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36 York Street

Mr & Mrs Townsend

1881

Charlotte Frances Edmunds Franks (nee Masters) is head of household here in 1881.  She is 61-years-old and works as a charwoman.  Two of her adult sons live with her.  Richard Edmunds Franks is 31 and employed as a mason, William Edmunds is 30 and an unemployed labourer.

1885 – 1960

Head of household on the 1891 Census is Arthur William Townsend, a brewer’s man who was born in Sawston.  The Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers record that he has been living at number 36 York Street since 1885.

Arthur is 34 years old and married to Eliza (nee Rogers), 32, from Chrishall in Essex. The 1911 Census records that the couple never had children.

On the 1901 Census Arthur is now working as a builder’s labourer and Eliza is a charwoman.  Arthur appears once in 1905 in the Cambridge Independant Press as a witnesss to some ‘furious driving’ and his occupation is different again; “Arthur Townsend, 36 York Street, car-man, said he was driving a timber cart up Lyndewode Road on the day in question.”

In 1911 Eliza is now a widow.  Arthur died in 1910. Eliza is living at 36 York Street with her 33 year old nephew, David Herbert Green.  David works for the gas company and he is still living with his Aunt Eliza in 1939, where he appears on the 1939 register as a bricklayer’s labourer.

Eliza continued to live at 36 York Street until 1946 when she was 88. She died in Chesterton Hospital in 1959.  She was 100 years old.

Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 UK Census, Civil Registration Marriage Index (1837-1915), Cambridge Independent Press 14 July 1905, 1939 England and Wales Register, Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers, Burgess Rolls and Poll Books (1722-1966),

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