Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Charles East

Born to a Chesham wood-turner, worked as a general labourer/saw mill operator/timber merchant

• Christopher Dolton

CHARLES EAST; 1856-1931

Charles East was the third and youngest child born to William and Eliza East. He was born in the second quarter of 1856. Adnall East (plot 496) was his older brother. He also had an older sister, Rosa.

In 1861, when Charles was 5 years old, the East family was living at White Hill, Chesham. Charles’ father, William, was not present with the family at the time of the 1861 census and Adnall’s mother, Eliza is noted as the head of the family. We know however from the 1851 census, taken four years before Charles’ birth, that his father was a wood turner and wherever he was at the time of the 1861 census, he was back with the family at the time of the next census in 1871. The family were then still living in Chesham, but had moved to the Moor. Charles was then 14 years of age.

We pick Charles up next in the 1881 census. By then his older brother Adnall had married and moved to Charles Street in Berkhamsted. Charles, then 24 years old, was working as a general labourer and living with Adnall in Berkhamsted.

In 1883 Charles married Esther Nash and by 1891 he and Esther had set up their own home in Charles Street. Charles was still working as a general labourer. Esther had given birth to the couple’s first children. The census of 1891 names Rose born in 1888 and Florence, born in 1889. The 1911 census names Lilly, born 1892; Nellie, born in 1895; Mabel born in 1898.

We know from the 1901 and 1911 censuses that three of Charles’ daughters, Rosa, Lilly and Mabel, all worked in the Bulbourne Mantle factory, as did their cousins, Rosa and Winifred East, Adnall’s daughters.  The Bulbourne Mantle factory was a large Victorian factory which stood on the site of what is now the car park in Lower King’s Road. It was built for H G Hughes & Co., costume manufacturers and in 1919 was taken over by Corby, Palmer and Stuart who made children’s clothes and quality garments for ladies. At one time the factory employed 800 employees. The factory closed in 1969.

In 1911 Charles and Esther, together with their three younger daughters, Lilly, Nellie and Mabel, were living in Gossoms End. Charles, at the age of 55 years, was still working as a labourer, but whilst the earlier census returns described him as a general labourer, the 1911 census describes him as a “labourer in a saw mill” and that his employer was a “timber merchant”. Was Charles working at East’s timber yard in Gossom’s End?

Charles’ grandfather, Ebenezer, was the youngest of four brothers. One of those older brothers, Job, a wood turner, had moved to Berkhamsted in the 1840’s and taken over a timber busines in the town. Job’s son Cornelius ran the business in the late 19th century and the dynasty continued until 1917 when Catherine East, Job’s granddaughter sold the business.

We know from the electoral rolls of 1924 and 1925 that Charles and Esther continued to live at 9 Gossoms End.

Charles died in the fourth quarter of 1931.