Cockermouth Businesses

[Gigi]

Hi Bobgraham,

Yes, the birth cert of Ada or Fred might shed some light on the mystery. Maybe the enumerator in 1871 made a mistake and entered Mary as a widow. I'll have to see if I can find an entry for John in 1871.

Gillian

[emmsthheight]

Hi Gillian

There are definitely some mysteries there!

I was in the archives at Carlisle Castle and I did find one baptism, for Ada:

All Saints Parish Church, Cockermouth

1880
[In margin: "Born Feb-y 21st 1880*] April 4th / Ada daur of / Mary / Robinson / Cocker Bridge  Cockermouth / Widow/ Eldred Green/

Not really very useful!

I didn't just see Frederic(k) where I expected to see him, but I didn't have long and the image kept going out of focus, so I will look again, if you haven't got to the bottom of it. 

By the way, do you have a death for John, or just the fact that Mary is listed as a widow?  Do you know her maiden name?

They seem to be a fascinating family!!

Good night Emms

[Gigi]

Hi Emms,

Thank you very much for the lookup!!! So it looks like Mary Robinson (also maiden name Robinson!) was a widow!! I did a google search on Eldred Green and he was the vicar! Not the father then I suppose!!!!!

The 1871 census must have been correct then! Mary must have found another man (men!) and had two more children after her husband's death, fascinating!

I have looked for John's death but as John Robinson is a common name in Cockermouth, I am not sure which one it could be. If I had to choose, the one that fits the best on freebmd is Dec 1870 age 37 (he was born 1833). That would also explain the longish gap between the births of children Hannah in 1866 and Frederic in 1878.

Thanks again,

Gillian

[bobgraham]

Emms,
where are you parking when you go to the castle?
I've practically stopped going since they stopped us parking inside. And I wouldn't mind but it's my friend that owns the security firm that won't let me in. Maybe I should have a word to see if he'll give me a special pass!
;>}
I never seem to have the right money to park on devonshire or the park carpark or enough time if I park on Abbey st outside the sally bash.
bob

[emmsthheight]

Hi Bob

It's definitely a problem parking now.  Here's no easy answer that I've found.  I've not been as much either.  At least from the car park immediately before you turn to the castle you don't have to climb quite as far.

For a lot of people even without a blue badge, going under the underpass and climbing, or going down to the bridge or crossing and climbing up is prohibitive physically.
, and you can't by any means guarantee that the lift is working.

I don't know how far you come, or how far you can walk.

Just have to be very organised with your time,  and your change I guess.I guess!!

Best wishes

Emms

[emmsthheight]

Hi Gillian

Just a couple of little gems, but I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of these!!

When I go up again I'll look at the records again, but in the mean time, I had a look at some old photo's today, and the shop has a different photo in - double fronted , and a list of services on the bottom.  I'm between two buildings now, but on the widest part of the street.

I'd wondered why the Mayo, and about connections with Mayo Ireland, but apparently only indirectly, as it was after Lord Mayo, whose statue stood outside!!  He was knocked down a few times, and one time smashed, but they stuck him together and put him up again.

It's late and I'll write a better description tomorrow, or it will be gobbledygook!!

Best wishes til then.

Emms

[Gigi]

Hi Emms,

It's interesting to see how places change over the years.

I am now gripped by my merry widow discovery! I had always assumed that the 1871 census was incorrect! Shows that you should never assume anything!!

Gillian

[bobgraham]

Emms,
you promised to gobbledegook but never got back!
I have passed the Mayo statue for years as well as the wordsworth house and wondered.
If you go to w3 historicaldirectories.org and press just about any of them, you will find that cockermouth was the principal town in west cumbria due to the textile industry? So that is why it was chosen as the registration town in1837.
It was the place. I find this suprising in the face of the coal and iron industries in the west but they must have known best.
bob

[emmsthheight]

Hi Bob & Gillian

I finally got back!  Hopefully without the gobbledygook Bob! 

What I've been looking at is one of the "Britain in Old Photographs series about Cockermouth.  It's by Bradbury who I think I'm right in saying wrote a very thorough and quite well known book on Cockermouth.

I guess I daren't publish the actual photo, but I think it's a different shop and from t I can see, and what the book says, I reckon this one is in main street.  I wonder if your photo is the one in the market place or if there was one one at the bottom of the street nearer to Cocker Landing?

This shop has tow full windows, almost like two shop fronts.  One of them has a door in, at the opposite end to your photo.

There are heavy mouldings at either end of the windows which your shop doesn't have, and the upstairs windows are the long, narrow, one pain top and bottom variety, whereas on yours they look to be more square and are two pains wide.

I need a magnifying glass to see what is in the windows,

The caption says that this is Mayo Furnishing Warehouse of P Robinson & Co.

It says they deal in house furnishing, cabinet making, decorating, joinery and undertaking.  There are pictures of the statue after demolition and after restoration.  There is a tree in two pictures.  This is evidently the area I thought, but maybe Bob can help me out. 

I don't usually drive this way through Cockermouth - it's often more than slightly busy!  I thought this was the area by what was the central cafe, and one of the statue has a cafe - I think central cafe in the background..  I don't know if it's still there under another name.

Am I imagining things, or was this once renamed as Mayo Cafe?

Could this be Central Cafe or the building next to it?

As for Earl Mayo, apparently he, (Richard Southwell Bourke, Earl Mayo, Lord Naas), represented Cockermouth in Parliament from 1857 to 1868, between serving for constituencies in Ireland and being Viceroy and Governor General of India, where he was assassinated while visitting a penal colony!

That is the potted version summarized by an amateur!

I dare say you can request the book at your library, or find it there if you are in Cumbria, and I have had a few of this series off ebay.  I intend to buy this one.  I can't tell exactly where the photo came from.

I daresay you can have odd copies for private study.

I will keep my eyes open for more info and have a look and take a photo myself!

More on family in a mo,  Gillian!

All the best.

Emms.