Thursday 8 May 2014

Sarah Nettleship, Kensington and Notting Hill

Here is an indenture from 1855 in which Sarah Nettleship leases some property in Brunswick Place, Upper Holloway, in London to Thomas Moss of Kentish Town. The document notes that the site is "intended to be numbered 3 Brunwick Place", suggestimg the area was under development at the time.



The site of the property now seems to have been lost under newer development: Brunswick Road has been re-named McDonald Road - but I can find no trace of Brunswick Place (even on older maps).

The site is close to Archway and the present day Whittington Hospital, seen in the map below as the Small Pox and Vaccination Hospital.


The venture must have been a success, as there is a further indenture dated 1856 to extend the lease on improved terms for Sarah.

Sarah Nettleship was the daughter of John Bayfield Nettleship (1781-1844) and Sarah Twiss (1784-1860). The family were from Hingham in Norfolk. The Wikipedia entry for Hingham notes that:
Grand architecture surrounds the market place and village green. In the 18th century when the socialites and high society built houses and took residence in Higham, it became fashionably known as “Little London.

After her father John's death in 1844, it seems that the property in Norfolk was leased out and the Nettleship family moved to London - first to 9 Addison Road in Kensington and later to St. James' Square in Notting Hill. There is a record that the family propoery in Norfolk was put up for sale by action in 1861.

Sarah did not marry and she died in 1886 at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, aged 73.

Any more information about Brunswick Place in Upper Holloway or about this Nettleship family would be most welcome please.

Friday 2 May 2014

Charles Nettleship, Alnwick

Charles Nettleship was a carpenter and joiner from Alnwick in Northumberland.


In the 1881 census he was living with his parents, Thomas and Sarah, in Lisburn Street - but in the mid-1880s he took over a business established by Jonathan Cockburn in Howick Street.

The Bailiffgate Museum website contains an interesting page on the premises at 5 Howick Street, part of its "If These Stones Could Talk" project:

Charles continued to run his business from Howick Street until his death in 1905, aged 49. The Morpeth Herald published the following report on 16 December 1905:


The Bailiffgate Museum article shows that Charles' wife Elizabeth continued to live in Howick Street and that two of their sons were killed in 1918 in the First World War. Thomas Nettleship served in the Northumberland Fusiliers and was killed on 22 March 1918. His brother Mark Nettleship served in the King's Own Scottish Borderers and died on 1 September 1918, aged 25. Both are remembered on the Alnwick War Memorial.

Charles' father Thomas Nettleship was born in Mattersey, Nottinghamshire. Looking at the 1881 census data using Surname Atlas it can be seen that this is an area where the Nettleship name was most commonly found. There is a reference to an Edward Nettleship endowing the Mattersley National School in 1742.


Source: Surname Atlas (Archer Software)