The Southend
No 7.
A Grade 2 Listed Building
Mid C19 front to C17 building. Red brick. Machine tile roof with gable ends.
3 storeys. 2 windows. 1st and 2nd floors 2 2-storeyed canted bays of sashes
without glazing bars. Ground floor Victorian shop front with moulded cornice on
shaped brackets continues over side passageway with panelled double doors. Interior:
chamfered beam.
A double fronted shop used by James Cowmeadow a plumber and glazier until 1861 then by a stationer, poultry seller and coal dealer to 1901.
From 1901 through to 1960 it was again a builders and plumbers establishment owned by the Preece family.
By 1981 it was a fruit shop followed by an antique shop, now 'The Practice', Accountants.
From Tithe Map Owner Robert Slade. Occupier William Loade.
1841 James Cowmeadow 30, Plumber and Glazier.
1851 James Cowmeadow 43, Plumber and Glazier.
1861 Mary Bele 47, Stationer.
1871 Walter Davis 35, Chelsea Pensioner and Stationer.
1881 Harriet Clarke 39, Poultry Seller.
1891 John Norman 65, Coal Dealer.
From 1910 Survey Occupier Preece R. Owner Preece R.
1911 Robert Preece 55, Plumber, Glazier and Painter.
Ex Tilleys.
1903 Preece R Builder and Plumber.
1921 Mrs Preece Builder and Plumber.
1923 Preece and Sons Builders and Plumbers.
1960 Preece and Simmonds Builders.
1981 Fruit Shop.
1987 Fruit Shop. Aquarium Centre.
1999 Second Hand Shop.
2002 Nest Shop.
More Info.
1841 James Cowmeadow 30, Plumber and Glazier is in No7 with his wife Mary 35.He married Mary Tomlins of Newent on June 3rd 1832, there were no children and he died in November 1851 aged 44, Mary died in 1878. He died, of course, after the census date so he is still there in 1851.
1861 Mary Bele 47, stationer and her sister Emma 45 are in residence. From Wiltshire they shortly moved on.
1871 Head of Household is given as Walter Davis 38 Chelsea Pensioner and Stationer. He is with his wife Susannah, neither from Ledbury. Two nieces and a nephew with surname Denton (see No 8) and a widow Abigail Peters 49 are from Ledbury*.
Also living here at the time of the census are Michael O'Neill 38 from Ireland, his wife and three children including a 1 month old baby. it must have been pretty crowded!
*Abigail Freeman Nott married James Peters, a saddler in the High Street, in 1845.
1881 Head of Household was Harriet Clarke 39, a poultry seller from Sandhurst with a son George J Clarke, 9 born in Ledbury and her father George Truman 79.
She was the wife of James Clarke a butcher in the Homend in 1871 and with his father Adam a butcher in Colwall in 1881
1891 John Norman 85 Coal Dealer with his wife Maria and three lodgers, one of which, Hubert Mason, widower, 67 was from Ledbury.
1901 the property had gone back to its early usage when Robert Preece 45 was installed there as a Plumber Builder and Glazier.
This Robert Preece (1854-1918), in the advert, was the fourth child and second son of Robert Preece, senior, (see No 10). Robert, junior, married Edith Shipton in Uley in 1894.
They had:
Ernest in 1896. (In No 7 in 1939).
Cecil A in 1898 (In No 10 in 1939).
Irene in 1901
Still here in 1911 Robert died in 1918, Edith remained here until 1923 when her son Ernest R took over.
She died in 'Brimfield' New Street in 1936.
Ernest R married Gertrude E Ricketts in Droitwich in 1930.
They had:
Robert P in Dec qtr 1931 in Worcester
John R in Dec qtr 1938 in Worcester
But shortly after moved to Ledbury, the family business was located here until 1981.
1926 Electoral Register Preece Edith Emma, Preece Ernest Robert.
1939 Register Ernest R Preece b 1895, Master Builder with wife Gertrude.