Turning now to the opposite side of the road, and again starting by the beck, the first house was Sandfield,74 Uncle Dick’s house, which I have already described and which no longer stands.
Next came the house (No 34) occupied by the Lucas family; this house is still standing; it is a single-fronted detached house of three storeys with an outhouse or extension to the west side, situated quite close to the road. At the turn of the century Mrs Jane Lucas75 was the resident; she had been born at Borwick, and was the widow of Peter Lucas, a quarryman and local to Scotforth; she was then living here with her two unmarried daughters Jane and Ruth, both occupied in laundry work. Her son James Kellet Lucas was the same age as my father, born about 1870; he was a sheet metal worker, married and living not far away at No 18 Ashford Road, with his wife Hannah Mary and two sons Reuben,76 born in 1895, and Arthur,77 born in 1897. Both went off to the Great War to fight in the trenches; but, sadly, neither came back.
Next is a more substantial double-fronted house, called Brookdale, set well back from the road with a sizeable yard and land at the back. At the time I am recalling, it was the Foxcrofts 78 who lived at this house; Agnes Jane Foxcroft had a milliner’s and dressmaker’s business in Lancaster at 17-21 Common Garden Street, opposite the market entrance; and John Foxcroft was reputedly the first person in the village to own a car – before Mr Satterthwaite got his.
Mr Foxcroft’s garden ran alongside our front meadow, and we used to look longingly at the apples he grew in his orchard. One day he caught our gang in his garden – I happened not to be there on that occasion, but could well have been – and he chased them out, and ever afterwards, when he met us in the street, he pointed his finger at each one of us in turn saying, “You and you and you!”, indicating I suppose that he had our number, as it were. Whenever he came out there was a crowd of Pomeranian dogs yapping around him; he had to shoo them all behind the gates before he could drive off.
After the Foxcrofts had left, Mr Henry Mackereth79 later came to live at this house, after retiring from farming on the Ashton Hall estate at Stodday Grange – he had been farm manager on the estate and used to go out shooting with Lord Ashton. He kept bees in his garden and one day he came around to our house when I was in the Paddock and asked if I had seen a swarm of bees. We turned around and there they were, in the hedge, so he asked me to keep an eye on them while he fetched his hive. Well, of course, they took off and, when he came back all ready to collect them, all I could do was tell him which direction they had taken across the fields! He was an official at the Lancaster Show, and his sons, who were also farmers, took this on after him. Their sister Ida 80 used to play tennis with me at Sandfield.
At the turn of the century No 28 81was occupied by Henry James Dixon, described as a gas stoker; he was from Dalton-in-Furness, while his wife Elizabeth was from Ulverston. They had moved around during their marriage, as their 6 children were born in Manchester, Ulverston, and finally Scotforth.
__________
74 The 1911 census confirms that Richard Parrington (56). Farmer, was living at Sandfield (Sometimes called Sandfield Cottage) with his niece Edith Law (41), from Liverpool, whom he employed as his housekeeper – the census enumerator has suggested that she was employed as a dairy worker. Edith was the daughter of Richard’s half-sister Agnes Parrington, who seems to have gone to Liverpool to work for her elder brother john, and had there married James Law from Dent, who later became a constable in the Liverpool police force. In 1939 Uncle Dick’s housekeeper was Susan J Stafford, a single woman born in 1873 – she seems to have been from Dewsbury originally. In 1901 the house was unoccupied – Esther Quarme had already moved and was now boarding with the Jackson’s at N0 49, across the road, while Uncle Dick was still in residence at the farm and was yet to move in.
75 No 34. In 1911 Jane Lucas was 79 years of age; six of her 9 children were still living – two of these, Jane (47) and Ruth (36), both born in Lancaster, were laundry workers – no change from 1901. In 1939 two members of the Lucas family were still here: Hannah M (b 1868) and her daughter-in-law Sarah C (b 1893) both widowed. Sarah was Reuben’s widow – see below.
76 Reuben Lucas was serving with the Royal Field Artillery, attached to the 2nd/1st Berks Battery, 158th Brigade, when he was killed on the 14th July 1917; he is buried at the Dochy Farm New British cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium.
77 It is not clear what became of Arthur.
78 Brookdale. According to the 1911 census the Foxcrofts, both drapers, had been married for 20 years and had no children; John Thomas (47) was from Caton, whils Agnes Jane (43) was from Bentham, Yorks. Four female relatives were then living with them and assisting them in their business.
79 In 1911 Henry Mackereth (58) was a farmer on the Ashton Hall estate at Waterside Farm, which had been in his family for at least 40 years – his father Richard had been farm bailiff there in 1871 born, and Henry had probably been born there; his wife Annie (45) was from Skerton, and they had been married for 22 years – they had lost 3 out of 8 children born, and now had three sons and two daughters. The 1939 Register shows that Henry’s eldest son Herbert Henry, born 1895, had taken on Waterside, probably not long after the Great War. Stodday Grange was occupied in 1911 by Stanley Burrough, a labourer on the Ashton estate, from Waberthwaite, Cumberland.
