Category: Bricett Church

A Bundle of Worry

A sepia postcard picturing 2 boys stand leaning on a fence in front of a church, marked 'BRICETT CHURCH' and 'P W FINTER Photo NEEDHAM MKT'
Postcard sent in 1906 featuring the church of Great Bricett
The above postcard was shared with me recently, featuring a photograph of two children standing in front of Great Bricett church.
The stamp on the reverse side shows that the postcard was received/processed by Chiswick post office on 16 June 1906, and was addressed to:
Mrs Gomm
4 Hogarth Lane
Chiswick
The note reads:
Dear Mum
Just a card to wish you many Happy Returns of Your Birthday & also ask you if you remember this spot where the Millers daughter was turned into your bundle of worry and mine
Ernest
Reverse of used post card with Chiswick. W postmark (9.45AM JU 16 06)
Reverse of the postcard sent 16 June 1906
The sender was Ernest Albert Gomm, a postman from London, who married miller’s daughter, Cinderella Clark. Cinderella was the daughter of Aber John Clark, who was the miller at Bricett Mill, as was his father before him.
The ‘bundle of worry’, Cinderella, was born ‘up the road’ in Barking (Suffolk) while her father was running the mill there, but Abner was born in Great Bricett (likely in Mill House). Her family appears to have been in Barking between (roughly) 1868 to 1880 before returning to run the mill at Bricett.
Part of an 1891 census page showing the Clark family at Bricett Mill.
Cinderella Clark recorded with her family at Bricett Mill in the 1891 census

Ernest was born in Buckinghamshire but appeared to live most of his early life in Chiswick, London – at the address on the postcard even – 4 Hogarth Lane.

A marriage entry from a parish register
Marriage record of Ernest & Cinderella in the Great Bricett parish registers
They married in Great Bricett church (as referenced in the postcard) on 3 October 1900, and the couple set up home together in Chiswick. They were recorded just around the corner from ‘mum’ in the 1901 census the following year, on Mawson Lane.
c1912 map showing Hogarth and Mawson Lanes

At the time Ernest sent this postcard, the couple had just one child, Gilbert Walter, but the next year, their daughter Grace Minna would arrive. I’d love to know why Cinderella was referred to as a ‘bundle of worry’ – I like to think it was a term used affectionately.

What a wonderful personal insight into their lives!
More details of Cinderella Clark and her family can be found on WikiTree
A note on the photograph:
The photographer was Percival Walter Finter – a ‘native of Needham Market’ who opened a business as a photographer and hairdresser in Bildeston in 1906. As the mark says Needham Market, I would presume the photo was taken before then. He was working as a grocer’s assistant in Ipswich in 1901 so we can probably narrow the date of the photograph down to between 1901 and 1906.

How I’d love to know who the boys were posing out the front!

 

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On 29 October 1892, Selina Bramford and Arthur John Double married in the parish church of Great Bricett, Suffolk.

Marriage record of Selina Bramford

On the same day, in the same church, her elder brother, Frederick Bramford, married Mary Ann Emsden.

Marriage record of Frederick Bramford

One of Frederick’s witnesses, Ellen Morphew, was his married eldest sister, while the other, Edward William Sparrow was the husband of his second eldest sister, Maria.

The event was such an interesting occurrence that the Reverend Frederick R Lee made note of it next to Selina’s marriage entry (one and a half years later).

Reverend’s note in the marriage register

note. Selina Bramford of Entry no. 98 and Frederick Bramford of Entry no. 99 are sister and brother. F. Lee. 14/3/94.

But what makes it even more notable, is that on the very same day, their brother, Albert Bramford, was ALSO married, only 12 miles away in Ipswich.

Marriage record of Albert Bramford

The three Bramfords were three of six siblings all born in Great Bricett – Ellen, Maria, Frederick, Albert, Selina, and Alice. Their mother died in 1878, just over a year before the eldest sibling, Ellen, married in 1880. Less than two months later, their father died. In 1881, the rest of the siblings (except one) were recorded at Great Bricett with their Aunt Mary. Frederick (18) was listed as the head of household, but their aunt had presumably stepped up to care for her brother’s orphaned children and keep house for them.

The Bramford siblings with Aunt Mary on the 1881 census

Maria, the second eldest, was the next to marry in 1885, before Aunt Mary died in 1887.  The youngest, Alice, married in 1890. The three remaining siblings, Frederick, Albert and Selina, were still recorded together in Great Bricett in the 1891 census.

I’m surprised Albert didn’t also marry at Great Bricett. All six siblings were baptised there, their parents (and Aunt Mary) were buried there, and all the siblings were married there, except Albert. His bride, Emily Marian Brode, was from Hertfordshire, but the previous year was recorded in the 1891 census, at the School House in Ringshall, as a ‘National Governess’. Albert’s residence was given as St Matthew (Ipswich) on the marriage record but we don’t know how long he was resident there – a week? a year? He had been recorded in Bricett the previous year as an agricultural labourer, but was now a general dealer.

What conversations had been held around all three weddings being held the same day? Was it planned? Did any family attend Albert’s wedding in Ipswich? Had there been a falling out? I’ll just have to add this to the list of things that we will never know.

Bramford Family Timeline (1878-1892)
1878 mother died
1880 Ellen married (Jan)
1880 father died (Mar)
1885 Maria married
1887 Aunt Mary died
1890 Alice married
1892 Frederick, Selina and Albert married

More details of Selina Bramford and her family can be found on WikiTree

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