Thomas Goodman was born around 1836 to parents James and Mary, and his birth registered in Ashby de la Zouch. By 1841 the family were living on Leicester Road, Loughborough, where father, James, was occupied as a coach builder. James and Mary were both aged 25, Thomas was now 6, and he had two younger siblings, Kate, aged 4, and James aged 2. Coachbuilding was still a very necessary operation, and there were at least two other coach builders in Loughborough, around 1846 - Thomas Matthews, who was based on Church Gate, and Alice Warren on High Street. The Warren family had brought coachbuilding to Loughborough from Ashby in around 1820, and the company would pass down through family members, until it was bought out by the Dickens firm in the 1920s.
James continues as a coach builder through 1849, and on the 1851 census, the family is still listed as living on Leicester Road, where James (although listed as Thomas on the 1851 census) and Mary, with siblings Catherine 14, James 12, John 8, Sarah 6, and William 3 months. Living on Leicester Road, where Thomas (i.e. James) is a coach maker, and son Thomas is an apprentice coach maker.
According to an 1854 trade directory, James is still coachbuilding but has moved to Pinfold Gate. I have been unable to trace the family on the 1861 census return, but a trade directory for that year lists and Edward Goodman as a coachbuilder on Pinfold Gate. At this time, Thomas and John Warren are still listed as coachbuilders on High Street. A directory from 1863 lists James Goodman as a coachbuilder on Pinfold Gate.
In 1864, Thomas’s first son, John F. Goodman was born, but I have been unable to trace a marriage for Thomas, until 1869 in Loughborough when Thomas, the apprentice coach maker in 1851, marries Annie Orgill, who was born in 1837, in Charley Hall to parents Francis and Sarah. In 1851, Annie aged 14, was living on Derby Road, Loughborough, with her parents Francis and Sarah, and siblings – Francis 19, Sarah 18, Martha 11, and William 11 – and with grandfather, Thomas aged 63. Annie’s father, Francis, was listed as a coal merchant.
In 1871, the Goodman family are living in Leicester, on what looks to be High Cross Street, where Annie is a housewife, son John is a scholar, but everyone else in the property is a carriage builder! This includes, Thomas, and Thomas’s brother, William aged 22 (although listed as his son) and boarders, John Wilson aged 40, William Clarke, aged 22, John Bloxham, aged 18, William Dummdon(?) aged 16, and Thomas Swift, also 16.
The following year, Thomas and Annie’s second son, William T. Goodman was born, followed by the birth of their daughter, Martha Annie Goodman. By 1876, Thomas has returned to Loughborough, and is listed in a directory as a coach builder on Devonshire Square. Son James A. Goodman is born the following year, and the birth of Florence Mary Goodman comes in 1879. In 1881 the family – parents Thomas and Annie, John aged 17, William aged 9, Martha aged 7, James aged 4, and Florence aged 2, are living in Fishpool Head, where Thomas and John are carriage builders.
In 1891, Thomas and Annie are living at 17 Cattle Market, with three of their children – William, James, and Florence. Thomas is a coach builder, but William is listed in the census as a coach builder and a photographer. In 1901 the same members of the family are still living in the property on Cattle Market, but have been rejoined by Martha, and all the male family members are now carriage builders, with Thomas, the father, listed as an employer. A trade directory for 1901-2 lists J. Goodman as a carriage builder in Cattle Market.
In December 1905, Annie Goodman, aged 69, dies, and her death is followed in 1910 by that of Thomas Goodman, at the age of 75.
In 1911, Martha Annie aged 37, was a governess at Southgate House, Sittingbourne Road, in Maidstone, with the Chapman family – Captain Harry Ernest, father, Catherine Harriette Jessie, mother, and children Kathleen Violet aged 7, and Doreen Mary aged 5. Meanwhile, Florence and brother James were still living at 17 Cattle Market, where James was a coach builder, employing workers. The census enumerator seems a little confused as the pair are first listed as son and daughter of the head of the household (presumably they still considered themselves to be children of Thomas, who had only recently died), but then scribbles out the marital status which had been correctly listed for each of them as ‘single’, to Head and Wife.
