OCCUPATION: Costs Clerk at metal foundry.
DEATH:Certificate: - carcinoma of gall bladder. K James, daughter present
at death.
!He founded the Lillywhite Fete and sports in Foleshill.Worked in Rudge -
Whitworth for 25 years, then clerk with Fozel Castings Co. at Great Heath.
Member of Ancient Order of Druids, also of Ancient Order of Foresters and
secretary to Lillywhite Committee and Foleshill Nursing association.
Foundation Member of Great Heath conservative Club.
!MARRIAGE: Source: Joseph is grocer at time of marriage 77 Station St. Coventry
aged 30. She is daughter of James Adir coroner's official of 32 Moon Park
Street aged 24. She is wit James Adie and Ada Adie.
OCCUPATION: License victualler.
OLD CARPENTER'S LANE
Come with me down old Carpenter;s Lane
To visit the scenes of our childhood again
That always our hearts did set aglow
In the by-gone days of long ago.
A little way down on the right will be found
An entrance that leads to the Angel ground
Where we've cheered and hoped for our team to survive
Over all opponents, good "Old Five".
Across the road on the left hand side
Stands a house where for many years I did'st abide
But the sweetest memory it holds most dear
Is that mother spent her last days there.
Next, we find a shop, where ,when a lad
Many a ha-penny I spent for a lucky bag.
The shop belonged to a family called Payne
Very old residents of Carpenter's Lane.
Adjoining the shop in a narrow passageway
Called the "Tater-field" but it was used for play
And many a hard fought game we played there
For hours and hours with never a care.
Now we com to the old "Top-shops" where
Looms and weavers would fill the air
With the rhythm of shuttles and a hymn or a song
Such harmony would last the whole day long.
Across the lane the old chapel stood
A place where we were all taught to do good
And many a good sermon in there have we heard
By men who knew how to preach the good word.
Right next to the chapel was another little shop
Operated by Mr. Howes, and say "Old Top"
When he closed his shop and was all alone
You would hear him playing on that long trombone.
And then a very short distance below
Was a butcher's shop owned by a man named Lowe,
But of far more interest than his meat
Was the cherry tree that lined his house so neat.
Now we approach the turn in the lane
Where lived an old lady who walked with a cane
She ran a little store and odd things did sell
Her name, I believe, was Mrs. Howell.
On the opposite corner was a little bakery
Mr. Boyes was the baker, and incidentally
They used to sell coal as well as bread
So kept people warm, besides well-fed.
Right near the bakeshop just off to the right
Stretched a field that sure was a glorious sight
It was covered with wild flowers of white and gold
A spectacle that only God could mold.
Towards the end of the lane we would find
A pump in a very small yard confined
And many a good drink from our old friend we had
When returning from a stroll along the old "Black-pad".
We have seen finer streets, better houses and such
But those things do not impress very much
The one spot with you and me that will always remain
Is the place of our boyhood, like Carpenter's Lane.
By Tom Carpenter.Note - this was passed on to me by a member of the Carpenter famiy - Cyril, I
think - as being written by Tom Carpenter, but he wasn't sure which one!
The chapel in Carpenters Lane was Methodist which rules out two possible
families - Thomas C m Rachel Haughton were Congregationalists and James C m
Mary Coley were attenders of St Paul's. The "General Wolfe" Carpenters were
Methodists and I think Sarah may well have lived in Carpenter's lane but I
have not confirmed this.
DEATH:Place - Belmont House Abbey Hill Kenilworth.
Source - Flat 2 - will left -4281 - executors Thomas James and Eric
Carpenter.
OCCUPATION: printer.
DEATH:Place - 14 a Station Street West
Source probate to daughters Marjorie Read and Constance Montgomery 17 Jun 1946 -7340:9:7.
WILL: probate of William Carpenter's will granted to Constance in 1944
letter 14/11/88 from Reading Room Cottage Leek Wootton Warwick - " our
grandmother would always take us to Corley Rocks for her birthay... I am 80
yrs old this year, my sister 87, Tom Carpenter is 88...we ad a trip in a
hot air balloon at the Lilywhite Fete and I always danced round the maypole."
OCCUPATION: butcher on Bishop St.
WILL: probate of William Carpenter's will granted to Marjorie Read 1946.
OCCUPATION: weaver.
!He worked in his father's business during bad times for the ribbon trade. He
left to go to Canada leaving the business in considerable financial
difficulties. At some stage he returned from Canada but his father was not
prepared to take him on again.
Born in Canada or England.
OCCUPATION: Ribbon weaver.
!BIRTH: Source - birth certificate.
DEATH:Died at 139 Green Lane in Coventry.
!WIIL: Will left -3315 to second wife, Agnes. He died at Gulson
Road Hospital Gulson Road.
!RESIDENCE: Lived at 64 Edgewick Road then at 624 Stoney Stanton Rd. Moved to
Manchester for a while before First World War.
!MARRIAGE: Olney Baptist Church.
