High Street

One of the most interesting items in William’s will was  the fact that he ordered “thirty Shillings of lawful money Current in Great Britain for ever to the Clerk of the Parish Church of Tytherington aforesaid forever to keep my Tomb in the said ChurchYard in good order and repair”..... “nor shall the Clerk or any other person Suffer any body or person but myself to be put or buried in my said Grave or Tomb And the said Clerk for the time being shall at the end of every three Years paint or cause to be painted my said Tomb with white Lead and Oil and the letters on my said Tomb to be kept in a good State and preservation and then the Clerk afterwards to make the demand upon the Landlord or tenant for the thirty shillings and when the expenses of painting are paid the remainder of the thirty shillings I give to the Clerk as his property for his care and attention to my said Tomb.”   The parish clerk at the time was his second cousin Samuel Shield.

Nathaniel Shield - in William's Shield's will dated 1826 he leaves his home in the High Street to Nathaniel Shield (alias Shill). 

Nathaniel was born in Tytherington about 1782 and baptised there on 6th June 1784.  We are advised by Sue Stead that Nathaniel was the second son of James Shield, the parish clerk of Tytherington for 46 years and his wife, Sarah Luce.  James and Sarah had eleven children.  In 1817 Nathaniel married Sarah May from Elberton in St James Church in Bristol.  They had one son, William, born in 1818 when the family's address was at 'The Heath'.

Nathaniel's name appears twice in court records.  On 17th September 1829 Nathaniel Shill was convicted of 'Shooting a hare at Kington Tything, Almondsbury, when not qualified'.  Nathaniel pleaded his innocence, but he was found guilty and fined £5.  On 6th December 1834 Nathaniel Shield, a yeoman of Thornbury was charged with 'Trespassing in search and pursuit of game at Littleton upon Severn.  He was fined £1, to be paid to Benjamin Collins, overseer of the poor of Littleton, and 10/- costs to the complainant, or one calendar month in Lawford's Gate House of Correction.

In 1841 Nathaniel and Sarah were living at Kington and 'Nath' was described as a farmer.  Nathaniel's property in the High Street was let out to tenants.  At the time of the 1840 Tithe Survey the tenant was Elizabeth Weeks.  In the 1841 census the house was unoccupied.

By the 1851 census Nathaniel and Sarah had given up their farm and moved into the High Street house.  The census describes Nathaniel Shield as a landed proprietor aged 68 and Sarah aged 58 from Elberton.  They were living with a niece, Sarah Drew a dressmaker aged 19 and a visitor, Emma Walker aged 29 from Thornbury.

The 1861 and 1871 censuses show Nathanial and Sarah still living there.  Nathaniel was a retired farmer.  He died on 19th February 1873 aged 90.  The 1881 census shows the house was occupied by Sarah Shield, a retired farmer's widow aged 88 and a lodger, Harriett Harvey, an unmarried milliner and dressmaker aged 65 from Banwell.  Sarah died in June quarter 1883 aged 90.

On 18th October 1883 William Parker Barrett sold the property to Ann Edwards for £235.  William was living in Liverpool at the time and had been living there as early as 1858 when he married for the first time.  He was a customs officer.  We are not sure how the property had came to be sold by William.  He might have been the executor of the Shield estate, although we have not found anything to confirm this.  William was born about 1832 in Chipping Sodbury.  He married his first wife in West Derby (Liverpool) in 1858.  She was  Ellen Jane Taslem Willins according to FreeBMD website.  The census records from 1861 show he was living in Liverpool onwards.  He married his second wife, Emma Holland Williams in 1869.  He died on 28th February 1895 aged 63.  At the time of his death he was living at Cambridge Road, Great Crosby. 

Ann Edwards - bought the property from William Parker Barrett for £235 on 18th October 1883.  The house was occupied by Miss Harriett Harvey at the time of the sale. 

Ann was baptised on 27th March 1842, the daughter of Henry Prewett, a cordwainer and his wife, Harriett.  In the 1851 census the family lived in St John Street.   In 1861 Ann was living with her sister, Elizabeth a staymaker aged 22 in the High Street.  Ann was a dressmaker aged 19.

By 1871 Ann had married George Edwards.  We haven't been able to trace the marriage.  George was an officer in the Mercantile Marine and was away from home at most of the censuses.  In the 1871 census Ann was living with her married sister, Elizabeth Hawkins in Pullins Green.  Ann was still working as a dressmaker. 

By the time of the 1881 census George and Ann had three children: Austin George born June 1875, Maud Mary born in December 1876 (by which time George was a ship's officer) and Amy Florence born in 1880.  The children were living with Ann in 75 High Street.  George is not at home at the time of the census, but Ann had a visitor, Fanny M Chambers aged 9 born in Alveston.  

By 1883 they had bought 69 High Street.  Ann's name is shown on the purchase documents and mortgage documents, but although George's name is shown as the owner and occupant in the Rate Books of 1885, 1887and 1890 he appears to have been away at sea at the times of the census.  The 1891 census shows Ann living in the house with Maud a school monitor aged 14 and Amy a scholar aged 10  Ann is shown as having no occupation.  A provision merchant, Henry M Councell aged 23 was boarding with Ann.  Ann's son, Austin has moved away and has become a railway clerk living in Charles near Plymouth.

