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The Geldart: 1 Ainsworth Street
The Geldart Public House
The Geldart name has survived to this day, still on the corner of Sleaford Street and Ainsworth Street.
The pub gets its name from the original landowner of the land it was built upon, James William Geldart. Geldart, an academic at the University, died in 1878, after the pub is first recorded. However, it is likely that he sold off much of this land during the later stages of his life, or passed it down to his son who would have then sold before moving back to his ancestral Yorkshire home. We have evidence he sold it to Joseph Sturton, who laid out the streets and sold off building plots in the Sturton Town area and built some of the houses.
1879 – 1883
In the 1879 Post Office Directory of Cambridgeshire, William Henry Cawthorn, 37, is Innkeeper at the Geldart, as he is on the 1880 Barnwell Polling Directory and on the 1881 Census. He lives at The Geldart with his wife Sarah Emma (nee Livermore), aged 25, whom he married in 1874.
William is the son of a brewer, also called William Cawthorn, his family lived at 40 Gold Street in 1861. The Sovereign Brewery is at number 39 on the Census. This was sited where the Grafton Centre is today.
Before becoming a brewer and publican, William was a tailor and also spent four years serving in the Royal Artillery as a Gunner. He was discharged in November 1871 after he broke his left leg in an accident. The Medical Officer wrote that William has “paralysis of the left foot… likely to be permanent… doubtful if he will be able to contribute to his own support.”
Sarah died in 1898, aged 44. William died on 11th October 1904, aged 60. He was a brewer living at 8 James Street. They are buried in Mill Road Cemetery.
1891
In 1891, living at the property is James Squires Jennings, aged 40, and originally from London. He is listed as a publican, so he is now presumably running The Geldart, alongside his wife Selina Ann Jennings. Prior to running the Geldart he was a Publican at the White Lion Inn, Sawston.
Living with them is also their eleven year old daughter Lily Jennings. The census does not list Lily Jennings as a scholar, so we can assume that she was likely not at school, instead helping her parents to run the house and do domestic work in their business.
Lily married Frederick Maltby, a commercial traveller in the drapery business, on Boxing Day 1901. She had “…formerly been a teacher at the St, Phillips and British day schools…” Cambridge Independent Press 3 Jan 1902.
James and his family moved to 32 Cockburn Street where he becane a shopkeeper and grocer. James and Selina remained there until they died. James died in January 1927 and Selina in April 1935.
1897 – 1912
The Geldart is now being run by 60 year old publican Azariah Vine, who lives there with his 52 year old wife Jane and three of his children.
Azariah Vine and his wife Jane (nee Ferraro). Used with permisson of descendants.
Azariah is from Veryan, in Cornwall, and his wife Jane is from Plymouth. Azariah joined the Royal Cornwall Rangers Regiment of Militia as a boy of 17 and then transferred to the 1st Battalion 12th Suffolk Regiment of Foot. He served for nearly 21 years, including 7 in the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, where he received the New Zealand War Medal, before transferring to the Permanent Staff of the Cambridge Militia.
Jane and Azariah had at least 9 children. In 1891 Elizabeth (baptised Ellen Emily), 32, Lucy, 20, and Edward (baptised Edwin),17, are living with them at The Geldart. Elizabeth was born in Aldershot.
Edward (or Edwin as he is properly know) and Daisy Halford married at St Andrew the Less on the 5th September 1905.
Wedding of Edwin James Vine and Daisy Esther Halford, 5th September 1905. Used with permission of descendants.
On the 1910 land tax, the pub is listed as owned by the now closed Star Brewery of Newmarket Road.
By 1911, the Vine family still run the Geldart, only now it’s run by Daisy Vine. Edwin is boarding in Fulham as an Exhibition’s Plumber. Their two young children Eddie (Edwin Azariah Vine) is 4 and Kathleen is 2. Azariah still lives with them at the Geldart.
Azariah dies in 1912 at 25 Hermitage Road, Finsbury Park. Probate to Edwin James Vine, cinematograph attendant.
Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901 & 1911 Census , 1910 land tax records, 1879 Post Office Directory of Cambridgeshire, 1880 Barnwell Polling Directory, England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915, British Army Service Records, London Gazette 29 Nov 1904, Cambridge Independent Press, 14 Oct 1904, Mill Road Cemetery, England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995, 1939 Register, Cambridge Daily News 06 June 1889, Cambridge Independent Press 03 January 1902
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