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Ainsworth House: 2 Ainsworth Street

Women Living Alone, World War 1 Soldiers

Ainsworth House is a double fronted property on the east side of Ainsworth Steet opposite the Geldart pub.

1881

Number 2 is a day nursery.

1891

The property is called “Ainsworth House”.  Caroline Hannah Tranter, Parochial Visitor, born in Lacolle, Quebec, Canada lives there with her friend Eva H. S. Ball, a domestic housekeeper from Islington and boarder Lucy Prizeman an elementay school teacher from Devon.  Caroline & Eva leave Cambridge and become Nurses in Banstead.

1901

Head of household is Fanny Elizabeth Sewell, from Nottinghamshire who gives her occupation as Mission Woman. She lives with her general domestic servant, Annie E. Pratt.

Fanny died in 1908 aged 54, still living at 2 Ainsworth Street. She was buried at St Benedict’s on 26th March 1908.

1911

The inhabitants are now Annie Jones and her sister Jane Martha Jones, single ladies of private means.  In 1901 Jane is boarding in Islington with two other women all listed as “Deaconess”.

1918 -1925

Thomas Albert and Florence Annie Tingey have moved here from number 7. The 1918 Electoral Register shows Thomas an “absent voter / Naval or military voter”. He served in the Army and worked with horses for the Co-op.*

The 1921 census records Thomas as being a 37 year old vanman for the Cambridge Cooperative Society.  Florence is 44.   Their four children are all school age, John Thomas is 13, Barbara Ellen is 11, Jack is 7 and Joseph is 2.

Jane Marshall (70, widowed) and Florence Marshall (38) are boarding with the Tingey family.  Florence is a bedmaker for Dr Tail at Ridley Hall.

Emma Marshall (65, widowed) is recorded as being a visitor on the night of the 1921 census.  There are two more visitors, Sarah Weaver (32, married) and Louie Weaver (6, school girl).

[see entry for 7 Ainsworth Street for more information about Thomas]

They will move to number 27 in 1926.

1926 – 1955

The Electoral register for 1926 shows the owner of no.2 as Edward Ladds. He lives with his wife Priscilla. They eventually have two sons, George and Albert.

Edward and Priscilla married in 1900 at St Barnabas. They are living at 15 Ainsworth Street in 1901. By 1911 they have moved to 20 Stone Street with their 9-year-old son George. Edward is a Corporation Labourer.

In 1915, aged 43, Edward joins the Labour Corps as a Private. His Service Record shows him living at 29 Ainsworth Street by late 1920.

Priscilla died in 1937.

Edward continues to live at number 2 with his son, Albert and his daughter in law Millicent. The 1939 register shows Edward is a retired painter and they are sharing the house with widow Frances Elizabeth Mills. In later years the Electoral Registers show Edward living there with various married couples.

On November 18th 1939 baby Beryl Grace Priscilla Ladds died suddenly.  The funeral was reported in the Cambridge Daily News.

Edward dies in 1958.

Sources

UK census records (1881 to 1911), General Register Office birth, marriage and death indexes (1837 onwards), the 1939 England and Wales Register, and Cambridgeshire, England, Electoral Registers, Burgess Rolls and Poll Books (1918 – 1955), Cambridge Daily News 25 November 1939

*Remembered by Grandson.

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