Edwin JONES - Forest of Dean FHT Forum

Born 1853 married Harriet one of their children is Wallace, my grandfather. I would like to know about Edwin's life. Kelly's directory records him as grocer in Cinderford (?Union Stores). Any information / pictures would be helpful to my research.

Not much information to go on....

However....????

FOD records

Marriage at Newent, 28 July 1880

Edwin JONES, age 20, Bachelor, Farmer - residence: Aston Ingham
father: Edward Jones - deceased

married

Harriet GOODCHAPE, age 19, Spinster, resience: Gorsley

father: Thomas GOODCHAPE, Farmer, by banns

witnesses: John DALLIMORE and Emily BURDEN

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Wallace JONES c1894 is on the 1911 census (Ancestry not transcribed as yet)

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1901 Census, Glos.
High Street

JONES

Edwin - 41 Grocer, born Newent
Harriett - 40 - born Newent
Eva - 17 - Gros. Asst. born Ross Hereford
Mable - 13 - all born Cinderford
Stanley - 11
Wallace - 7
William - 5
Elinor - 4
Morris - 2

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1891 Census, East Dean
Wesley? Road (just next to High Street)

JONES

Edwin - 30 - Insurance Agent - born Bran Green, Newent
Harriett - 30 - born Dymock
Eva 7 - born Ross
Mable - 2 - born Cinderford
Stanley - 6 - born Cinderford

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1881 Census, Herefordshire, Weston Under Penyard

Edwin JONES, age 20 - born Newent
Harriett - 20 born Dymock
Thomas E JONES, 3 weeks, born Herefordshire, Weston Under Penyard
Mary JONES, mother - 65 - Farmer's Widow, born Newent

---

1871 Census, Taynton, Five Elms

JONES

Edward - Farmer 2 acres, age 58, born Kings Caple
Mary - 55 born Newent
Louisa - 21
Eliza - 15
Edwin - 12
Sarah Pernalla JONES, grand-daughter age 1 - born Taynton

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1861 Census, Taynton, Graven Hill

JONES

Edward - 47 - Farmer & Drillman 2 acres - born Kingscapel, Herefordshire
Mary - 44 - all born Newent
Thomas - 19
Edwin - 10/12/16 w/m difficult to read
Louisa - 12
Mary Ann - 6
Eliza - 5

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1851 Census, Bran Green (where Edwin says he was born)

JONES

Edward - 49 - Wheelwright, born Hereford Kings Caple
Mary - 38 - born Newent
Henry - 11
Thomas -9
Alfred - 8
William - 6
Sarah H - 4
Louisa - 2
Edward - 1M

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Looking at Gloucestershirebdm - JONES - mother's maiden name WOOD

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FOD records

Marriage at Pauntley - 7 December 1837

Edward JONES, occupation Carpenter, residence: Pauntley (later on a Wheelwright)
father: William JONES, labourer
married
Mary Anne WOOD, Spinster, residence: Pauntley
father: Thomas WOOD, labourer

witnesses: John CLARK/Mary CULL

---

1841 Census, Newent

Edward JONES - 29, Ag. Lab - not born in County
Mary JONES - 25
Henry JONES -1

next door

John WOOD, age 55
Ann PREDETH - 80

Thanks. This is a great start- very kind of you to help. As you say little info for members to go on but I am new to this type of research. I would love to find photographs to go with info gained: are there any available of Union Stores where Edwin was a grocer? Although I live Somerset I could travel to Cinderford if further info/photos available to copy.
sheila

Hi Sheila,
welcome to this great forum and website. Did you know both the forum and the website can be fully searched via their respective search "boxes" ?. Although Jones is a very common Forest name you may find a relevant priorthread in the forum. Also there is an Old Photos section which may well help you.

I am also a Jones and was born n bred in Bilson, Lower Cinderford. However I doubt that we are related, my Jones line stems from Lydbrook. To my surprise on joining the forum last year, I found statistically Jones is by the most common (I prefer "popular") Forest surname. This wasn't my impression when living in the Cinderford/eastern side of the Forest, so I'd concluded they're concentrated in the north/western side such as Lydbrook due to the high numbers from Wales settling around the Wye valley side during the Industrial Revolution, or indeed up into Herefordshire. That said, I've recently found many Jones' in the older part of town towards Cinderford Bridge & Ruspidge, so I was clearly moving in the wrong social circles !.

When you say "Union" Stores, where do you get this phrase from ?. Apologies as I'm under the weather at the mo, but (I think?) this is a new term to me, and I've been studying books & photos of Cinderford for a few years now.

