110 Sturton Street

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The Family of a Bricklayer

1881

Head of household in 1881 is Frederick Edwards, a 27 year old railway guard for the Great Eastern Railway. He was born in Sawston and is married to Julia. She is 27 yeasr old and was born in Balsham,

1891 – 1911

Head of household in 1891 is George Turner, a 63 year old bricklayer from Cambridge. He is married to Elizabeth, aged 61 and also from Cambridge. They have moved from Gloucester Place, which no longer stands, and was situated between Newmarket Road and what is now the Grafton Centre.

The couple have four adult sons living with them. George Alfred, 24, and Walter John, 21, are both bricklayer’s labourers, so probably working for their father. Arthur is 22 and is employed as a baker. Perhaps he worked over the road at 117a, which was a Bakehouse.

In 1893 Walter married Elizabeth Jarman, who can be found on the 1891 census working as a servant for brewer on Newmarket Road. The couple are living at 173 Sturton Street in 1901.

George and Elizabeth continue to live at number 110, and their sons George and Arthur still live with them on the 1901 census. Younger George working for his father and Arthur now a journeyman baker.

On the 5th September 1902 the Cambridge Daily News reported on how Cambridge celebrated the Coronation of King Edward VII. In particular they described the “Old People’s Tent”, which contained “a large number of people who were present at the Cambridge festivities on the occasion of the late Queen’s Coronation”. The article then went on to list the names, ages and addresses of the old people who were present. This list includes “Mr. George Turner, 110 Sturton Street (74)”.

George died in 1909. Elizabeth and her sons remained at 110.

The 1911 Census, filled in by George, records that his parents had seven children, two of whom have died. Checking the 1871 Census shows that they had two daughters, Alice and Laura. Alice died before the 1881 Census was taken. Laura was working as a domestic servant on Mill Road in 1881 and has since married and moved to London. The seventh child, therefore, would have died between Census returns and wasn’t recorded.

George also records that he is 44 and a scaffolder in the building trade. His brother Arthur is 43, a baker and has been married for eight years and has no children. He also writes that Arthur is partially blind.

Looking in the records, Arthur Robert Turner (32), Journeyman Baker, married Maud Alice Mary Chapman (30), on the 27th September 1903 at St Matthew’s Church in St Leonard’s, East Sussex. There are no further clues, after the marriage Arthur’s wife seems to disappear.

George married Clara Wolfe in 1916. By the time the 1939 register is taken he is living at 43 City Road, a retired scaffolder.

1921 – 1960

On the 1921 Census Maud Alice Brown records herself as head of household. She is 35 years old and a bedmaker at Trinity College. Her son, William Percy Brown, is eleven years old and a schoolboy.

Maud isn’t a widow, and has recorded that William has both parents still living. There is more information on the record that has been added in pencil in another hand, presumably by an Enumerator. “Husband William Brown, employed [illegible] foreman, Peterboro Gas Works”

William Percy marries Grace Smiles in 1933, and the couple move to 104 Sturton Street.

On the 1939 Register William Brown (senior) is recorded as a College Servant (shoe black), and Maud is also a College Servant.

William Brown (senior) appears on the electoral register at this property until 1960.

Sources – 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 UK Census, Cambridge Daily News 5th September 1902, Cambridgeshire Baptisms, 1939 Register, Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers, Burgess Rolls and Poll Books (1722-1966),

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