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12 Hooper Street

A family laundry business

12 Hooper Street is attached to number 11 on one side and has a yard on the other side. In the 1911 census it is called ‘Wing Cottage’.

1881 census

Hannah Diver, 32, laundress, b. Cambridge
Thomas J. Diver, brother, 28, general labourer, b. Cambridge

Hannah Diver was born in Cambridge in 1841, one of six children of grocer John Diver and his wife Ann. John had died by 1851, leaving Ann and the children dependent on parish poor relief. Two of the daughters, Mary Ann and Elizabeth, moved out and worked in service for many years, but Hannah stayed home to support her mother and siblings. Her younger brother Thomas is described in the 1871 census as ‘paralysed’.

In 1889 Hannah Diver requested help from Cambridge Charity Organisation Society to find work, because one of her main customers, Mrs Cox, had moved away from town (Cambridgeshire Archives, K1350/1/1741). In the application she describes her brother Thomas as ‘deficient in intellect’ and says that he ‘has fits’. Character witnesses, including their landlord Mrs Holder and shopkeepers Mrs Smith and Mrs Wheeler, say that Thomas drinks, that Hannah may be a drinker too, and that they quarrel constantly and use ‘disgraceful’ language. Another witness, Mrs Humphrey of Grove Lodge, says that if the Charity were to give them money, Thomas Diver would only spend it on drink. Hannah’s former customer Caroline Cox writes sympathetically of Hannah’s sad lot in life in having to care for Thomas after their mother died. She describes Thomas as ‘violent and unreasonable’, and says that she had urged Hannah to send him away to country lodgings.

The case was resolved when Hannah agreed to take a laundry job at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. She did so reluctantly, as she still wished to ‘keep her house together’, implying that the job required her to live in, leaving Thomas alone. Thomas died the following year, 1890, aged 39.

There is no entry for 12 Hooper Street in the 1891 Census, suggesting that Hannah was away for work. Later that year she was clearly back home, running her business and advertising in the local newspapers (Cambridge Chronicle, 30 October 1891):

1901 census

Elizabeth Diver, 53, laundress, b. Cambridge
Hannah Diver, sister, 54, laundress, b. Cambridge

1911 census

Hannah Diver, 69, laundress, b. Cambridge
Elizabeth Diver, sister, 67, laundress, b. Cambridge

By 1901 Elizabeth had joined Hannah in Hooper Street, and they ran the laundry business together for many more years. The yard may once have held workshops and it would have been valuable as drying space.

Elizabeth died in 1918, aged 75, and Hannah the following year, aged 77.

1921 census

Patrick Joseph O’Hannan, head, 60, wood carver on own account, b. Cambridge
Betsy O’Hannan, wife, 57, housekeeping, b. Oldham, Lancashire
Patrick Edward O’Hannan, son, 27, bricklayer’s labourer or chauffeur, out of work, b. Conway, N Wales
Annie O’Hannan, daughter, 24, jam factory hand, John Chivers, Histon, b. Cambridge
Henrietta O’Hannan, daughter, 15, jam factory hand, John Chivers, Histon, b. Cambridge

1939 England and Wales register

In 1939 the residents of 12 Hooper Street were Leonard Harris, a dental mechanic, and his wife Evelyn.

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, trade directories, and local newspapers available via www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

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