Introduction

In the first part of the companion article, Craxford & sons, Fruiterers of Pentonville: Into Islington, we traced a branch of the Craxford family from its agricultural roots in rural Northamptonshire to its new home in Pentonville, north London. As we found, the family developed a long association with the greengrocery trade which was to continue with the Craxford name well into the 20th century. In this article, we will see how the business was perpetuated along the female line as well.

Elements of these families proved to be quite mobile, staying at any given address for only short periods. Whilst the decennial Victorian census returns for London have provided the major staging points, much further and sometimes unexpected information has been gained from the Parish Registers held by the London Metropolitan Archives (1).

The Hughes of Islington

Little is known of the ancestry of John Hughes. The census return of 1841 suggests that he was aged 31 years but other clues indicate that he was at least ten years older than that. He met Louisa Ann Craxford, the daughter of William Craxford and Ann Easthop when the family were living in Pulteney Street. This was a relatively new housing development north of the Regent's Canal, Islington. John and Louisa were married on December 12th 1824 at the Parish Church of St Pancras, a building on the Euston Road which had been consecrated barely two years before.

They initially set up home in Tonbridge Street, St Pancras, where John worked as a baker. Their first son, William John, was born on September 7th 1825 and was baptised the following May at St Pancras Church. Within a year, John moved his family to Joseph Street, Islington and started trading as a greengrocer. In early 1829, Louisa became pregnant again, this time with twins. The babies were born on November 26th: a son, John and a daughter Louisa Ann. They were baptised together at St Mary's Church, Islington in August 1830. Sadly, John died during childhood.

A further change of address to Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell followed where Louisa gave birth to her third son, Richard. He was baptised at St James Church, Clerkenwell, on October 13th 1833. By the time the 1841 census was conducted, the family had moved yet again, this time to 8 Suffolk Street, Pentonville when John re-established the business. In the same decade, John, too, passed away.

For some time, Louisa continued to trade in Suffolk Street helped by her two sons. However the census of 1851 shows that they had moved to new premises in Copenhagen Street. She was listed as the proprietor in a trade directory of 1856 (3). The property was a stone's throw away from her parents' family home in Pulteney Street. This arrangement allowed her brother, Nathaniel, and his family to move in the opposite direction into the house at 8 Suffolk Street and take over the existing greengrocery and fruiterers business.

Enter the Shardalows

Drake Shardalow was born on October 31st 1797 in Norton Subcourse, a hamlet some nine miles south west of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. His father, Francis, was a farmer. His somewhat unusual given name had come from his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Drake. Nothing is known of his early years but sometime during the second decade of the 19th century, he started working as a carpenter and made the journey to London.

He took up residence in Islington where he met Elizabeth Jackaman. They were married at St James Church, Clerkenwell on March 22nd 1824. Immediately after the wedding, they set up home in Pulteney Street, close to where William and Martha Craxford lived. This was where their eldest son, William Francis, was born.

Over the next fifteen years, the records suggest that they had seven more children (3 boys, 4 girls), although two died in infancy. By 1841, they had moved the short distance south to Seabrook Place, a small terrace off White Lion Street in Pentonville. It was there that Elizabeth died. She was buried in Islington Cemetery in February 1842. Their second son, Henry Ezra, was destined to become a mariner.

Drake did not remarry. By 1860, he had moved with his three daughters, Sarah Anne, Susannah and Emma, to Salisbury Street, Hoxton, North London. By coincidence, this house was midway between the City Workhouse (to the West) where Nathaniel James Craxford spent his final days and the Britannia Theatre (to the East) where the other branch of the London Craxfords held sway (see: The Craufords of Hoxton).

Into Paddington ... 1

William, Louisa Hughes' older son, did not remain in the family business. Although he was still working as a greengrocer at the time of his marriage, this was soon to change. He met Eliza, the daughter of whitesmith Thomas Allen, who lived in Chapel Street, Pentonville (A whitesmith is someone who works with soft metals such as tin or pewter. Their work is usually done "cold" rather than at a forge - Ed). They were married at St James Church, Clerkenwell on October 29th 1846. They spent their early years at his mother's house in Copenhagen Street. During that time, they had two children, both baptised at St Mary's Church, Islington. First born daughter, Harriet, died in infancy in 1847. Their son, William Alfred Hughes, was born in March 1850.