Could this be anything to do with the Co-Operative Stores I wonder ?

I'll start digging thro my books and researches (sure there's some Edwins/Wallaces in there but...), only yesterday I was again wishing I had an index to all of Humphrey Phelps' marvelous "Old Photos" books !

Good luck Jeff

ps If you've not visited Cinderford I wouldn't go this time of year. My mother's still there and its VERY cold today, plus sadly it's a rather rundown town compared to the past, it was a lively place only 20 years back, but still great people tho' !!. Come the Spring and its an ideal place to tour the Forest from. ALSO Cinderford library carries the local Newspaper archives which may well help you, many delightful old adverts etc, please see this prior post.

http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=34114

Speak later, Jeff

Jeff
Thanks for taking time to respond.
Firstly 'Union Stores' is a word of mouth reference that has been passed down over the years, therefore may not be accurate. It was a pity that Kelly's directory only refers to him as grocer and does not mention the whereabouts or name of store.

Your comment re visiting Cinderford has come a little late as I did visit the library a few weeks ago and understand your comments re the town being a little run down! As a child, I stayed with my grandfather Wallace Jones(Edwin's son) and grandmother Hilda (nee Merriman) in Belle Vue Road where they lived for well over 25 years and have many happy memories of these visits. Unfortunately as a child I did not have the interest in family history so did not ask them all the questions I would like answers to today!
If you do come across any photos or reference to the shop I would be pleased to hear from you.

Sheila

Name: Edwin Jones
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1859
Registration district: Newent
Inferred County: Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire
Volume: 6a
Page: 207

1901 a Grocer on High St Cinderford - explicitly not on Lower High St - which gives us a sense of where in Cinderford he was :-)

1902
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cbennett/cinderford1902.htm
JONES Edwin, grocer

1911 ( needs to be rechecked)
JONES EDWIN M 1860 51 Westbury on Severn Gloucestershire
JONES WALLACE M 1894 17 Westbury on Severn Gloucestershire
JONES STANLEY M 1891 20 Westbury on Severn Gloucestershire
JONES EVA F 1884 27 Westbury on Severn Gloucestershire
JONES MABEL F 1889 22 Westbury on Severn Gloucestershire
JONES MAURICE M 1900 11 Westbury on Severn Gloucestershire
JONES FRANCIS H F 1861 50 Westbury on Severn Gloucestershire

Enjoyed a spot of sarcasm in the 1911 census: Edwin Jones, a grocer in
Cinderford, Gloucs, reports the relationship of a 72-year-old occupant
of his house merely as "Relative", and reports her occupation as "Sit
by the fire"...

Name: Edwin Jones
Birth Date: abt 1859
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1947
Age at Death: 88
Registration district: Forest of Dean
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 7b
Page: 360

<><><><><>

No hint if this is the Royal Union Stores or at least not yet ....
In 1876 Ambose DREW, grocer and provision dealer, at Royal Union Stores, High St Cinderford

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Thanks for this info - I too appreciated the humour re relative occupation. Do you know if any photographs of this grocer store exist? I recently travelled from Somerset, where I live, to do a bit of research in Cinderford library but could not find any reference.

Sheila

Thanks for this info - I too appreciated the humour re relative occupation. Do you know if any photographs of this grocer store exist? I recently travelled from Somerset, where I live, to do a bit of research in Cinderford library but could not find any reference.

Sheila

One or two views of the High Street exist from around 1905 / 1910 , my "feeling" is that the shop was in the area of The Triangle / Lion Hotel, if that is correct then the shop will be in one of the views, however it may be difficult to "isolate" it :-(

http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/cinderford/pages/page_9.html

http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/cinderford_2/pages/page_53.html

--
Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Slowhands,
I'm with you on the approximate location. Unfortunately most photos of the High Street tend to be taken from the old "bottleneck" looking down, such as per your photo suggestion. I believe the shop may well have been actually part of the bottleneck which for various aesthetic & practical reasons didn't get photographed very often at all.

