My Family and 5-9 Church Street

I was interested to read about Emma and Brendan’s renovation of 5-9 Church Street.  These cottages and no 3 next door have been linked to my family over several generations and I visited them frequently as a child in the 1950s and 60s. I have been fortunate enough to see inside 5-9 during its renovation a couple of times while visiting my cousin next door.

Emma and Brendan mention Charles Wallis buying the properties in 1926 in their write-up - he was my great uncle. He and my grandfather Albert and their sisters Emily, Bertha and Florence were all born at No 5 which their father William Wallis, a wheelwright, and mother Sarah Ann nee Gale, were renting at the time. 

Emily, the eldest daughter, had moved away by 1891 and was working as a servant for a family in New Southgate and Bertha went into service.  

By 1901 the remaining family had moved into No 9 and Charles, who was a butcher, ran the shop. When he bought 5-9 in the 1920s he also bought No 3.  By this time my grandfather had married (the only one of the five children to marry) and was renting a cottage in Lucks Lane with his wife and four children,

Sadly, Charles died of TB in 1926 in his early fifties and left 5-9 to his youngest sister Florence, who was still at home and my grandparents were left No 3, with its large garden They moved in with their four children and spent the rest of their lives there. Their mother died the same year and the oldest sister Emily was brought home from New Southgate to help Florence look after their father. He died in 1931, by which time Bertha had also died.

After my parents married, they moved to North London but we were very frequent visitors to Buckden in the 1950s and 60s and spent many weekends and summer holidays staying with my grandparents at No 3.  At some point the remaining two sisters, Emily and Florence, turned the butcher’s shop into a sweet shop and they rented out Nos 5 and 7. My father brought his own parents to live in No 5, until their deaths so as a child I had two sets of grandparents and two great aunts living in those properties. Emily and Florence did not move comfortably with the times – they were still using oil lamps, had no indoor toilet when I first visited, and used the old range for cooking.  They did finally have a small bathroom built on beyond the kitchen and had electricity, but they treated it with great suspicion. Whenever we visited the great aunts we were allowed to choose a quarter pound of sweets- I don’t think they could have made much money from the sweet shop – although my grandad also gave them vegetables from his garden to sell.

I have so many happy memories of Buckden and have always been interested in the history of the cottages. I have always assumed that much of their story can be found in manorial records at Lincoln but apparently these have never been transcribed. I have visited the Huntingdon Records Office and found sale adverts for No 3 and the three other cottages in the 19th century – they always seem to be sold together – but have not yet got further back than the 1880s.

I am so pleased that 5-9 have now been restored, thanks to the commitment of Emma and Brendan. I attach a photograph of Uncle Charlie outside his shop.

 

Ruth Roy