In 1853, William moved his family to Paddington, first taking up residence in Clarendon Terrace. Whilst there, Eliza become pregnant again and on September 27th 1854, their daughter Louisa was born. A clue to the decision to make the move from Islington may come from the parish register of St Mary on Paddington Green Church where Louisa was baptised which declares William to be a painter. He may have been lured by the opportunities generated by the area's rapid development. By the time of the 1861 census, the family were living in Warrington Gardens, a house which backed onto the open fields of Paddington Green to the north and west. William now had his own house decorating business and employed two men.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Paddington was a thinly populated rural area on the Harrow Road to the north west of London (4, 5). The developed boundary of London had largely stopped in Marylebone on the eastern side of the Edgeware Road. Several proposed arterial transport routes added major impetus to the opening up of the area. The Grand Junction Canal was an existing major waterway system for the transportation of goods and raw materials running from Northamptonshire to the River Thames near Brentford. Conceived by Act of Parliament in 1793, a series of branch canals were planned and dug over the next thirty years. One of these, the Paddington arm, opened in 1801, divided the area in two and laid wharfs and warehouses along its banks.

Much of the land in Paddington was under control of the church and the increased activities brought by the canal opened up the district to development and the influx of settlers. Plans for the north of the canal, initially called the Paddington Estate and ultimately becoming Maida Vale, were on a grand scale with long avenues and ringed with wide crescents. Houses were to be large, detached, stuccoed and in an Italianate style. Progress in the first half of the century was slow but accelerated in the 1850s.

Building quickened in the second half of the century leading to a greater mix of housing types and higher density in some areas. Maida Vale was considered wealthy and upper middle class. The area also became noted for its influx of Jewish residents where, in the 1880s, they formed up to 20% of the residents. By the 1890s many of the first purpose built apartment blocks in London appeared along the Edgeware Road.

A union of the families

Given their proximity, it is no surprise that the two families would have known each other and that their offspring would have played together during childhood. On November 14th 1854, Henry Ezra Shardalow married Louisa Ann Hughes at St Mary's Church, Islington. The ceremony was witnessed by his sister, Sarah Ann and her brother, William. At the time of the wedding, they were living with her mother in Copenhagen Street.

There was a considerable delay before they started their own family, presumably because of Henry's long absences at sea. Louisa became pregnant towards the end of 1860. When the 1861 census was conducted (Sunday, April 7th) she was registered as living with her aunt, Sarah Hughes, at Brewer Street, Clerkenwell. About the same time, her daughter, Louisa Ann, was born, but sadly died six weeks later.

Their first son, William Henry, was born on May 31st 1862 and baptised at St Thomas Charterhouse, Goswell Road in November. Second son, Albert George, was born in September 1865. Daughter Eliza Kate followed in October 1867. In 1871, Louisa and her three children were resident in an apartment at 14 Hatfield Street in the St Luke district of Finsbury. Louisa was earning money as a needlewoman.

Over a period of twelve months, tragedy struck the family three times. Firstly, her father in law, Drake Shardalow died on August 28th 1876. He had returned to Islington after his daughters had gone their separate ways. He was aged 79 years. After his death, Louisa moved back to Pulteney Street to be near her mother. Then in November 1876, Louisa received a letter notifying her of her husband, Henry's death at sea. This had happened eighteen months before on January 22nd 1875, when his ship, the barque "Duke of Lancaster" had been sailing in the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean.

Around Christmas the same year, Louisa became ill with a chest infection. Her condition deteriorated and she died on January 22nd 1877. She was 48 years old. Her brother, Nathaniel James Craxford's second wife Eliza Osborn was with her when she died. She was buried in Islington Cemetery the same month.

Of their children, nothing is known of the fate of William Henry Shardalow. Albert George became a voluntary care scholar at Milton Industrial School for Boys, a residential school in Gravesend, Kent whilst his sister, Eliza Kate, became an inmate at the Sailors Orphan Girls School and Home in Hampstead.

