69 VALE ROAD

Brief history of 69 Vale Road

A semi-detached house, backing on to no. 71. Sometimes called Borrowdale, and possibly also known as Hillbrow, although that is a tangled story, told further on. The evidence for Borrowdale is it being called that by an auctioneer in 1918 and it also being called that in the 1923 and 1930 street directories, in all three cases in addition to being called no. 69. It was probably built in 1896, as a lucky mention in a 1906 newspaper (see further on) dates the original lease.

It must, in theory anyway, have been originally numbered as no. 35 when the houses on the north side of the road were numbered consecutively from the main road, with the south side houses having individual names but no house numbers. In about 1903 the street was renumbered with consecutive odd numbers on the north side (and evens on the south).

The fact that the street was renumbered means that it is conjectured that no. 35 in the 1900 Electoral Register, the first in which I can find an occupant, was what is now no. 69. This was James Wardrope. It says “house successive”, and says “and Springfield Road”. This means that he had moved there from nearby Springfield Road; such information is often, but not invariably, given in the registers at the time. He was at 16 Springfield Road in the 1898 and 1899 Electoral Registers. Infuriatingly, he is not in the 1901 census in Sussex and so I know nothing more of him, despite his unusual surname.

The 1901 census shows at no. 35 Annie Geoghegan. She was a widow of 86, born Ireland, living on her own means. Two daughters lived with her, also born Ireland and living on their own means. These were Barbara, age 47, and Mary, age 46.

As Anne, the mother died at no. 35 on the 27 January 1902. Administration of her goods worth £122 was made to the elder daughter Barbara.

The first firm evidence for no. 69 itself is in the 1903 and 1904 Electoral Registers, which list Mary Willis at the address. As she was a woman she was not entitled to vote in Parliamentary elections, but she could vote in local “parochial” elections, and so is included in a separate register. The 1903 Register says that she was previously of 9 Battle Road, St Leonards, as “house successive”.

In the 1905 register there was no entry at 69 Vale Road, which was presumably empty. Instead, as Mary Ann Willis, she appeared at 18 Alma Terrace, the next street to the north. We know this was her as that entry is again “house successive” to show that she had moved from 69 Vale Road.

She was still at 18 Alma Terrace in the 1911 census. Uniquely, the 1911 census says how many rooms there were, in this case five (including the kitchen). She was age 68, single, a domestic cook, born Reading, Berkshire. She lived with an 86 year-old Scottish boarder, Margaret Greenleigh Grant. “Domestic cook” means she cooked for a family, not in a restaurant. It appears that she cooked for a family during the day but lived otherwise at her own home. I cannot find her in the 1901 census, but in the 1891 census she was one of six servants at the house of widowed, 56 year-old Maria Reade at 14 Pevensey Road, St Leonards, who lived there with her sister in law Louisa Reade.

The first mention of 69 Vale Road in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer [hereafter the Hastings Observer] is on the 21 and 28 July 1906. The leases on a “pair of villa residences”, no. 69 and the adjoining no. 71, were offered for sale by auction. The combined rental was £65 annually, and they were let to “good tenants”. The annual ground rent was £4, and the lease was 99 years from 24 June 1896, which means that the house must have been built just before that date, and the original lease for both houses was presumably sold to the same buyer. This is a stroke of luck in the absence of the original deeds. The 11 August 1906 issue adds that the houses were not, in fact, sold at the auction.

The 1906 and 1907 Electoral Registers list Clara Holman at no. 69. I know nothing more of her.

In the 1908 Electoral Register there appears John Box, in a flat (rather than the house, with no one shown for the house). As with Mary Willis, the entry shows where he moved from, in this case from 28 Charles Road, also in St Leonards. In the 1909 Register he appears at no. 71, the other half of the building. In the 1911 Electoral Register he is at 7 Edward Road, St Leonards, having moved, the register tells us, from 71 Vale Road. Annoyingly he isn’t there in the 1911 census: possibly he is the retired wine merchant with a family living in Bexhill, the only John Box within several miles.

