Person:Caroline Palmer (6)

Childhood

Caroline (back left) with her parents, grandmother, two sisters and a niece, c.1915 at her parents' house in Glapthon.

Caroline appears in both the 1891 and 1901 censuses living with her parents and siblings in Glapthorn.

Brodsworth

Around 1906, Caroline went to work at Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire, over ninety miles north of Glapthorn. She was initially appointed as a scullery maid. Apparently the cook there had previously been in service with both Caroline’s older brothers at Biggin Hall in Northamptonshire. Brodsworth Hall was the home of Charles Thellusson and his wife Constance at the time.

The 1911 census finds Caroline working as a kitchen maid at Burton Constable Hall in Yorkshire. As an old lady she used to speak of the occasional “servant’s balls” which took place at different big houses, with Burton Constable being mentioned as one of the locations. Perhaps census night happened to coincide with one of these balls.

Around 1913 a young man called Alfred Edwards came to work at Brodsworth as valet to Mr Thellusson. Alf was well-travelled, having been on a round the world trip with a previous employer. He was quite artistic, being adept at wood carving and a keen photographer. He secured a room to be a dark room near his bedroom, on the ground floor in the servants’ annexe adjacent to the gun room. After developing his pictures in the dark room, the prints needed to dry, so he would take them to the kitchen and thus Alf the valet got to know Caroline the kitchen maid.

Picture of Caroline taken by Alf, which he then hand-coloured.

By 1915 Caroline had risen to become the cook at Brodsworth, a positions of considerable responsibility. In 1916 Alf and Caroline announced their intention to marry. Alf did not always have the best of health, and had spent some time off work convalescing in a sanatorium. Whilst many of the other men among the servants had volunteered to fight in the war, Alf stayed at Brodsworth, doing several of the jobs left vacant. In light of Alf’s poor health, several people tried to dissuade them from marrying, including the Thellussons at Brodsworth. They both resigned their posts and returned to their parents’ homes, Alf to Runcton in Sussex and Caroline to Glapthorn in Northamptonshire. After three or four weeks, Caroline decided to ignore the advice. She caught the train to London, where she’d never been, and out to Chichester, then walked from Chichester station to Alf's parents' house at Runcton. They returned to Brodsworth and were allowed to take up their posts again. Caroline did not stay long as cook after her return – married women were discouraged from working. Three weeks prior to their wedding she resigned from service at Brodsworth and returned to live with her parents at Glapthorn whilst finalising preparations for the wedding.

On Monday 17th July 1916, Alf travelled down from Brodsworth to Oundle on the train, bringing not only himself and his luggage, but also a three-tiered wedding cake baked and iced by the still room maid at Brodsworth. They were married that day at St Leonard’s Church in Glapthorn. Caroline was aged 27 and Alf aged 31. Their wedding presents included generous gifts from the Thellussons and the other Brodsworth staff, including a Wedgewood dinner service from Mr and Mrs Thellusson, with the other staff giving them a Sheffield plate teapot, jug and bowl. Alf’s parents gave them a brass tobacco container.

Alf and Caroline's wedding photograph.

They bought various items of furniture for their new home, including a chest of drawers, wardrobe, sideboard, easy chair and oak gate-legged table. Their new cottage being rather small (the house has subsequently been knocked through with its neighbour) they only bought two smart dining chairs, but they had another two chairs put aside for when they would need them and be able to accommodate them. As it happened, events overtook them and they never got those extra two chairs.

One of the duties Alf had taken on during the war was that of chauffeur. The Thellussons had acquired a large open-top car, to which they had added a large hood, which rendered the whole car top-heavy. On one occasion shortly after Alf and Caroline’s marriage, when she was about three months pregnant with their first child, Alf was driving both Mr and Mrs Thellusson and Caroline back to Brodsworth, returning from a trip to York, when coming down a hill he lost control of the car and it toppled over, throwing Caroline out. Remarkably she was unhurt.

In May 1917, Caroline gave birth to a son. Shortly afterwards they moved to a larger house in Brodsworth, now known as Big Tree Cottage, Lingfield Road, Brodsworth.

The war which had been the backdrop to most of Alf’s time at Brodsworth finally ended in November 1918. Alf’s employer, Charles Thellusson, died a few months later, on 25th March 1919, aged 58. Brodsworth Hall passed to Charles Thellusson’s nephew, Charles Grant-Dalton. Mrs Thellusson retired to her house in Torquay. A few weeks after Charles Thellusson’s death, Caroline and Alf’s second son was born.

