The Davies of Hoole: Difference between revisions

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

<u>Retailor, Hoole Resident & national figure in Apiculture</u>

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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

Martha was the first daughter born to John Henry and Catherine, arriving on 13th January 1871, whilst the family were living in Seller Street. In the family, and to close friends, her nickname was “Beam”. Martha never married, despite being proposed to by her first cousin, Arthur Davies, who she turned down without hesitation. As she would later say, “I was too particular”.

 

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)===