My paternal grandfather James Aaron Stocking was born just after the turn of the 20th century into a family where most of the menfolk worked in the building trades, as brickies, builders, house decorators, plumbers, gas fitters, foremen and so on. He himself did many of these jobs through the housing booms of the 1920s-1930s, working for a family firm – W Stocks & Sons, in Bethnal Green. Sometime before or after World War II, he started his own business, J Stocks & Sons. What do family photos and online records tell us about his life and work?

As a backdrop to the family occupations, The Guardian has a brief history of British housing which notes that:

At the end of the first world war, Britain was a nation in which almost 80% of people rented their homes, almost all from private landlords. Concern about the poor standards of the housing stock led the prime minister, David Lloyd George, to promise a “land fit for heroes” for the homecoming Tommies.

The Guardian Brief History of British Housing

Early years

He was born on 20 May 1901 at 268 St James Road, Camberwell, London and as a boy was known as Jimmy, then later Jim. He was named after his father, James Aaron Stocking, who was a Paper Hanger at the time. His mother registered his birth, recorded as S.C. (Susan Caroline) Stocking, formerly Hill.

He was christened at St Philip’s Church, Avondale Square, London on 5 June 1901. There was a family story that all first-born boys in the Stocking line were called James Aaron … but my family explorations showed that wasn’t quite true.

At the time of the 1911 census, Jim is enumerated as the nine year old son of James Aaron and Susan Stocking at 16 Beechfield Road, Catford, London. He is still at school, as is his seven year old sister Susan. The census form shows that their household comprised three rooms (excluding sculleries, bathrooms); they actually shared the building with other members of the family, but these three rooms were for their own use.

A decade later, at the time of the 1921 census, Jim is still at home with his parents, by now working as a ‘Grainer, Marbles’ for W Stocks & Sons. This would have been quite a skilled job, painting a faux finish imitating marble on furniture, walls and other surfaces. It is now regarded as an endangered craft (see more at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/graining-and-marbling/).

Wedding bells

Jim married twice. On Boxing Day 1927 he married a young widow, Edith Florence Massey, at St Mary’s Church, Lewisham. His father was one of the witnesses to the marriage; Edith’s father, Charles James Herring, was the other. On the certificate, James Aaron senior is shown as a Builder (his son is described as a Decorator), while Edith’s father was a ‘foreman’, so they perhaps met through their fathers’ work in the building trade. Edith died ten months after the marriage of acute nephritis, a disease of the kidneys. Her widower registered her death and is then described as a Builder’s Foreman.

On 7 July 1929, Jim married Jessie Ephgrave (who was to become my grandmother) at the same church in Lewisham. His residence is given as his parents’ home, 16 Beechfield Road, Catford. His father is described as a Foreman on the certificate, as is he. He was 28, she was 27. In the photo on their wedding day, James is the man with a moustache standing between the two bridesmaids; his bride is seated in front of them.

The photo of their wedding party (above) is probably taken either in the back garden of Beechfield Road, or that of 32 Courthill Road, Lewisham, which was Jessie’s home. The latter were probably modest houses, like no.33 opposite, seen on Google Street View. The ‘even numbers’ side has flats which were already built when I was growing up in Hither Green. My Great-grandmother Susan Caroline Stocking (née Hill) is standing far left in the photo; my great-grandfather James Aaron Stocking may be the man with a moustache standing far right, although this identification is not proved.

The adult bridesmaids are my great aunts Susan Caroline Stocking (standing on the groom’s left) and Dolly Hannah Stocking (on the bride’s right). The child bridesmaids are the bride’s younger sisters Gladys and Elsie Ephgrave.

They lived much of their married life in Brightside Road, Hither Green, Lewisham SE13 and are recorded there in the 1939 Register, taken for national identity and rationing purposes at the outbreak of World War II. At the time, Jim’s occupation is shown as Builder’s Foreman (Plumber).

Making a home in South London

Housebuilding peaked at 350,000 a year in the mid-1930s as a prolonged period of cheap money prompted a private-sector building boom. With land and labour plentiful, and official interest rates pegged at 2%, this was the era of the three-bedroom semi and the expansion of cities out into the suburbs

The Guardian Brief History of British Housing

The Stocking family stayed put in South London, moving from Catford to nearby Hither Green, already a suburb of turn-of-the-century terraces and villas with gardens. Jim and his father, uncles and cousins continued to work in the building trades in and around the area, the War creating more need for repair and redecoration, before larger scale re-building in the 1950s.

Like many London children, my father was evacuated during World War II, but his parents regularly visited him and he had fond memories of that time. The impact of war was keenly felt in the neighbourhood; one of dad’s friends was killed in the Bombing of Sandhurst School in 1943, not far from their home in Brightside Road, Hither Green, and Jim’s aunt Charlotte (his mother’s sister) was killed with seven other members of her family in a V2 bombing in Deptford in 1945.

The photo above shows my grandfather and his neighbours on the opposite side of the road to their house, celebrating the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Jim built up his own business further down the street at no. 29A, towards Hither Green station, under the name J. Stocks & Sons (below).

With my Dad and uncle Ken (the ‘sons’) he worked on numerous building projects, small and large, throughout the 1940s-1960s. In 1952, they built a three-bedroom detached house that was to be my childhood home in Brightside Road; both my grandparents and uncle and aunt all lived in the same street. The 1960s was …

The decade that saw combined private and council housebuilding hit a postwar peak of just over 400,000 a year. This was the era of the tower block, with quantity coming at the expense of quality.

The Guardian Brief History of British Housing

The photo above shows us all gathered for a celebration in about 1964. Grandad Jim is seated far left. I am sitting on my aunty Audrey’s lap, my Mum standing behind, holding my brother. My grandmother Jessie is sitting on her right. My Dad is standing left, and my uncle Ken is seated left front, with my cousin Paul on his lap. By this time, shortly before his death, Jim’s building firm had collapsed, and he filed for bankruptcy. My Dad obtained work as a steel buyer for a large factory in Deptford, my uncle continuing in ‘the trade’ as a Gas Heating Engineer.

Jim and Jessie loved travelling around Europe and going to dinner-dances, their home decorated with souvenir flamenco dancing dolls and photos from their Swedish friends. Here they are in the late ’50s/early ’60s:

Jim died at their home in Wellmeadow Road, Catford, on 25 July 1965, his death registered in Lewisham. He was 64 years old and they had been married for 36 years. The cause of death was coronary thrombosis. Heart disease unfortunately is the cause of death of many of my ancestors.