80 Ida Annie Mackereth was aged 8 in 1911, so a couple of years older than Eve. The 1939 Register shows that the current occupant of Brookdale was Harold Rogerson (36), manager of the export dept of a linoleum works with his wife Francis (36) and a child who’s details are not shown. Also living here was fred Corless (33), a clerk in the linoleum works, and his wife Ivy (31) and their daughter Jean (10).
81 No 28. There is no return for this property in the 1911 census, so the presumption must be either that it was not occupied at the time or that it was replaced by Brookdale (above), which has a datestone of 1903.
Then, after an entry giving access to the market garden at the rear, there was a short terrace of three cottages attached to the Halls’ big house: ie Nos 26-22. These small cottages are believed to have been built by Matthew Hall, Tom Hall’s father, in 1874, together with the cottages adjacent to the other side of Matthew Hall’s house; they are all somewhat unusual in that the upper windows are not in line with the ground floor windows. At the turn of the century they were occupied by Thomas Butler82, a railway signalman for the L&NWR, at No 26; William Swarbrick, farm labourer, a stockman, from Rawcliffe, in the Fylde, who went on to become bailiff for Herbert L Storey at Bailrigg Farm, at No 2483; and Joseph Ashmead, a mechanic, at No 22, from Cinderford, Gloucestershire.
__________
82 No 26. In 1911 Thomas (40), a local man, and Elizabeth Butler (38), from Preston, were living here; they had been married for 17 years and had 8 children of whom 7 were currently living with them. Thomas Butler had married Elizabeth Jane Bayman, sister of Thomas Hall’s first wife Ethel, in the Lancaster district during the 2nd quarter of 1894 and they were already living at this address in 1901 – with three young children, the middle one Ethel (4) born at Yealand. By 1939 Thomas had retired from railway service – he had been a signal man – and he and Elizabeth, plus an unmarried son John, were living with their married daughter Jane and her husband Andrew A Hogarth at No 40 Langdale Road, Morecambe. Thomas Butler appears to have died in the Lancaster district, aged 70, in the final quarter of 1941; Elizabeth outlived her husband for many years, her death being registered in the same district during the third quarter of 1976, at the age of 102.
At this address in 1939 were James H Wilkinson (58), a grave digger, and his wife Eliza (65); at some later date the page has been annotated to show that James was incapacitated. The 1911 census finds this couple at No 44 Trafalgar Road, Bowerham: James (30), a brewery labourer, was from Urswick, near Ulverston, while Eliza (37) was from Kendal; at this time they had two children: Lilian (7) and Harold (1), both born at Lancaster. James died at Lancaster, aged 73, towards the end of 1954, survived by his widow Eliza, who died at Lancaster during Spring 1958, aged 84.
83 No 24. According to the 1901 census William Swarbrick (27), from (Out) Rawcliffe (Fylde), was a stockman on a local farm; his wife Margaret (28) was from Preesall, in the same area; they had an infant son Thomas (1), born at Scotforth. William had married Margaret Lawrenson in the Garstang registration district during the first quarter of 1899. By 1911 they had moved to Bailrigg Farm, Bailrigg, where William (38) was now farm bailiff (for the Bailrigg estate); they now also had a daughter Hannah (3 mths), born at Bailrigg. In 1939 the Swarbricks were living in Croston Road, Garstang, William now a coal merchant, born Nov 1873, Margaret born Nov 1872. It is not clear what happened to this family after this time.
Living here in 1911 were Albert Dobson (47), a local man, and his wife Mary (40), from Leigh, Lancs; they had been married for 17 years and had one surviving child (out of 3), who was not present at the time of the census; he had married Mary Harrison at Lancaster in 1893. Albert worked for the corporation gas board in its gas showroom; he died at Lancaster, aged 72, in the first quarter of 1936.
In 1939 the current occupants of this house were Richard G Boulter (43), a cabinet maker, and his wife Doris (39), with their daughter Betty (4). The 1911 census shows that Richard George Boulter (14), an apprentice joiner, born at Lancaster, was the son of Thomas Boulter, a carter for the Midland railway, from Wyre Piddle, Worcs, and his wife Elizabeth, from Upton-on-Teme, Worcs, who were currently living at No 17 Scotforth Road. He married Doris Ashmead at Lancaster in 1924, and they had two daughters: Irene, born 1926, and Betty, born 1934. Doris Boulter died at Lancaster towards the end of 1982, aged 82, Richard four years later, aged 90.
