Winifred Ellen Reynolds

LIFE GOES ON: AN INTRODUCTION

MY GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

THE SIXTEEN FAMILIES

KNOTT - I - BOWLES - I - WATERS - I - HARRALL - I - PAGE - I - WISEMAN - I - CROSS - I - CARTER

CORNWELL - I - HUCKLE - I - MORTLOCK - I - MANSFIELD - I - REYNOLDS - I - CARTER - I - ANABLE - I - STEARN

CHRONOLOGY - I - DRAMATIS PERSONAE - I - WHERE PEOPLE CAME FROM - I - CALENDAR

MAP OF ELY - I - MAP OF MEDWAY
MAP OF CAMBRIDGE AND DISTRICT

THE WORKHOUSE

WORLD WAR I - I - WORLD WAR II

simonknott.co.uk I home I e-mail

LIFE GOES ON

Winifred Ellen Reynolds
born Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, 1904
died Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, 23rd February 1983

on the Reynolds family tree
part of the Reynolds, Carter, Anable and Stearn family stories

married to Edmund Stanley Cornwell

daughter of
Thomas Reynolds
and Alice Mary Anable

Winifred Ellen Reynolds (1904-1983). My Mother's Mother. My Grandmother.

Winifred Ellen Reynolds was born in Dry Drayton, a village on the outskirts of Cambridge, in 1904. She was the oldest child. In about 1908 the family moved to West Wratting on the other side of Cambridge and then to Hildersham, before settling in Shelley Row in Cambridge in about 1916. Her father was a brewery drayman. She married Edmund Stanley Cornwell, who came from Oakington, the neighbouring village to Dry Drayton, but they married in Lichfield, Staffordshire on 10th July 1923 when they were both just 19 years old. They gave false ages to acquire the certificate, as one of them had to be of age, that is to say 21 or over. They were in Staffordshire because my grandmother was pregnant, and they had run away to get married. Stan's older sister Ruth lived at Colton on the outskirts of Rugeley, and she arranged the marriage for them. Their first child was born less than three months later. He had a learning disability, and lived with his mother for the rest of her life. Winifred's parents never really forgave her for her pregnancy and hasty marriage to someone of whom they did not approve. It is only in the last few months that I have discovered that Winifred's mother Alice was also six months pregnant when she married Winifred's father in 1903. Winifred was that child.

They returned to Cambridge after the birth of their first child, and lived in Shelley Row near to Winifred's parents. However, they seem not to have got on well with them, and after the birth of two more children they did a moonlight flit, first to Barway near Ely and then to Grunty Fen on the other side of the river, before settling in Little Thetford. They had nine children altogether. Although my grandfather died before I was born, Winifred Cornwell was the grandparent I knew best. I spent the first three years of my life living in the same house as her at Green Hill, Little Thetford in the Isle of Ely. After we moved to Cambridge she would often visit us, and I would go and stay with her. I spent a lot of the spring of 1966 living with her because of complications with the birth of my youngest brother. I remember her as being a very comfy, smiling old lady, although she was actually only in her late fifties when I was born. The thing that strikes me about her now when I look at her on earlier photographs is quite how stunningly beautiful she was when she was young, and that my own daughter, who of course she never met, looks uncannily like her.

She died of a stroke, possibly as a result of the side-effects of an anti-arthritis drug, at Chesterton Hospital in Cambridge in 1983. She was 79 years old. Her ashes were scattered in the fields near Dry Drayton.

She was the oldest of six children:

Cecilia Emily Reynolds
Born Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire 1905 and baptised at St Peter and St Paul, Dry Drayton on 24th December, Christmas Eve. Known by the family as Ciss. After marrying, she lived in North Walsham, Norfolk.

Ernest Alfred Reynolds
Born Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire 1907. Baptised at St Peter and St Paul, Dry Drayton on 5th May. Known by the family as Sonny. Ernest lived with his parents all his life, establishing a taxi business in Cambridge from the workshop at the bottom of his parents garden at 4 Shelley Row. At the time of the 1938 Kelly's Directory for Cambridge he was listed as the householder, but this was probably so that histaxi business could be advertised. He died of cancer in 1945. The family story is that he contracted this by smoking oil-stained cigarettes in his workshop. Ernest never married, but he was in a long term relationship, and when he died he left his accumulated wealth from the taxi business to his former partner, much to the anger of his mother.