Your photo shows a large building on the lefthandside with the Co-op Signwriting proudly displayed on the side wall. In the past I'd grown up associating it's neighbouring building (out of this photo, uphill towards the camera) as being the Co-op, I vaguely recall walking past it's impressive plate windows as a toddler in the mid 60s. Until a few years ago that site was the "Westgate" store still part of the Severnside Co-op, which had itself bought the Town Hall which dated from 1869.
Certainly even in the 1980s the Co-op Dairy was behind what was then Woolies (ex Town Hall plot) so still on this same general site.
This earlier photo shows it better(thanks to you I see)
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/cinderford/pages/page_58.html

Hi Sheila,
For Cinderford & area old photos I strongly recommend you search out the "Tilley" series of postcards, so-called as made by Tilley of Ledbury in Edwin's pre WW1 days, renowned for being attractively coloured. A Google often throws hits on various sites showing or selling these cards including the wellknown auction sites.

Our local Lightmoor Press has produced a superb paperback book, A4 size so easier to read compared to some books of a similar nature, this has many cards displaying Cinderford shopfronts plus many more of the surrounding Forest area and it's industry etc.

http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/view_book.php?ref=L9006

However the book doesnt carry photos of the aforementioned "bottleneck". I see the "Royal Union" photo I refer to (off this site) is produced by "Valentines" so I suggest maybe search those out too ?
http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/valentines.html

Hi Slowhands, thanks for the comedy spot, def Forest humour there, wonder what would have happened if I'd tried such an entry in the 2011 Census...

Re "Royal Union Stores", I've read about Cinderford's shops being "taken over" & eventually dominated by the Co-op (itself a Union of sorts) since their start at Cinderford Bridge in the 1870s. However I've only seen the "ROYAL Union" name in reference to the pub at 8 High Street which closed around 1960 when the old Triangle was demolished.

However the 1902 Kelly's does also contain this possible pointer:
"JONES Alice S. (Miss), grocer & beer retailer & wine & spirit merchant"

The Easywell site list these former landlords of The Royal Union pub;

1856 J. Symonds
1885,1891, Mark Cole
1902,1903 Susan Cole (Mrs Susan Cole in 1902)
1919 Alice Cole (Mrs)
1927 William J. Jones
1939 William Noel Jones

http://www.gloucestershirecamra.org.uk/pubs/glospubs/new/AllGlosPubsDatabase/AllGlosPub...

It was clearly a substantial size building with a side entrance to a yard & stabling.

Do you know whether this pub was also a grocer's shop in some form ?. I don't recall seeing any photos of it which might prove this theory.

Is it possible Mrs Alice Cole was Miss Alice Jones, perhaps responsible for the off-sales side of the pub business & maybe a few groceries too ?. If so is she linked with Edwin's family ?

Just a thought.

Its almost too much of a coincidence , The Hotel and the store are almost certainly close by in The Triangle / High street "centre" of Cinderford; and yes the 4 (?) Co-Op branches...

I'll dig out some old newspapers over the weekend just in case "he" is advertising in them.

--
Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Having wasted my time (albeit very enjoyably) looking thro some photo books it was under my nose all the time, oops!. This photo (from this website!)shows the Royal Union hotel so indeed it is up the High Street on what is now the Triangle about where the Miner Memorial is.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/cinderford/pages/page_61.html

Now trying to read the shop signs opposite I see Burgham.
When first Googling Union earlier I found this website
http://www.burgumfamily.com/pages/pl%20flaxley.html

Therein is "Drew, Ambrose - grocer and provision dealer, and Royal Union Stores, Cinderford"
which you'll recall from your post above.

So, in a complete change of direction, I now wonder if the stores maybe had a Jones proprietor at some point ?.

PS
Re there being four Co-op branches, I gather the Cinderford Bridge store was their first Cinderord Branch and was most probably still trading c1910.
In addition re this photo
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/cinderford/pages/page_59.html
the Tilleys Book reads
"It was once written Cinderford was a network...with shops of the Co-operative class, where boots and bacon jostle side by side,
In this part it was true, the shop on the right [thats the one with the large signwriting on it's end wall] is the No 2 Branch, Milliners & Clothing. Beyond is the Town Hall, now in their hands [New No 1 Branch?] and on the other side of the road is No 4 Branch".

It appears the Jones' were very eminent in Cinderford High Street by 1914, particularly within the refreshment business. Almost reads like something out of gangland Chicago !. Of course they may not have all been related...

From http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp
If you search "Jones Edwin" there are 21 hits, the second is our man on page 120.

Some of the Jones listed are:

Cinderford, Post Offices:
EDWIN JONES, sub postmaster, LOWER High Street [#].

Cinderford Commercial:
Albert Jn Jones, Fleece Hotel, High Street.
EDWIN JONES, grocer & post office, High Street.
Frederick Edward Jones, photographer, Belle Vue Rd. [so just above the High Street].
George Jones, Lion Inn, High Street.
Mrs Georgina P. Jones, dressmaker, High Street
William Thomas Jones, fancy bazaar, High Street.