The Butlers at No 26 were related by marriage to the Halls, as Thomas Butler and Tom Hall married two sisters, Cis and Ethel Bayman from Morecambe (originally Carnforth); the Butlers had a large family, and Cis later moved back to live in Morecambe, surviving to the great age of 102; another sister Edith lived to the age of 93. It was a great tragedy, therefore, when Tom Hall’s first wife Ethel died young in 1913, when their daughter Margery was still just an infant. I think that these days you would say that she had been suffering from post-natal depression. Not long after this time the Butlers left No 26 and, when Tom Hall married his second wife Elizabeth84, he moved with her into the now vacant corner cottage, and his second family of Muriel, Edwin and Frank were all born there; Tom Hall’s mother Margaret and his sister Jane continued to live in the big house, and it was Jane who took upon herself the responsibility for bringing up the young Margery there; Tom was again widowed in 1922, and after marrying his third wife he left Hala Road for a time to live at ‘One Ash’ on Scotforth Road at the other end of his property, opposite the toll house and garage. Eventually he moved back to No 20 Hala Road, probably after his mother’s death in 1934, with his third wife, Adele, and their son Bryan; their second son David would have been born here shortly after this move.
The Ashmeads 85 at No 22 must have moved later and gone to live further up on the same side of the road, as I recall them living next door but two to the Boot and Shoe. Annie Ashmead was a great chum of mine, and we used to go to the Mission Sunday School together on a Sunday morning. It would have been at this time that the Kendalls came to No 22 from Rosebery Avenue in order to live close to the Kendall grandparents (in Abbey Terrace, Scotforth Road), when Mr Kendall jun went off to the War, and they were there, I understand, from 1915 to 1927. There were three boys: Harry, Jim and Ernest, and a girl of my age, Lilian Mary, who went to Scotforth school. When the Kendalls eventually left, they went to live in Dale Street.
__________
84 Thomas Hall married Elizabeth A Stephenson in the Settle district during the 2nd quarter of 1915; and Mary Adele Addison at Lancaster during the 3rd quarter of 1923.
85 The Ashmeads at No 22 must have moved later and gone to live further up on the same side of the road, as I recall them living next door but two to the Boot and Shoe. Annie Ashmead was a great chum of mine, and we used to go to the Mission Sunday School together on a Sunday morning. It would have been at this time that the Kendalls came to No 22 from Rosebery Avenue in order to live close to the Kendall grandparents (in Abbey Terrace, Scotforth Road), when Mr Kendall jun went off to the War, and they were there, I understand, from 1915 to 1927. There were three boys: Harry, Jim and Ernest, and a girl of my age, Lilian Mary, who went to Scotforth school. When the Kendalls eventually left, they went to live in Dale Street.The Ashmeads were at No 22 in 1901, but had moved on to No 8 by 1911. Joseph T (28), a machine fitter, was from Cinderford in Gloucestershire, whils his wife Agnes (25) was local to Scotforth; there were currently three children: Fred (3), Nellie (2) and Elsie (1).
Living at No 22 in 1911 were Roger Yates Rogerson (25), a milk retailer, from Dolphinholme, and his wife Mary (24) from carnforth; they had three children aged 1 to 5, all born in Scotforth.
By 1939 the residents were John D Lythams (40), a general labourer, and his wife Rona U (40), plus a child whose details are not currently available.
Next came Tom Hall’s house at No 20 Hala Road86. This house is conspicuous because it is the only three-storey house in the terrace; it is double-fronted, and prominently displays the date 1698 above the door, together with the initials EM and IM, to identify the couple who built it and were the first occupants some three centuries ago, when it was almost certainly a farmhouse87. Adjacent to this house is a narrow passageway leading to the rear. Separate, at the back of the house, stands a large barn, to which vehicular access is obtained via the alley next to No 26; there is also an old outhouse, which may have been a washhouse, attached to the rear of the main house. The garden area to the rear was covered with what seemed to be acres of greenhouses for the intensive cultivation of crops and flowers. In 1868, when Tom’s father Matthew Hall bought the house (for £100), and for a few years afterwards, it stood almost alone, apart from its barn at the rear. However, the purchase included two old cottages alongside and two gardens directly opposite the house, plus two fields behind, an orchard and a croft, which had a short frontage to the main road, close to the toll house.
__________
86 No 20. In 1901 the occupant of this house was Matthew Hall, market gardener; He died at the age of 80 in the Spring of 1906, and in 1911 his widow Margaret Hall (60), who had been born at Friends’ Farm, across the road, was ‘living here on her own means’ with her daughter Jane (25). Her son Tom had moved back here into his parents’ home by 1939 with his third wife Adele and six of his children – four records currently embargoed.
87 In 2019/20 the house is currently for sale, and the agents have given some details of its past:- “This particular home was built in 1698 on what would have been farmland and the home is believed to have been known as the gatehouse to Lancaster whilst the barn to the rear would have been used as the coach house.”
