Recalling the town about 1860, Adeline writes that “Wilton Place and the Brunswick Hotel had not come into being.
The Brunswick Hotel was not built until later and for some considerable time was a ‘White Elephant.’
Its first landlord was Mr. W. Jones. Unfortunately Mr. Jones succumbed to a short illness. The family left the hotel”.
We are walking up Bath Street, from the top/middle of the map below, past Wilton Place, to New Street later renamed as Station Road (bottom right)
The Brunswick Hotel was built in the early 1860’s and, after the Rutland Arms, was the town’s largest and foremost hotel.
Initially it was a beerhouse, without a licence to sell wines or spirits and had stabling for two horses and a coach-house.
According to testimony given by William Jones in August 1864 at Smalley Petty Sessions — for the renewal and granting of Victuallers’ Licences — he had kept the hotel since about June 1862, when he also kept a grocer’s shop in the town. However in 1864 William was granted his licence and this enabled him to become a wholesale dealer in wines and spirits.
The proprietor of the hotel was James Jones who may have been William’s elder brother, at that time a grocer trading in Nottingham (or, less likely, his father?)
William Jones was born at Wheelock near Sandbach, Cheshire in 1830, the son of innkeeper James and Harriet (nee Wantling).
In 1852 he married Sarah Burstone Ashley, eldest child of excise officer Robert and Ann (nee Burstone) and the couple spent the first years of married life at Nantwich, Cheshire where sons William Ashley and Edwin were born.
In the later 1850’s the family moved to Nottingham, birthplace of children Rosa Jane (who died in infancy) in 1858, Frank Ashley in 1860 and Louisa Jane in 1861.
A short time later the family arrived at Bath Street and daughters Annie Rosa, Lucy Harriet and Rosa Mary were born there in 1863, 1864 and 1868 respectively.
Louisa Jane, Annie Rosa and Rosa Mary died of scarlatina within three weeks of each other in the winter of 1869.
Ilkeston Pioneer July 1867
While William also traded as a draper, White’s Directory of 1865 lists him as proprietor of the Brunswick hotel as well as entering him as ‘grocer and tea dealer, and wine and spirit dealer of Bath Street’.
Harrod and Co’s Directory of 1870 similarly records two entries for William — at the Brunswick Commercial hotel, wine and spirit merchant, and agent for Ind, Coope, and Co‘s Burton ales as well as grocer and provision merchant, Bath Street.
After the birth of son Thomas Percy in 1871 the licence for the hotel passed to Thomas Whitehead and Henry Walker of Nottingham, and the Jones family moved to Broughton in Salford, Manchester where William then worked as a clerk.
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The children of William and Sarah Burstone Jones
1 “William, the eldest son, married Miss Paling, the eldest daughter of Fred Paling, auctioneer, South Street”
Eldest son William Ashley Jones returned to Ilkeston from Salford where he was working as a grocer’s shopman, to marry Mary Jane Paling, eldest daughter of auctioneer, estate agent and valuer Frederick and Catherine (nee Spencer) in July 1876 and in April 1877 opened a tea shop at the Commercial Buildings in Bath Street.
In June 1880 Mary Jane and her mother – who then lived in Station Road – were offering themselves as Music Teachers.
Their sons William Paling Jones (1876) and Frederick Harry Jones (1880) were born in the town. Shortly after the death of Frederick Harry in August 1880, the family left their Chapel Street home to move to Broughton, Lancashire, where Mary Jane taught music.
For a time after their marriage Mary Jane’s younger sister Elizabeth Paling stayed with them as governess.
William Ashley Jones died in 1903.
2. “Eddie Jones married Miss Betsy Lowe, third daughter of Mrs. S. Lowe, Grocer, South Street”.
Edwin Jones also returned to Ilkeston to marry Betsey Lowe on February 15th, 1881: we shall meet them in South Street.
In the 1880s they left to live and trade in Kimberley, Notts, where Edwin was a boot and shoe dealer on Main Street.
Betsey died at 18 Main Street on June 18th, 1936. Edwin then went to live at The Croft on Hassocks Lane, Shipley, with his wife’s niece, Winifred May (nee Whitehead) and her husband Cyril Buxton. Edwin died there on December 16th, 1939.
3. Emmie became a schoolmistress, her youngest sister living with her.
Emily Burston Jones was born on March 18th, 1854 at Nantwich, Cheshire.
