Peter Hunnisett

Samuel & Lydia Woods of Surrey

Samuel Woods, a son of Richard and Maria, was born in Godalming in 1833 and baptised there on 7 June.

Lydia Monk, illegitimate daughter of Louisa Monk, was born in Send & Ripley in about 1836. Her mother later married Robert Turner.

Samuel married Lydia Monk in Godalming on 21 March 1857 and they had the following children:

Samuel worked as a tanner and in 1861 the family were living in Church Road, Farncombe, where they appeared again in 1871 and by this time his eldest son, Robert, was also a tanner.  Kelly's directories for about this time show the local tanyard as Edwin Ellis & Co, The Shalford Tanneries.

In about 1874 they all moved to Redhill where Kelly's again shows a tannery, Samuel Barrow & Brother of Tanyard Lane. In 1881 the census returns show that the family were living at 3 Grange Cottages, Tanyard Lane and that Samuel and Obed were tanners, Louisa was a housemaid, Andrew was a groom and Jesse was a grocer's errand boy. Their eldest son, Robert, was also a tanner but he was married and living at number 6 with his wife and daughter.

Both tanneries have long since disappeared, and Tanyard Lane has been renamed. However there are some old cottages in Oakdene Road, which may have been Grange Cottages.

They were still in Tanyard Lane in 1891 with Jesse, Walter, Ethel, Horace, Catherine and Archibald. Samuel, Jesse and Walter were all tanners and Horace was a telegram messenger. Robert and Obed were both married and tanners, Robert in Horsham, Sussex, and Obed in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

Samuel died in 1899 and in 1901 Lydia was living with her sons Horace and Archibald, and a 6-year-old grandson, Sidney Woods, son of Jesse who had married and was working in Lewisham as a stage manager.

Lydia died in 1909 and was remembered (by her grand-daughter, Marjorie) as being very strict and always wearing a hairnet.

Of their children:

• Robert became a tanner, like his father, and probably worked for the Shalford Tanneries. After the family moved from Farncombe to Redhill, in about 1874, he married Isabella Robinson (born 1853) at Redhill, St Matthew, on 24 March 1880. In 1881 he was living at 6 Grange Cottages, Tanyard Lane with Isabella and her daughter, Caroline, and he was working as a tanner for the Barrow brothers. Their known children were:

  Caroline

  Q2 1875

  (probably not Robert’s dau.)

  Robert

  Q1 1881

  Reigate

  Louisa

  Q1 1884

  Horsham

  Eliza

  Q3 1886

  Horsham

  Lydia

  Q1 1889

  Horsham

  Reginald

  Q4 1892

  Reigate

  Evelyn

  Q3 1895

  Reigate

  In the early 1880s Robert moved to Horsham where he was still working as a tanner in 1891. However by the end of 1892 he appears to have moved back to Redhill where in 1901 he was a foreman tanner living at 20 Lower Bridge Road. In 1911 they were at Stable Cottage, 43 Tanyard Lane. Robert died in 1926.

• Louisa worked as a governess and nurse for John Hart, a music hall manager and proprietor who lived at 1 Belmont Road, Lewisham, in 1901 and 1911. She died in Lewisham in 1919.

• Andrew was a tanner and married Kate Chapman from Romsey in 1883 (see Andrew & Kate Woods).

• Obed married Sarah, from Ashton-under-Lyme, and they lived in Kenilworth with their children:

  Samuel

  Q2 1890

  Warwick

  Eric

  Q1 1892

  Warwick

  Elsie

  Q2 1894

  Warwick

  Jessie

  Q3 1896

  Warwick

  Louisa

  Q4 1898

  Warwick

  Gordon

  Q2 1901

  Warwick

  Kenneth

  ca. 1904

  Wandsworth

  Vera Muriel

  Q1 1908

  Lewisham

  In 1891 Obed was a tannery foreman living in Warwick Road and by 1901 he had become the tannery manager and was living in Barrow Road. The tannery was located where Talisman Square now stands and on the Friday before Christmas 1894 a storm caused the collapse of one of the tannery chimneys, killing several pigs but miraculously leaving the houses, which bordered 3 sides of the tannery, undamaged. I failed to find Obed in the 1911 census but he died in Surrey in 1938.