“This property dates back to Georgian times and is believed to be one of the oldest homes in the Lancaster area. The lintel above the main front entrance dates it all the way back to 1698 with the initials above standing for John & Elizabeth Mackerell. The Mackerells ran a farm with approximately 25 cattle and 50 sheep as well as growing their own crops, whilst a successful relative of theirs founded a successful malting company in Lancaster.”
“This home is rumoured to have been visited on occasions by the great Lord Nelson and the beams you see inside this stunning home today are said to have originated from the decommissioned Galleons which were linked to the Spanish Armada. This very home is rumoured to have been where Lord Nelson had his secret liaisons with Lady Hamilton.”
At the time of his arrival in Scotforth, Matthew Hall was a bachelor in his early 40s, originally from Wyresdale, and he set up his business here with his unmarried sister Jane as his housekeeper; but in October 1881, now well into his fifties, he married Margaret Parrington, twenty-five years his junior, sister of Uncle Dick, and so the Halls were our relations. They had three children Tom, Jane and William; I don’t remember William, as he died before I was born, at the age of 15 on New Year’s Day 1904 in a skating accident on Scotforth Tarn, a tragic incident which was reported in the local papers. Matthew died in 1906, aged 80, and two years later his son Tom married Ethel Bayman. After the death of Tom’s first wife his sister Jane took responsibility for bringing up their daughter Margery, so for about 20 years the house was occupied by three women of three different generations until, after Margaret’s death in 1934, Jane left the area and went to join Margery, now a trained teacher, in Barking, Essex; when she returned to Hala Road in 1940, she went to live with Miss Woods at No (33) and later on her own at No 45, next to the Pyes.
The Halls had a successful market garden business – the property then included land on both sides of the road. It was Matthew Hall who added three cottages either side of his own house (or maybe the whole terrace, as all are of the same date and design) and he also built the further six on the opposite side of the road (already described); I did hear that it was in fact Uncle Dick who had put up most of the money for the building of these cottages in Hala Road. At times they housed various members of the Hall’s extended family, but they were probably originally intended partly as accommodation for the employees who worked in the gardens (3 such in 1901) and also as an investment; as the majority were let to tenants who had no connection with the business – however, as I said earlier, one of the houses in the terrace close to our farm was reserved for our farm labourer. Behind Matthew Hall’s own house were extensive greenhouses, where the intensive business of market gardening was then undertaken, and where the Abbeyfield development now stands.
The remaining houses in Hala Road form a continuous terrace of eight small cottages to the same general design as Nos 22-26. They are now numbered 4-18; it would appear that No 2, the ninth cottage, must have been demolished sometime after World War Two in order to provide better access to the rear of the Boot & Shoe. The directory tells us that at the turn of the century the first three cottages were all occupied by gardeners; presumably they were all workers on Matthew Hall’s nursery, as follows: at No 18 Adam Lund88; at No 16 Thomas Mayor89; and at No 14 Thomas Huntington.90 The Whittle sisters who taught at the Mission Sunday school came to live at No 18 when the family retired from their own market garden at the top of Hala Hill (see note 32); perhaps they and their brother were allowed to live in this cottage because they now did some work for the Halls – though this would be just speculation.
__________
88 No 18. Adam Lund (29), from Ellel, a domestic gardener, was living here in 1901 with his wife Mary A (32), from Heysham, and two young children born in Scotforth. Another domestic gardener was currently boarding with them. Adam was the second son of a railway plate layer, Adam Lund, and his wife Elizabeth, who in 1881 were living at Ubeck House, Scotforth; ten years later the family was living in Hala Road (scotforth village), Adam sen now a farmer, his son a farm labourer. Adam jun married Mary Agnes Warbrick in the Lancaster district during the third quarter of 1893. By 1911, however, the Lund family had moved away from the town, further up the Lune valley, and were now living at No 25 Main St, Hornby. Adam appears to have died in the Lancaster district, aged 64, in the third quarter of 1935; his widow Mary A, three years later in the spring quarter of 1938, at the age of 69.
Living here in 1911 were Harrison Hodgson (39), a house painter, from Ingleton, and his wife Maud Mary (28), a local woman from Scotforth, with two children: Christopher Harrison (8) and William (6). The 1881 census shows that Harrison (9) was the son of Christopher H Hodgson, a weighing man at a colliery, and his wife Elizabeth of Main St, Ingleton. This family not traced in the 1891 census, but the 1901 census finds Elizabeth now widowed and living on her own means at No 39 St Oswald St, Lancaster, with two of her children, both single: Elizabeth E B (36) and Harrison (29), a painter; another family were boarding at this address. Harrison married Maud Mary Perkin at Lancaster in Spring 1902; he died at Lancaster in early 1924, aged 52.
