Catharine Street was named after the wife of local builder, Thoday. (CWN 8.10.1981)
In the 1891 census there are a lot of houses in Catharine Street but all are unnumbered. No. 148 , John Merryweather’s house, which can be identified in 1901 by number, existed. It would have been at the far north east end of the street at the time. But it is not shown on the 1886 map.
The 1881 census has several unnumbered houses in Catharine Street but John Merryweather is living in Butts Row, not Catharine Street. So it seems that the Zulu Cottages were built circa 1888-1890.
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 so, if the cottages were in any way a memorial, they were built several years afterwards.
In 1981 Edward Merryweather remembered that “People used to go shooting duck when the fields at the end of the street were flooded. The fields belonged to Pink, the cattle dealer.”(CWN)
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