1 Stone Street, Cambridge

A Gardener and a Railway Servant

Number 1  is one of a terrace of 8 houses on the south side of Stone Street.

1881 – 1895

Thomas Lane was born in Teversham in 1839.  In 1856 he married Lavinia Freestone.  The 1861 Census shows the couple living next door to Lavinia’s family in Teversham with two small children.  Arthur Thomas (4) and Emily Ann (1).

Arthur vanishes from the records and isn’t with the family in 1871.  Thomas and Florence have three more children, Joseph John, Susan Elizabeth and Margaret Lavinia.  Joseph enlists with the Suffolk Regiment when he’s 18, Susan vanishes from the records after 1881 and Margaret dies as an infant.

Lavinia dies in 1880 and the widowed Thomas moves to Stone Street with his daughter Emily who is now 21 and his sons Frederick Matthew, 15, a page boy, James Arthur Thomas, 8, and Bertie, 2.  Thomas is now 44 and a garden labourer.

Frederick moves to London, marries and becomes a manager of a stationers.  In 1927 James tries to track down his birth record with no success and gives Evidence of Age from the family bible:

“the only record that I have is an entry in the family Bible, which states that I was born on the 24th August 1872 and it is in the handwriting of my mother, Lavinia Lane.”

The 1891 Census records Thomas as living alone at 1 Stone Street.  Bertie is staying with relatives on Victoria Road.  The register of births states that his given name is, in fact, Charles Bertie Lane.  However, he goes by Charles Herbert as an adult.

Electoral registers show that Thomas lived at this property until 1895 and then, like many of his family, he disappears from the records.

1st March 1893 – The papers reported the death of Elsie M Merry, aged 10 months.

1901

James Willis Coffin, 41, Railway Servant, b. Dorchester, Dorset

Mary A Coffin, 35, b. Canterbury, Kent

They have moved to 15 Stone Street by 1908.

1911 – 1939

Head of household in 1911 is Mary Elizabeth Ellis (43).  She is widowed, records “day work” as her occupation and was living with her family at 60 Catherine Street in 1901.

Five of her children are living with.  Henry John Daniel is 22 and works as a porter for the Great Eastern Railway.  Florence, 17, is a servant. John (13), Edith Maude (9) and Percy Frank (5) all attend school.  Mary’s eldest daughter, Harriet, is working as a Servant to a family in Southend-on-Sea, but married Frank Flatt in 1912.

Percy appears on the admission register for Barnwell Boys School on the 1st April 1913, having previously attended Sturton Street Infants.  He left on the 23rd December 1919.

Henry married Florence Emily Newman in 1917, and the couple moved to Gold Street.

1918 – 1939

In 1918 Mary married William Alfred James Baker,  who previously lived at number 4 Stone Street since 1886.

On the 1921 Census, William is recorded as a 72 year old Painter, employed by William Edwards, and old age pensioner. Mary is now 51.  Edith is 19 and works as a domestic, Percy is 15 and works at Boots the Chemist as an errand boy, Rose is at school.

Harriet and her husband Frank are now living at 19 Stone Street.

William died in 1922.

Edith married William Walker in 1925, they lived in Chesterton.

Percy married Kathleen Smith in 1929.  He became a milkman.

Rose married Herbert Ashman, college vegetable cook, in 1934.

The 1939 Register shows Mary living here alone.  She died in 1945.

Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921 UK Census, 1939 Register, Cambridgeshire, England, Electoral Registers, Burgess Rolls and Poll Books (1722-1966), Cambridge Independent Press 03 March 1893, British Army World War I Service Records (1914-1920), Cambridgeshire Baptisms, British Civil Service Evidence Of Age, England & Wales Births (1837-2006), National School Admission Registers & Log-Books (1870-1914),