The occupants in 1939 were Peter (62) & Margaret Redhead (64); he was a painter & decorator – no other residents. Peter married Margaret Agnes, daughter of Septimus and Ann Hodgson of Scotforth Heights farm at Lancaster during the 2nd quarter of 1899. They were both from Lancaster, and in 1901 were living at No 29 Elgin St; at this time he was working as a stationary engine driver. This family not identified in the 1911 census. Peter appears to have died at Lancaster, aged 63, during the final quarter of 1940; his widow Margaret A, at the age of 81, during the third quarter of 1956.
89 At No 16 in 1901 lived Thomas Mayor (53), a jobbing domestic gardener, from Morecambe, and his wife Agnes (51), local from Scotforth; also here were three unmarried children, also born at Scotforth: William (22), a gardener, Janey (18) and Christopher (16), an apprentice cabinet maker. The 1851 census shows Thomas (5) as the middle of three children of William Mayor, a fisherman, and his wife Ellen of the village of Poulton, Lancs (now Morecambe). In 1871, aged 24, he was employed as a farm servant by Thomas Askew of Arna Wood Farm, Aldcliffe. Thomas married Agnes Townson at Lancaster towards the end of 1872, and in 1881 they were living in a cottage in Scotforth Village, where he was now employed as a gardener’s labourer; they now had four children: Ellen (7), Agnes (5), Margaret (4) and William (2), all born at Scotforth. Thomas (62) was still here and working as a gardener in 1911; he and Agnes (60) had now been married for 38 years and had six children – none now living with their parents; their daughter Agnes had married Joseph Ashmead and was living at No 8 at this time. Thomas Mayor died at Lancaster, aged 78, during the 2nd quarter of 1925, Agnes about two years later, aged 76, during the first quarter of 1927.
An army pensioner James R Wilson (80), 4th Rifle Brigade, was living here in 1939 with his wife Mary A (51); the register describes him as a nurse attendant (retired). Born Dec 1858, James survived the 1939-45 War and died at Lancaster, aged 86, during the final quarter of 1945.
90 No 14. The occupants in 1901 were in fact William J Huntington (34), a joiner, from Quernmore, and his wife Jane A (34) from Gressingham; they had three children: Robert A (9), Alice (8) and William T (4). The 1871 census shows William James (4) as the second of three sons of Robert, a master carpenter, and Alice Huntington of Rock Cottages, Quernmore; he married Jane Bretherton at Lancaster in 1889, and in 1891 they were living at No 6 Damside St, Lancaster; both were stated to be from Quernmore; two other joiners, from Levens and Cockermouth, were boarding with them. By 1911 this family had re-located to Longsight, Manchester, where they were living at No 15 Byrom St; they had now been married for 23 years and had three surviving children (as above) out of 10 born – Robert Alston (19) was a general labourer (engine cleaner) at nearby Longsight loco shed, while William Thomas (14) was a grocer’s errand boy – Alice (18) was not in Manchester with her parents, but working as a domestic servant to her widowed grandmother Alice Huntington at Terrace Cottage, Quernmore. William J Huntington appears to have died in the Manchester South district, at the age of 71, during the 3rd quarter of 1937; Jane Agnes had pre-deceased her husband, having died in the same district, aged 68, during the final quarter of 1934.
Living at this house in 1911 were John Ford (27), a local man, employed as a packer in a linoleum factory, and his wife Mary Ann (26), also local; they had been married for 6 years and had two surviving children out of 3; of these only John (4) was currently at home. John Ford sen had married Mary Ann Hinde at Lancaster in the final quarter of 1905. They had another son Joseph, born in 1912, but it is not clear what became of this family after this.
The occupants of these premises in 1939 were Samuel Brown (60), an insurance agent, and his wife Elizabeth (60); living with them were two children, one identified as Malcolm R Croft (6), relationship not clear – maybe grandchildren. The identity of this couple has not been established with any degree of certainty; they may have been from the Bradford area.
Then in the rest of the terrace come, according to the directory: at No 12 William Kitching91, a joiner; at No 10 James Arkwright92, a labourer; No 8 Ambrose Fox, a labourer; No 6 James Foster, a quarryman; and No 4 William Richmond, also a quarryman – James Arkwright and William Richmond were already living in this terrace in 1881; and James Foster and Ambrose Fox in 1891.
When we were young, No 12 was, as I recall, occupied by Mr Taylor93, the policeman; he had two daughters, Hannah and Gladys. Gladys was about a couple of years older than me and Hannah perhaps two or three years older again.