At this point, Alf’s health, which had often been precarious before, sharply deteriorated. He succumbed to tuberculosis and died on 25th September 1919, aged 34. He was buried in the churchyard at Brodsworth. Caroline, who was just 30 at the time, was left with their two sons, who were just two years old and five months old when Alf died.

Later life

After Alf’s death, Caroline stayed for a few months in Brodsworth with her young boys before moving back down to Glapthorn, where her parents still lived. There were many young widows at that time following the First World War, and Caroline used to complain that those whose husbands had been killed in action received a pension, whereas she did not. Caroline did a variety of cooking-based jobs to make ends meet. She briefly moved up to live with one of her sisters at Conisbrough, back near Brodsworth, trying to establish a bakery from her sister’s kitchen, before returning to Glapthorn.

In 1932, Caroline’s elder son, John (Jack) died suddenly aged fifteen. An inquest was held and concluded that he had died of septicaemia following an insect bite.

In the mid-1930s Caroline took over the village shop in Glapthorn, but struggled to make it pay and gave it up after about a year. Afterwards, Caroline found work as a cook again, working in the boarding houses of Oundle School. At this time she lived in a small cottage at the southern end of Glapthorn village, about a mile and a half from Oundle. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Caroline and her surviving son, Harold, were living at the cottage in Glapthorn.

Caroline’s father died in 1940, aged 80.

During the Second World War, Harold served in the army. His fiancée, Christina Aitken, spent part of the war living with Caroline whilst Harold was serving abroad.

Harold and Christina married after the war, in 1946 at Glapthorn in 1946. Caroline had two grandsons.

Caroline’s mother died in 1950, aged 87.

In 1962, as she was getting older, Caroline gave up her cottage in Glapthorn and moved in with Harold and his family. They then managed to secure a council house in Oundle. Caroline died at their home in Oundle on 4th March 1968, a week before what would have been her 79th birthday. She had outlived Alf by 48 years.

1. ↑ Birth certificate, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   REGISTRATION DISTRICT Oundle
   1889 BIRTH in the Sub-district of Fotheringhay in the Counties of Norths & Hunts
   No.	When and where born	Name, if any	Sex	Name and surname of father	Name, surname and maiden name of mother	Occupation of father	Signature, description and residence of informant	When registered	Signature of registrar
   241	Eleventh March 1889 Glapthorn R.S.D.	Caroline Emma	Girl	Thomas Palmer	Eliza Palmer formerly Berridge	Farm Labourer	E. Palmer Mother Glapthorn	Nineteenth March 1889	Jonas Tebbutt, Registrar

   
2. ↑ Bishop's Transcript of baptisms register, in Church of England. Glapthorn Parish Registers, 1538-1957. (Northampton, England: Northamptonshire County Record Office).

   BAPTISMS solemnized in the Parish of Glapthorn in the County of Northampton in the year One thousand eight hundred and eighty nine
   No.	When Baptized	Child's Christian Name	Parent's Name		Abode	Quality, Trade, or Profession	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   			Christian	Surname
   225	1889 April 21st Born March 11th 1889	Caroline Emma	Thomas & Eliza	Palmer	Glapthorn	Labourer	Francis Buttanshaw, Vicar

3. ↑ England. 1891 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG12; Piece 1224; Folio 84; Page 7, 5 Apr 1891.

   Address: Village Street, Glapthorne, Northamptonshire
   4 rooms occupied
   Thomas Palmer, head, married, male, 31 [1859/60], General Labourer, employed, b. Glapthorne, Northamptonshire
   Eliza Palmer, wife, married, female, 28 [1862/3], b. Benefield, Northamptonshire
   Thomas William Palmer, son, male, 7 [1883/4], Scholar, b. Glapthorne, Northamptonshire
   Annie Eliza Palmer, daughter, female, 6 [1884/5], Scholar, b. Glapthorne, Northamptonshire
   George Palmer, son, male, 5 [1885/6], Scholar, b. Glapthorne, Northamptonshire
   Mary Elizabeth Palmer, daughter, 3 [1887/8], b. Glapthorne, Northamptonshire
   Caroline Emma Palmer, daughter, female, 2 [1888/9], b. Glapthorne, Northamptonshire
   Agnes Palmer, daughter, female, 8mos [1890], b. Glapthorne, Northamptonshire

4. ↑ England. England. 1901 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG13; Piece 1456; Folio 74; Page 6, 31 Mar 1901.

