In last week’s post I described Henry Spillett’s arrival in Bognor after leaving home in Canterbury. Henry, my Great Grandfather, became the Licensee of The White Horse in South Bersted while also operating a Coachbuilding business at the back of the pub. In this post I explain his arrival and first decade of life in Oxted, a busy small country town in Surrey. Perhaps at this time it was a village. Kelly’s Directory for 1913 only runs to two pages.
Before I do that I will recap on Henry’s family tree.
Henry married Ada Willis in Cuckfield, Sussex before settling in Bognor and raising a family of three with Ada which included my Grandmother Ada. Sadly, my Great Grandmother Ada died of stomach cancer and shortly after that Henry married Sarah Lynn. Between 1896 and 1901, Henry, Sarah and the three children move from Bognor to live in Oxted.
The 1901 Census return shows that the family had moved to 43 High Street in Oxted. This is quite a large house that looks as though it was built in the early part of the 19th Century. It would have been a spacious home for the Spilletts which had then grown to five children. Sarah and Henry have had two children, George aged 4 and William aged 2. Mabel, aged 18 was not listed and has moved away from home to work as a domestic in Croydon. Ada, aged 10 and her brother Henry, aged 8, were both listed as scholars. They would have been attending the village school in Beadles Lane, just around the corner from where they lived.
What interests me is that Henry had moved to Oxted to start a new life with Sarah, having moved from a very successful business, running a pub and a Coachbuilding business, to become a Coach Painter. He was not running his own business but was described as a Worker. He would not have just moved to Oxted and searched for work. There must have been an opportunity, an invitation to take up a job, a successful application for a job. How he arrived in Oxted with his family from a coastal town in Sussex is one of those questions where, if I could go back in time I would be wanting to interview my Great Grandfather about.
The other notable bit of information is about Henry and Sarah’s youngest son, William. His birth was registered in Deptford, London. This was a busy part of the River Thames in 1899 and I wonder what Sarah’s connection with this part of London might have been.
After 1901 Henry brought his mother Esther to live with the family in Oxted. She has no entry in the 1901 Census return and I think she may have arrived in Oxted between 1901 and 1906. It was her death recorded in the Oxted Parish Church register that brought this to my attention. She was buried on 7 March 1906 and she was 75 years old.
Entry in the Oxted Parish Church Burial Register for Esther Spillett on 7 March 1906
I have found an entry in the Poor Law records for Esther in the Godstone Poor Law Union Application and Report Books (Limpsfield-Woldingham) which shows that an application was made for assistance on the 22nd February 1906. This would have been two week prior to her burial. My guess is that an application was made for the funding for her burial.
I have searched Find A Grave, an excellent site for grave finding in the UK, but there is no entry to be found for Esther Spillett in Oxted Parish Church. Perhaps, with Poor Law assistance, my Great Great Grandmother had what was known as a Pauper’s Grave, one that was funded under the Poor Law to ensure a dignified burial when the family could not afford it.
Meanwhile, over in West Croydon, Mabel Spillett, my Grandmother’s eldest sister, was working as a Domestic Servant. The address, 6 Station Road, is next to West Croydon railway station and was likely to have been a shop. It looks like that in recent years that No 6 has been redeveloped and is no longer an address. Mabel was described in the 1901 Census return as a Servant but with such little regard as to have ‘serv’ written in her relationship to the Head column. This Census return was compiled by an Enumerator and I find it unusual that he has used this shorthand to describe Mabel. Most Enumerators would have given a bit more substance in their description. The Head of the house is William Green who is described as a Baker and Confectioner. Also in the house is Louisa, his wife, and their two daughters aged 6 and 2. This seems to be a shop that they live above and they also have partners in the business because two of Louisa’s brothers were also working as Bakers there. These were Edward Smith, aged 27 and Charles Smith aged 23. William and his Brothers in Law all describe themselves as working on their own account. This Bakers shop was likely to have been a thriving family business.
I’m uncertain where my Great Grandfather conducted his business but Kelly’s Directory for Surrey in 1913 describes Henry Spillett as a Wheelwright but without an address. Henry changes his occupation from Coach Painter to Wheelwright on more than one occasion in the records that I discover. What purpose his choice of occupation makes is intriguing.
Entry in Kelly’s Directory of Surrey 1913 for Henry Spillett (courtesy of Leicester University, Special Collections)
This has been a busy decade for Henry and Sarah. They have made a dynamic decision to change their location from Bognor to Oxted. What the connection was is a mystery. Sarah has had three children with Henry. Their household of 6 children has grown up and Mabel has already left home to become a Domestic Servant in Croydon. That makes sense because it would be a short rail journey from Godstone. Her brothers and sisters were busy at school or growing up. Soon, by the 1911 Census return, much has changed. But that will be a story for another post.