Then at No 10 was Mr Shackleton94 who took over our milk-round when Dad gave it up; he bought the milk from us and took it round to the customers; he had a daughter called Joyce, a few years younger than us. Next to the Shackletons came the Ashmeads95, who, as I have related above, lived at No 8, three houses from the Boot & Shoe, with their four children – Ambrose Fox appears to have gone to live in Aldcliffe Road by this time. As I have stated above, Annie Ashmead was my best friend in my younger days, and she had a brother Fred and sisters Nellie and Elsie; one day Elsie was taken away to the fever hospital down on the Marsh, suffering from scarlet fever, and the house then had to be fumigated; this was obviously effective, since no-one else caught it. My cousin Margery Hall tells me that Elsie Ashmead96 became her nursemaid probably after her mother’s death, and Mrs Agnes Ashmead, who was a local woman, used to come to the Halls at No 20 on Mondays to do the washing. Next, at No 6 was Ellen Burrows97, who lived with her mother; a commemorative stone above No 6 indicates that the date of this terrace is 1874 (though two of the houses appear to have been still in building in 1881); at No 4 were the Gornalls98; then at No 2, next to the Boot and Shoe, came the Fords99, who had a boy called Fred. This cottage currently appears to be unoccupied and in need of some attention if it is to remain habitable.
The end house in the terrace was No 2, and at the turn of the century Ambrose Fox100 lived there (son of the occupant of No 8); I believe he was a timekeeper, born at Liverpool, while his wife Mary was a local woman; around the turn of the century they had four young children. This house has been demolished since the time I was living at Friends’ Farm, to give access for deliveries to the adjacent public house. On a quick glance there is no obvious evidence to suggest that one of the cottages in this terrace has been demolished, except that there is now no No 2.
__________
91 No 12. The 1901 census states that William Kitchin (sic) (32) was a joiner from Ellel; his wife Eleanor (31) was local to Scotforth; they currently had four children: William (12), Hannah (10), Harry (4) and Margaret (2), all born in Scotforth. According to FreeBMD William Kitchen married Eleanor Richmond at Lancaster during the final quarter of 1887; the 1891 census finds them living with her father William Richmond in Scotforth Village. The 1911 census finds William Kitchen (42) and his family currently living at Burrow Beck, Scotforth: his wife Ellen (38), from Scotforth, and children: Margaret (12), Rodney (9), Ella (6) and Thomas (3). The census states that the couple had been married for 2 years and had no children. Also living with them were his father-in-law James Arkwright (80), a former road labourer from Ellel, and brother-in-law Thomas Arkwright (44), farm labourer, born at Scotforth. It seems that William’s first wife Eleanor had died, aged 38, in the first quarter of 1908, whereupon he subsequently married his neighbour Ellen Arkwright during the 2nd quarter of 1909 – see No 10 below. When William died on 12 April 1914 at the age of 45, he left an estate of just under £97 to be administered by his widow Ellen. She was living at No 14 Abbey Terrace in 1939 and, when she died in 1943, she named her relative Alice Arkwright (niece ?) as her executor.
According to the 1911 census the current occupants of No 12 were William Edward Howson (39), an oil cloth worker, a local man, and his wife Elizabeth (39), from Bolton-le-Sands; they had no children, but living with them was her widowed father John Battersby (65), a blacksmith, from Skerton. Elizabeth Howson, now widowed and on her own, was still living at this address in 1939; she was working as a domestic help.
92 No 10. In 1901 James Arkwright was a widower, aged 69; he was a general road labourer from Scorton; living with him were two children: Thomas (33), a pig dealer, and Ellen (29), a laundress, both born at Scotforth, plus Elizabeth (9), a granddaughter, also born at Scotforth. See No 12 above.
The 1911 census states that the current residents at No 10 were James Reay (31), from Workington, a general blacksmith, and his wife Annie Mary (27), from Keswick; they had been married for 7 years and had five children, four of whom were with them on census day: Annie Isobel (5), Jessie (4), James Harold (3) and Winifred Elizabeth (2), all born at Keswick. It is understood that James Reay had come to Scotforth to become assistant blacksmith to James Dixon at the Scotforth smithy, as mentioned previously, but this may not have been quite the case.
93 The 1911 census shows that Robert Taylor (48), from Underbarrow, Westmorland, a policeman employed by the municipal borough council, was then resident at No 50 Primrose St, Lancaster, with his wife Elizabeth (44), from Burton, Westmorland, and three children: James (13), Hannah (10) and Gladys (7), all born at Lancaster; they had been married for 18 years and had four surviving children out of six born. This family must have come to Scotforth around the time of WW1.
94 James Shackleton had married his wife Frances Ada Hansford in Lancaster in 1902 – she was from Bridport, Dorset – and in 1911 they were living in Weston-super-Mare, where he had a job as a packer in a railway works; they had an infant daughter of just 1 day, who was registered as Annie J Shackleton in the Axbridge district in the first quarter – presumably the Joyce referred to in the text. James, a dairyman, and Frances were both still resident at this Hala Road address in 1939; both born in late 1878, they would then have been aged 60 at this time. They were currently living on their own, no children; Joyce had married Benjamin Ford at Lancaster in 1935. James Shackleton died at Lancaster, aged 82, during the first quarter of 1963; his widow Frances A, at the age of 85, during the 3rd quarter of 1965.