The 1909 Electoral Register shows the new occupant at no. 69 as William Austin Hubbard, who had moved from 81 Bexhill Road. Fortunately, he is there in the 1911 census.

There were seven rooms (which would have included the kitchen). William Austin Hubbard, age 36, an assistant teacher for the borough council, born Burton, Staffordshire, was living with his wife Florence Milgate Hubbard, age 35, born Ashford, Kent. The census, for 1911 alone, tells us that they had been married for four years and had no children.

They had married at Hastings in late 1906 or January 1907, she with the surname of Stutely. William was at 32 Gensing Road, St Leonards, in the 1881 census, age 6, with his widowed mother Emma, a dressmaker. In the 1901 census they were at 10 Stanhope Terrace, St Leonards. William died 30 September 1938 in London. His widow died on the 20 January 1961 in London. Interestingly, in the 1935 Kelly’s Directory for Hastings, a Mrs Hubbard is shown at 68 Vale Road, just across the road. This may have been his mother.

The Hastings Observer, 30 September 1905, has him attending the Class Teachers’ Conference at Hull. He was one of two delegates from Hastings schools, and is described as “ex-president, West St Leonards Schools”. Ex-president probably means of the Hastings Class Teachers’ Association, which is mentioned in the news item.

All this does not tell us what motivated William in his private life. In fact he was a keen temperance campaigner, with numerous mentions in the local newspaper, of which a few are given below.

In the Hastings Observer, 12 January 1907, there is an account of the annual meeting of the grand encampment of the Hastings and St Leonards Rechabites at the Primitive Methodist Hall on Beach Terrace the previous Monday. The Rechabites took their name from a family in the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament, who refused to drink wine… or live in houses. Twelve officers were elected, with the leading officer, the Grand Chief Ruler, being William. He was congratulated on his recent marriage, and he replied that they would “unitedly” do their best for the order.

In the 30 November 1907 issue he gave a talk at the weekly meeting of the Wesley Guild at Bexhill. The topic was “Has a man a right to a glass of beer ?” The brief item says “He dealt with the whole problem of temperance policy, and declared that it was the duty of the Church, and all interested in the welfare of the nation, to abstain from complicity with the terrible evil.”

In the Hastings Observer, 19 November 1910, there is a long account of the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Independent Order of Rechabites (Salford Union) Friendly Society, which provided cheap insurance to abstainers. There was a public meeting. “Brother” William was now the District Secretary, while “Sister Hubbard” in the lesser role of Steward was presumably his wife.

He appears to have changed allegiance, however, as in the Hastings Observer, 9 September 1911, there is an article about the Band of Hope, which also urged total abstinence. William is named as the Hastings organiser.

In the 9 September 1911 issue, in his role as local organiser, he asked for one hundred volunteers to “visit” houses on the 14th October. It was hoped to recruit one million more members, particularly children for juvenile societies. Each person would visit between thirty and fifty houses and leave a circular.

The 30 September 1911 issue has a letter by William, which is quoted in full:

To the Editor of the Observer.

Sir: Will you kindly allow me space in your paper to appeal for at least 100 more visitors for the house-to-house visitation of the local Band of Hope Union on October 14th ?

In order that the town should be thoroughly canvassed, it is necessary that this additional number of helpers should be secured. The various Temperance Societies of the town are rendering valuable help in this work, but there are doubtless many others who would assist were they personally asked to do so. As this is impossible it is hoped that names and addresses will be sent to me during the next few days.

Each visitor has about 30 houses to visit, leave a circular letter, and obtain new members for Band of Hope, etc., where possible.

Yous truly,

W. Austin Hubbard

69, Vale Road

St Leonards

The 21 October 1911 issue, which says there were close to 300 volunteers, quotes  William as confirming that he “understood that the reception of the callers had been most courteous.” The 28 October issue discusses the results further, again referring to William.