The Sailors' Orphans Girls School and Home (7, 8) had been established as an institution in the 1820s and had offices at 77 Cornhill in the City. It transferred to building at 116 FitzJohns Avenue, Hampstead which was was opened in July 1869 by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (Queen Victoria's third son). Later, it changed its name to the Royal Sailors Daughters School and Home. In 1957, the building was taken over by the Sailors' Families Society which had been founded in Hull in 1821. In the 1960s, the home was closed and the remaining inmates were transferred to Hull. The building has since been redeveloped by the local council, renamed Munro House, and has been reopened as apartments and sheltered accommodation.

Into Paddington ... 2

The area south of the Grand Junction Canal was Westbourne Green (12, 13). It remained rural until 1820 with a number of large houses and farms. At the beginning of the century, the actress Sarah Siddons lived for a time at Westbourne Farm. The original plans were for properties similar to but somewhat smaller than those on the northern bank of the canal, leading to the area being called Little Venice.

Westbourne Green was bisected in the 1830s by the construction of the Great Western Railway and the area to the south of the line became known as Westbournia. In the 1850s, villas on Westbourne Grove (its main thoroughfare) gave way to shops. In 1863, William Whiteley opened one of the first department stores in the capital and Westbourne Grove became renowned as the Bond Street of the west. This increasing commercial prosperity led to a rapid decline in social conditions in the streets north of the railway.

As the 19th century progressed, what reputation the Paddington estate may once have had as a desirable place of residence gradually declined. On the west side of Ranelagh Road, houses were sublet to weekly tenants leading to overcrowding with as many as 3.5 people to a room. Surveys in the second half of the century regularly showed 16 or more people in each house. Charles Booth (1840-1916) (14), who was to be instrumental in the development and introduction of the Old Age Pension at the beginning of the 20th century, spent several years investigating conditions and drawing up the celebrated Poverty Maps of London (15). These maps are colour coded to indicate the circumstances of the streets under review.

On Monday December 12th 1898 he took a walking tour around the area with Police Inspector Knight. In his opening remarks, he noted the area between the railway and the canal as "a deteriorating red (Middle class - well-to-do) district." His description of Chichester Street and Road reads as follows (16): "Chichester St. 4½ st(ory) shops, apts and shopkeepers living above. Chichester Road: Furnished bedrooms to let. pkbd (pink barred: Fairly comfortable - good ordinary earnings) to red. in map red". He continued to Delamere Crescent where he saw: "Bad repute. 3½ story Kept women and prostitutes. Knight knows of 3 brothels in this street. 'No good stirring them up they would only move elsewhere." He summed the area up in his closing remarks as "Red to pink barred district w of Paddinghton Green to Ranelagh Road deteriorating. More pink barred than red. Better houses than people. Good admixture of prostitutes. Brothels in Delamere Crescent. poorish mews"

Westbourne Terrace North is mentioned briefly in the walk he made on the other side of Ranelagh Road in January 1899. (17). Generally the area was described as poor mixed streets (purple) although Westbourne Terrace North achieves "pink to pink barred: Shops keeping a general servant".

Chichester Place

Meanwhile, sometime in the late 1860s, William and Eliza Hughes moved the family again again. This time they took premises at 3 Chichester Place which they opened as a greengrocer's shop. It was there where William died. In 1871, Eliza was running the business, aided by her son William Alfred. Nothing more is known of her after the census of that year.

William Alfred Hughes married 30 year old Elizabeth Diana Smither, the daughter of farmer George Smither, at Holy Trinity Church, Paddington on July 19th 1874. His sister Louisa acted as one of the witnesses. The couple continued living at Chichester Place. Their son, William Tom, was baptised on July 15th 1877. In December the following year, Louisa Hughes married engineer Noah Harley Willey at Holy Trinity Church. Her brother witnessed the ceremony. They set up home in St Mary Stratford-le-Bow where their first child, Harley, was born.

By the census of 1881, now well into her 70s, William Alfred's grandmother, Louisa Ann (Craxford) Hughes, came to live, presumably to help with the domestic chores and look after the young child. It is not known how long she stayed, for she had moved again by 1891. Elizabeth died in the autumn of 1897. Two years later, William was to marry again. His second wife was Susan (born 1861), the daughter of William Skinner, a carpenter who was originally from Devon. Prior to the marriage her family were living in Shirland Road, Paddington, and she worked as a bookkeeper. There were no children.