95 No 8. In 1901 the residents here were Ambrose Fox (61), from Caton, a general road labourer, and his wife Mary (62), from Tunstall; three unmarried children were still living with them: Robert (32), born in Liverpool, an oil cloth warehouseman, Jane (27), born at Caton, milliner, and Ellen (18), born in Lancaster, dressmaker. At this time their eldest son Ambrose jun (34) was married and living nearby at No 2 Hala Road with his family. The name Ambrose goes back several generations in the Fox family. This Ambrose was born in Dec 1839, the son of John Fox and Jane Hoggarth of Caton; while his father was a general labourer, he became a railway porter; he married Mary Stead in the Lancaster district in the 2nd half of 1864, and in 1871 the family were living at No 93 Overbury St, in the West Derby district of Liverpool with two children born in Liverpool: Ambrose (4) and Robert (2); Mary’s widowed mother Betty (73) was living with them. Ambrose Fox sen died in Lancaster, aged 65, on 8 Jan 1905; in 1911 his widow Mary, aged 73, was living with her married daughter Jane and her husband John Pinch at No 12 Ash Grove, Greaves, but she died, at the same age, during the 3rd quarter of the same year.
By 1911 the Ashmeads, who had moved here from No 22, had been married for 14 years, and now had a further child Annie (6), the same age as Eve and referred to by her earlier. Agnes Ashmead died at Lancaster, aged 63, during the 2nd quarter of 1938; her husband Joseph T Ashmead seems not to have been caught by the 1939 population register, but he eventually died at Lancaster, at the great age of 92, on 11 June 1965, probate over his estate being granted to his daughter Elsie.
96 Elsie Ashmead (39) was still unmarried and living on her own at No 8 in 1939; she was then a shop assistant (draper), presumably working in the family business. Born in Feb 1900, she died at Lancaster at the age of 79 during the 3rd quarter of 1979.
97 No 6. The 1901 census shows that the current occupants were James Foster (46), a stone quarryman, and his wife Sarah J (36), who was from Ulverston, with their daughter Ivy (10), who was born at Scotforth. Living with them was Sarah’s sister Elizabeth (19), a dressmaker, from Ulverston. James had married Sarah Jane Brockbank at Lancaster during the final quarter of 1887, and in 1891 they were living in Scotforth village next door to the family of Ambrose Fox (see No 8 above) – this census shows that James was from Barkisland, Yorkshire. Sarah Jane’s sister Elizabeth was already living with them at the age of 9. By 1911 the Foster family had moved further on into town and were now at No 43 Clarence St, Primrose – this census shows that James and Sarah had now been married for 23 years and that they had lost one child out of two born; Ivy (20) was now an elementary teacher employed by the borough council. Sarah Jane Foster died in the Lancaster district, aged 50, towards the end of 1915, while her husband James passed away during the 2nd quarter of 1927 at the age of 69.
By 1911 the Burrow family were living at this address. John Burrow (46) was a railway signalman, originally from Carnforth, while his wife Annie (49) was from Cleveleys; they had a daughter Elizabeth Eleanor (11), born in Ellel parish. The 1871 census shows that John Isaac (6) was the third child (only son) of farm labourer Isaac Burrow and his wife Eleanor of Carnforth Village. By 1881 he had already left home and, aged 16, was working as a farm servant to William and Jane Tomlinson at Yew Tree Farm (162 acres) at Over Kellet. Not identified in the 1891 census, he appears to have married Ann Towers in the Lancaster district at the end of that year. The death of Isaac J Burrow was registered in the Lancaster district during the final quarter of 1926, aged 61; the probate index gives his name as John Isaac and date of death as 23 Oct 1926; it names his executor as his widow Annie. By 1939 Elizabeth Ellen was working as a school teacher at an elementary school and now living here on her own.
98 No 4. According to the 1911 census William Gornall (58), from Lancaster, was a platelayer on the L&NW Railway; he and his wife Jennet (60), from Scotforth, had been married for 38 years and currently had two of their 7 surviving children living with them: Annie (31) a laundress in a steam laundry, and Thomas Henry (13), still at school. William Gornall, a railway labourer, had married Jennet Griffin at Lancaster in 1873, and the 1881 census finds them living at Burrow Beck Cottage, Scotforth, already with five children: William J (6), Ellen (4), Robert (3), Annie (2) and Albert (0). By 1891 they were at Bailrigg with two further children: Jennett (7) and John (5), both born at Scotforth; and in 1901 at Uggle Lane, Scotforth, with one further child: Thomas Henry (3). Jennett Gornall died at Lancaster during the third quarter of 1915, aged 64; it is not clear what subsequently became of William.
