93 Ainsworth Street

93 AInsworth Street

Number 93 is an end-of-terrace property on the west side of Ainsworth Street.

The 1871 census records 21 inhabited houses in Ainsworth Street, plus another 9 under construction. However, they are not numbered, and at present it is not possible to identify all of them.

1881 census

Frederick Moore, head, 33, railway guard on GER, b. Colne Engain, Essex
Susan Moore, wife, 40, b. Horseheath, Cambridgeshire
Benjamin Moore, son, 9, scholar, b. Cambridge

The Electoral Register tells us that Frederick Moore was living in Ainsworth Street in 1872, narrowly missing inclusion in the 1871 census.

1891 census

Maria Seeby, head, 64, laundress, b. Trumpington, Cambridgeshire
Walter Seeby, son, 31, basket maker, b. Trumpington, Cambridgeshire
Eliza Lister, boarder, 27, laundress, b. Lincoln

Maria Seeby was a laundress, and her paying boarder Eliza Lister was also a laundress and likely to be working alongside her. This household at no. 93 is probably connected to a laundry business built next door as an extension of no. 91, run by their neighbour Annie Osborne.  There may even be a family connection, because Annie Osborne and Maria Seeby were both born in Trumpington.

1901 census

Walter Seeby, head, 41, independent, b. Trumpington, Cambridgeshire
Mabel M Hardy, servant, 14, domestic servant, b. Cambridge

Maria Seeby died in 1898. Walter Seeby, who had been working as a basket maker in 1891, was now described as ‘independent’, aged 41. It may be that he was living on a small nest-egg left to him by his mother, possibly to help him to support himself. In 1911, now boarding with a family in John Street, he is again described as a basket maker, and also as a worker, meaning that he had found employment.

1911 census

Charles Walter Billing, head, 42, railway engine driver, GER, b. Buckingham
Isabella Maria Billing, wife, 44, b. Sudbury, Suffolk

Charles and Isabella Billing had been married for 21 years, and they had no children.

As a railway engine driver, Charles Billing would have controlled the locomotive’s acceleration and braking, along with keeping the engine running. He would have worked alongside a fireman or stoker, whose job it was to stoke the fire with coal.

1921 census

Charles Walter Billing, head, 52, railway engine driver, G Eastern Railway, b. Buckingham
Elizabeth E Billing, wife, 57, home duties, b. Sudbury, Suffolk

Charles’s first wife Isabella had died in 1918, and he married Elizabeth Wheeler in 1920.

Sources: 1881–1921 England Census, England & Wales Registered Deaths and Marriages

In 2023 GJ emailed: My family rented this property from 1939 to c.1965. I lived there with my family until 1960 when I emigrated to Australia. I was followed by my father Tom Jones, mother Ethel Jones, sister Claire Smith and brother Fred.