He also enjoyed cricket. The Hastings Observer, 1 April 1905, has him chairing the first AGM of the “Wanderers” cricket team at the Clarence Hotel. He is sometimes mentioned in the cricket scores, so he played as well. And he was a Conservative, belonging to the Primrose League, which campaigned for the party and for the Empire. He was thanked for operating the magic lantern in a talk about the British Empire by Ruling Councillor Captain the Hon. E.T. Needham, RN. This was at a meeting hosted by the League at St John’s parish room, Hollington [Hastings Observer, 2 February 1907).

The Hubbards do not seem to have spent long at the house, as the first (of two) 1913 Electoral Registers lists William Holden Duke as the voter.

In the 1911 census he was at 97 Alfred Road, St Leonards, aged 24, a lecturer in languages, born Stratford, Essex. He was head of the household, which comprised his married mother, Alice Nolan [wife of Frank Alfred Nolan, an insurance agent, absent on the night]; a Duke sister; and three Nolan half-sisters. William had attended the City of London School and then won scholarships at Jesus College, Cambridge, in Latin and Greek.

He married on the 4 January 1913 at Dresden, Germany, Emilie Johanna von Lippe. She had been born there in 1888. After his marriage he appears to have quickly moved to Cambridge, as in the second 1913 Electoral Register he is at 55 St Barnabas Road, Cambridge. Their two children were born in Cambridge in 1914 and 1915. He was a lecturer in classics at Jesus College, and died at Cambridge on the 7 March 1929. His widow remarried in about 1941, at Cambridge, Claude Maberly Stevenson, a widower with two children, and she died on the 6 February 1982, also at Cambridge.

Very unusually, we know what William looked like – but only as a baby ! A family tree on Ancestry has a picture of William with his grave-looking mother (who of course also lived in the house) and a father with full beard. This was William George Duke, a customs officer, who died 3 April 1898 at Lambeth, Surrey (but lived at Stratford). His son William would have been about 11 at the time. His mother married Frank Nolan in 1901 in West Ham. This would have been after the April 1901 census, which shows him as a 25 year-old insurance agent, living with his parents: father Thomas was a travelling salesman for sewing machines.

In the Hastings Observer, 13 June 1914, we have:

APARTMENTS. – 69, Vale Road, St Leonards-on-Sea; comfortable furnished APARTMENTS for business ladies and gentlemen engaged during day; nurses or teachers preferred; permanency or otherwise; tram route to sea 1d fare.

Annoyingly, there is no entry for the house in the 1914 or 1915 electoral rolls. Therefore we don’t know who placed the advertisement. Perhaps the whole house was subdivided but there were no takers. The tram began close by and ran downhill (from about 200 feet) for about a mile to the sea.

Due to the war, there were no electoral registers for 1916 to 1918.

In the Hastings Observer, 8 June 1918, F. Tanton, an auctioneer, says he has sold by private treaty no. 45, Parkhurst and no. 63, Moorlands, and they will now not be offered for sale on the 18th. He than adds that Borrowdale, no. 69, has also been sold by him.

In the Autumn 1919 Electoral Register and in the 1921 and 1922 Registers we have Robert Russell as the voter. I know nothing more of him.

In the 1923 Electoral register appear the Parkinsons. Sadly, the wife died shortly after they moved in. Elenor Parkinson died on the 10 December 1923 and her address was given as 69 Vale Road in the probate entry. Her husband was the Rev. Frederick Mark Parkinson, a Methodist minister.

The family was at Seaforth, Lancashire in the 1911 census. He was 59, she was 53. The couple had had five children of whom four were alive, and had been married 29 years. In the household was daughter Dorothy, 24, a student, and daughter Edna, 20, a student teacher.

Dorothy arrived in New York on the 22 September 1915, on the SS St Paul, which had sailed from Liverpool, daughter of the Rev. F.M. Parkinson. What is probably the same person sailed to England in 1935, and again in 1938, although on the second occasion she put her England address down as Worthing, when St Leonards would have been more likely.