Ten years previously, in 1901, a stone quarryman William Richmond (53) had been living here with his daughter Margaret (23), born in Scotforth. He seems to have been living in this same area in 1891; his daughter Eleanor had married William Kitchen in 1887, and they were living with him at that time. The 1851 census shows that William (3), born at Lancaster, was the elder of two sons of Tithomy (sic) Richmond, a stone quarry man, and his wife Ellen. Ten years later, aged 14, he was employed as a farm servant by William Lamb at Lune Valley farm, Cockerham (93 acres). William Richmond of Burrow Beck Farm, Scotforth, died at Lancaster, aged 60, on 9 May 1908, and his daughter Margaret was appointed to administer his estate, amounting to £24 10s 7d.
In 1939 the current occupants of No 4 were John Cragg (53), a mental attendant, and his wife Violet (43) with three children of whom only one record is disclosed: William O (17), a draughtsman. It appears from the 1911 census that John (24) may have been born at Birmingham, the third son (of six children) of now widowed Elizabeth Cragg (originally from Scotland); at this time the family were living at No 4 Back Marton St, Lancaster, John a general labourer in a linoleum factory. John Cragg married Violet Dumbleton at Lancaster during the first quarter of 1920, and William O was born there during the final quarter of 1921; there were three other children: John E (1920), Bernard (1923) and Violet E (1928). John Cragg died at Lancaster, aged 69, during the final quarter of 1955; it is not clear what became of his wife Violet.
99 No 2. According to the 1911 census Joseph Ford (38) was a locomotive driver (for the L&NWR), from Coalport, Salop, while his wife Mary (38), unusually described as ‘housewife’, was from Preesall. They had been married for 14 years and had three children born in Scotforth: Ethel (13), Annie (12) and George (9). Ten years previously, in 1901, this family had been living in South (now Scotforth) Road, Scotforth, Joseph (28) at this stage in his career being a loco fireman. The 1881 census shows Joseph (8), born at Broseley, Salop, as the eldest son in a family of three sons and two daughters of bricklayer Joseph Ford, from Coalport, and his wife Ann, from Madeleywood; at this time the family were recently settled in Scotforth. At the age of 18 he was still living with his parents in Scotforth in 1891 and was now working as a gardener; aged 23, he married Mary, daughter of Richard Armer, at St Paul’s parish church, Lancaster, on 19 Sept 1896. Joseph Ford jun appears to have died at Lancaster, aged 67, during the first quarter of 1940; his widow Mary, aged 71, towards the end of 1943.
Another Ford family were living at this address in 1939 – William (39) was an engineer’s store keeper; he and his wife Priscilla (42) had two daughters: Kathleen (14) and Muriel (11) – another record for a third daughter Marion (b 1932) is currently embargoed in the register. According to the 1911 census William (10), born at Scotforth, was the son of Thomas Ford, from Broseley, Salop, a varnisher in a linoleum works, and his wife Alice, from Warton; at that time the family were living at No 5 Scotforth Road. He subsequently married Priscilla Eccles at Lancaster during the 2nd quarter of 1926. William’s father Thomas was a younger brother of Joseph, so he was the nephew of the previous tenant of this property. William Ford, born Nov 1900, died in the Lancaster district, aged 75, during the 3rd quarter of 1976; his wife Priscilla had pre-deceased him, for she had died, aged 69, also at Lancaster, during the 2nd quarter of 1967.
100 By 1911 these Foxes had moved to No 15 Queens Road, Bradford, where Ambrose jun (44) was now working as an insurance agent; he and his wife Mary Eleanor (34) had been married for 17 years and had four children, three of whom were living with them: Mary (15), William (12) and Annie (10), all born in Lancaster – another son Ambrose was born at Bradford in 1914. Boarding with them at that time was Paul Procter, son of the publican at the Boot & Shoe Hotel, Scotforth – it happens that Ambrose Fox had married Paul’s sister Mary Eleanor Procter at Lancaster during the 2nd quarter of 1893. The family later moved back to Lancaster, and they were living at No 41 Owen Road, Skerton, when Ambrose died, aged 64, in early 1932; the 1939 register shows that his widow Mary Eleanor was still living there with her eldest son George (b 1894), motor body builder. She died at Caton Green Nursing Home on 13 August 1949; probate of her estate of £1,965 was granted to her surviving sons William and Ambrose Fox, motor body builders – her eldest son George had died at Lancaster in April 1941, aged 47; probate of his estate of £467 was granted to his friend Alfred Paul Procter, schoolmaster (Head of Scotforth School), and his neighbour James William Smith, retired police inspector.
Lets call at The Boot & Shoe.
or, return to the start of Memories of Hala Road, Scotforth
