5 Ainsworth Street

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Number 5 Ainsworth Street is one of a terrace of three houses on the west side of Ainsworth Street.

1881 census

First household
Samson Spurden, head, 34, bootmaker, b. Winfarthing, Norfolk
Elizabeth Spurden, wife, 31, b. Cambridge
Henry Spurden, son, 12, scholar, b. Cambridge
Hannah Spurden, daughter, 10, scholar, b. St James W, London
George Spurden, son, 7, scholar, b. London, Middlesex
Walter Spurden, son, 4, b. Camberwell, Surrey
Elizabeth Spurden, daughter, 3, b. Camberwell, Surrey
Fred Spurden, son, 9 months, b. Cambridge

Second household
Edwin Banyfield, head, 48, bootmaker, b. Walworth, London
Elizabeth Banyfield, wife, 40, formerly laundress, b. Walworth, London

1891 census

Hannah Vail, widow, 42, charwoman, b. Great Abington, Cambridgeshire
Catharine Vail, daughter, 18, b. Great Abington, Cambridgeshire
Roseannah Vail, daughter, 17, tailoress, b. Great Abington, Cambridgeshire
Florence Vail, daughter, 15, domestic servant, b. Cambridge
Alice M Vail, daughter, 13, b. Cambridge
Percy W Vail, son, 7, scholar, b. Cambridge
William Henry Vail, son, 6, scholar, b. Cambridge
Sidney Vail, son, 4, scholar, b. Cambridge
Claude V Vail, son, 2, b. Cambridge

Hannah Vail appears on the 1881 Census living at 20 Ainsworth Street. Her husband Henry, a bricklayer, died in 1889, aged 39, and is buried at St Andrew the Less.

The family moved to 10 Ainsworth Street by 1901, and 25 Ainsworth Street by 1905.

1901 census

Harry Mallion, head, 25, brewer’s assistant, worker, b. Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire
Louisa Mallion, wife, 24, b. Cambridge

Harry Mallion and Louisa Downs married in the Zion Baptist Chapel in December 1899. Their son Austin Charles was born in 1901 and baptised in Sudbury, Suffolk, on 27 October 1901. Their daughter Emily Alice was born in 1908.

1921 census

Harry Mallion, head, 46, delivering bread & flour, b. Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire
Louisa Mallion, wife, 44, home duties, b. Cambridge
Austin Charles Mallion, son, 19, assistant staff clerk, GER, b. Cambridge
Emily Alice Mallion, daughter, 12, b. Cambridge

Harry Mallion delivered bread and flour for the Co-operative Society in Burleigh Street. Austin worked as a clerk in the Great Eastern Railway’s Locomotive Operative Department on Devonshire Road.

In June 1918, aged 43, Harry had joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, giving his trade as ‘cook’. He was sent to France at the end of September 1918 and was there until August 1919. During this time, he was assigned to the 62nd Casualty Clearing Station.

Austin Mallion stayed with his parents at no. 5 until his marriage to Doris Webb in 1932.

The Cambridge Directory of 1935 shows Harry Mallion still living at no. 5, working as a baker.

1939 register

Stanley A Cowell, b. 11 Apr 1900, store keeper, garage
Lily Cowell, b. 25 Mar 1902, unpaid domestic duties
Thelma D Cowell, b. 3 Aug 1930, at school
One younger child (closed record)

The Cowells moved to no. 5 from Cherry Hinton by 1938, as shown in the Electoral Register. They stayed there until at least 1967, when Stanley’s name appears in Kelly’s Directory.

Sources: UK census records (1881 to 1921), General Register Office birth, marriage and death indexes (1837 onwards), the 1939 England and Wales Register, Cambridge Directory (1935), The Blue Book Cambridge Directory (1938), British Army WW1 Service Records 1914–1920, RAMC in the Great War, The Long, Long Trail, Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire (1967), and Cambridgeshire, England, Electoral Registers, Burgess Rolls and Poll Books (1914–1966)

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