In due time, William Tom joined his father as an assistant in the greengrocery shop. On June 3rd 1900, he married Amy, the daughter of Plasterer James Fleming at Holy Trinity Church Paddington. After the service, they moved to an apartment a few doors away at 8 Chichester Place. At the same time, the elder William's wife's widower father, William Skinner and her niece, Louisa Skinner, moved in to share the accommodation at No. 3.

William Alfred Hughes died in the winter of 1910. Susan continued to live in the apartment over the shop with her elderly father. William Tom Hughes continued to manage the greengrocery business with his wife Amy until 1912, after which time nothing further is known of them.

Albert G Shardalow, Greengrocer

No-one knows for certain how or when Albert Shardalow became a shopkeeper. He was twelve years of age when his mother died in 1877. The place he was sent to, Milton Industrial School, had been opened two years previously in Parrock Hall, a damp and draughty old mansion on the outskirts of Gravesend. It was certified to hold 150 residents. In a curious coincidence, given what was to follow, one of the schoolmasters on the staff was a Mr Delamere. It seems likely that Albert would have left the school in the early 1880s - at the latest by his eighteenth birthday.

In 1891, he was living in Peel Road, Kilburn, with his sister, Kate and his grandmother Louisa Ann Hughes. This address was about a mile and a half to the north west of Chichester Place, the other side of Paddington Recreation Ground. Its position can be seen on this detail from the London Poverty Map. In the census of that year Albert's occupation is described as 'greengrocer shopboy'. It is not known when Louisa left her grandson William Hughes' home but the presumption is that she moved to Kilburn shortly after the 1881 census was taken to look after her young Shardalow charges. It is also possible that Louisa took the opportunity to introduce Albert to his cousin and to encourage him to work for William in his greengrocery shop.

There is a story that Albert was sent to Canada during the 1880s. He is said to have spent five years there before his return to England. This is as yet unsubstantiated but is firmly part of the family folklore. In any event, Albert had a hat which he called his 'Canada hat' which absolutely no-one was allowed to touch, let alone wear.

Albert was the first of the siblings to marry. His bride was Ellen Amelia Stone, the daughter of Emmanuel Stone. She had been born in Andover, Hampshire in 1873. At the time of the wedding, she was living nearby in Hayden Park Road but then joined Albert in Peel Road. Their first son was born there and baptised at St Luke's Church, Kilburn.

They were to move to 44 Westbourne Terrace North, which lay between Westbury Road and Ranelagh Road and just a short walk away from Chichester Place. There, Albert established his own greengrocery shop. Sister Kate went with them. Between 1893 and 1915, Albert and Ellen had nine children - four sons and five daughters. Second daughter, Louisa Ann, died before her first birthday.

Kate Shardalow married wheelwright and coach painter Percy Ronald Townley at St Paul's Church, Paddington on December 20th 1896. The ceremony was witnessed by their respective brothers, Albert Shardalow and Charles Townley. For a short time they continued to live at Westbourne Terrace. The following year, they moved on to Portnall Road, Kilburn where Kate became pregnant. Her daughter, Kate Elizabeth was born in September 1897. A second daughter, Gertrude Florence, followed in 1902.

Louisa Ann Hughes moved from Peel Road to an apartment in a tenement building in Granville Road, Kilburn. It was there that she died, aged 92 years, on March 1st 1897. The cause of death was recorded as senile decay. Kate was with her when she died and registered her death.

[Curiously, in the census of 1901, the house in Granville Road was occupied by an Albert William Young and his family. He was another greengrocer(!) - as far as we know, no relation to the families of this article - Ed]

Continued in column 2...

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The next generation

Albert George junior was born on January 24th 1893. At the age of seven, (June 5th 1900), he was enrolled at the school of Holy Trinity with St Paul's on Bishop's Bridge Road. He remained a pupil there for nearly four years. His younger brother, Henry, was born on January 25th 1895. On June 2nd 1902 (19), he joined his brother at the school of Holy Trinity with St Paul's. He was a pupil for eighteen months until both brothers transferred to St Mary Magdalene School in Ranelagh Road.

In 1911, Albert and Ellen moved their seven children and greengrocery business a few hundred yards across Ranelagh Road to 35 Delamere Crescent. Oldest son, Albert George, was already at work as a porter in a bookstore. Second son, Henry, also had work as a porter for a "provisions merchant" (grocer). The next three children, Ellen (born 1897), Percival (born 1902) and Kate (born 1905) were at school. Sidney (born 1908) and Ethel (born 1910) were at home with their mother.

