10 Milford Street

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Home for railway worker, and later a shoe repairing shop

10 Milford Street is in a terrace of 11 houses on the south side of the street, with a plaque reading Clara Terrace 1869. The terrace was built by property developer and coach builder John Burford, and he named it after his daughter. 10 Milford Street was a shop for much of its early history, and once had a shop front.

1871 census

Alfred Perkins, lodger, 20, railway platelayer, b. Sibbertoft, Northamptonshire
George Surrage, lodger, 20, railway platelayer, b. Hardingstone, Northamptonshire
Charles Tuck, head, 33, railway engine driver, b. Harston, Cambridgeshire
Sophia Tuck, wife, 29, b. Cambridge
Julia Tuck, daughter, 8, b. Cambridge
Louisa Tuck, daughter, 6, b. Cambridge
George C Tuck, son, 4, b. Cambridge
Elizabeth Tuck, daughter, 3, b. Cambridge
Flora Tuck, daughter, 1, b. Cambridge

Charles Tuck spent part of his childhood living at the Old English Gentleman pub in Harston, where his father James was the landlord.

Sophia Tuck died in 1883, and in 1886 Charles married widow Agnes Canham, who had two young children. Charles and Agnes went on to have three more children.

Of the two lodgers, Alfred Perkins moved to Leicester and became an iron dresser, and George Surrage (or Surridge) moved home to Northamptonshire and became a gas stoker. Both married and raised families.

1881 census

Samuel C Beer, head, married, 33, shoe dealer, b. Paddington, Middlesex
C A Beer, wife, married, 30, shoe dealer’s wife, b. Paddington, Middlesex
M A Beer, daughter, 17, scholar, b. Bayswater, Middlesex
G C Beer, son, 6, scholar, b. Kingsland, Middlesex
R A A Beer, daughter, 8 months, b. Cambridge

The data given for the Beer family seem a little hazy. In a 1879 petition asking for sewers to be built in Milford Street, the signatory for #10 is Charles Beer. In the 1891 census for 32 Burleigh Street they are Charles and Augusta Beer, and the eldest daughter, Lilly, is 21, making her 11 in 1881. The younger children are Charles George and Rosa (Rose Annie), and their ages tally with the earlier census.

1891 census

Joseph Starte, head, 44, draper, b. Cambridge
Elizabeth Starte, wife, 45, b. Cambridge
Rose Starte, daughter, 21, milliner, b. Cambridge
Fanny Starte, daughter, 19, milliner, b. Cambridge
Winifred Starte, daughter, 6, b. Cambridge

Joseph Starte (or Start) started his career as a warehouse man and ended it as a bootmaker, running a succession of clothing shops in Cambridge. In 1881 he ran a drapery shop at 69 Gwydir Street, a house that still has its Victorian shop window.

The south side of Milford Street in the 1970s, showing the shop fronts at numbers 9 and 10.

1901 census

John Hall, head, 41, boot and shoe maker, b. Pimlico, London
Maria Hall, wife, 36, b. Cambridge
Matilda Hall, daughter, 12, b. Pimlico, London
Maria Staden, mother-in-law, 59, b. Yarmouth, Norfolk
Mary Staden, sister-in-law, 23, tailoress, b. Cambridge

1911 census

John Joseph Hall, head, 51, boot and shoe repairer, b. Pimlico, London
Maria Hall, wife, 46, b. Cambridge
Matilda Hall, daughter, 22, b. Pimlico, London
Maria Staden, mother-in-law, widow, 72, b. Yarmouth, Norfolk
Annie Staden, niece, 6, b. Cambridge
Married 23 years, 1 child

1921 census

Mrs Maria A Hall, head, widow, 56, sweet shop, own account, b. Cambridge
Mrs Maria Staden, mother, widow, 82, b. Cambridge
Annie Staden, niece, 16, knitting factory hand, A R C Knitting Co., Norfolk St, b. Cambridge

John Hall died in 1921, and in Kelly’s street directory of 1922, Maria Hall is listed as a confectioner at 10 Milford Street, and in subsequent directories as keeper of a general store. From 1929 the shop became a boot repairer’s again, run first by F J Bowers and later by R C Holland. Maria Hall continued living above the shop until her death in 1937.

1939 England and Wales register

Henry Parker, 5 June 1885, engineer’s maintenance and repair staff, heavy worker
Annie E Parker, 6 December 1890, cleaner, shop position
One child [closed record]

The Parkers were living in Maria Hall’s old home above the boot repairer’s shop, now run by Walter G Cole. He ran the shop until at least 1975, with a succession of residents upstairs.

Sources

UK census records (1841 to 1921), General Register Office birth, marriage and death indexes (1837 onwards), the 1939 England and Wales Register, electoral registers, and Kelly’s and Spalding’s street directories.

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