Basics

People

Properties

Can You Help?

Roads Off

Janet's Research

Sources & More

From 257-1 to 266 High Street, Old Brentford

Several households are listed between numbers 257 & 258 in 1841 & 1851. For the purpose of describing them they have been numbered 257-1, 257-2 & 257-3*. It seems likely that when the Brentford British School was built in the 1850s it was on the site of these properties.

*The 1839/1841 tithe map shows just two large properties on what was to become the site of the school, occupied by John Taylor & James Samson, then another 7 small houses (owned by John Grimault), which later became numbers 258 – 264: although on the tithe map there appear to be eight properties not seven. Having spent some time staring at various maps it was difficult to reach firm conclusions about exactly what lay between what was to become number 257 and 258, so I have assumed there were three properties in order to accommodate the no. of houses recorded in the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

The 1909/10 Valuation notes that there was a house behind numbers 261 and 262 and this may have been recorded in some censuses as part of the High Street.

By 1940 the Borough of Brentford & Chiswick Health Centre and Brentford & Chiswick Juvenile Employment Bureau at Alexandra House were the only buildings recorded between numbers 249 and 258.

People have contributed several images from the early 1900s onwards, see links.

Properties

Notes prepared for numbers 257-1, -2 & -3, Brentford British School, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265 and 266; also a list of photos, ephemera and maps

Numbers 257-1, -2 & -3

• James Sansom, a cooper and his family plus an apprentice cooper John Wright
• Four heads of household: John Taylor, painter; Marian Tunstal, char woman; Richard Patrick, boot maker; Samuel Allard, independent
• John Callis, shoemaker

• Mrs Mary Sansom, coopers wife & family (she was 'married', he must have been away from home)
• John Martin, a broker, his wife, daughter and a servant
• John Callis, boot maker, unmarried

Brentford British School, later known as the Rothschild School

It was renamed the Rothschild School by 1906, taken over by the Borough of Ealing in 1919 and closed in 1930 when Brentford Secondary Modern School was opened (Q103).

Following demolition of the school building, Alexandra House was built on the site as health centre and employment exchange in 1938 (Q103). The 1939 Register records George Wickers and his wife Ethel A Wickers living on the premises as caretakers of the School Clinic.

Number 258

By 1871 Richard Meades, greengrocer was living at no. 258. He remained here at the time of the 1881 census. The page showing this property in the 1891 census was damaged but his wife Sarah was recorded here in the 1901 census, so continuous occupancy seems high likely.

Sarah Meades, greengrocer, was recorded at this address in a 1913 trade directory. In 1928 and 1933 directories: Alfred Lefley, confectioner. The 1939 Register records William Westerhoff, wife Elsie and family of five at this address, he was a 'tobacconist, confectionist dealer'. The following year 'William E Westman, confectioner' (perhaps a change of name as Westerhoff sounded Germanic?).

Number 259

The 1939 Register shows John Cherrington, butcher shop keeper, and his wife Beatrice at no. 259.

Number 260

George Maberley, carpenter, lived here with his wife and three children in 1841 & 1851; in 1861 his married daughter Marianne Harcomb was visiting with two children.

William Charles Jones is recorded at this address in 1881 (bootmaker), 1891 & 1898 (verger, St George's Church) and 1901 (umbrella maker). Mrs Wright lived at this address in 1928, 1933 & 1940. The 1939 Register provides more details: Jessie Wright was born 12 March 1871 and seven others made up her household, including two named Seabrook.

Number 261

What is known is that a Thomas Dredge, pensioner of the excise service, lived here, or near here, in 1851 & 1861, by which time he was 78. He died in 1865 and in 1871 the property was occupied by Brentford-born Silvester Moles, lighterman, aged 28, who had a wife Harriott (nee Forrow) and one young daughter Harriott.

In 1881 William Moles, aged 54, also a lighterman and likely to be a relative to Silvester, lived here with his wife and a son William aged 20. They shared the property with a second household, headed by Thomas Snelling, wife Sophia and two small children. See links to the Snelling family pages: it seems likely Thomas is related to this family.

Edward F Beale, labourer, occupied no. 261 in 1891 and Joseph Church, a 72 year old shoemaker born Wallingford, Berks, in 1901.

The 1909/10 Valuation describes numbers 261 and 262 as brick built houses with three floors and a basement, old and dilapidated. There were two rooms on each of the top and first floors, the ground floor had two rooms and a scullery and there were cellars in the basement. The annual rental was £26, ie 50p (or 10 shillings in old money) a week. 261 and 262 were both 11' wide.