In common with other buildings in the area, this was a four storey multi-occupancy property with the shop on the ground floor. Other residents included Frederick Childs (a shop assistant in an ironmongers) his wife and daughter, 67 year old widow Mary Sarah Broadie who occupied a single room, house painter William Richards and his wife, Frenchman hairdresser Jules Durand, his wife and two children and French chef Emile Chaussey, his wife and infant daughter.

Albert and Ellen had one last daughter, Lilian Mary, who was born on January 4th 1915. Both their older sons enrolled in the Army during the First World War.

Sons at war

Albert George Shardalow junior

Records of Albert's service are very sketchy but three service numbers are associated with his name. It is this which has caused some persisting confusion. He enrolled with the City of London Regiment, the Royal Fusiliers. Initially it appears he was enlisted as a private with the 25th battalion (number 3962) but was then posted to 3rd battalion. His next regimental number (7045) was issued sometime between August 16th and November 2nd 1916. The battalions were renumbered in 1917 and his new number, 253465, showed he was still with the 3rd. Later still, records suggest that he was transferred to the 4th battalion.

Where Albert was posted is not known, but the following scenario has been reconstructed from a variety of sources. During 1917, the 3rd battalion saw action in Macedonia on the Balkan Front. Up to July 1918, they moved progressively through Greece to Taranto, Italy. The battalion was then transferred to the Western Front where they were involved in the battles around Cambrai, France. The 4th battalion on the other hand spent the whole of the war on the Western Front.

The circumstances of Albert's death are not known for certain. It is known that he died on September 27th 1918 of heart failure in German hands. On that day, the 4th battalion were at Ribecourt. The French village of Ribecourt lies about 6 miles south of the town of Cambrai. This area close to the border with Belgium was in the heart of the German defensive Hindenburg Line and contained an important railway junction, the main supply route for German troops. Ribecourt had been taken in an offensive the previous year on the 20th November 1917 by the 6th Division, but at the conclusion of the Battle of Cambrai it remained on the British front line. It was lost in the German counter offensive in March 1918 and recaptured on the following 27th September.

Albert was buried at the Berlaimont Communal Cemetery Extension. This village, in the Mormal Forest midway between Cambrai (France) and Mons (Belgium) remained in German hands until November 1918. The cemetery was used for their own dead and for Allied prisoners of war. Albert's death is commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Examination of their records show a similar cemetery in the town of Aulnoye, two miles to the east (where another 4th battalion soldier had been buried on July 6th 1918). Each cemetery has about 50 war dead graves but the regiments and dates of death do not show any pattern linked to a particular action. It seems likely that these two communities were part of a chain of transit camps (Durchgangslager) which the Germans established behind the front along the Franco-Belgian border where groups of prisoners were held until there were enough of them to transport by train to main prisoner of war camps in Germany and Austria. An insight into the way that some captured men were treated in such camps is given in a series of interviews by Group Captain Frederick Winterbotham, an airman from the Royal Flying Corps, who was shot down over the German lines in 1917 near Passchendaele, Belgium (20).

The distance from Ribecourt to Berlaimont is about 35 miles. It seems unlikely that Albert would have been captured, transported that distance and died in the one day in the heat of battle and German retreat. If Albert transferred to the Western Front with the 3rd battalion in July 1918 and was posted to the 4th battalion on his arrival, that would leave a window of only a couple of months for his capture prior to September 27th. The circumstances of his mission and capture remain unknown.

Henry (Harry) Walter Shardalow

At the start of the war, Henry was working as a tyre repairer for the Dunlop Rubber Company at its depot in Bellsize Road, Kilburn. He enrolled as a gunner (106516) with the Royal Field Artillery in August 1915 at Kilburn. Whilst in training at Swanage in Dorset, he sustained a broken bone in his right hand (the second metacarpal leading to his index finger). He saw service with the Expeditionary Force in France in 1916-17 and in Italy in 1917-18. In May 1918, his rank was changed to driver. He was discharged to the Class Z Army reserve in February 1919. He still had a residual stiffness in his grip which was assessed by a War Pensions Tribunal as a 2% disability.

