York Cemetery – Shopkeepers of Kirkgate Trail (Jan 2020)
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Approx. time Friends of York Cemetery 1½ hours + Shopkeepers of Kirkgate One of a series of trails to enhance your enjoyment of the Cemetery Registered Charity Best enjoyed: All Year Round No. 701091 INTRODUCTION This Trail will visit 14 people whose businesses can be Kirkgate creates a street scene where people feel they found in Kirkgate, York Castle Museum's iconic have been transported to a bygone age. When it first recreated Victorian street. We will also visit a cousin of opened, many shops and locations were named after Joseph Hansom whose invention forms a centre piece people who had helped to found the museum. of the street. In 2012, following a large restoration and redisplay Five Shopkeepers (Allen, Ambler, Barton, Cattle & project, the time-frame was narrowed down to 1870- Barber and Sessions) are not resident in York cemetery 1901, some of the locations were changed and all the and a further six (Anderson, Epworth, Parkes, Pole, shops and business were renamed. Now, each shop Saville and Spurr) aren't adjacent to the footpath and and business on Kirkgate is named after a real are, therefore, not accessible. business that operated in late Victorian York. Kirkgate is one of the oldest recreated indoor streets Some of the businesses still operate today, others are of its kind in the world, possibly the oldest and the first within living memory and others have been consigned to be opened in Britain. It was created by Dr John to history. Lamplugh Kirk, the founder of the Castle Museum. The In presenting this Trail the Friends of York Cemetery street is named after him and has formed the offer sincere thanks to the Staff and Volunteers of The centrepiece of the museum since it opened in 1938. Castle Museum who have provided a wealth of information relating to the businesses and their owners. THE TRAIL !! FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY PLEASE KEEP TO THE PATHS AT ALL TIMES !! From the entrance, take the path behind the dominant milliners would set up a workshop in a street-facing beech tree. After a few paces note the modern window, so people could see them work and know what headstone to Kathleen Patrick on the right. The fallen kind of work they did. headstone in the next row behind marks the double At the end of the 19th century, ladies wore hats or plot of the Plummer family (Milliners) bonnets whenever they were away from their homes. 1. Emma & Alexandra Annie Plummer After 1890, large picture hats became fashionable and they might be trimmed with flowers, feathers and even Milliners. The business whole stuffed birds. Hats would have been ‘bought in’ was established around to decorate to order, or made from scratch. Often hats 1881 with premises at 5 would be stripped down and redecorated ready for the Church Street and 17 new season. Feasegate. The Plummer business was founded by David and Milliners create hats for Susan Plummer and was passed on to their daughters women and Hat Makers Emma & Alexandra Annie. David was born in St Albans, make for men. The two the son of a Stay-maker from the east end of London. Trades, whilst related, The first 20 years of his working life was spent in require very different Bethnal Green as a Warehouseman for ready made technical skills and clothes. working practices. By 1871 he had arrived at 15 East Parade employed as The term 'Milliner' is a Commercial Traveller for a clothier. David & Susan derived from Millaners, had 8 children, many of them employed in the clothing merchants of Milan, who trade as tailors and clothiers. travelled to northern Europe trading in silks, ribbons, braids, ornaments and general finery. The two Plummer daughters bearing the business name, Emma, born 1856 and Alexandra Annie, born Millinery was very much a female business. Hats were 1864 were set up in their millinery business by their made by women for women and their children. Most family. offered dressmaking services as well as hats and other accessories such as gloves. There was also an overlap In the 1871 census the 15 year old Emma is described with the fancy drapery trade. as a Governess. Subsequent censuses describe her as a Teacher and it is not until 1901 is she described as a Young women were apprenticed into the trade which Milliner. involved long hours, often in sweatshop conditions leading to ill health and often death. Traditionally, Continued overleaf York Cemetery - 20. Shopkeepers of Kirkgate Trail (Jan 2020) 1 Emma & Alexandra Annie Plummer continued The family moved to Clifton for a short while, retaining The Censuses from 1881 through to 1911 describe the business in Church Street. However, following Alexandra as a Milliner. Florence's death in 1903, William and Eustace returned to Church