The Story of Josiah Gilbert,
1866-1916
The anniversary of the night of 31st January 1916, when Zeppelin bombs were dropped on Loughborough, falls tomorrow. Last year I covered the story of Josiah Gilbert, which you can read below, or you can listen to it on the recording linked to.
What struck me after researching and writing this story was that I remembered there was a reconstructed shop in the Charnwood Museum in Queen's Park, which in truth I'd not paid much attention to. On a recent visit I lingered around the shop from Belton that had been preserved in time, and realised that far from being a bit of a random exhibit (is Belton in Charnwood, or North West Leicestershire?), this was also a big part of Josiah's story.
_____________________Josiah Gilbert was the sixth child of William and Jane, being the youngest child, until the re-marriage of his father, and birth of two subsequent children, Thomas and Lucy. Josiah's elder brother, James, who was William and Jane's second child, after daughter Sarah Ann, had been born in Osgathorpe in 1850, 16 years before Josiah, who was born in 1866, also in Osgathorpe.
James is central to Josiah's story. In 1851, the Gilbert family - James, his parents, William and Jane, and his older sister Sarah Ann - were living in Osgathorpe, with William's parents, Thomas and Ann. Thomas was a retired cordwainer, and William was a blacksmith. Still living in Osgathorpe in 1861, with his parents, James now has two younger siblings, Mary Jane, and Elizabeth, and father, William, is now a master blacksmith.By 1871, James has now moved to Long Street, Belton, where he is living with his uncle and aunt, George and Emily Holloway, and their daughter, Emma. George is a grocer and grazier, and James is an apprentice grocer. The Holloway family had been trading at the Long Street premises since before 1841: on the 1841 census, Benjamin and his wife Martha (formerly Gilbert) were listed as grocers and tea dealers, and in 1851, their niece, Mary Gilbert, aged 12, was listed as their servant. After Benjamin's death in 1860, wife, Martha continued to run the business, and on the 1861 census is listed as a grocer and farmer occupying 27 acres and employing 1 man and 1 boy. Son George is an assistant to the grocer, presumably having returned to help in the family business. In 1863 Martha re-married, to Jacques Husbands, a retired farmer, and on the 1871 census they are living next door to the shop where Martha had previously lived, and where George is now the grocer, and James Gilbert the grocer's apprentice.
James becomes the grocer's assistant, and is still living and working with the Holloways at 10 Long Street, in 1881. In 1889, James marries Harriet Shaw, daughter of a cordwainer from Belton, and who had been a pupil teacher at the local school.
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| The National School in Belton |
By the time of the 1891 census, James and Harriet have a baby daughter, Harriet Ethel. James is now the grocer and baker, and James' brother, Josiah, now aged 25, is the grocer's and baker's assistant. George Holloway, his wife, and their two grown-up daughters have now moved to another property, and George is listed as a grazier.
Like his brother, James, rising from being grocer's apprentice to grocer's assistant, Josiah does the same, and in 1901 he was still with James at the shop in Belton. James and Harriet now have another daughter, Gladys Elizabeth. However, Josiah marries Sarah Newbold in 1901 and the pair move to Markfield, where their son William Handley Josiah Gilbert is born.
James, Harriet and their two daughters are still living and working at the Long Street grocery and bakers, along with a servant and an assistant. The 1911 census tells us that the property has 7 rooms. In 1916, Zeppelin bombs land on Loughborough, and James's younger brother, Josiah, now living on Empress Road in the town, is killed.
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| Josiah Gilbert's grave in Loughborough cemetery |
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| Josiah Gilbert's grave in Loughborough cemetery |
It is likely that James and his family continue to live on Long Street, Belton, and they are still there in 1921. In 1929 James dies, and in 1939 his youngest daughter Gladys is running the shop, while her mother and her older sister are helping. Harriet Gilbert died in 1960, and the shop closed a few years later. Harriet Ethel died in 1976, and Gladys in 1982.
According to the Charnwood Museum, when the shop closed, it was left exactly as it had been until about 1982 when Gladys died. Inside, the display stands and shevling, the products and the advertisements were preserved, although the building itself was in a run-down state. Leicestershire Museums service made an inventory of the contents and furniture in the shop, and at some point, some of those contents were used to populate the reconstructed shop that is now in Charnwood Museum.
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| Part of the information board in Charnwood Museum |
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| Some of the contents of the Gilbert's shop in Belton |
Today the shop is now converted to a home, and the building that housed the bakery that was at the back is still standing. There is a pleasant walk that runs along the side of the building, between that and a converted church. Meanwhile, in Loughborough, on Empress Road, Josiah Gilbert's shop is still trading as a corner shop. |
| Long Street, Belton |
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| Long Street, Belton |
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| The former bakery from the roadside |
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| The former bakery with the two roof windows, from the rear |
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| The path from the road to the fields behind the property |
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| Josiah Gilbert's corner shop on Empress Road, Loughborough |
Although the Belton Long Street grocers is no longer a shop, there is a village stores a bit further up the road in what looks like a 1930s building.