A trade directory of 1912 has two entries for Goodman coach builders: one is Goodman and Savage, carriage builders on 22 Leicester Road, the other is William Goodman, coach builder at 17 Cattle Market.
In 1920, John Goodman died aged 55, and at some point, some of the family move to 12 York Road. In June 1933, it is reported that Florence suffered a breakdown, and died on 26 April 1934. Martha aged 64, and brother James aged 62 are listed in the 1939 register as living at 12 York Road, and James’s occupation is coach painter.
James died on 11 September 1951, in Loughborough General Hospital at the age of 73. He was living at 12 York Road, and probate was granted on 11 October to Martha, the effects being £110. James’s death was followed by that of William in 1959 at the age of 88, and Martha in 1961 at the age of 86.
So, three of Thomas and Annie Goodman’s offspring lived well into their old age, but two, John and Florence died in their mid-50s. What happened to John, I do not know, but Florence’s death in 1934 was reported in the local newspapers. Here’s the report from the ‘Nottingham Journal’ of Friday 27 April 1934:
“LEFT HOME IN NIGHT ATTIRE. TRAGIC LOUGHBOROUGH INQUEST STORY. SISTER’S ORDEAL BY SICK BED.
The tragic story of how a Loughborough spinster went from her home in the middle of the night, clad only in her night attire, to a brook over a mile away, and drowned herself in twelve inches of water, was related at an inquest at the Loughborough hospidal yesterday. The Coroner for North Leicestershire, (Mr. H.J. Deane) recorded a verdict of “suicide by drowning while of an unsound state of mind” on Miss Florence Mary Goodman (54), 12 York Road, Loughborough, whose body was found in a shallow brook in Burton Walks, one of Loughborough’s beauty spots, early yesterday.
 |
| The Grammar School Brook 2022 |
A sister of the dead woman, Miss Martha Anne Goodman, said she and her sister attended a brother who was lying ill in bed at their home. He required constant attention, and witness and her sister took it in turns to look after him. On Wednesday night at about midnight, witness was in her brother’s room when deceased came in and said in a perfectly normal and calm voice: “Thank you for the flowers, the hot water bottle and a comfortable bed. I am going to put myself under a train, or drown myself.”
Miss Martha then heard her go out and the front door close. “I did not realise what she was doing,” witness continued, “I was dazed and she had nothing on but her night attire. I jumped up and put on my dressing gown and ran to the gate and called to a neighbour [Mr Grundy]. It was impossible for me to leave my brother.”
Witness said her sister had a breakdown last June. She was attended by a doctor and recovered, but after going away for a period she became worse again. It had been a very big strain to look after her brother and they got very little sleep.
P.C. Allen said he found Miss Goodman lying on her back in a brook, the water of which was about twelve inches deep and just flowed over her face.
 |
| The Grammar School Brook |
The coroner characterised the case as an extraordinarily sad one of a woman of nervous disposition and temperament who had to take her share in nursing a sick brother.
“Her sister was faced with a very difficult situation of having to decide between a brother lying in bed and a sister who was apparently going to end her own life,” Mr Deane added.
“I sympathise with Miss Goodman in the position she was placed, and I am glad to know that she did the right thing by calling up a neighbour.” ”
I have made enquiries, but have been unable to identify a brook
called the Burton Walks Brook, in Loughborough, but given the lcoation of Burton
Walks, and its proximity to what is known as the Grammar School Brook, I have
concluded that this sad event occurred in the Grammar School Brook.
 |
| Location of the Grammar School Brook |
You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:
Lynne
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you have found this post interesting or have any questions about any of the information in it do please leave a comment below. In order to answer your question, I must publish your query here, and then respond to it here. If your information is private or sensitive, and you don't wish to have it on public display, it might be a better idea to email me using the address which is on the About Me page, using the usual substitutions. Thanks for reading the blog.