21 Ainsworth Street, Cambridge

21 Ainsworth Street

Number 21 is one of a terrace of the three houses on the west side of Ainsworth Street.

1881 census

George Stevens, head, married, 28, railway signalman, b. Bladlaw, Buckinghamshire

1891 census

Albert Whye, head, 25, railway porter, b. Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire
Ellen L Whye, wife, 26, b. St Helena
Gladys M Whye, daughter, 2 months, b. Cambridge
William Perkins, lodger, 20, lawyer’s clerk, b. Arthingworth, Northamptonshire

Ellen Louisa Whye (née Goodenough) was born in St Helena. The 1881 Census says that she was born ‘on the sea’, and her elder brother was born in Saugor, India. She is buried in Mill Road Cemetery.

1901 census

James Kefford, head, 26, mineral water maker, b. Trumpington, Cambridgeshire
Alice Kefford, wife, 26, b. Quy, Cambridgeshire

1911 census

Henry Joseph Fairweather, head, 31, baker, b. Cambridge
Rose Mabel Fairweather, wife, 28, b. Cambridge
Ivy Rose Fairweather, daughter, 7, b. Cambridge

Henry and Rose Fairweather had been married for nine years and had one child.

1921 census

Henry Howlett, head, 45, general labourer, Cambridge Corporation, b. Cambridge
Charlette Elizabeth Howlett, wife, 41, home duties, b. Cambridge

Henry Howlett worked for Cambridge Corporation’s ‘Destructive Department’, on Riverside. This was very likely the waste destructor furnaces at Cheddar’s Lane Pumping  Station, now Cambridge Museum of Technology. Household waste was burnt to raise steam for the engines that pumped sewage to the town’s sewage farm at Milton.

Sources: UK census records (1881 to 1921), Mill Road Cemetery