Abigail Annie Reynolds
Born West Wratting, Cambridgeshire 21st April 1910. Known by the family as Cad. Abigail was probably born at Valley Farm, right on the edge of the parish near to what is now the Cambridge suburb of Fulbourn. She married Reginald Lander at St Giles, Cambridge, a short walk from her parents' house in Shelley Row, on 30th June 1929. Reginald Lander's family were partners in a busy Cambridge butcher's firm. They lived variously on Histon Road, Cambridge, at Station Road, Histon and at one point ran a pub off of Mill Road, Cambridge. They had three children, two daughters and a son. They were the aunt, uncle and cousins my mother knew best, and she remembers her Aunt Cad and Uncle Reg with fondness and affection. Abigail died in Cambridge on the 26th April 1988.

Lydia Frances Reynolds
Born Hildersham, Cambridgeshire 1914. Baptised at St Peter and St Paul, Dry Drayton on 1st November when her father Tom was recorded as a horsekeeper of Hildersham. Lydia died within a year, by which time the family had probably moved to 4 Shelley Road, Cambridge, and in which case she was probably buried in what is now the Ascension Burial Ground on Huntingdon Road. Interestingly, her father arrived in France after his regiment's landing date, suggesting that he might have received compassionate leave because of his daughter's death.

Salonica Ruth Reynolds
Born Shelley Road, Cambridge 1916. Known to the family as Lon. She received her unusual name to remember the fact that her father was stationed at Salonika in Greece for much of the First World War, a much less dangerous theatre than the Western Front. She married Stanley George Impey in Cambridge in 1936. Stan was a distant relative of Lon, born at Dry Drayton in 1911 and related through her mother's mother's family. They had two sons. The family lived at 130 Kings Hedges Road, Cambridge. After the death of Lon's father Tom, her mother Alice came to live in the Kings Hedges Road house in what my mother describes as a granny flat. Lon died in 1983 in Cambridge, after which her husband lived in sheltered accomodation on Arbury Road before his death in 1989.

1901 census:

Winifred was not born at the time of the 1901 census. Her parents had not yet married.

Winifred's mother Alice Mary Anable was nineteen years old at the time of the 1901 census. Her birth year is shown as 1882. Her surname is misspelt as 'Anabel'. She was living in the lodging house of Mary Cullum at 10 Peas Hill, Cambridge. This is in the centre of Cambridge, leading from the Market Place to Corn Exchange Street. Alice is shown as a domestic servant. She was single in 1901.

Mary Cullum was a widow, and had two daughters living with her, Gertrude aged 27 and Janet aged 25. There was one other domestic servant living in the house, Julia Marshall aged 16.

The census records that Alice was born at Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire. The transcript for the entry is here.

Winifred's father Thomas Reynolds was twenty-two years old at the time of the 1901 census. His birth year is shown as 1879. He was living at home with his parents at High Street, Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire. The street still exists today. Thomas is shown as an agricultural labourer. He was single. Significantly, Alice Anable was also from Dry Drayton.

Thomas's parents are shown as Robert Reynolds, a stockman on a farm, aged 59, and Mary Ann Reynolds, aged 58. They had one other child living at home at the time of the 1901 census, Robert G Reynolds, an agricultural labourer, aged 19. Also living with them was their grandson Ernest Joseph Elzey, aged 3, born in North Bow in London.

The Reynolds household had three lodgers on the night of the census. They were George and Albert Sheet, apparently father and son, and William Jackson. All three were agricultural labourers.

Thomas was born at Duxford, Cambridgeshire according to the 1901 census (although the BMD Index suggests a different Cambridgeshire registration district). The transcript for their entry is here.

1904: Winifred Ellen was born in Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire on 4th February. She was baptised at St Peter and St Paul, Dry Drayton, on April 3rd, which that year was Easter Sunday.

1911 census:

Winifred was seven years old at the time of the 1911 census. Her name is misspelt on the census as 'Winefred'. The Reynolds family were living at Valley Farm, West Wratting, Cambridgeshire, actually on the outskirts of the parish, and nearer to the village of Fulbourn, today a suburb of Cambridge. Valley Farm had been built as a stables, but today is part of a huge agri-business concern. The four lanes of the busy A11 now cut into the edge of the farm.

Winifred's father Thomas is shown as a horse keeper. He was 32 years old. Winifred's mother Alice was 30 years old. They had been married for 7 years.

Winifred was the oldest of four children at the time of the 1911 census, and her name was spelt Winefred. The others were Cecila (Cecilia) was 5, Earnest 4 and Abbgale (Abigail) 1. Whoever filled in the form was unable to spell the children's names.

Winifred was born in Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, as were Cecilia and Earnest. Abigail was born at West Wratting.

Winifred's father had been born at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, her mother Alice at Dry Drayton. The transcript for their entry is here.

1923: Winifred married Edmund Stanley Cornwell on the 10th July at the Register Office, Lichfield, Staffordshire.

1983: Winifred died at Chesterton Hospital, Cambridge.