After his discharge from the Army, Henry moved back to his parents' house. In June 1920, he married Emma, the 23 year old daughter of Paddington mason, John Ginn. They initially set up home at 122 Lancefield Street, just over a mile away to the north west in Kilburn. Within three years, they had moved back to Delamere Crescent where they moved into an apartment on the first floor at No. 23.

Henry joined his father in the shop and when Albert retired, took over the greengrocery business. He and Emma had two daughters: Marie, born on New Years Day 1923; Joan Kathleen born 1925.

Memories of Delamere Crescent

Personal recollections of Joe Twitchen

In the late 1930s, Delamere Crescent and its surroundings was a tightly knit community. At its western end was Lord Hills Road (renamed from Ranelagh road) which ran from the bridge over the railway at one end to the bridge over the canal at the other. It was near the canal that St Mary's Church stood, whose spire dominated the area. On one corner of Delamere Crescent and Lord Hills Road was a pub called 'The Old England' and the owner at that time was a Mr Gould. He parked his Wolsely, the only car in the street, outside the pub.

We lived in the Georgian house (No. 35) next door to 'The Old England' that had Shardalow's greengrocers shop at street level. There were three more upper floors which were all tenanted. My father had been in the Machine Gun Corps during the first World War and joined the Home Guard in the Second. We lived on the top floor and below us, in separate single rooms, were Mrs Wellstead, a widow who used to loved jugged hare (oh the smell!!), and Mr Holgate, a widower, who was an ex-fireman, born in Yorkshire. My mum used to include him with our Sunday dinner. Henry Shardalow's mum lived on the next floor down, which was the first floor.

I should mention that like most local streets, houses in Delamere Crescent had a 'coal hole'. Henry used to store some vegetables in there because it was cool, I assume. Coal holes were used by the coal delivery firms who used to tip bags of coal into the hole from street level. Each floor of the house had a bell situated next to the fireplace. This was hand operated by turning the front and was connected by wire to what would have been the servants area when the place had seen better days. There was a balcony on the first floor which backed up against the wall of 'The Old England'. I distinctly remember that the whole house had only one lavatory and that was on the first floor. Henry had an orange box - they were wooden in those days - and as he picked up oranges at the markets which were individually wrapped with a tissue that was orange in colour he would remove the tissues to display the fruit and the tissues were stacked in the box in the lavatory for everyone's use.

Immediately behind the house there was a school. I do recall that the entrance to the school was in Lord Hills Road and had a sign above the entrance that said the building had a 99 year lease. As we were on the top floor of the house and slightly higher than the school, I could see into about three levels of classrooms. On the days when I was at home sick (or feigning sickness) I could see the kids in classes and teachers attending to the blackboards. Looking further to the right and past the school there was a nunnery behind high walls. This would be somewhere close to and behind where Henry Shardalow and his family lived at No. 25. From that window, I could look at the entire spire of St Mary Magdalene Church and tell the time by its clock so we did not require a clock during daylight periods.

[The school on Lord Hills Road was part of St. Mary Magdalene's Primary School. They had several buildings, for boys, girls and infants. St. Mary's Home, noted on the Paddington map of 1914, was listed in the 1911 census at Ranelagh Road as a maternity home with 24 inmates - all single. At other times it had been used as an orphanage. There were religious sisters working in the parish. They were a group of Sisters of Mercy sent out from the Community of Saint Mary the Virgin at Wantage Abbey, Oxfordshire. They did not have a convent as such but they lived in two ordinary side-by-side houses (which they called St Anne's) at 34 and 35 Delamere Terrace and worshipped in a chapel in the church. (22, 23) - Ed.]

There was a sweet shop at No. 33 (owned by the Bratazannis) which was empty except for a few bits of machinery he must have used for making ice cream. He had coin operated dispensers for Mars bars and Wrigleys Spearmint on the external walls of the shop which would have been amongst the first introduced to Britain. On the opposite side of Delamere Crescent was a dairy (shop) run by Mr Jones, then a doctor's surgery and next to him and on the opposite corner to the pub was a chemist shop run by Mr Dance. He had those very large bulbous shaped glass containers with coloured liquids in the windows for effect. Next to him but in Lord Hills Road was a 'bagwash'; a kind of early launderette.

