Friday Funny - Sir T.W. White's Ball

The (Old) Exchange

With Christmas just around the corner, many of us will be shopping and cooking for family gatherings. and feeling pushed for time.

Spare a thought then, for the people involved behind the scenes at Sir T.W. White's ball in Nottingham in February 1849.

Held at The (Old) Exchange, Nottingham, it involved enormous floristry displays, lace draped to imitate a tent and the most able ball room band in the country.

The two hundred and fifty plus guests arrived at 9pm, dancing began at 10pm and continued until 5am the following morning.  During this time the guests had access to the Refreshment Room, which offered wines, liquors, confectionery and fruits.

In addition to this The Supper Room offered the following:

This makes Christmas lunch for ten pale into insignificance!



Picture Credit: http://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/nottinghams-old-market-square/
Newspaper Credit: 08 February 1849 - Nottinghamshire Guardian - Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England

Wedding Wednesday - Percival Richardson & Edith Waby

One of my (many!) on-going areas of research is that of the Richardson brothers and how they faired during the First World War.

My 2x Great-Uncle Percival Richardson was with the Royal Engineers in WW1 and I know he survived the war but I didn't know what happened to him afterwards.

A few weeks ago, I found a BMD (Births, Marriages and Deaths) reference, via FreeBMD, to a possible marriage for him.  Certificates cost £9.25 at the moment, so it's an expensive mistake if it isn't the correct person, although sometimes you have to order an incorrect one just to eliminate possible matches.

Fortunately when it arrived it showed his father as Robert and the address I have for the family at Berridge Road West in Nottingham also matched.

Percival married Edith Waby at the Registry Office, Nottingham, on the 31st August 1922.  Her father was John William Waby, a gardener.

As well as moving my research on Percival a little further, the marriage certificate has also helped solve another problem. The witnesses to the marriage were William and Robert (Fred) Richardson, two of Percival's older brothers. Up to finding this information I hadn't known whether William survived the war.  I had found a possible match in the Lincolnshire Regiment who died in 1914, but hadn't been able to corroborate this.

So now I know he survived I can carry on looking.

(Follow Up Post)

Mappy Monday - The Manchester Percivals. Part II

To follow up from my earlier post, I have tracked down my 4x Great-grandfather George Percival in the 1841 census.

He was 55 and living at 4 Chadwick Street, off London Road in Manchester, with Hannah Percival, probably his wife, and Samuel Percival, most likely their son.

Chadwick Street no longer exists, but London Road is still there, part of it is the A6 which runs through the centre of Manchester, past the main railway station.  It's a stone's throw away from Holbrook Street, behind The Lass O'Gowrie, where George's son, also George (Jnr), was living in 1861 with his wife Sarah and young family.

Map from Google Maps

The Percivals appeared to move in and around Chadwick Street; George (Jnr) was married from No. 15 in December 1841, although in the census earlier in the year he was living in the Union Workhouse.  In the 1851 census he was in Holbrook Street, but in 1861 he was back in Chadwick St, at No. 12a. I know from researching my previous post what a run down and deprived area this was in this time.

Now I've found the 1841 census for George and Hannah, I'll look for more details of their lives. It'll be more difficult to find George, as the 1841 census reveals that he wasn't born in the county of Lancashire.  I also have the Annett side of this family to research further.