William Jones, Royal Oak P.H., Littledean Hill.
Mrs Sarah E. Jones, shopkeeper, Littledean Hill.

Miss Alice Cole, Royal Union Inn, High Street [see earlier post]

Nearby Ruspidge:
Leonard Jones, White Hart Inn, Ruspidge.

The Co-operative Society is listed as having two offices, one in Cinderford (High Street) and one in Ruspidge.

And to think my father Wm Jones wasn't a drinker to speak of and the first pub he took me too was my nan's in Longhope, how times change ! ;-)

# It's interesting the above sub Post Office is clearly written as LOWER High Street (hence different from THE main Post Office which is noted but doesn't have an address quoted, presumably not felt needed), so this sub Office was presumably not the same premises as Edwin's grocer shop in the "High St" ?.
I think I recall from 70s childhood (cashing birthday Post Orders) there was a sub Post Office at the lower High Street (near Haines' bikeshop ?). This was in addition to the main one in Woodside Street (don't know when that opened but surely well before 1914?).

I knew several members of the Jones family.Wallace was at one time Chairman of the Miner's Welfare Hall Committee around the 1950s.He served in WW1 and was awarded the MM.Mabel kept the Woolshop at the junction of High St and Market St,part of the now demolished triangle buildings.Maurice lived in Heywood [now Woodgate Rd]opposite to me.I am fairly certain that the grocers shop plus PO was in Lower High ST and was run by Fellowes during the WW2 and in the years following.It was situated just below the Motorcycle shop on the lefthand side of the road as you approached the town centre from Steam Mills.Mr Fellowes I believe married one of the Jones girls.
Maurice

Name: Wallace Ernest F Jones
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1894
Registration district: Westbury on Severn
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 6a
Page: 235

Year: 1918
Month: Oct
Day: 10
Grooms_Surname: JONES
Grooms_Forenames: Wallace Ernest Frank
Grooms_Age: 24
Groom_Condition: Batchelor
Grooms_Occupation: Soldier
Grooms_Residence: High Street Cinderford
Grooms_Fathers_Surname: Jones
Grooms_Fathers_Forenames: Edwin
Grooms_Fathers_Occupation: Grocer
Brides_Surname: MERRIMAN
Brides_Forenames: Hilda
Brides_Age: 21
Brides_Condition: Spinster
Brides_Occupation:
Brides_Residence: Station Street Cinderford
Brides_Fathers_Surname: Merriman
Brides_Fathers_Forenames: John
Brides_Fathers_Occupation: Collier
Licence_or_Banns: Licence
Date_of_Banns:
Signature_or_Mark: Both sign
Witness_1: G Fellows
Witness_2: H Stanley Jones
Other_Witnesses:
Officiating_Minister: HM Biddell Vicar
Event: Marriage
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P85/2 IN 1/7
Page_Number: 61
Parish_Chapel: Cinderford St Stephen

Name: Wallace Ernest F Jones
Birth Date: 29 Mar 1894
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1971
Age at Death: 77
Registration district: Gloucester Rural
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 7b
Page: 1192

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

slowhands

Thanks for your contributions re my requests for info on Jones / Merriman families. I am attempting to put together a book that includes pen portraits and photographs of my ancestors. The maternal side of my family in Cirencester is proving easier as there are still some elderly family members alive and they have family albums and stories to share. Unfortunately I do not know the whereabouts of any surviving Jones / Merriman.

Sheila

my grandfather was alfred morris who is listed on the census as maurice, he was the youngest of a very large family. a number of the childred died including a set of twins. i have only just started my history search but will endeavour to put on more details and poss some photographs

Sue

Your message re your grandfather is listed under Edwin Jones however you do not mention him - is there a link to your grandfather?

Thanks
Sheila

Hello,

My Grandfather was Maurice (his birth name was Alfred Morris), Wallace was his older brother. Mabel married a 'Fellows' and I think she ran a shop in the lower end of Cinderford. Eva never married and ran the wool shop in The Triangle. My mother has said that Eva was apparently the first woman in Cinderford to ride a motorcycle! I do remember going to the wool with my grandmother when it was emptied.

I grew up in Cinderford and still have family living there, I've only just started to collate the family details and will hopefully be able to pass over details.
I have seen probate for Thomas (Union stores in Cinderford)as he left a sum of money to his wife Eleanor.

Hope this helps

Regards

Sue

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