The Davies of Hoole: Difference between revisions

'''Architects, Residents & Public Servants'''

 

The Davies family were to remain in residence until 1935, with various members of the family living there, after the passing of John Henry and his wife in 1906. Initially his fourth son Charles Harold Davies (1867 – 1952), together with John Henry’s daughters Martha Emily (1871 – 1963) and Edith Clarissa (1875 – 1950) resided in the house. In 1925 all three of them then moved to their new home further down Hoole Road, to the east, named Oaklands – now a hotel & restaurant.

 

[[File:DF8 Yorton Lodge Vicarage Road.jpg|thumb|''<small>'Yorton Lodge', Vicarage Road</small>''|left]]

 

 

===Alfred Cornelius Davies (1859 – 1930)===

[[File:DF9 Alfred Cornelius Davies.jpg|left|thumb|246x246px|''<small>Alfred Cornelius Davies 1859 to 1930</small>'']]

Alfred was born at 27 Peploe Street, Hoole, the eldest child of John Henry. He was expected to follow his father into architecture when he left the College School, Chester but his father wanted him to obtain a general knowledge of the building trade first. This led to him finding a position as clerk at the Old Dee Mills, Bridgegate and. eventually becoming Secretary to Mr Johnson, the owner. When the Old Dee Mill burnt down in 1903, Alfred moved to work with Griffiths Bros, Corn Merchant, Canal Side, Chester. Here he was promoted to Corn Merchant Manager in 1910 and then became a Corn Merchant travelling salesman through to his death, aged 71 in 1930, holding various positions. He married Mary Bratton, and together raised a family of nine children.

 

===Richard Cecil Davies (1861 – 1917)===

[[File:DF10 Richard Cecil Davies.jpg|left|thumb|287x287px|''<small>Richard Cecil Davies 1861 to 1917</small>'']]

 

On the death of his father in 1906 he became Senior Partner of the family architectural firm, working with his two brothers, Arthur and Horace. Here he focused more on the commercial and surveying side of the firm rather than in preparation of designs. He was personally involved in 1900 on the extension of the Bromfield Arms, which doubled the size of the public house, built 40 years earlier and here he was to host many civic and fire brigade dinners. His further work included the design of a proposed cinema off Walker Street in 1906, which was never built.

 

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===Arthur Frederick Davies (1865 – 1926)===

Arthur Frederick Davies, was the third child of John Henry Davies, born when the family had moved to Seller Street. He followed his father and elder brother into the family’s architectural practice, as seen in the 1881 census, where he is described as an “architect’s assistant”. On the death of his brother Richard Cecil in 1917, Arthur became the sole remaining partner of the family’s architectural practice. He retained this position until his death in 1926, only bringing his own son into the practice and restricting other family members from joining.

 

 

Arthur passed away aged 62 in 1926, leaving his brothers, Alfred and Charles as the family representatives in Hoole.

 

===Charles Harold Davies (1867 – 1952)===

Similar to his brother Arthur, Charles was born in Seller Street, Chester, but he lived 46 years of his life in Hoole, initially at 3 Hamilton Street from 1906 to 1924, thereafter moving to Oaklands, Hoole Road where he ended his days in 1952.

 

He chose not to join the family architectural firm but went to work instead in a business in Brook Street, which started life as a Pawnbrokers. Purchased by William Bradley in 1878, the business was quickly expanded by the addition of a clothing department. William’s brother Anthony Bradley took on the business in 1881. Sidney Clark had joined the business aged 16, and by 1880 was managing the clothing department. It was not long before the business needed additional space and in 1882 new premises were acquired in Foregate Street, in which a clothing and outfitting shop was opened. Here Sidney Clark, with Joseph Banks as his junior, managed the store and in 1883, Charles Davies, aged 14, joined them at Brook Street and served his time sleeping under the counter and working seventy hours a week.

 

 

Branch shops were established in other towns, and when Sidney Clark retired in 1907, there were eighty-nine. On the death of Anthony Bradley in 1908, Joseph Banks acquired the whole enterprise. Joseph brought Charles in as a Partner, and together they created the Chester based men’s wear chain “Bradleys”. Charles was made Vice Chairman when it became a limited company in 1922, and he was responsible for the wholesale business. After the death of Charles in 1952, Bradleys was acquired by Fosters Menswear and ultimately it ended up with Sears when they took over Fosters.

Charles retired due to ill health in 1933, in the meantime in 1925, he had purchased a large house on Hoole Road, known as Oaklands, which he extensively refurbished with assistance from his brother Arthur’s architectural practice and building connections. He, and two of his sisters, moved from Hamilton Street later in 1925 to Oaklands, where he lived for the rest of his life.

 

 

He also was one of the first active genealogists, having a strong family history interest, as well as time and money, which he used to understand the history of the Davies family. In 1939 he privately published an account, as he saw it, of the Davies family history. Charles never married. Instead, his sister Martha Emily, served as his constant companion, up to his death in 1952. His funeral service was held in All Saint’s Church Hoole, conducted by his nephew the Reverend Harry Roberts.

 

===Martha Emily Davies (1871 – 1963)===

 

 

Martha lived a full life, growing up with her brothers and sisters in Seller Street and moving with her mother and father and other members of the family, including her brother Charles, to Hamilton Street, Hoole, in 1895. Some thirty years later she and her sister Edith Leet (1875 – 1950) moved to Charles’s house at Oaklands where Martha lived until Charles died in 1952. She was her brother’s companion and housekeeper, managing all the domestic affairs as well as engaging in the Hoole community. She was left Oaklands, and all of Charles’s effects when he died and could have chosen to live almost anywhere. She took the decision to leave Hoole in 1953 and move to Alsager, where her younger sister Georgie (Annie Georgina) lived with family. She passed away in 1963, aged ninety-two, in Buxton.

 

===Edith Clarissa Davies (1875 – 1950)===

 

Edith Clarissa Davies was born in May 1875, the youngest of three sisters and the one that saw the early death of her husband at a point where she had had three children by him.

 

 

With her husband’s death, Edith was left needing to provide for her family and so went to work as a teacher in 1918, taking a position at the British School, Victoria Road, Chester. She was to become the headmistress before she retired in 1930, Charles and Martha stepped in to support the upbringing of her children during this difficult period. Her children moved to Oaklands, with Charles and Martha, and Edith was still living there in 1935/6. It seems she only left there in 1947, when she and her daughter, Muriel, and granddaughter Jennifer, went to live in Ashbourne, in Derbyshire and it was there that Edith died in February 1950, aged seventy-four.

 

===Horace Francis Davies (1878 – 1940)===

The youngest child of John Henry and Catherine Davies’ ten children, Horace Francis Davies was born in January 1878, whilst the family were living in Seller Street.

 

 

He married Helena Roberts in 1906, with their first child born in 1907, when the family had moved out of Hoole to live at Roadside, Christleton. He became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1909, and later a Fellow. He was seen as a scholarly man with hundreds of books on local history and those relating to his Welsh background, and like his brother Charles was interested in the family’s history. He died at Chester Royal Infirmary on 29th September 1940, aged 62.