George Collier Master Baker of Branscombe
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George Collier Master Baker of Branscombe. By Mervyn W Tims. George Collier was born 16th June 1864 at Beer, Devon. He was the fourth of eight children to George Sansom Collier and Elizabeth Ann, nee Bartlett of Beer. (My great great grandparents.) His older siblings were Mary Collier (my great grandmother) born 1857, John William Bartlett Collier, born 1858. Hannah Searle Collier born 1860. George's younger siblings were Alfred born 1866, William Frederick in 1868, Elizabeth Ann in 1871, and Frank born 1873. George was christened at the parish church on 24th July 1864. His father worked at Beer as a farm labourer, and his mother worked at home as a lace maker for the Honiton lace trade. Past generations of Colliers had lived in Dorset, and it was George's grandfather William, who as a young man left Hawkchurch and arrived in Beer around 1820, a couple of years before he married George's grandmother, Mary Stokes in 1822. George's father George Sansom Collier got his middle name from previous generation of Colliers who very often added the alias Sansom to their name; becoming Collier alias Sansom, and at times Sansom alias Collier; and one member of the Collier family dropped the name of Collier altogether to become Sansom. George was almost four years old in March 1868 when the London & South Western Railway arrived at nearby Seaton. This brought much excitement to the village, especially for the local fishermen who could get their fish to far off markets, especially the herring to Billingsgate in London. And for the villagers who could afford it there was the chance to travel easier and faster to Axminster on market days, or get to Exeter or Yeovil, and for the more adventurous who could afford it, a chance to see London. Locals packed to the station on its opening day to watch the steam train "Chaplin" arrive with six carriages. Adults and especially the children marvelled at this new mode of transport. But the dignitaries of Seaton were nowhere to be seen and this was commented upon by the L&SWR officials who came on the train expecting to see some kind of welcome from Seaton’s worthies. Such was the dismay of the rail officials that it merited a report in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette a few days later. Despite a few flags at Seaton there was little else; no big welcome, no dinner. Not even a cup of tea. And dismay for the train passengers that day to find Seaton's shops were closed. The newspaper noted that in contrast to the lack of welcome, a ship at the harbour was more forthcoming in celebrating the new railway by hoisting up all its Union Jacks and signal colours. Little did George know at the time that one day the railway would propel him not just to the major city of England, but would open him up to a way of life that few of his ancestors could have dreamed of, that of becoming a tradesman, and master of his craft, a Master Baker. As a boy George attended the Beer infant school from the age of six under the tutelage of Miss Lydia Stokes, and at age of 9 years and 5 months went into the upper school to Grade 3, on 26th January 1874. This was the day the school got its new Head master, Edward W. Cocks, who had been assistant master under his father Hugh for the past few years. The two charity or Rolle endowed schools in Beer, one for infants and the other known as the Upper school, were at each end of the Alms Houses. The children wore their special clothes for school; according to the writer W H Hamilton Rogers on his " Wanderings in Devon," in 1868 he noted the boys wearing a suit of navy blue serge, a rounded cap, and upon the breast of the jacket was embroidered a red pater-noster cross. Free uniforms and education were available to 20 poor boys and 20 girls. At the age of 11 George went into 4th Grade at school in 1875. George's family lived at what the census enumerator called at the time, West Side of Street, Beer. George was ten years old in 1874, and still going to school when his mother died. But first it was baby brother Frank who in June 1874 passed away at the age of 11 months. Soon after Frank died their mother went down with tuberculosis, and she followed her baby to the grave a few weeks later; dying on 27th August 1874 at the age of 38. The death of George's mother was a terrible blow for the family. Here was his father now a widower, aged 39 with six remaining children to care for. Luckily for him his eldest daughter Mary, now aged 17 (my great grandmother) took up the reins of keeping house and looking after her younger siblings; John who was now aged 15 had been working on a local farm since he was 11. Hannah was aged 14 and busy earning two or three shillings as a lace maker.* George was going to school with his six year old brother Alfred. *Note; although Hannah made lace as many Beer women and girls did, their lace was not always paid for in cash. Although the practise of the “Tommy” system or “Trucking shop” had been illegal for a century, it was still practised in Beer and many villages; whereby the lace maker was paid wholly or partly in goods from the lace dealer who generally ran the village shop. George left school in 1876 at the age of 12. He would not follow his father onto the land to work for a pittance of seven shillings a week; his father would make sure of that. It was just two generations ago when times were so hard and food so scarce that driven by poverty George's great uncle James and two of his boys, aged 13 and 11 were convicted of taking some potatoes from a field at Hawkchurch. They were sentenced to Dorchester prison; James for 3 months with hard labour and the boys for one week and whipped. This was during the decade that became known as "The Hungry 40s." Twenty years later when the same family were residing at Axminster, father and one son were convicted of “stealing two or three sticks" from the master’s field. They were sent to Exeter prison for three months with hard labour, and the same day the mother was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment with hard labour for stealing a quart of barley from the master’s barn. A great uncle George of the same family escaped poverty at home in 1839 when he took his family, with the aid of free passage to New Zealand and became one of the early settlers at Wellington, and there planted the Collier name in that part of the world. George's father would have been aware of what happened to his uncle James, his aunt and cousins, their circumstances of hunger and crime; and thus determined the same must not befall his own family. It was soon after George left school that his father made a decision to change his own occupation. It was poor pay working as a farm labourer. The extra cider that came in lieu of wages was no compensation towards a comfortable wage. There were men in the village who were mariners who had tales of earning a better wage if you could ride out the sea-sickness and stomach the weeks away at sea. His own experiences of labouring in all weathers, of struggling on a low income had sharpened his instincts to not only change his occupation, but to make sure that his sons would do better. John who was working as a farm labourer was now taken off the land and made ready to leave home; but not alone. He and young George were been packed off to London, but not to be amongst strangers. George was going to be under the watchful eye of a Beer man, William Cawley who had recently gone to London with his new bride Eva Newton to take over a bakers shop. Both William Cawley and Eva Newton were from Beer, but Eva although born in Beer had spent part of her childhood at a Girls orphanage in London after her father died. Now in their new life together running their bakers shop, Mr and Mrs Cawley had their new assistant, George Collier. George's brother John would go with William Cawley's brother, Henry who was also going to work in London as a baker. The young lads probably left home with mixed emotions, saying Goodbye to family and friends they had known and grown up with, but tinged with the thrill of moving to the big city where more money was to be had there than could be earned at home. To add to their adventure was the steam train journey from Seaton up to London. But once there, found a place so alien to them, of crowded streets bustling with people, of dashing carriages, rumbling carts, the crying out of hawkers on street corners, and the air, unlike the salty brine or fresh cut hay of home, was heavy with smog and smoke. But the boys knew they had to knuckle down, and they did. In London George lived with William Cawley and his wife at 105 Crawford Street in Marylebone, and began his trade there as assistant baker.