• Jesse initially worked as a tanner and in 1894 he married Alice Andrews and they had seven children:

  Sydney

  Q4 1894

  Redhill

  Ethel

  Q1 1896

  Peckham

  Horace

  Q4 1896

  Peckham

  Lilian

  Q2 1899

  Peckham

  Ivy

  Q3 1900

  Lewisham

  Leslie

  Q3 1902

  Lewisham

  Charles

  Q3 1903

  Lewisham

  By 1901 Jesse was working as a music hall stage manager and living at 72 High Road, Lee, Lewisham. In 1911 their address was 12 Fenbrook Road, Lewisham.

  The 1942 and 1948 Kelly’s directories show Jesse living at 18 Garlands Road, Redhill. He died in 1948 aged 80. The 1951 directory shows Mrs A Woods at that address and from 1954, Horace Woods, possibly their son.

  It is believed that one of their daughters was married to a London fireman and rented the top floor of 101 Grovehill Road, Redhill, from Kate after Andrew died (1934).

• Ada died in 1886, aged just 17.

• Walter married Clara Musty in 1899 and their children were:

  Francis Walter

  Q2 1901

  Reigate

  Cyril

  Q3 1903

  Reigate

  Clara Edith

  Q1 1910

  Reigate

  Eric L

  Q1 1916

  Reigate

  Walter was a tanner and in 1901 they were living at 2 Albion Road, Reigate, and had Clara’s mother staying with them. By 1911 they were living at 55 Blackboro Road, Reigate, and Walter had become a fishmonger. Walter died in 1956.

• Ethel never married. In 1911 she was a dressmaker living at 31 Tanyard Lane, Redhill. She died in 1944, aged 70.

• Horace was a telegram messenger in 1891 and a postman in 1901. He married Clara Jupp in 1901 and they had five children:

  Henry Edward

  Q1 1903

  Redhill

  Emma Ada

  Q1 1905

  Redhill

  Lydia

  Q4 1909

  Redhill

  Mary

  Q2 1912

  Redhill

  Samuel

  Q2 1917

  Redhill

  By 1911 Horace was living at 29 Tanyards Lane and later lived in Grovehill Road just 2 or 3 doors from his brother Andrew. Kelly's shows Horace at 91 Grovehill Road from 1942 to 1959 when he died, aged 83.

• Henry died in 1881 at the age of 4.

• Kate was a housemaid in 1901, at 75 Ladbroke Road, Redhill, the home of Robert Mew, an architect. In 1911 she was at 'Ewhurst', 11 Elms Road, Redhill, working as a house and parlour maid. The house was run as a small private school by Edward Taylor and his sister. In 1961 she was staying with her niece Emma (Horace’s daughter) at 91 Grovehill Road, Redhill and she died that year aged 82.

• Archibald was a carpenter still living at home in 1901 and boarding in Epsom in 1911. He married Emily Cooke in 1914 and they had two children:

  Lydia M

  Q4 1915

  Thanet

  Muriel O M

  Q1 1917

  Reigate

  Ethel

  Q1 1918

  Reigate

  Lily

  Q3 1920

  Reigate (died Q3 1920)

  Hilda

  Q3 1920

  Reigate (died Q3 1920)

  John

  Q1 1922

  Reigate

  Mary

  Q1 1922

  Reigate (died Q1 1922)

  Doris

  Q4 1923

  Reigate

  Kelly’s directories show Archibald Woods at Brook View, Brook Road, Redhill, from 1942 to 1954. Archibald died in 1955, aged 74. The 1956 directory shows Mrs E Woods at that address.