Tag: Barking

Landlady Lucy

I found this charming article in the Suffolk Chronicle published 29 April 1882:

“A HAPPY FAMILY.—Last week the son of the landlady of the Barking Lion, whilst ploughing, turned up a nest containing five young wild rabbits, which he took home and handed over to the care of the family cat. This cat, being a mother at the time, was deprived of her kittens, and the rabbits were substituted. The cat has taken kindly to her new charge, and has proved a capital foster-mother. The happy family may be seen any day at the above inn.”
– Suffolk Chronicle, 29 April 1882, p6, c1

Suffolk Chronicle, 29 April 1882, p6, c1

The landlady of the Barking Lion (now considered part of Needham Market) was Lucy Overton (nee Mays). Her husband, Thomas Overton, became the licensee in 1880 but it seems that Lucy actually handled the day-to-day running of the pub, while Thomas continued to work as an agricultural labourer.

Barking Lion household on the 1881 census

In Victorian times, it was rare for married women to hold a license in their own name. Female licensees were most likely to be widows taking over the license from their deceased husbands.

The Barking Lion (with kind permission from Suffolk Pubs)

Lucy died in 1898 and by 1900 Thomas had transferred the license to someone else. Lucy must have been a well known resident since when Thomas died in 1916, he was described as “husband of the late Lucy Overton”.

Lucy is buried in Barking Churchyard. The epitaph on her gravestone reads:

“A LIGHT IS FROM OUR HOUSEHOLD GONE
A VOICE WE LOVED IS STILL’D
A PLACE IS VACANT IN OUR HOME
WHICH NEVER CAN BE FILLED”

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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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