Hungerford Virtual Museum

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by Hugh Pihlens

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Celia Turner, great-granddaughter of Edith Kate Cox, daughter of Walter Cox (via his daughter Edith kate Cox, born Hungerford 11 May 1880), kindly contacted the Virtual Museum (Aug 2011) volunteering a paper on Walter Cox, and other members of the Cox family:

WALTER COX

Walter Cox was born in Epping, Essex on 20 February 1852 – one of 12 children.

The 1871 Census for Hungerford shows Walter living at the Barley Mow Inn, Bridge Street with his sister Emma and her husband George Clifford, together with their three children: Sarah Ann and Mary Catherine (both born in Kensington, Middlesex) and son Arthur Clifford born in Hungerford in 1870. Walter was employed as a carpenter.

Walter married Ann Pembroke from Yew Tree Cottage, Aldbourne on 26 February 1876 in Hungerford.

On the 1881 Census the Cox family were living in Charnham Street with their three daughters: Eliza (1876), Ada (1878) and Edith Kate – my grandmother (1880).

By 1891 they are still at Charnham Street but with three more children: Beatrice (1881), Abraham Charles (1884) and Gertrude Rose (1890). Walter was a machinist.

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 'Clevedon' 95 High Street (1896-1914) with youngest son Arthur William (1894), plus Walter's brother-in-law Arthur William Pembroke a butcher.

The 1911 Census still shows the family at 'Clevedon'. Walter is shown as Out of Work from an Iron Foundry as was his son Arthur. The only other child still at home is Gertrude Rose shown as a self-employed dressmaker. Wife Ann was visiting her brother William Pembroke who was living at Yew Tree Cottage, Aldbourne.

Walter was a carpenter and much of his work was making and repairing water wheels for the mills in the area. He worked for Cotterills, an engineering firm in the town.

In his spare time Walter built two cottages at the top of the gardens of 38 and 39 High Street which he owned at Fairview Road, Hungerford. Your records show that in 1896 Walter owned 84 High Street (the thatched cottage) with Henry Waters as the occupier; still in his ownership in 1914.

Walter was a Commoner and a Tutti man (see photograph of Walter in bowler at Hocktide in 1915).




	Walter Cox standing on right as Tutti-Man, Hocktide 1915 (Kindly sent by Celia Turner)



			Clevedon, 95 High Street, home of Walter and Ann Cox. (Kindly sent by Celia Turner)



			Walter and Anne Cox, c1896 with children (Gertrude) Rose b 1890, (Abraham) Charles b 1884, Arthur b 1894. (Kindly sent by Celia Turner)

Of Walter and Ann's children who married and continued to live in Berkshire, Beatrice married Sydney Giles a butcher in Reading. They had a large house in Russell Street. Their daughter Lynda ran a private school in Russell Street and taught music.

Son (Abraham) Charles was apprenticed in Reading as a pattern maker. He subsequently founded the Silver Grey Coach Company. He went on to build a Private Members Club in Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire called 'Clevedon'. Charles married Alice Carpenter (1909) and had a son Arthur, who was head boy at Kendred School, Reading. They also had a daughter Gladys who married a Stanley Lunn.

Son Arthur married Margaret (Madge) Potter (1921). He worked with his brother Charles in the pattern making business and when Charles started the coach company, Arthur continued in business on his own. They lived in Reading until Madge's death

Daughter Gertrude Rose went to a Methodist day school in Hungerford. After her mother Annie died in 1921 she looked after her father until he died 18 months later on 18 September 1922 as a result of falling from a ladder whilst cutting down trees in the Wesleyan Chapel grounds in Charnham Street (Hungerford Borough Records Coroners' Inquisitions in H/JC1/6/30 19.9.1922). Rose went on to marry Alfred Palmer, a baker from Aldbourne, at the Bath Road Methodist Church, Hungerford on 22 February 1925. They had four children:

Dorothy born 7 May 1926 who married Ronald Wilkins of Aldbourne and they had one son Christopher.

Walter married Sheila Williams from Hungerford on 3 April 1954. They had two daughters, Jane who married Graham Palmer of Ramsbury, and Ruth who married Julian Withers from Devizes.

Evelyn born 1930, remained a spinster and subsequently looked after her mother Rose until she died in 1981.

David born in 1936. He emigrated to the USA in 1961 and married Gabrielle Richard from Haiti in 1964.

The Palmers ran the village grocery/bakery store for many years in Aldbourne, eventually turning it into a self-service establishment where both Dorothy and Evelyn ran the store. Evelyn and her mother Rose lived in the bungalow opposite the store in Oxford Street until their deaths, and now it is occupied by Wally and Sheila Palmer and they have continued the name of 'Clevedon' as the name of the bungalow.

Other Members of the Family who lived and worked in Hungerford:

Emma Cox (Walter's sister) married George Clifford from Eddington, Berkshire and they had four children. In 1871 they were running the Barley Mow Inn, Bridge Street, Hungerford and were still there in 1881. By 1891 George, now a widower, was running it with his daughter and son-in-law Kate and Harry Munday. By 1901 George was living at the Inn now run by his other daughter and son-in-law Sarah and Frank Batt and was employed as a gardener together with Frank's father Amos, also employed as a gardener. Frank also had a hairdressing business next door to the Inn which continued to be owned by the family for many years.

The Lamb Inn in Charnham Street was being run in 1901 by Emma and George's son and daughter-in-law Arthur and Emily Jessie Clifford, (which your records show they ran until 1911). Arthur died in 1917 but Emily ran the Inn from 1920 until her death in 1921.