1851 –01/01/1933
Greengrocer of Pike’s Corner on the High Street
Relatives
Research:
- Melanie Hilton
- Jenny Sherwood
Plot 788 David Pike (1851-1933)
David was born in St Albans in 1851 to David and Eliza (née Parsons) Pike. His father was an agricultural labourer and the family lived in Pound Field in the parish of St Michael.
David was their fourth son and seventh child. The family eventually numbered ten children.
One of his older brothers, Thomas, set up as a grocer in Luton and by 1871 David was living with him and working as his assistant.
In 1873 he married Martha Ann Leete in Luton. Frederick Charles was born in 1874 and Henry James in 1875. David went into business on his own account and in 1881 the family lived at 38, Wellington Street, Luton. Things were going well enough for him to employ a live-in domestic servant. Living with them was Martha’s sister Mary Jane Leete, aged 23.
Martha died in 1884 and David and Mary Jane at some point developed a relationship. Their son Leonard Alfred was born in late 1886 and on 28 December that year David and Mary Jane married in St Saviour’s church, St Pancras.
Although marriage between in-laws was, at the time, within the church’s prohibited degrees of relationship, in effect such marriages stood unless challenged. Many couples chose to marry away from their home parishes for discretion.
The family moved to 180, High Street, Berkhamsted where Ernest Frank was born in 1888. David opened a shop on the corner of Lower King’s Road (now “Petals”). It was known as ‘Pike’s Corner’ for years.
In 1887 it was reported that he sold 40 Lisbon oranges for a shilling (5p).
Horace Ralph was born in 1891 followed by Sydney Eric (1894).
The 1891/01 censuses reveal that David was a “wholesale manufacturing confectioner in sugar” and that sons Frederick and Henry assisted him in the business.
In 1892 David contributed fruit for the workhouse Christmas dinner.
In 1897, “David Pike, wholesale confectioner, of Berkhampstead, was charged with obstructing the public footway at Berkhampstead, on June 4th. – Mr. Penny defended. – P.C. Ephithite deposed that a bicycle accident happened outside Mr. Pike’s shop. There were on the pathway 9 orange boxes, 2 larger boxes, 46 smaller boxes (some full and some empty), 4 potato tubs, and 8 baskets. The path was five yards wide, and four out of the five were blocked by the boxes. – Mr. E. H. Morris and P.C. Gorton also gave evidence as to the obstruction. – Mr. Penny addressed the Bench at some length for the defence, and called John Stevens, van driver for defendant, who said the railway trolley delivered goods in front of the shop at nine o’clock, and they were loading up the vans at the time. They did their best to keep the pathway clear. – Defendant was fined £2, including costs.” (Bucks Herald).
David did not seem to get much sympathy from magistrates: in May 1898 he was sued by a local farmer for damage caused while driving his horse and trap across a field because the road was blocked by snow. The magistrates found against David.
By 1911 only Leonard, Ernest and Sydney were still living with their parents. David was a wholesale grocer and fruiterer and Leonard was working with him.
The shop on the corner of Lower King’s Road was taken over by William Rickett in about 1911 and was run by him and his family as a greengrocers and florists.
David and Mary Jane’s youngest son Sydney served in WWI and died in England of injuries sustained at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, aged 22. He is buried in this grave.
David’s business was clearly flourishing. “Land to the south east of Kings Road up the hill from the “Girls School”… was [in 1920] purchased at auction at the Kings Arms for £1800 [£68,000 in 2024] by David Pike, a retired wholesale confectioner. In 1901, he ran a shop at 180 High Street (now Petals). Much of the land was previously occupied by John Ayres, a dairyman in Gossoms End between 1901 and 1911 and presumably used for cultivation and pasture for his cows. By indentures in 1921, David Pike sold parcels of land to builders Sydney and Robert Gillbert, then in 1922 to Charles Harrowell. So began the development of properties in Kings Road, Ashlyns Road and Upper Ashlyns Road.” (BLHMS Facebook July 2023).
By 1921 David had retired and he, Mary Jane and Horace lived at 230, High Street. On the census return David states that he is still involved in the business “for recreation” and Horace was a partner in the business run from 17, Cowper Road, the home of his half-brother Frederick.
Frederick died in 1930 and is buried in plot 630
David died 1 April 1933 at 9, Ashlyns Road. He left £22,367 (£1.354m in 2024) to be administered by Henry James Pike, fruiterer and Leonard Alfred Pike, greengrocer, his sons. (A photograph of 1960 shows “Pike’s Corner” under the ownership of L A Pike.)
View burial 
Berkhamsted War Memorial
Personalities of the Past
The Fallen of WWI in Rectory Lane Cemetery
Memorial Symbolism