On 14th October 1884 Ann had arranged a mortgage for £200 with George Boyt, a retired butcher from Tytherington.  By 1897, Ann had paid the interest on the loan, but the capital sum of £200 was still outstanding.  On 2nd March 1897 Ann sold the property to Francis Gayner for £325 which allowed her to repay the £200 owing.

We understand that Ann and George may have lived lived apart after George retired from the merchant navy.  The 1901 census shows Ann was living with her cousin, Fanny E. Wise in her house at 6 Grove Road, Redland in Bristol.  Also living there were Ann's daughters, Maud and Amy, and her unmarried sister, Florence Prewett, a clerk aged 46.  The census shows that Ann, Maud and Amy had no occupation.  Austin was now married and living with his wife, Minnie at 6 Beckhampton Road, Kingston on Thames and Austin was working as a telegraph clerk.  Minnie's maiden name was Minnie Edwards Prewett and she appears to have been Austin's first cousin.

George died in 1923.  Ann died about 1926 when she was living with her daughter, Maud, in Croyden.

Francis Gayner - on 2nd March 1897 the property was purchased by Francis Gayner for £325.  Francis never lived in the house and he let the house out to tenants.  He was a draper trading at City House, High Street.  Click here to read more

Marjorie Ann Smith - on 12th July 1919, Marjorie bought the property from Francis Gayner for £300.  Marjorie was the daughter of Francis Gayner and his second wife, Lucy (nee Harriss).  She was born on 13th December 1887.  Click here to read more

The Allens - on 4th February 1930 Arthur Allen, a tailor, purchased the property from Marjorie Ann Smith for £540.  At the time of the purchase the property was unoccupied.

Arthur Allen was born in 1880, the son of John Allen, a bootmaker and his wife, Elizabeth.  He was baptised at the Independent Chapel on 20th October 1880 at the same time as his twin sister, Amy.  The Allens lived at 5 Castle Street at the time of Arthur's birth, but then moved next door to 3 Castle Street.  By 1901 they moved across the road to 14 The Plain. 

Records in Gloucester Records Office show that Arthur worked as a tailor for G. B. Symes, the drapers and outfitters during the First World War.  Arthur was living in Castle Street at that time and he applied for exemption from war service.   We suspect that he was living in the same house at 14 The Plain, often considered to be part of Castle Street.

Arthur Allen married Mabel Beatrice Long in Thornbury in September quarter 1916.  They had at least two children: Irene Louisa born on 19th April 1917 and Clifford John born on 6th July 1919.

Arthur was also a Sunday School teacher at the Independent Chapel (now the United Reformed Church) which is where we copied the photograph of Arthur shown on the left.

The records of the Council Infants School show that the family were living somewhere in the High Street in 1920 and 1922 when Irene and Clifford started there.  Mabel was a teacher at the school at the time her children attended there.  Arthur and Mabel are missing from the 1926 Rate Book, but the Council Upper School records show that when Clifford started there in 1926 the family were living in the High Street.  We assume that the Allens were sharing a house with another family.  Clifford left the Council School in 1930 to go to the Grammar School.  The records of the Grammar School shows that Clifford was in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC).

The minutes of the Parish Council in 1937 show that Arthur proposed that an extra lamp be placed in St John Street where the gas lamp had originally stood.  This suggests that he was a Parish Councillor at the time.

Arthur died at Thornbury Hospital on 27th March 1965.  Mabel carried on living in 69 High Street.  She died on 5th September 1979 and was buried in  Herne Bay, Kent.

Irene - on 20th April 1953 Irene was appointed a teacher at the Council School.  She had gone to the school herself in 1922 when her mother was a teacher there.  The records of Thornbury Grammar School show that Irene Allen was a prefect at Thornbury Grammar.  She gained her Higher School Certificate in 1934-35 and was a graduate of Whitelands College London in 1938-39.  'Miss Allen' as she was known, both in the school and in the Town, was an experienced teacher having taught the children of service personnel in Germany and Egypt.  At the end of 1961 Irene was appointed Deputy Head.  She was noted for wearing twin sets with pearls and checked skirts and brown brogues and she served at the school until June 1977.  For a further 20 years she continued her contact with young people by giving private piano lessons in her home.  In Tony Cherry's book 'The History of a School' he recalls Irene was 'A gentle soul of a bygone era who is remembered with great affection by former pupils'. 

Irene continued to live at 69 High Street until her death on 3rd September 2004.  She was buried in the same grave as her parents in Thornbury Cemetery.  Her brother, Clifford, is included on the memorial inscription on grave although he died in Torquay in 2002 and was cremated there.  A tree has been planted at the top of the Mundy Playing Fields with a small plaque as a memorial to Irene.

The house was bought by Barrie and Ann Marie Dagless in May 2006.

Click here to read about the other OCCUPANTS of the house

Click here to read about the SPECIAL FEATURES of the house

This page was last updated: 10/04/2012