Lilly's Buildings, Worcester

[Nemo]

Hi Jill

According to Bentley’s Worcester Directory of 1841 Lilly’s Entry and Lilly’s Buildings were in Sidbury Street. On old maps this road seamlessly joined Friar Street, but was situated in St Peter’s parish, which would explain why the marriage took place in St Peter the Great church 

Friar Street and adjacent areas were made up of long narrow medieval burgage plots and the gardens were built over in the 18th and 19th century with courts and cottages and the area became rundown.

http://www.worcestercitymuseums.org.uk/content/oldpics/friar/70004p.htm

In 1735 Mrs John Lilly lived at no 36 Friar Street, on the east side just within the then old Friar Street boundary. It may be that it was her family or descendants who erected Lilly’s Buildings, but not necessarily adjacent to the property she was living in.

I am not certain where the boundary between Sidbury Street aka Sidbury and Friar Street would have been in 1856,  but the preliminary pages of the  census enumerator’s report for the relevant district  in the 1861 (or 1851) census, will detail the route undertaken to cover the 100 or so households within the enumerator’s district. As the census was usually enumerated by civil parish area the description of the route undertaken should give you a better idea of where Lilly’s Buildings was actually situated. Hopefully SKS will do a look-up for you if you don’t have access to one of the pay-to-view census websites.

HTH
Nemo

Sources
Bentleys 1841 Directory of Worcester
Worcester Streets – Friar Street by Pat Hughes and Nick Molyneux published 1984

[jillruss]

That's great info - thanks, Nemo.

It looks as if my first thought was probably correct and the area was run down by the time my people got there in the 1850s.

I don't think I'm going to find an answer to my original query (why/how did Charles and Jane move from Scotland to Worcester )through the location of Lilly's Buildings, but the information has been really interesting from a social point of view.

I wonder if I contacted the museum, if they'd be able to throw any light on it? Or would you think they wouldn't answer individual queries?

Jill

[Willow 4873]

Hiya Jill

You didn't say what their occupations were in 1861. There might be clue there

Also have you found any other rellies in Worcestershire - they might have moved for work. I know some of my families seem to have moved 'en masse' and I usually find they are in much the same trade

Though saying that my GGGGrandfather married someone from Somerset (I don't know where he came from) My GGGrandfather was born in Lancashire and his closest sibling was born in Wolverhampton a year later

Some of my rellies travelled more than I ever have!

Willow x

[Nemo]

Hi Jill

I agree with Willow about rellies and friends.

The witnesses to Charles and Jane’s marriage were William Holloway and Annie Smith, are either of them connected to Charles and Jane? 

Jane did not declare an occupation when she married, so perhaps she was already living with Charles and being supported by him. Or, could she have only just moved into the area in time for the banns to be read? 

Charles’ father, who was also a gardener, where was he living at the time of the 1861 census? 
You said that Charles was working as gardener in 1851, do you know the name of person for whom he was working? That might give us a clue.

While I was at the Worcester Family History Centre I also quickly checked out Worcester Trade Directories 1855 and 1860. Neither Charles’ name nor William Holloway’s were mentioned.

I found the Museum Service very helpful when I had a specific query about an item in their collection, which was mentioned on their website. I would say contact the County Record Office for advice, but the staff are always extremely busy and may only have time to briefly answer a precise question.

I see on the A2A website that there is a deposit at the Worcestershire Record Office at County Hall of about forty19th century documents including deeds, wills and papers of the Davis and Lilly families relating to property in Lion Walk and Friar Street. I might have time to look at them in November, but perhaps SKS could look sooner!

HTH

Nemo

[jillruss]

Wow! Thanks for your input Nemo and Willow.

I've never pursued the idea of trying to find any of Charles' siblings in Worcester on the 1861 census before - it might be worth a try because I certainly haven't found any of them in Aberdeen. Their parents both died in Aberdeen in 1848 within a couple of weeks of each other ( I think there was a cholera epidemic) and I suppose I assumed that the family had gone their separate ways.

I seem to remember it was impossible to read who Charles was working for in Banchory Devenick on the 1851 census.

I've never been able to find out what connection there was to the 2 marriage witnesses were either!

By the time of the 1861 census Charles was a gardener/domestic servant and they were living in Powick with 2 children and 2 boarders.

I think probably the next move is to see if I can find any of Charles or Jane's siblings in Worcester in 1861.

Thanks again for the advice.

Jill

[Willow 4873]

Good luck lets us know how you get on

Willow x

[StefanJarkowski]

FYI
Lilly's Buildings were a terrace row cottages built in the 1830s at the rear of (then) Sidbury, but now part of Friar St.  It appears that they had a single landlord ('Lilly'?). A 1890's plan shows a terrace of 9 cottages accessed by a covered passageway ('Ginnel') from Sidbury.  The plan fails to show any external latrines of wash-house(s), but an aerial photo indicates such a block at the rear of the cottages. These cottages don't appear to have been the subject of any Council CPO and demolition order which cleared away many such court developments. Instead, the buildings may have been instead sold large and expanding garage ('Holloway's'), sometime in the early 1930s. The buildings were then demolished and replaced by a large garage workshop that occupied the whole of the site.  The garage was in turn cleared and the whole development is now part of a cinema.