152 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge (RGL 2016)

Vale House, 152, Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge

History of Vale House Cherry Hinton Road

1891

Henry Charles Squires

Charlotte Elizabeth née Todd, b Adelaide Australia

Charles Stephenson, son

Jane Bentley, servant, 25, cook, born Herts

Mary Jane Tilley, servant, 21, nurse, born Cambs

1901

Henry C Squires

Charlotte Elizabeth

Charles S, 12, born Cherry Hinton

Alice E

Frederick V, 6, born Cherry Hinton

Caroline Grass, 31, servant, born Suffolk

Eva Pluck, 15, servant

1911

Henry Charles Squires, 60, solicitor, born Cambridge

Charlotte Elizabeth, 55, born Adelaide Australia

Alice Elizabeth,17, born Cherry Hinton

Edith Hanson, visitor, 45, born Adelaide Australia

Eva Pluck, 25, born Melbourn

Theodosia Tell, servant, 19, born Barrington

Vale House was one of the earliest large houses in this part of Cherry Hinton Road. The first occupants recorded in 1891 were Henry Charles Squires b 1851, solicitor, and his family, Charlotte, son Charles, 2, and their cook Jane and nurse Mary.

Henry was born in Cambridge, son of Frederick, a French polisher and in 1851 the family was living in Gothic Street. (This was one of several squalid streets behind Lensfield Terrace that were removed in the slum clearance of the mid 20th century.) The father died in 1854 and in 1861 Henry living with his mother Martha, a milliner and dress maker, and younger brother, at the Spread Eagle public house in Lensfield Road. By 1871 the family is at 23 Panton Street where the mother Martha is still a dressmaker, Henry is a clerk in a solicitor’s office and his younger brother is a clerk in the Town Hall. The fortunes of the family have increased by 1881 and the family is living at 9 Downing Terrace;  Martha is described as an annuitant and Henry is a law student at Downing College. (Martha appears to have remarried and been widowed again since the last census).

Henry was admitted solicitor in 1886 and founded the firm of Messrs Squires and Co. 11, Peas Hill. His wife Charlotte was the daughter of Sir Charles Heavitree Todd, Postmaster-General of South Australia.

The family are still at Vale House in 1901 when they have three children and two general servants, and also in 1911. Henry retired in 1927 and died in 1930.

Sources: UK Census, Ancestry UK

Alice Squires volunteered for the Red Cross in 1915 as a ward help. In 1917 she went to France as a nurse in a military hospital.

Mrs Squires volunteered for the Red Cross from 1915-1919 at the 1st Eastern.