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| The current corner shop in Belton |
Continue on down to read and hear Josiah's own story.
_________________
Recording of the story of Josiah Gilbert Part 1, and Part 2
S1: The Story of Josiah Gilbert, 1866-1916 - Script
S2: Let’s set
the scene. Briefly, the locations which feature herein are:
Belton, an agricultural village 6 miles west
of Loughborough. In 1861 there were 781 inhabitants, and this remains similar
today.
Breedon-on-the-Hill, a small village around 11 miles from Loughborough.
The population in 1863 was around 650, and today this has risen to just over
1,000.
Markfield is just over 6 miles south west of Loughborough. In 1086 it
comprised 2 households. In 1863 the village had just begun quarrying local
stone, and housed around 1,400 inhabitants, while today just over 5,500 people
live there.
Osgathorpe had 8 households in 1086, and is an agricultural village 8
miles west of Loughborough. In 1863 there were 351 inhabitants, and this is
increased slightly to just over 400 today.
Loughborough in 1086, comprised 39 households. In 1861, the large
manufacturing and market town, had a
population of around 11,000, which has risen to in excess of 60,000 today.
In 1916 the country is in the midst of the First World War.
S3: William
Gilbert had been born in Osgathorpe in 1819 and his wife, Jane Barsby, in
Rothley in 1823. They were married at Breedon in 1848. William and Jane’s first
child, Sarah Ann, was born the following year, and son, James, in 1850, both
born in Osgathorpe. At the time of the 1851 census, William was a blacksmith and
the family were living in Osgathorpe.
S4: There
followed the birth of another two daughters, Mary Jane and Elizabeth, and
another son, William. Josiah Gilbert was baptised on 6th May 1866 in
Osgathorpe, the sixth child of William, listed as a farmer, and Jane. Sadly,
Jane died in 1866 and William married Elizabeth Hodgkinson two years later and
the birth of Thomas and Lucy followed. Sadly, Elizabeth appears to have died
around 1870.
S5: The 1871
census return for Osgathorpe lists the widower, William, a blacksmith and
farmer, living with six of his eight children. Sarah Ann had married and was
living just down the road, and James, now 21, was living with his uncle, a
grocer and grazier, on Long Street, Belton, where James was the grocer’s
apprentice. The three older children, Mary, Elizabeth and William, were listed
on the census return as scholars.
S6: By 1881,
the family was living on what was listed as ‘Village Street’ Osgathorpe, where
daughter Elizabeth was housekeeping for the family, son William was now working
as a railway clerk, and the three younger children were scholars. Meanwhile,
James had risen to the position of assistant grocer at his uncle’s grocery shop
in Belton.
S7: By 1891
Josiah was living with James and James’s family – wife, Harriet and 4-month-old
daughter, Harriet Ethel – on Long Street, Belton, where James was a grocer and
baker, and Josiah was his older brother’s assistant.
S8: In 1901
James and Harriet’s family had grown, to include another daughter, Gladys Elizabeth,
and Josiah, now aged 35 was still assisting his brother in the grocery and
bakery business.
The 1901
census was taken on 31st March, just three weeks before the first banns of
marriage between Josiah Gilbert and Sarah Newbold, both born in Osgathorpe, was
read. Following the posting of a further two banns, on 28th April and 5th May,
the couple were married: Josiah was aged 35, and Sarah, 30.
S9: Josiah
and Sarah celebrated the birth of their son, William Handley Josiah Gilbert, on
23rd February, 1902, in Markfield, the birth being registered at Market
Bosworth.
S10: In 1903
Josiah was listed on the electoral register as the owner of a dwelling house on
Main Street Markfield. This listing continues into subsequent years, until 1911,
and the family appear on the 1911 census return, living on Main Street,
Markfield, where they live and work from the same property. The business is a
grocery and bakery store, where Sarah assists her husband, while son William is
a scholar. Sarah’s place of birth is
noted as Belton, rather than Osgathorpe.
S11: In 1912,
Josiah appears on the register of electors as he now owns a dwelling house, no.29
Cumberland Road, Loughborough. His ownership of no.65 Cumberland Road is
confirmed by an entry in the local register of electors for 1913.