On October 16th, 1880 she married George Staniar, a wire weaver of Broughton, Salford. Her husband died in 1887 and Emily remained in the Salford area until she married Joseph Lawson Strachen, another wire weaver, on April 27th 1897. The couple settled at 280 Great Cheetham Street West, Salford where Joseph died in 1921 and Emily died on March 5th, 1944. She was buried in St Paul’s Church, Kersal, four days later.
( My thanks to Andy Hunt for pointing me in the right direction here)
4. The only other Jones daughter to survive into adulthood was Lucy Harriet, born on August 30th 1864, who in 1890 married tailor’s shopman Joseph Robert Parslow of Moss Side, Manchester and by the end of the century was living a few doors from her parents at Broughton, Salford.
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Domestic abuse ….
In May 1874 Edna Annie Davies (nee Woodward) of Lower Granby Street went to the Brunswick hotel in search of her husband, collier Edward Haynes Davies alias ‘Staffordshire Ted’. Whilst there she was invited to have a drink by a young man and accepted, behaviour which her husband objected to.
To show his displeasure, when the pair returned home, a drunken Edward battered his wife, giving her two black eyes, multiple bruising over parts of her body, and causing her to vomit blood. Edward argued that he had only hit her with the back of his hand and so could not have caused his wife’s injuries.
Less than a week later she died from ‘inflammation of the bowels and peritoneum’. The couple had been married for just over ten months and Edna Annie was aged 20 when she died.
After an extensive inquest held at the Rutland Hotel, at which several neighbours and local surgeons gave evidence, the Coroner’s jury were convinced that Edward was guilty of manslaughter and returned that verdict, with which the Coroner concurred. The husband was then committed for trial at the next Derbyshire Assizes.
The case aroused very strong feelings within the town, none of them sympathetic towards Edward. At the time of the inquest hearing crowds of several hundred persons, mostly women, assembled outside the lock-up at the Town Hall, outside the Rutland Arms, and outside the former home of the deceased. They were in very vocal and riotous mood.
After the inquest but before Edward’s trial a wave of concern and indignation swept through parts of the town. At the junction of Awsworth Road and Cotmanhay Road an open air meeting was held one Tuesday evening, attended by a large and deeply attentive audience – between one and two thousand people the Ilkeston Telegraph estimated – and addressed for over two hours by several local clergymen. Their themes were “the brevity and uncertainty of human life, the importance of young women accepting as their companions in life young men who were religious or at least sober and industrious, and the deplorable evils of intemperance”.
…. and a drunken Ilkeston
In particular the plethora of public houses within Ilkeston attracted severe criticism, and the feeling of all the speakers and all their listeners was that no more licences should be granted within the town.
At this time there were 62 places in Ilkeston where spirits or other intoxicating drink could be obtained.
At the Heanor Brewster Sessions in September of 1874 – where applications within the district for new licences were considered – two memorials were presented to the magistrates exhorting them to refuse any additional licences for Ilkeston so as not to add to the drunkenness within the town. The source of one of these memorials was the ‘general inhabitants’ and was 16 yards long, with a double column of names, 2644 in total.
At Edward’s trial for manslaughter at Derby Midsummer Assizes the judge directed the jury that if the assault had caused or accelerated Edna Annie’s death then the husband was guilty of the crime. The jury however decided that her death was in no way connected with the abuse and the collier was sentenced to 12 calendar months imprisonment with hard labour for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Edna Ann was the illegitimate daughter of Maria Woodward who gave evidence both at the inquest into her daughter’s death and then at the subsequent trial of Edward Davies. Since the marriage of her mother to brickyard labourer Henry Clifford in May 1858, Edna Ann had been raised by Bath Street fruiterer Charles Chadwick.
Just over a year after Edna Ann’s death her mother gave birth to a daughter whom she named Edney Ann Clifford.
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Later keepers of the Brunswick Hotel
In June 1874 Richard Flewitt was the proprietor of the Brunswick which was then 79 Bath Street.
By August 1878 William Ball was the landlord and in October 1879 the licence was transferred to William Stone, coming from Silesby, Leicestershire. William Ball moved on to the Sir John Warren.
In March 1885 Joseph Sadler was landlord. And it didn’t take long before the new landlord had his license ‘endorsed‘. Crafty Police sergeant O’Neil paid a visit to the Brunswick, in plain clothes, on March 13th and discovered patrons playing bagatelle in one room and skittles in another, both for a prize of ale … and Joseph was paying for the prize !! The magistrates were determined to stamp out this illegal gambling and the landlord was severely fined and warned about his future behaviour.
About 1886 the hotel was kept by John Smith before, in December of that year the management of the Brunswick was transferred to George Bertram Marples.