The Robinsons lived at No. 27, and I played with Bill, their son, who was about my age. During the war, I distinctly remember us both climbing over the rubble and rummaging through the empty bomb damaged buildings which of course was dangerous but you know how kids are. I was friends with Wicks family at the top floor of that house. Dennis and I would look out of our respective windows and talk to each other ... being only wall thickness between us.

Blitz!

Eldest daughter, Ellen Amelia Shardalow (known as Nell to distinguish her from her mother) married Frederick Haynes at Holy Trinity Church on July 31st 1921. He was a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Valiant. They went to live at 33 Herries Street, Kilburn. Third son, Percival, married Jessie Louise Prater in January 1923. They had a daughter, Violet, and a son, Frank. In the 1930s they set up home across the street from the Haynes at No. 52.

Albert George Shardalow died on December 7th 1933. In his will, he left the lease for the shop and dwelling house in Westbourne Terrace North to Ellen, his wife. The business in Delamere Crescent was left to his two older sons. In the years up to the beginning of the second world war, Henry worked hard keeping the business running.

Towards the end of 1938, Henry moved his family next door into the ground floor apartment of 25, Delamere Crescent. Three years previously, Emma's youngest sister, Clara Ginn, had married Charles John Gascoyne. They moved their three young children (Audrey, 1935; Sylvia, 1937 and John 1940) into the top floor accomodation. Completing the household, Emma's younger brother, Charles George Ginn, who had married Florence Lilian Richardson in 1936, moved into the flat on the middle floor. Their son, Eric, was born in 1938.

In September 1940, coinciding with the start of the Blitz (See "Further Study" below) the government introduced the Fire Watching Order 1940. Updated and superseded by later Orders, this provided fire prevention arrangements for various classes of buildings and defined the duties of Fire Watchers. These included keeping watch for the fall of incendiary bomb and outbreak of fire in a hostile attack, taking immediate steps where practicable to control such fire, summoning necessary assistance and being in a state of readiness to undertake such duties. Henry became a Fire Watcher.

On the night of May 10th 1941, Emma's mother, Polly Ginn, was staying with the family at No. 25. Late that night, Henry had gone round to No 35 to check on his mother and the shop. In the early hours of May 11th 1941, a stick of high explosive bombs fell across Paddington and Maida Vale. One struck the BBC studios in Delaware Road. Another scored a direct hit on 25 Delamere Crescent just as Henry arrived home. He was killed instantly, his body found by the front door with the family dog lying across his chest. The bodies of his wife, Emma, and daughter, Marie, were discovered inside under the dining room table. Clara Gascoyne and her three children, Emma's mother and Florence Ginn were also killed in the blast. Although buried in the rubble, George and Eric Ginn and John Gascoyne survived. Henry and Emma's younger daughter, Joan, was not at home having been away on a bicycle trip with friends.

The damage in the street was extensive. As the house disintegrated, it brought half of the houses on either side with it. The Robson family lived in the basement flat of No. 23. The mother and daughter were killed while the father and son survived. Mrs Wells, who lived on the top floor of No. 23 was buried in rubble as the house collapsed but survived. The husband and wife who lived in the basement of No. 25 were also killed. At No.35, windows were blown out and the walls were denuded of plaster leaving the wooden laths showing.

Because of his status as a Fire Watcher, Henry, his wife and daughter are commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Rolls of Honour 1939-1945. Commissioned by a charter in February 1941, the Imperial War Graves Commission was empowered to collect and record the names of civilians who died from enemy action during World War II. The Roll consists of seven leather-bound volumes containing printed details of 66,375 fatalities. The books are kept in a case just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel, at the west end of Westminster Abbey.

The end of the business

Henry's brothers, Percival and Sidney became legal guardian to his daughter, Joan. Because the damage had rendered 35, Delamere Crescent uninhabitable, Henry's mother, Ellen, moved to Herries Street to live with Frederick and Ellen Haynes, taking Joan with her. As soon as she was old enough, Joan joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in December 1942 where she served until February 1947.

The greengrocery business was re-established at premises in Bourne Terrace (the amalgamation of the original Westbourne Terrace North, Westbourne Square and Upper Westbourne Terrace). Nearby was a grocer and a baker. After the war, Percival and his family lived at Saltram Crescent, Kilburn. Daughter Violet married John (Johnny) James Brown in 1947 who went to work in the shop for his father in law.