Street. The family moved to Penley's Grove Street prior to 1901. The two girls were still living there in 1939 when In 1939, William, aged 85 Eustace, aged 54, are still the Register of that year describe both women as living and working in Church Street as Cutlers and 'retired fancy drapers'. Opticians. Eustace's daughter is employed as a Shop Emma died in 1940 and is buried here with her parents. Assistant. Alexandra died in 1955 and is buried in the adjacent William died 39 years after his wife in May 1942, aged plot 87 years. He is buried here with Florence. Their father, David, committed suicide in November Eustace died in 1965, aged 80. He is not with us in the 1906. He was found in his bedroom suspended by the cemetery. neck by some underclothing from the top of one of the bedposts. His death is recorded in the cemetery Ahead and turn left in front of the Chapel. ahead to records as 'Committed suicide whilst suffering the Compass at your feet and turn left. Take a couple Melancholia' of paces into the left fork in the path and on your left, set back from the path, is the double plot to George Turn right in front of Plummer memorial across the and Alice Britton (Grocers), together with their 6 day mown burial area old son, Edward. !! TAKE CARE !! 3. George Britton (1832-1902) Turn left onto the curving tarmac path leading to the George was a high end Chapel. Stop immediately after the first large tree on Grocer who established your right. The second headstone from the path behind himself in Gillygate, the tree, marks the single plot of William and Petergate and Micklegate Florence Allison (Cutler). and operated from 2. William Allison - (1854-1942) around 1820 until after 1916. Cutler of 14 Church Street. High end Grocers & The business operated Provision Dealers differed from sometime after from the more common 1871 until the mid to late General Grocers in that 1950s. they carved a niche for The word ‘cutler’ is themselves as elite derived from the Latin establishments, catering ‘cutellarius’ and originally for the tastes of the meant a maker or seller wealthy middle classes. of knives and weapons They sold premium goods, with attention to quality and with a cutting edge. desirability. They carried and prepared a wide range of Later the emphasis teas, coffees, spices, wines and spirits. They stocked shifted from implements delicacies such as crystallised fruits, pates and truffles, of war to domestic wares regional specialities in meats and cheeses and also such as cutlery, razors quality branded goods. and scissors. The cutler was an artisan who designed They needed to maintain good levels of stock and give and made his wares, which he then sold in the market the appearance of abundance. But they also had to be place. In the 1891 census William describes himself as able to adapt and to anticipate what would be in a Cutler & Optician, although the Optician moniker has demand – not so much in terms of necessity, but in disappeared by the 1901 census. terms of fashion. William was the son of William, a Farmer of Letby Farm, They advertised in trade directories and local papers, Flaxton and his wife Mary. with confident and often flamboyant adverts, usually At the age of 15 he was one of six Apprentices of with illustrations. William Hill, Ironmonger in Hull Road. In 1881, aged The range of their stock was made possible by the 25, now a fully fledged Ironmonger, he married expanding railway network, transporting fresh and Florence Cundall from Shipton. They had two sons. The seasonal produce from source to shop in a fraction of younger son, Eustace, born in 1885, eventually joining the time it would formerly have taken by road, river or his father in the business. sea. Regional produce could now be made nationally In 1891, he describes himself as a Cutler and Optician available and Britton’s were actively taking advantage and is working from his home and business at 14 of this. Church Street, employing his neighbour's daughter as George was born on 1 May 1832 into a long and a Domestic Servant. In addition to cutlery, spectacles prosperous line of York grocers. His father, John Britton and field glasses, the business also sells telescopes, (1794-1866), was an established grocer employing microscopes/thermometers, mathematical and five apprentices and trading at 12 Church Street. surveying instruments. Continued overleaf York Cemetery - 20. Shopkeepers of Kirkgate Trail (Jan 2020) 2 George Britton continued goods - from carpets to curtaining, underwear to hats, George’s uncle, Thomas Britton (1798-1856), was a fashionable gowns to discrete mourning attire for grocer and wine merchant trading at 24 Spurriergate. bereaved families in mourning, readymade and In 1824 John and Thomas, were in partnership as T&J tailored clothes, haberdashery and ladies’ accessories.