DEATH:Place - 139 Green lane Stoneleigh Coventry.
!admon to Nathan 28 Jan 1947 - -148-16s.
Annie became a companion to a Miss Linney in Foleshill, Coventry, as she did
not meet many people in her life at Parkfield Farm Ravenstone. There she met
her husband and two of her brothers and sisters also married into the same
family. She learned to drive as soon as her husband bought a car and drove it
more than he did. She brought up her 4 sons and 1 daughter to take turns to
stay at home to cook Sunday lunch while the rest of the family went to church.
OCCUPATION: engineer.
!BIRTH: Born in the back of 791 Foleshill Road, Foleshill.
OCCUPATION: schoolteacher.
TAXI STARTED IN 1937-38
Whitmee's Taxi was the first one in Georgetowm. It began in either 1937 or
1938 although neither Ray nor Frank are exactly sure of the year.
Walter Whitmee began with a black four-door Ford with a soft rubberised top
and curtain to let down over the windows when it rained. Fare was 15 cents.
"Nobody wanted a taxi in those days," Ray chuckles. "Everybody walked. You'd
get half way up Norval Hill and wonder if you'd make it to the top."
Mr. Whitmee met all the trains hoping for passengers, but his sons feel he'd
have had more customers if he'd cruised the streets the way taxis do now.
He charged a quarter to Norval or Glen Williams and they were his big money
making runs.
"It was a long walk," Ray explains, "so more people are willing to pay for a
ride."
In a good day they guess he'd have earned $1.50.
When Walter Whitmee and his wife arrived from England in 1911, they had four
children. They lived in a stone house on the Fourth Line in Esquesing while
Walter worked for Fred Brown.
Two or three days (sic) later he moved to Georgetown and bought out Barber's
dairy, cows, buildings, equipment and wagons. That dairy was over on the
Barber Farm opposite the paper mill dam, Frank says.
They ran the dairy for about 25 years but when Georgetown passed the bylaw
requiring pasteurization, Mr Whitmee decided to get out of the business.
Ray had returned to England by this time, but Frank was with his father and
recalls the end of their dairy.
"We bought milk already pasteurized, bottled and in the cases ready for
delivery from Peel Dairy," he says. "It was too expensive to get the equipment
ourselves, so we tried buying it for a year or less. I went down every day and
got it and delivered it."
"One funny thing about the pasteurization was that Dr. NcAllister wouldn't
let his kids have pasteurized mik," Frank says. "He seemed to think it was a
fad that would pass. So long as the herds had been tested for tuberculosis he
thought that was good enough. He used to go up to Cleaves rather than have it
pasteurized.
The Taxi business followed the closing of the dairy even if noone is sure of
the exact date. There was no insurance on passengers when Whitmee's taxi began
running. Nor was there any service on Sunday except for special occasions like
taking the minister to church in Limehouse. Taxis didn't run on Christmas
Day although they would have gone on on New Year's Day Ray says.
Mr Whitmee had competition from Palmer McEnery in those days but it was always
friendly.
Ray took over his father's business at the end of the Second World War and
sold it to Mr. Leider in Glen Williams. The service is now Glen taxi.
This from a newspaper cutting sent by Frank Whitmee. It has a photo of the
family of Walter and Susannah (Carpenter).
OCCUPATION: nurse.
DEATH:Obit from Jean Whitmee.
BURIAL: Interment Union Cemetery Oshawa.
!OBIT: Obt 1996 STEWART, Winifred Daisy (nee Whitmee) on Friday April5 1996 at
the Eden House Care Facility Eden Mills, Daisy, 88 years of age, formerly of
Georgetown and Brooklin. Wife of the late William Stewart.
DEATH:She was ill at the time of arrival in Canada, had to stay on Ellis
Island(?) She did not live long after having her baby, Phyllis, who was
brought up by Tom and Alice Carpenter.
OCCUPATION: farmer.
!Went to Canada 1911 "must have gone back in war time 1914-18" -Jean Whitmee
!MARRIAGE: Congregational Church Foleshill Warwicks.
Per marriage certificate; bachelor, farmer aged 32, spinster, silk weaver aged
26. Witnesses Nathan Carpenter and O. I. Carpenter
BIRTH: Phyllis was brought up by her aunt and uncle, Alice and Tom
Carpenter, in Canada.
BIRTH: 1881 census gives Gambles row as address.
!RESIDENCE: At Gambles Row houses as father also was - Cyril Carpenter, son. -
letter 28 May 1987
WILL: Will left -249 - executor James Carpenter, County Court bailiff.
OCCUPATION: weaver.
!He worked in his father's business during bad times for the ribbon trade. He
left to go to Canada leaving the business in considerable financial
difficulties. At some stage he returned from Canada but his father was not
prepared to take him on again.
OCCUPATION: chemist.
RESIDENCE: 31 Kedleston Road Hall Green Birmingham - in touch with Jean Polley
in Canada in 1983.