But the desire of the magistrates to eradicate illegal gambling appears not to have materialised. And continuing the tradition, in March 1887, George Bertram was charged and fined for permitting the premises to be used for gaming — though his liense was not endorsed. And once more, bagatelle was involved, beer was supplied and money was paid.
In April 1888 the licence was transferred from George Bertram Marples* to David Wakefield.
By the beginning of 1890 the manager was Charles Richard Goodacre, the husband, since October 27th 1883, of Maria Trueman, the youngest child of John and Ann (nee Cope). Maria died on February 9th 1890, aged 26, at the Brunswick Hotel — having been born at the Durham Ox, about a quarter of a mile away.
Edward Nevill had taken over as landlord by 1891 but in July of that year in came Elinus Leeming who lasted much longer than most previous keepers. In March 1896, the landlord was visited by his brother, Arthur Leeming who had come over to Ilkeston from Sandiacre in his pony and trap. He left both unattended in Wilton Place while he went inside the hotel — and unfortunately, this was spotted by P.C Sisson. The offence landed Arthur in court, but fortunately he had a good defence — Wilton Place wasn’t a public place according to the Highway Act as it hadn’t been taken over by the Corporation !! So there !! The magistrate decided to dismiss the case.
In July 1900 Elinus ceded control of the hotel to George William Blackshaw. And that takes us up to the end of the Victorian period.
The Midland Commercial Temperance Hotel at 159 Bath Street
*George Bertram Marples had joined the innkeepers’ union when he became landlord of the Speedwell Inn in Staveley in October 1881, before coming to Ilkeston in 1885 to supervise the Queen’s Head and then, in October 1886, the Brunswick Hotel. Leaving there, George Bertram and his family crossed Bath Street and moved down, towards the old Baths. where his wife, Hester Elizabeth (nee Jackson) kept the Midland Commercial Temperance Hotel at number 159 Bath Street. George himself was then employed as a builder’s clerk.
Hester was at her hotel in March 1890 when she had arranged a week’s accommodation for eight people, members of Herr Barnett Pareeker’s Diarama and Prussian Choir which was to perform in the town. She had charged £3 but when the troupe turned up there were nine persons and so the landlady had to charge an extra 5s. On April 1st, as the party was leaving, Herr Pareeker refused to pay the surcharge and so Hester felt quite justified in retaining part of his luggage until he ‘coughed up’ the full amount.
Well, this was a case of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. Herr Pareeker arrived the next day, determined to reclaim his kidnapped property and Hester was equally determined to be paid her full charge. There followed a physical confrontation during which Hester claimed to have been assaulted, struck by her erstwhile ‘guest’, and pushed down the stairs — all of which Herr Pareeker, of course, denied. The only recourse was for Hester to take her case to the Petty Sessions, which she did — and won. The magistrates fined Herr Pareeker £2 7s, including costs.
The troupe leader didn’t let the matter rest there however. His choir later in April performed at Heanor where Herr Pareezer voiced his innocence to anyone who would hear him, and had leaflets produced which he sent from house to house, asserting that innocence.
And Hester didn’t let the matter rest there, too !! At the end of the month she had taken her claim for the unpaid surcharge of 5s to Ilkeston County Court. The choir master didn’t bother to attend but this didn’t prevent him from being charged the 5s plus costs. (At the same court he faced a similar charge by Henry Beaumont for the week’s hire of a piano, with a similar result).
In August 1893 Hester applied for and was granted a billiard licence for the premises.
The hotel was a couple of doors south, from the Bath Street corner with Manners Road … and almost opposite the Town Station. In April 1896 it was up for auction, together with the lock-up shop attached to it, then used by butcher William Tarlton.
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Traffic warning. Saturday September 3rd 1881. 1.30pm
Travelling photographer John Ashmore — residing temporarily at the Old Harrow Inn Yard — was proceeding down Bath Street, perched on the shaft of his mobile ‘home’ (i.e. his caravan) and made it as far as the Brunswick Hotel without mishap.
However at that point he was pitched off the ‘van’ and fell under its front wheel which ran over his leg. Before the rear wheel could follow the same path he was dragged out of harm’s way by a plucky passer-by.
John was then carted off to Dr. Roland’s nearby surgery where the injuries were diagnosed as very serious.
The photographer was well-known in Ilkeston, usually spending the winter months in the town before the travelling summer season.
The hotel was demolished in the early 1960’s to be replaced by a Tesco supermarket.
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And walking on, crossing Wilton Place, we arrive at the Woolliscrofts