Frederick and Elenor had married 16 Aug 1881, West Parade Chapel, Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was son of Mark, a farmer, and had been born in Everton, Nottinghamshire, in about 1851, son of Mark, a farmer of 120 acres. In the 1871 census he was a draper’s assistant living with his parents, but in 1875 he became a Wesleyan [Methodist] minister. At marriage he was of 61 Clarendon Road, Hull, while his bride was also a Parkinson, possibly a cousin, daughter of William Lancaster Parkinson, a manufacturer.

Their only son Claude Frederick was missing but he is in the 1901 census at Hornsey, Middlesex, when the family was living there. He was 18, a builder’s apprentice. He served in the Labour Corps in WWI. He was a jobbing joiner in Southport, Lancashire in the 1939 Register [compiled for rationing purposes] with his wife Lilian, together with their son Denis, born 1919, a marine engine fitter apprentice. Claude died at Southport in 1973. Although he never lived at 69 Vale Road, his son Denis stayed there, as mentioned in a 1954 newspaper article.

All the children were born in either Lancashire or Yorkshire except for another missing child from the 1911 census. This was Irene, who was age 5 in the 1901 census. She was born in St Leonards. This was because, as a newspaper obituary explains at her father’s death, he had been minister there for several years, and probably accounts for his returning to retire there (the 1897 and 1898 Electoral Registers show him at Wesley Manse, Bohemia Road). In the 1911 census Irene was at a boarding school in Southport.

Early electoral registers only gave the head of household as the voter, but the 1929 Electoral Register gives the following voters for no. 69:

Frederick Mark Parkinson

Edna Parkinson

Irene Parkinson

The daughters are not listed in the 1926 Electoral Register so it appears that they moved in on their own retirement.

Normally the September 1939 Register (for food rationing purposes) would give full names, date of birth and occupation of those in the household but there was no entry for no. 69. Instead, with two other houses on Vale Road it was for some reason listed on Alma Villas, two roads to the north. The minister was living there with daughters Edna, born 1890, listed as housekeeper (unpaid) and Irene, born 1895, listed as having “unpaid domestic duties”.

On the 8 March 1947 the Rev. Frederick Mark Parkinson died at home, 69, Vale Road, at the age of 95. Probate of his estate of £5553 went to daughters Edna and Irene. He got a handsome write-up in the Hastings Observer for the 15 March 1947.

The article says that he was believed to be Britain’s senior Methodist minister. He was born in 1851 at Everton, Nottinghamshire, and began his ministry in 1875. He ame to the borough fifty years ago when he spent three years at Park Road Methodist Church. “Returned as a resident on his retirement 24 years ago.” His wife had died 23 years ago. He left one son and two daus. The funeral was at Park Road Methodist Church.

The Hastings Observer, 8 May 1954, has an interesting article with a small photo of Denis Parkinson, 2nd senior engineer of the “Gothic”, who was decorated on the ship with the MVO 4th class by the Queen. The MVO was the Member of the Victorian Order. This was Claude’s son. “Aged 34, he spent some of his boyhood years in Hastings, and has had holidays here at 69 Vale-road, the home of aunts Misses E. and I. Parkinson. In letters to them he told them that he dined seated at the Queen’s left hand on several occasions, and found her most gracious and charming.” The boyhood years reference is intriguing, and I cannot find anything on that.

Wikipedia says that the “Gothic”, completed in 1947-48 as a passenger-cargo liner, after alterations served as the royal yacht between 1952 and 1954. In that role it first went to Australia and then went around the world on the Queen’s coronation world tour.

I mentioned earlier a confusion about Hillbrow being a possible name for no. 69. The evidence for this is that when Herbert Povey died on the 11 May 1959, his probate entry says he was of Hillbrow, 69 Vale Road, St Leonards. Yet Hillbrow is really no. 77, although, confusingly, another Povey family lived at no. 79. I can only attribute it to a bizarre error.

The Parkinson daughters continued to live at the house for a long time. In the 1973 Kelly’s Directory we have for Vale Road:

69 Parkinson Misses

Edna died on the 6 June 1979. She was of 69 Vale Road at death, and was 88.

Irene, the last of the Parkinsons, died on the 10 Apr 1990 at Bryher Court, Filsham Road, St Leonards. She was about 94.