S12: 29
Cumberland Road, Loughborough
S13: 65
Cumberland Road, Loughborough
S14: On 16th
January 1913, Josiah Gilbert, baker and grocer, now of no.65 Cumberland Road,
makes a will, leaving household furniture and effects, money in the bank (Notts
and Nottinghamshire Bank, and Barclays in Leicester) the property on Main Road,
Markfield (which he held on mortgage) as well as all other properties
‘wheresoever and whatsoever’ in his name, to his wife, Sarah. This will was
witnessed by neighbours on Cumberland Road – Samuel Ward at no.55, and
immediate neighbour, Isaac Stedmanees, at no. 63.
So, from what
we have gathered so far, not only is Josiah a baker and grocer, he also seems
to be a property owner, clearly owning more than one house.
S15: Then the
1914 local register of electors reveals that Josiah also now has a property on
Empress Road, a dwelling house. This property, no.77, is also a shop, and
Josiah is still there running the corner grocery shop at the time the 1915
register was taken.
S16: Corner
shop at 77 Empress Road, Loughborough
S17: The
houses in the area in which the shop was situated had grown up around the
extensive Herbert Morris factory, previously known as Herbert Morris and
Bastert, and which had moved to Loughborough from Sheffield in 1897. Between
1890 and 1930 the number of employees rose from 50 to around 2,000, making
Herbert Morris one of Loughborough’s biggest employers. It is reasonable to
suppose that any local corner shop sited opposite such a large factory with so
many workers likely to visit, would ensure a thriving business and make a good
living for its proprietor.
S18: Part of
the Herbert Morris factory
S19: However,
the new year of 1916 proved catastrophic for the Gilbert family, as, indeed, it
did for many other families and individuals in Loughborough.
S20: At
around 8pm on the night of January 31st 1916, a low rumble could be heard
in the distance, which became louder and
louder, until it reached its height over the town of Loughborough. Although
there had been some degree of warning, and the local police had sent word
around that all lights were to be extinguished, Zeppelin L20, which was
ultimately heading for Liverpool, found its first target of Sheffield – or so
the captain thought.
Zeppelins are
notoriously difficult to navigate, and given the weather conditions and a
troublesome engine, L20 had actually only reached Loughborough, having been
completely unaware of the larger town of Leicester, whose lights had been
extinguished. Attracted by lights that were still shining in Loughborough, L20
dropped its first bomb close to the Technical Institute, which actually fell in
the yard of the nearby Crown and Cushion pub, causing the death of Mrs Martha
Shipman.
The second
bomb fell on The Rushes, causing complete havoc, and the death of William
Adcock, Joe and Alice Adkin, and Ethel Higgs. Making its way from the centre of
the town, towards the canal, and attracted by the bright lights shining through
the glass roof of a factory that had only recently benefitted from electric
lighting, the next bomb dropped landed in an orchard on Thomas Street,
thankfully killing no-one. The final bomb dropped by Zeppelin L20 fell closer
to the factory, and shrapnel flew into a nearby shop, killing, amongst others,
the proprietor.
Leaving
Loughborough townsfolk shocked and scared, and considering its job of bombing
Sheffield done, the airship departed, heading to Liverpool. However, it actually bombed Burton-on-Trent. The Herbert
Morris factory on Empress Road, Loughborough, lying close to the canal, had
been the target of the fourth bomb that dropped, killing Mary Anne Page, her
son, Joseph, and daughter Elsie, and Arthur Christian Turnill.
S21: Shrapnel
marks on Empress Road, Loughborough
S22: In the attack on
Loughborough by Zeppelin L20, 10 people were killed, 12 people badly injured
and many more suffered minor injuries.
S23: The centenary memorial
plaque on The Rushes
S24: Josiah
Gilbert, aged 49, was the shopkeeper who was killed by flying shrapnel, dying
in the arms of his 14-year-old son, William.
S25: His
distraught family posted a piece in the local newspaper, The Loughborough Echo,
in February 1916, thanking all their kind friends for their sympathy. Sarah and
son, William posted further memorials to Josiah on the anniversary of his
death, in 1917, 1918 and 1919 -and probably beyond.
S26: Between
1920 and 1923 Sarah was registered as living at no.65 Cumberland Road.
S27: By 1924,
Sarah and William had moved to no.17 Storer Road, where they both continued to
live until Sarah’s death.
S28: 17
Storer Road, Loughborough (right)
S29: William
stayed in the Storer Road property until around 1965 when he went to live at
no.1 Beaufort Avenue, Loughborough, where he remained until his death.
S30: On 31st
January 1970, William Handley Josiah Gilbert died. This was the 54th
anniversary of the death of his father, Josiah Gilbert, on the night of the Zeppelin
attack on Loughborough.
___________________
S31: Sources
consulted:
Due to lockdown, sources have mostly been found online and include:
Census returns, bmd, electoral registers, & newspaper reports accessed via Ancestry & FMP
The Loughborough
Echo
A more detailed bibliography is available on request
Lynne Dyer,
29 January 2021, updated 23 April 2021
____________________
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