After the war, the streets of the area were used as a backdrop to the 1949 Ealing Studios film "The Blue Lamp" (starring Jack Warner and Dirk Bogarde; directed by Michael Balcon) (27). There was much dereliction and in the early 1950s the area achieved notoriety as the domain of landlord Peter Rachman. Bombsite damage and slum clearance started in the area between the canal and the railway in the mid 1950s. This redevelopment continued over the course of the next 20 years until little of the original architecture remains. Many of the street names disappeared or were replaced.

Percival's wife, Jessie, died at the Royal Marsden Hospital on November 8th 1953. He continued running the business until his own death on Boxing Day 1955. After that, Johnny Brown continued to manage the shop for a while before he moved on to other stores. (He was to remain in the business until just before he died, the last shop being in Ickenham.) The shop remained open (still under the Shardalow name) until 1963 (28). The final demise of the business coincided with the demolition and rebuilding of Bourne Terrace and its old housing stock. The new road loosely followed the line of the route of the old one. A new estate of low rise blocks of flats was built. New shops and convenience stores emerged but the greengrocery business was gone and with it the association of the Shardalow family.

Footnote

Class Z Reserve (29): Authorised by an Army Order of 3 December 1918. There were fears that Germany would not accept the terms of any peace treaty, and therefore the British Government decided it would be wise to be able to quickly recall trained men in the eventuality of the resumption of hostilities. Soldiers who were being demobilised, particularly those who had agreed to serve "for the duration", were at first posted to Class Z. They returned to civilian life but with an obligation to return if called upon. The Z Reserve was abolished on 31 March 1920.

Further Study

In 1940, after the evacuation of the Expeditionary Force from Dunkerque and the subsequent capitulation of France, Germany turned its attention to Britain. A planned invasion, code named "Operation Sealion", required air superiority over the English Channel and South Coast. The summer months became known as the Battle of Britain. In September 1940, tactics changed and so began the bombing of English cities - The Blitz. The campaign over London actually lasted until June 1941, but the operation launched over the night of May 10th / 11th was the heaviest, most widespread, most deadly and most destructive of any. Aircraft came in three waves. The first, just before midnight, dropped incendiaries. Half an hour later, the first wave of an estimated 188 bombers dropped their payloads in all areas of the city. A second wave of more than 100 planes came across just after one o'clock. At the end of the night 1486 people lay dead and 11,000 homes were destroyed.

May 11th 1941 was the last major incursion over London. After the war, one German Luftwaffe General recalled a meeting with Hitler where he was told "the bombing on May 10th 1941 was only to camouflage the beginning of 'Barbarossa', the Russian campaign". (30)

Gavin Mortimer has written an account of the background to and the events of that night using official material from many sources as well as the recollections of many of the survivors and relatives of the victims who lived through that night.

[A] Mortimer, Gavin: "The Longest Night: The Bombing of London on May 10th 1941" : The Berkeley Publishing Group, New York, USA. ISBN 0425 20557-6

[B] Bomb Site: Mapping the WW2 bomb census

The University of Portsmouth, in association with The National Archives, is mapping and geocoding the London WW2 bomb census (the recorded locations of sites where where bombs fell) between October 7th 1940 and June 6th 1941. This can be accessed at Bomb Site: About the project.

Relationships

Alan Craxford is the fourth cousin (4 times removed) of Louisa Ann (Craxford) Hughes. Gail Cappelli is the granddaughter of Henry Walter Shardalow. Cliff Shardalow and John Shardalow are the great grandsons of Albert George Shardalow (snr), the son of Louisa Ann (Hughes) Shardalow.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Fr. Henry Everett, Vicar of St. Mary Magdalene & St.Peter, Paddington for his help with clarification of St Mary's Home, Paddington and the presence of the religious sisters in the parish.

Thanks, too, to Anna Markham and the volunteers at the London and Middlesex forum of RootsChat.Com, the Index of Genealogy, Family History and Local History for their help in tracing the Hughes family from their origins in Pentonville to the establishment of their business in Paddington. And to Andy Pugh who is a member of and active contributor to The Great War Forum for his help with the 4th battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

References

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