REDMAN/JENKINS/NEARY/DAVIS (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, June 25, 2014, 19:13 (3805 days ago) @ MPGriffiths

Hi Janet,
sorry for not reading thro the whole thread, so sorry if I've missed something, but I think you query why a Lydney girl might find herself in London ?

My dad's mum lived quite humbly in the Forest near Lydbrook, her husband a miner. Her older sister (and only sibling we knew of) had always lived in London, so my mum assumed (why?!) they were all from London.... A few years ago and thanks to this great website my mum and I were amazed to find my Gran and her sister were the youngest of nine children all born in Lydbrook between 1873 upto my Gran in 1898. The 1911 Census showed her sister had moved to London to work in service, in the same household was another young servant also from Lydbrook area, we presume they were friends and travelled together, later to marry and settle permanently. This forum has seen many examples of young girls doing this, presumably via the GWR from Lydney etc and across the old Severn bridge into Paddington, near Ealing where my aunt worked and not too far from Kensington also in West London, both are very respectable areas with many large Victorian houses.
As you probably know working in domestic service was a very common careerpath for young girls, particularly in the rural Forest where there were no mills or factories. Perhaps this is why Hannah went to London ?.

My main reason for posting is the reference to Hannah living in 1891 at "Heatherbank" Camberley. I also moved to West London for work, I live near the old GWR mainline, altho sadly not in a grand Victorian townhouse in Kensington !
I used to work in the Camberley area, and one of the local guesthouses our company used for visitors was possibly the same house as Hannah's !.
I don't know the guesthouse's history, so whether it was always called Heatherbank, but I don't know of any other place or area/road in Camberley of that name, so ???. Perhaps the current owners might know ?. It is a very nice large Victorian house in one of the town's best roads, see website for photos.
http://www.heatherbankbandb.com/default.htm

Did Hannah' husband Thomas have any Army background or family links, or maybe Government/Foreign Office ?. Camberley town grew largely due to it's proximity to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and in later years was also near the home of the Army's first venture into flying at nearby Farnboro, itself next to Aldershot, the Home of the British Army.
http://www.touruk.co.uk/surrey/Camberley.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camberley