Nicky Stavrides wrote (Aug 11th 2017) …
My grandmother, Millicent May Pashley (nee Beardow) was born in 1928 in Ilkeston to Henrietta Beardow and a Sidney Kerry. She had nothing to do with her father as she was illegitimate and does not recall anything about him.
We would like to know more information about her maternal grandparents. Frank Brown Beardow (a Bargee) and Clara Beardow (nee Tompkins). Any information on any member of the family would be great!
Millie (as she is more commonly known as) is well and still manages to travel to Cyprus every year to visit her daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren!
She has fond memories of her school years and recalls her classmates Gladys Kerry, Jean Toplis and Maureen Swan at Chaucer school (1937-1939) as well as Kath Butler, Kath Becket and Jean Wheatley from Bennerley school (1942 leavers).
Dave replied (Aug 14th 2017) …
Frank Brown Beardow was born on Oct. 11th 1861 (just missing the census of that year) and was baptised at St Mary’s Church on Mar 19th 1873. He was the son of canal boatman Thomas Beardow and Caroline (nee Brown).
Frank appears to have been the youngest of the family and had at least three brothers and two sisters.
On the 1871 census the Beardow family is at the Potteries in Ilkeston.
On the 1881 census Frank is at Babbington Wharf in Ilkeston with two brothers and his father .. his mother is absent. (She is at Leicester with her sister Jane, born in 1838 in Leicester and who by this time is married to decorator William Smith).
On the 1891 census Frank is boarding in Crichley/Critchley Street in Ilkeston, with his sister Sarah Martha, who had married coal miner Henry Hunt in 1872.
Frank married Clara Tomkins in 1900 at Ebenezer Chapel, Ilkeston. She was born on April 18th 1880, daughter of William and Henrietta (nee Upton). Clara had already given birth to their illegitimate daughter, May Beardow Tompkins, born on May 24th 1900 at 18 Canal Side (where the Beardows and Tompkins now lived).
On the 1901 census Frank, his wife, his child and his in-laws are all living at Canal Side, Ilkeston and are still there in 1911 (including Henrietta who was born on August 15th 1908).
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Frank and family had moved, about a mile up the road, to live at 2 Lower Granby Street, (and now retired). He died in 1947, aged 85.
The maternal grandmother was Clara nee Tompkins, born at Canal Side in Ilkeston, and she seems to have spent all her life there … at least up to 1911 … and until she and Frank moved into Lower Granby Street. She died in 1958, aged 78.
Frank’s father, Thomas Beardow married Caroline Brown on April 15th 1847 at Leicester All Saints Church.
He was aged 28, a boatman, the son of schoolmaster (?) Thomas. She was aged 21, born at Stamford, Lincs, the child of labourer (and Chelsea Pensioner) William and Sarah, and baptised at Stamford on November 20th 1826. At the time of their marriage, both were living at North Gate Street, Leicester.
Caroline appears on the 1851 census at North Gate Street, without her husband, — who was away, ‘boating’ — but with son William, aged 2.
Thomas died (I think at Basford Workhouse) in October 1891, aged 76 although he is buried in Ilkeston. His wife Caroline died in Ilkeston in 1893, aged, 67.
