Common Edge, Market Drayton

[Jimson]

Has anyone ever heard of a street or house name "Common Edge" or similar in Market Drayton?  It was given in a 1943 death certificate though "Common" is not 100% certain owing to poor handwriting. I'm pretty sure of "Edge".

I can't find anyything likely in handy street list at http://www.proviser.com/regional/towns/market_drayton/street_maps/

[Morganllan]

Could it have been Common Edge as in the edge of the common?
This site talks about enclosure of Little Drayton Common

1851: Enclosure of Little Drayton Common which created sites for a recreation ground, allotments, the National School, the new workhouse and several new roads. It was a trigger to the growth of Little Drayton. The National Religious Census recorded that there were 4,026 church or chapel attendances on 30th March out of a population of 4,947.

seems a strange address, unless they were travellers 

[Jimson]

Yes, I'd thought of a Common but it's odd that the death certificate address (4 Common Edge if I read Common right) does not exist in the list of Market Drayton street names.  I'll just have to go there and ask around.  In pubs, for example.

[ChrisWibs]

Hi

Sorry to have to say it appears that address was the old Workhouse. It was supposed to be an address to conceal the fact that people had been born or died in the workhouse and was not a real address.
I am a little surprised at the date you mention as my grandfather died in the old workhouse in 1950, by then called Quarry House a National Assistance Institution which many of the old workhouses became after 1930 and his death certificate indicates he was of Quarry House. I am looking into this further.
Quarry House is near Little Drayton though as I was directed to Little Drayton to find grandad's grave and that of his sister.
 

[Jimson]

Oddly enough I heard from another contact today that "4 Common Edge" was the euphemistic street address of the workhouse created to disguise its function.  I don't know if that was standard practice for workhouses.

My ancestor died at 4 Common Edge in 1943 according to his death certificate (though his home address is given as Shrewsbury) by which time the workhouse as an institution if not a building had gone, having been replaced in about 1930 by a public assistance institution known at some point, presumably after 1943, as Quarry House. 

Why the son of an old wealthy aristocratic family should have ended up destitute is a mystery.

Many thanks, Chris.

[ChrisWibs]

Presumably your heard off SFHS website? 

[Jimson]

Yes, indeed.  Had some help there, too.  A lively forum.

[ChrisWibs]

Hi again,

I find it odd that some 13 years after the workhouse system was abolished that the euphemistic address was used.

My grandfather died in Quarry house in 1950 and I know that he also lived there. On the certificate everything is down as Quarry House. It was in fact my father who did the registering, rather than someone from the institution which may explain it.

I have a friend whose grandfather also died there in 1952. In fact he and my grandfather were connected by marriage and would certainly have known each other.  I will ask her what it says on the certificate.

All being in Quarry House at the time you mention would have meant is that your ancestor couldn't afford to be in a private home or hospital, not necessarily that he was destitute.

[Jimson]

Hello, Chris.  Just tying up loose ends etc.  Market Drayton's Quarry House, a National Assistance Institution, succeeded the Union Workhouse in 1930 but was it a still a workhouse in all but name in 1943 when my great-grandfather died there? I've read that such Institutions were abolished eventually, certainly when the NHS was created.
Brian