in Bedford. On Wednesday December 22nd 1937 Susan sustained serious injuries in a road traffic accident. She was knocked from her bicycle when cycling home from work and rendered unconscious. She was admitted to Market Harborough and District Hospital (29)

It is not known for certain what happened next. It is clear that the couple parted. In 1939 Susan was lodging with her two children at Orchard House in Thorpe Langton. She married again in the Market Harborough District in the winter of 1943.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their thanks for the help, comments and suggestions from the following in the construction of this article: The Friends of Welford Road Cemetery; Barry Lount, for permission to use the photograph of Abbey Street from his website "Pub History Project - Leicester"; Clk and Sadbrewer at The Great War Forum;

Further Reading

1: "The Slums Of Leicester": (2009), The Breedon Books Publishing Company Limited, Derby. ISBN: 978-1-85983-724-5

For an authoritative guide to the housing stock and the overcrowding which ensued in Victorian Leicester we recommend "The Slums Of Leicester" by Ned Newitt. The book comprises a photographic record of the dreadful conditions which prevailed in many of the streets and courtyards in the centre of the city prior to the slum clearances of the 1930s and early 1970s. It is illustrated with contemporary accounts of residents who lived there.

2: "Fifty Years of Church Men and Things at St Paul's Church, Leicester: 1871 - 1921": (1921), L. Bell & Co., Rutland Street, Leicester.

This little volume by John Edward Hextall MA., and Arthur L Brightman BA. is a retrospective on the planning, development and the running of this church in the West End of Leicester for its first fifty years. It offers a guide to the architecture and internal features as well as a historical account of the clerical figures who have dominated it.

3: Cottingham and Middleton, Northamptonshire Soldiers 1914-1918 Christine Blenkarn has developed and devoted a website to honour the men of Cottingham and Middleton who served in the Great War. It notes principally those who were killed in action while doing so (as was the case of William Joseph Beadsworth). It also looks at the impact on the families and the local community.

Links to the articles mentioned in the text are in italic capitals below:

Article A: Parents and siblings Concerning the Beadsworth family in Leicester: Part 1
Article B: St Paul's Church and surroundings Growing up on Fosse Road North, Leicester
Article C: A trip down memory lane A walk down King Dick's Road - and back again
Article D: Close family connections A History of the Tilley family: Cottingham Part 2b, the family of Samuel and Mary Ann Tilley

References

1. Family tree graphic: Freeware Graphics: Vintage Kin Design Studio, Australia
2. St Margaret's Church, Leicester: The Churches of Great Britain and Ireland. From an old print about 1900 in George Weston's collection.
3. Map of the sections of Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester Ciry Council
4. "After life's fitful fever, city's great and good sleep in pleasant spot". Lithograph of Welford Road Cemetery about 1849 Leicester Mercury October 14th 2013
5. Photograph: Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester Friends of the Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester Ancestors
6. Photograph of St Mary Magdalen Church and churchyard cemetery, Knighton, Leicester © Charvax; Permission for use granted under the terms of the Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
7. Leicester Woman Granted A Divorce: Proceedings from the Divorce Court: Leicester Daily Mercury Page 8 October 11th 1939. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
8. Abbey Street and Green Street by Tom Barclay. The Wyvern June 28th 1985
9. Albert fined for allowing drunkenness The Old Cheese, Abbey Street in Pub History Project - Leicester
10. Ludwig's Angina Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia
11. Photograph: St Mary de Castro Church, Leicester History, tourist information and nearby accommodation British Express
12. Lost pubs in Leicester Earl of Leicester, Brunswick Street in Pub History Project - Leicester
13. Photograph by Jackie Marsh: Riley Family Monumente Friends of Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester. at Find A Grave: Reproduced with permission
14. Photograph: St Alkmund's Church, Shrewsbury © John Firth, on Geograph and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
15. Lt Col Edgar Robert Mobbs DSO The Western Front Association
16. Photograph: Cap badge of the Northamptonshire Regiment Dormskirk; Permission for use granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.2 from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
17. Photograph of St John the Baptist Church, Kingthorpe Plate 30 in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire, Volume 5, Archaeology and Churches in Northampton (London, 1985), p. 30. British History Online
18. Lost pubs in Leicester Baker's Arms, Bath Lane in Pub History Project - Leicester
19. 'Leicester, West Bridge, 1957': painting © Richard Piccaver. Reproduced with permission.
20. Photograph by Jackie Marsh: Headley Family Headstone Friends of Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester. at Find A Grave: Reproduced with permission
21. Announcing prize wins for bread in 1899: Leicester Daily Post Page 1 March 22nd 1900 The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
22. Theft From Pavilion. Charged with stealing a handbag, keys and £4 16s 8¾d; Archibald Pike (15) in Police Court. Leicester Chronical Page 3 June 23rd 1917 The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
23. Theft of a watch and chain: Proceedings of the Borough Police Court. Leicester Chronicle Page 2 December 5th 1914. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
24. The legend of Danehills The Tale of Black Annis This was Leicestershire
25. Pupils of Marjorie Warner, L.R.A.M. Examination Successes, Associated Board of the Royal School of Music 1949: Leicester Daily Mercury Page 3 January 2nd 1950. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
26. Yeomanry in Camp Squadron Promotions: Leicester Daily Post Page 3 May 25th 1912. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
27. Photograph: Cap badge of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment Dormskirk; Permission for use granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.2 from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
28. About the Leicestershire Yeomanry The Long, Long Trail: Researching Soldiers of the British Army of 1914-1918
29. Langton Woman in Accident: Condition Improved. Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail Page 8 December 31st 1937 The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
30. St Wilfred's Church (south west aspect) photograph from Kibworth Church, Kibworth Leicestershire & © Rutland Churches: A Photographic Journal. Reproduced with permission

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