My maternal grandmother lived to the grand age of 101. In her 80s, she told of being Nanny for the children of well-known ‘theatricals’ in London and being starved by another employer. A man climbed through her bedroom window when she was working for an elderly couple in Biggleswade, leading to her appearance as a witness in court. Could I find any contemporary evidence of any of these stories? Remarkably, yes.

A girlhood in Girtford

Elizabeth Sarah Fage’s birth in 1901 was registered by her mother Alice Fage, six weeks after she was born. The birth certificate (below) shows that she was born at home at Girtford Siding, Sandy, on 30 October 1901 and that her mother’s maiden name was Cade. Her father is recorded as William John Fage, a Gardener’s Labourer.

Extract from birth certificate for Elizabeth Sarah Fage, 1901 (GRO)

‘Girtford Siding’ refers to a halt on the Bedford and Cambridge Railway which was used for the transport of vegetables, and had opened in 1862, according to the Disused Railways website and Wikipedia. In conversation with my Mum, Nana Brown said that she was born at White Cottage, Girtford, but I have not been able to find out exactly where this was.

Girtford was a hamlet in the ancient parish of Sandy, but, as the information at The Community of Girtford website hosted by Bedford Council notes, “During the 20th century the two settlements grew together and since about 1910 Girtford is, effectively, just a part of the town of Sandy, with no clear boundaries”.

Elizabeth Sarah Fage was born a few months after the 1901 census was taken, so her first census appearance comes a decade later, in 1911. By that time, the family of eight is living in three rooms at London Road, which was mainly in the former hamlet of Girtford, but is by then recorded as Sandy. She is enumerated aged nine and has two older brothers (Albert Victor Fage (13) and Jesse William Fage, 12) and three younger siblings (Jim Fage, Susan Elizabeth Fage and Annie Vera Fage, the latter only six months old). According to Nana, they moved to 10 Longfield Road, Sandy, later that year.

Looking after the children of tailors, theatricals and others

In January 1915 Beth, as she was known, worked for a short time as Nursemaid to a six month old boy (son of Mr and Mrs Cook). She didn’t like it very much because she missed her family even though, in her own words, Mr & Mrs Cook were lovely people. After returning to her home in Longfield Rd, a Mrs George Western who, with her husband, ran a tailors and shoe shop in High Street Sandy, came to ask if she would look after her two children, a girl and boy, Marjorie and William. Elizabeth stayed with the family for 2 ½ years. When she was offered the post Elizabeth earned the princely sum of 2s 6d. and when she left their employ was earning 3s 6d. While working for the Westerns, she started courting Horace (Harry) Brown, her friend Emily’s brother, who was keen on Beth’s brother Albert Fage.

Mr George Western, Tailor, was fairly easy to trace. In the 1901 census, George E Western is aged 18 and working as a tailor in his parents’ tailors and drapers business in Sandy (though not at High Street). Ten years later, he is enumerated at High Street, Sandy as a Tailor (Dealer). He records that he has been married for three years, to Beatrice Maude. At the time of the 1921 census, George Edward Western is enumerated as a Tailor at 4 High Street, Sandy. He is 38 and his wife, Beatrice Maude Western, is 35. They have two children, Marjorie Maud, aged eight (b.1913), and William George, aged five (b.1916). They have a general servant, Gwendoline Endersby.

Emily Brown, who was working in London, later helped her get a job in Golders Green, looking after two boys, Alan and Tony, sons of Robert and Roma Carr, also known as the Barley-corn players. Beth said Mrs Carr had a lovely voice, and she learned all their songs while they rehearsed. Unfortunately, her mother didn’t like her working for ‘theatricals’, so she found a live-in post at Platts Lane, Hampstead, looking after Jackie, the young son of another ‘lovely lady’, Mrs Robinson.

“As well as being an active recording artist, Robert Carr also sang extensively in concerts and also participated in some operatic performances in his youth. He was also for a while the proprietor of a “Concert Party” called the “Georgians” which he later sold to the ticket agency company, Keith Prowse. His wife, Ruth Carr (née Cash) had her own band called the Roma Castille (later Roma Carr) Gypsy Band.” jabw_vintage/78rpmcarr (r2ok.co.uk)

Wikipedia has an entry for Robert Carr which makes no mention of his wife, but does show that he had a son, Anthony Carr (b1916), who went on to be a popular crime novelist.

This newspaper cutting from 1919 gives an indication of the type of entertainment they provided.

The Era, 13 August 1919 (British Newspaper Archive
 at FindMyPast)

A burglary in Biggleswade

After the war Elizabeth and Emily moved from London to Bedford to be near their boyfriends. Elizabeth had two jobs, but didn’t stay long in either of them. She was first a general servant at Chaucer Road, Bedford, and later worked for a Mrs Edwards, a widow with two children whose husband had died from malnutrition. She left this job because of lack of food which had made her ill, and spent six months recuperating. I haven’t found any information on any of these people or places, but her next job – or at least a burglar’s intrusion into it – is well documented.

Elizabeth worked for an elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Franklin, at Biggleswade, for 2½ years. She told of a nasty experience she had while there, aged 21, when a burglar came into her bedroom.

The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives Record Service (BLARS) keeps the petty session records for Biggleswade court and the quarter sessions for Bedford, but I couldn’t find any mention of the Franklins’ burglary. They were, however, a well-known local family of millers and the archivists had done some research on the couple’s only son, who did not see active service overseas in WW1 because of a football injury to his knee in his youth, only to be badly injured in a motorcycle accident whilst undertaking war-related work as a civilian. 

The 1901 census has Henry Franklin, Miller, Coal & Corn Merchant at Mill Lane, Biggleswade with his wife Alice and daughter Winifred. Ten years later, in 1911, they are at Ivel House, Biggleswade, where ‘elderly’ Mr Franklin, aged 60, is still a Miller, living with his wife and daughter, aged 30. I haven’t found the family in the 1921 census, although Mr and Mrs Franklin were both still alive to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in 1929.

With more newspapers now searchable online from the British Newspaper Archive via FindMyPast, I tried again to see if the burglary or the court case were mentioned, and found the article on the left.

Biggleswade Chronicle, 1 December 1922, British Newspaper Archive at FindMyPast.

The presiding judge found it ‘very queer’ that Frederick Burns should enter the house by climbing 12ft to the window, and it transpired after he was found guilty that he had previous convictions for theft. He had also been discharged from a mental institution. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour, the judge adding  that he hoped when he was released he would try to live a better life.

Google streetview shows Ivel House on Mill Lane, Biggleswade as an imposing, red brick, double-fronted villa, most recently home to the Brambley Tots Nursery. The adjacent mill was converted into flats in the 1980s; a plaque detailing its history and Mr Henry Franklin’s ownership is on the wall.

The whole affair of burglary and trial left Elizabeth very scared. By her own account, she quickly left her job to get married.

My grandfather Horace Brown asked Elizabeth’s father if he could marry her, and he said “yes if you promise to look after her, she has always been a good girl to her mother.”

Elizabeth Sarah Fage married Horace Brown on 24 February 1923. But that’s another story.