51 York Street, Cambridge

Great Eastern Railway worker

1881

Albert W. Hall, head, 27, 1854, ticket collector on G.N.R., Alton, Hampshire
Catherine Hall, wife, 29, 1852, Marylebone, London, Middlesex
Albert W.M. Hall, son, 4, 1877, Leeds New Wortley, Yorkshire
Augusta A. Hall, daughter, 3, 1878, scholar, Leeds New Wortley, Yorkshire
Herbert H. Hall, son, 8 months, Cambridge

1891 – 1949

Head of household at 51 York Street is Alfred William Elborn.  Alfred was born in 1865, and, by the time of the 1891 Census is 26 years old and works for the Great Eastern Railway as an engine cleaner. He married to Susan Starling in 1884 and they have two children in 1891.  Sarah Hannah is 3 (and recorded on this census as “Susan”), William is 18 months old.

Sarah is on the school register of East Road Girls School in 1897, which records that she previously attended Norfolk Street Infants.  William, meanwhile, is on the register of Barnwell Boys’, where he stayed until September 1903.  He previously attended St. Matthew’s.

By 1901 Alfred has become a boiler smith’s assistant, still working for the G.E.R.  Susan and Alfred have three more children, Emily (8), Amy (6) and Norah (1).

In 1911 Sarah is 28 and working as a jam factory hand, Emily is 18 and woring as a domestic day girl, Amy is 16 and helping her mother at home.  There is now 7-year-old Elizabeth who goes to school.  The 1911 Census records how long you have been married and if any of your children have died.  Susan and Alfred have been married for 26 years and have had nine children, three of whom have died.

Norah is a patient at the Sanitorium on Mill Road in 1911, and William is a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the Sussex Regiment based in Aldershot.

Sarah married Walter Claydon in 1914, Amy married labourer Walter Muncey in 1918, and William married Ethel Annie Pumb in 1919.

The 1921 census shows Alfred still working as a boiler smith’s assistant.  Emily is working at Chivers Jam Factory in Histon and Elizabeth is at home helping her mother.

William has named his son “Alfred William” after his father, he works for Atlas Stone Company as a slab maker’s labourer.  Sarah is living at 167 Sturton Street, and she also has a son called Alfred William.

Amy is living at 55 York Street with Walter and their two children.

Emily married L.M.S. Railway worker, Herbert Willis in 1924.

Elizabeth married provender miller, Albert Wilson in 1938.  The couple are living on Caroline Place (where St. Matthew’s Primary now stands) in 1939.

Alfred died in 1949, aged 84.  Still living at 51 York Street.

1960 William died in 1960 aged 71.

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1962-1970 (Kellys)

Albert Wilson

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Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 UK Census, Civil Registration Marriage Index (1837-1915), Civil Registration Death Index (1916-2007), Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers (1722-1966), England & Wales Marriages (1837-2005), 1939 Register.

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In 2023 CO sent in photos of some postcards sent to 51 York Street: