21 Hooper Street

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Railway workers, a coal carrier, jam makers, and a drapery packer

21 Hooper Street is in Leeds Terrace, which was built in the 1870s.

1881 census

John Curtis, 31, railway guard, b. Yarmouth, Norfolk
Maria Curtis, 30, b. Yarmouth, Norfolk
Arthur J. Curtis, 8, scholar, b. Yarmouth, Norfolk
Samuel C. Curtis, 7, scholar, b. Yarmouth, Norfolk
William E. Curtis, 5, b. Ely, Cambridgeshire
Maria Curtis, 3, b. Cambridge
Edgar P. Curtis, 1, b. Cambridge

John and Maria Curtis were to have five more children over the next few years, while still living in the Mill Road area.

1891 census

Daniel Stearn, 60, railway engine driver, b. Grantchester, Cambridgeshire
Jane Stearn, 51, b. Cambridge

1901 census

Henry Whybrow, 39, platelayer’s labourer, b. Cambridge
Susannah Whybrow, 39, laundress, b. Cambridge
Charles Edward Whybrow, 15, blacksmith’s apprentice, b. Cambridge
Lizzie Whybrow, 13, b. Cambridge

1911 census

William W Youngman, 41, coal merchant’s carter, b. Bentley
Phoebe E Youngman, 40, mother, b. Cambridge
Ellen H Youngman, 21, dressmaker, b. Cambridge
Daisy A Youngman, 19, jam factory worker, b. Cambridge
Ernest G Youngman,17, butcher, b. Cambridge
James H Youngman, 12, at school, b. Cambridge
Edna M Youngman, 8 months, b. Cambridge
Maria Germany, sister-in-law, 34, jam factory worker, b. Cambridge

William Youngman was a coal merchant’s carman for Austin & Co. In 1920 he collapsed and died from a heart attack while walking to work along Devonshire Road (Cambridge Daily News, 15 September 1920). At the inquest, his eldest daughter Ellen reported that he had been very anxious because her mother Phoebe was unwell and was due to have an operation that day. William had been complaining about chest pains for a month but had cancelled a doctor’s appointment.

1921 census

Phoebe Youngman, head, widow, 53, home duties, b. Cambridge
Ellen H Youngman, daughter, 31, dressmaking, for Mrs D Legge, 184 Gwydir St, b. Cambridge
Samuel H Youngman, son, 23, general labourer, Norman Cement Works, b. Cambridge
Edna M Youngman, daughter, 10, b. Cambridge

Phoebe Youngman died the following year. Ellen was still living at the address in 1930. She died in 1939, and the Cambridge Daily News report of her funeral (14 November 1939) mentions that she worked or volunteered at St Matthew’s Church.

1930s to 1960s

In 1939 the inhabitants were drapery packer William Smee and his wife May, who was still living there in 1966.

Sources

UK census records (1841 to 1921), General Register Office birth, marriage and death indexes (1837 onwards), the 1939 England and Wales Register, electoral registers, and local newspapers available via www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

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