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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Derbyshire => England => Derbyshire Lookup Requests => Topic started by: RBGS on Saturday 30 March 13 12:38 GMT (UK)
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I've recently found out that my grandmother worked in a shop at 40 Mortimer Street, Derby in 1928. All attempts at finding the name of the shop have failed!!! She was living in Nottingham (and travelling home via Gotham) so I'm guessing it may have been somewhere close to the A52. I think it may probably have been a ladies' dress shop.
I wondered if there is anyone who may remember the shop, the street or know how I might source this info?
Many thanks,
Lesley
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Hi lesley............if you Google "40 Mortimer Street Derby".....or just the postcode DE24 8FW..and use the Street View facility (with the little orange man)............you'll see that there never was a shop in Mortimer Street, which is a purpose built (probably ex-Council) housing estate.
As a local man I can tell you that this is the only Mortimer Street in Derby............
Two possible explanations:- the time around 1928 was the time of massive construction of Council Estates.....so there is a possibilty that the area was very different before the estate was built........but if you look at the area,,it is likley to have been slum clearance rather than of any commercial properties.
The second possibility is that there is a Mortimer Street in a suburb of Derby.....on the Nottingham side of Derby that could be any of Chaddesden,Allenton.Spondon Borrowash......
(Gotham is on the opposite side of Nottingham to Derby!).....and anyone living in Nottingham would not go home from Derby via Gotham......so could she have been working in Mortimer Street Nottingham??? before it was destroyed in the 1950's............
I'll have a look around for you.
Derek.
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Thank you for your prompt reply. And I made a mistake!!!! I apologise. It was Mortimer ROAD not Mortimer Street!!! I'd found the Mortimer Street via Google as you suggested and then made a mistake in my notes transposing 'Road' for 'Street'! Sorry.
My info about my grandmother came from a Nottingham Evening post newspaper report on 24th May 1928. She had an accident as a pillion passenger of a motor bike in Gotham and is reported as working as a shop assistant at 40 Mortimer Road, Derby. I know that my dad and his sister were born in Manchester in 1922/23, but grew up in a house in Wollaton Park in Nottingham. She worked in (usually upmarket) shops until well into her 70s!
I tried to look in Kelly's trade directory, but I need the name of the shop, rather than the address!
Round and round in circles...........
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There my have been a Mortimer Road in 1928..but there certainly isn't now............you need either a 1920's Street plan to establish whether there was ever a 40 Mortimer Road........and/or the Electoral Roll for the same period to see who or what was at No 40..if it existed.....I think the Central Library in derby might be a good starting place...........
........of course the Nottingham Evening Post could have got it wrong!! not unheard of!
Derek.
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Derby Daily Telegraph, 24 May 1928
Derby Girl's Pillion Accident
K........ C......... (27), 40 Mortimer Street, Derby, a shop assistant in the employ of the Midland Drapery Co. Ltd, St Peter's Street, Derby ......"
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Derby Daily Telegraph, 9 April 1828 (Advert)
Motor Insurance
Write for particulars, how to pay your car and motorcycle insurance by instalments
C J S Supplies
40 Mortimer Street, Derby
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Hello.... :)
Just to add a bit more re hanes teulu's find.... a picture of the Midland Drapery on St Peter's St and a little information on its background.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0ta8/
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Wow! Thank you all so much. A brilliant find. And 0 out of 10 for me for not thinking of looking in the Derby newspaper!!!! It was just a brief column in the Nottingham Evening Post that set me off on this. I never knew my grandparents (or my dad) had lived in Derby!
Incidentally I have the parish records for Nottingham and can look up anything that may be of use. I may well have a couple of queries about a different branch of my family that lived in Derby.
Lesley :)
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I just want to reiterate my thanks. I've just looked at the link and a couple of other family stories have just fallen into place............................
Lesley :-)
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Ah..........so it looks like she actually lived in Mortimer Street rather than worked there!!.......and worked at St peter's.?????
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Hi again Derek! Yes. Nottingham Evening Post's non use of commas had much to answer for! Or perhaps they just used to put people's home addresses in the newspapers in those days and I hadn't realised! AND it turns out you were right about the address being Street and not Road!
It's odd that I found the NEP story on Findmypast's data base, but not on Ancestry's and I can't find the Derby Telegraph entry on either of them!
Lesley :)