John William Tassell (1913, 1928, 1933) and Thomas Woodhouse (1940) had no occupations recorded in the trade directories. The 1939 Register gives a fuller picture: Thomas Woodhouse, born 1890, wife Nellie Woodhouse born 1891 and their four children born between 1920 and 1932, one a 'closed record'. Open records: Helen M Woodhouse (1920), 'razor blade packing' who later married a Stokes; Caroline E Woodhouse (1924) 'general assistant labour…' and Albert Woodhouse (132) at achool.. The father's occupation 'Steer barge or horse driver (heavy work), anotated water transport'

Number 262

In the 1909/10 Valuation Records numbers 258 - 262 were owned by Elizabeth Hamilton; no occupiers' names were given for these properties and several of the five were described as old or old and dilapidated. Notes for 261 include a description of the property.

From 1913 – 1940 Richard King is listed at number 262, no business mentioned. The 1939 Register fills in some detail: Richard King, born 1870,k was a grave digger retired and living with him was George R King, born 1913, builders labourer labourer and also in Brentford T Division Special Constabulary; plus a third person, 'officially closed'.

Number 263

The Chaplin family then occupied no. 263 for over 40 years, although the ages recorded in successive censuses vary. In 1861 John Chaplin (60), a plumber, headed a household including his son John, a carver & gilder, aged 26, daughter Harriott 22. In 1871 their ages were 70, 33 & 31, John senior died in 1877, aged 76.

In 1881 John junior and his sister Harriott, both still unmarried, lived here, aged 40 and 33 respectively: both were born in Chelsea. A John Chaplain, carver and gilder, is recorded at this address in an 1890 trade directory. Unfortunately the page in the 1891 census is damaged, but it is possible to make out the name John Chaplin. The 1901 census shows John Chaplin, carver & gilder, aged 38. A John Chaplin death was registered in Brentford in 1903, aged 67.

Out of curiosity the 1851 census was checked and showed the Chaplin family in New Brentford, John junior aged 17 and Harriet aged 12. In 1841 the family was in Chelsea, John aged 7, Harriet aged 2.

The 1909/10 Valuation described no. 263 as having a frontage of 16' 8” and having a 'large back addition'. 'Premises in good repair & comparatively of modern construction'.

By 1913 no. 263 had reverted to its original use, dining rooms, run by John Styles, then Albert Edward Smith (1928, 1933, 1940). 1939 Register: Albert E Smith, born 1884, restaurant owner and his wife Daisy B Smith born 1890, restaurant co-owner.

Number 264

By 1891 William J Dennis, groom lived here, also listed in 1901 as a coachman – domestic, but the premises appear to have been run by Neville based on a photo reputedly dating ca 1905. The 1909/10 Valuation returns described number 264 as

'a terrace club and premises of 3 storeys: top floor- 2 rooms; 1st floor – double card room, kitchen, scullery; ground floor – office, WC, large bar room, back billiard room, 2 WCs. Premises now in excellent repair. Note:- the premises were opened as a club in March 1909, before that date the billiard room, which is a separate building had recently been extended from the accommodation for 1 table to the accommodation for 2 tables, and is built of wood & corrugated iron'

In 1939 two people were living on the premises: Sidney Barrington, born 1888, Steward (Club) ('Con' has been crossed out) and wife Ada E Barrington, born 1885, as for most wives her occupation was 'unpaid domestic duties'.

Number 264 continued to be used by Brentford Conservative Club until at least 1940.

Number 265

1871: John Davis, tobacconist; 1881: Thomas Allkins, confectioner. By 1890 Henry Gilbert , tobacconist, lived here and he remained in 1891 and 1901, where he described himself as 'mineral water manufacturer'. Presumably he was an offshoot of the Gilbert family at no. 68/69, the Rising Sun.

In the 1909/10 Valuation the property was described as 'old and dilapidated'. In 1913 the occupier was I G Scott, tobacconist and in 1928 Edward Reed. The property was not recorded in the 1933 and 1940 directories directories but in 1939 there was a single resident: Nellie G M Aggett, born 21 May 1899, married, cafι, grocery, sweets shopkeeper. The enumerator has added Gertrude Ellen Mary, presumably her name registered at birth.

Number 266

The 1909/10 Valuation returns describe this as a terrace house and shop of 3 storeys with a right of way under part of the house to Cannon Alley. It is a very old property. By 1907 Henry Edwin Gulliver, tailor ran a business from here, succeeded by 1928 by Mrs Helen Hann, lampshade maker who remained here as an 'artifical flower maker' in 1933 & 1940.

In 1939 Helen Hann, born 1872, a widow, 'shopkeeper artificial florist' – I know what they mean but it sounds a bit odd – and her children Helen J Hann (1905), home worker; Minnie F Hann (1911) gasket maker handworker motor and aero; Charles Richard Hann (1895), married, wood machinist master ma…

The 1952 electoral register lists the following at 266: Charles R, Helen, Helen T and Minnie F Hann.

Photos/Ephemera/Maps

References such as '1899 (X11)' indicate the date of a photo (1899) and where it is published (X11). Details of 'X' are available: see Mainly paper sources page; '11' refers to the page no, or photo no. in the publication.

Roads Off

Published 2005; last updated August 2019