   Address: Lower Street, Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   4 rooms occupied
   Thomas Palmer, head, married, male, 41 [1859/60], Carpenter (Rough), worker, b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   Eliza Palmer, wife, married, female, 38 [1862/3], b. Benefield, Northamptonshire
   Mary E.E. Palmer, daughter, single, female, 13 [1887/8], b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   Caroline E. Palmer, daughter, single, female, 12 [1888/9], b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   Agnes Palmer, daughter, single, female, 10 [1890/1], b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   Nellie Palmer, daughter, single, female, 8 [1892/3], b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   Effie M. Palmer, daughter, single, female, 7 [1893/4], b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   John J. Palmer, son, single, male, 2 [1898/9], b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   May Palmer, daughter, single, female, 1 [1899/1900], b. Glapthorn, Northamptonshire

5. ↑ England. 1911 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom: The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), (formerly the UK General Register Office.))
   Class RG14; Piece 28838; Schedule 5, 2 Apr 1911.

   Address: Burton Constable Hall, Burton Constable, Yorkshire
   120 rooms occupied
   Raleigh Chichester Constable, head, male, 47 [1863/4], married, Landed Proprietor Major retired, b. Fermoy, Co. Cork, Resident
   Edith Chichester Constable, wife, female, 46 [1864/5], married 22 years, 6 children born, 6 still living, b. Weston Super Mare, Devonshire [sic]
   Blanche Chichester Constable, daughter, female, 21 [1889/90], single, b. Texas, U.S.A., British Subject by Parentage
   Violet Chichester Constable, daughter, female, 18 [1892/3], single, b. Roscommon, Resident
   Henry Murphy, servant, male, 48 [1862/3], married, Butler domestic, b. Leeds, Yorkshire
   Edgar Carr, servant, male, 18 [1892/3], single, Footman domestic, b. Westhouse, Yorkshire
   Thomas Simmonds, servant, male, 26 [1884/5], single, Footman domestic, b. Leamington, Warwickshire
   William Hawks, servant, male, 24 [1886/7], single, Footman domestic, b. Wragby, Lincolnshire
   Sarah Penfold, servant, female, 50 [1860/1], single, Housekeeper domestic, b. Horsham, Sussex
   Eleanor Pettit, servant, female, 25 [1885/6], single, Still room maid, b. London, Middlesex
   Maria Calami, servant, female, 38 [1872/3], single, Cook domestic, b. Neuchatel, Swiss, Swiss
   Louise Deplaye, servant, female, 34 [1876/7], Ladies maid, b. St Sauver, France, French
   Caroline Palmer, servant, female, 23 [1887/8], single, Kitchen maid domestic, b. Glassthorne, Notts [sic]
   Kate Woodcock, servant, female, 17 [1893/4], single, Scullery maid, b. Uttoxeter, Staffordshire
   Lily Parker, servant, female, 25 [1885/6], single, Housemaid domestic, b. Greenhill, Derbyshire
   Ella Booth, servant, female, 22 [1888/9], single, Housemaid domestic, b. Cawood, Yorkshire
   Emma Pearce, servant, female, 22 [1888/9], single, Housemaid domestic, b. Cotton, Yorkshire
   Eliz[abet]h Robinson, servant, female, 21 [1889/90], single, Housemaid domestic, b. Chester le Street, Durham
   Annie Kitchen, servant, female, 17 [1893/4], Housemaid domestic, b. Weistoke, Nottinghamshire
   Isabella Freeborough, servant, 23 [1887/8], Housemaid domestic, b. Beverley, Yorkshire
   Georgina Usherwood, servant, 26 [1884/5], Ladies maid, b. Deal, Kent

6. ↑ General Register Office. 1939 Register
   Oundle and Thrapston Rural District, 29 Sep 1939.

   Address: Lower Glapthorn, Glapthorn, Northamptonshire
   Edwards, Caroline E., female, b. 11 Mar 1889, widowed, Cook at Grammar School
   Edwards, Harold, male, b. 23 Apr 1919, single, Assistant Tester Welded Steel Tubes

7. ↑ Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   d. Caroline E. EDWARDS, March Quarter 1968, Oundle Registration District, Volume 3b, page 1012, aged 78 [1889/90]

   Exact date and place from family recollection.

8.   The personal details of the narrative on this page are drawn from the recollections and writings of Caroline's son and daughter-in-law.