Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Ada was born in 1878 in Northchurch, Berkhamsted. Her father, Charles Reading and his wife Sarah, farmed at Marlin Farm. Marlin Farm was originally part of the manor of Maudeleynes which had been held by Laurence de Broc in the reign of Henry II. During the course of the 18th century the old manorial lands were split into two, to become Marlin Farm and Marlin Chapel Farm. This is confirmed by the 1881 census in which the entry for Marlin Farm is followed by an entry which relates to Marlin Chapel Farm. Marlin Farm no longer exists. It used to stand in the fields to the north east of Marlin Chapel Farm and was accessed from Shootersway. The census tells us that the farm consisted of 125 acres and that Charles employed three labourers and one boy. He is described on Ada’s marriage certificate as a dairyman, so must have kept milk cows, rather being an arable farmer. The Reading Family was large. The 1881 and 1891 censuses reveal that Charles and Sarah had eleven children between 1868 and 1887, of which Ada, born in 1878 was the seventh. The Reading Family were Baptists.  A notice published in the Bucks Herald in August 1894 gives results of a scripture examination. Ada is included in the results as one of 28 Baptist candidates; “WEST HERTS SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION – Result of scripture examination- Baptists- 28 presented…Lower Middle Division, 3rd class, Ada Reading…” By the time of the 1901 census Ada had left the family farm and was living at 39 West Terrace North, Paddington, London. One of Ada’s sisters, Sarah, who was five years older than her, had married Alexander Brinkman and Ada had moved to live with them at their home in London. Alexander was a Butcher’s manager and Ada worked as a cashier. In 1901 Alfred Gregory, Ada’s husband to be, was living at 30 Chesterton Road, Kensington and working as a Butcher’s assistant.  Presumably he and Alexander knew each other through the butchery trade, and through Alexander, Ada and Alfred met. However they met, they were married in Kensington at the Church of St Michael of all Angels on 31st January 1904. Ada gave birth to three sons, the first, Laurence, on 27th February 1905, the second, Stanley Charles, born on 17th November 1906 and the third and youngest, Harold Alexander was born in 1909. In 1911 the family was living at 65 Blythe Road, Hammersmith. Alfred was no longer working as a butcher. The 1911 census discloses that both Ada and Alfred were working as confectioners and that they were working from home on their own account. Ada died on 25th July 1921 at the age of 42. Her death certificate records that the cause of death was Phthisis – tuberculosis – and that she had suffered from the illness for 9 months before she died. Her address is noted on the death certificate as 4 Gibbon Road, Nunhead, an address in Peckham in south west London. It was at that address that her youngest son Harold was to later die in 1926 and must have been the address at which she and Alfred were living. Ada did not, however, die in Nunhead. She died at 4 Shrublands Avenue, Berkhamsted. By 1901 her father had retired from the farm and the family had moved to Kent, but by the time of the 1911 census her parents, together with two of her siblings and a grandchild, had returned to Berkhamsted and were living at 4 Shrublands Avenue. Ada must have returned to her family to be cared for as her illness took its course and it was Ada’s sister Mary that was with her when she died.