The Davis & Brookes families' history

These birth places show that Charles was at Titley Railway Station in 1904, he must have been moved there from Hereford shortly after his marriage.

Titley is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. It lies on the B4355 between Kington and Presteigne. The station was opened in 1856 and closed completely in 1964. Immediately to the east of the station, the line split for trains traveling south to Eardisley (at least until 1940, when that portion of the line closed) and north-west to Presteigne, Wales. Since closure the station has been restored with track reinstated as a short private railway.

GWR Employment records show that he was transferred from Titley to Holme Lacy Station in 1905 and settling in for the long term he put his name forward for a position on the Parish Council, coming second in the poll in March 1907.

The railway came to Holme Lacy in 1855 and was part of the Hereford to Ross-on-Wye and Gloucester line. The line passed through the present village in a deep cutting with a bridge carrying the main road over the cutting. The station could be seen from the bridge and won awards for its beauty with the side of the cutting planted with flowering plants that were looked after by the Stationmaster. At its peak there were 7 passenger and 5 goods trains travelling to Gloucester, and 8 passenger and 4 goods trains travelling to Hereford. In addition to the Stationmaster, there were 2 porters and 2 signalmen running the facility.

It seems probable that Charles was here until he retired to Ledbury. Tilley's Almanack lists him at Portland Place in Victoria Road in 1923 when he was 63.

Portland Place, a detached house sitting in what was a large plot seen here circled on this 1926 map, was built before 1886.








When Charles, shown on the right, moved here in 1923 his children, Gertrude and William were 19 and 16 respectively and just approaching adulthood.

Gertrude married Richard Edwin Drinkwater in Ledbury on May 26th 1930. They had Ann in 1934 in Ledbury, by 1939 they are in Ludlow and later in Ross on Wye.
Richard has his roots firmly in Ledbury. For more on him see below.
Gertrude died in 1962 in Denbigh, Richard in Hereford in 1986

William Charles Twyning Brookes follows in his father's footsteps and becomes a dedicated railway man.

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More on William Charles Twyning Brookes

His first entry in the GWR records is in 1924 when he was transferred from Ashcurch to Colwall as a clerk shortly after the family moved to Ledbury and at the tender age of 17.
In 1926 he is moved from Glanamman to Highley and in 1928 to Littleton and Badsey.

Glanamman is a Welsh mining village in the valley of the River Amman in Carmarthenshire.
The Llanelly Railway and Dock Company, opened its line from Pontardulais to Cwmamman in 1840. The Llanelly Railway line was taken over by The Great Western Railway on 1st January 1873.

Highley is a large village in Shropshire, England, on the west bank of the River Severn and south east of Bridgnorth. Highley station opened to the public on 1 February 1862 and closed on 9 September 1963, before the Beeching axe closures, still a station on the Severn Valley Railway.

Littleton and Badsey railway station was a station on the Great Western Railway between Evesham and Honeybourne. It served the village of Badsey until closure in 1966.

These postings show he was getting a good grounding in the railway business as a single man. but at the age of 26 it was time to settle down.
He married Alice Marjorie Davis on 7th August 1933 in Ledbury and they had Richard in 1940 and Molly in 1943.

When William got married his father, Charles, gave him a large piece of his Portland Place plot and William had this house built of which Molly speaks with fond memories in her introduction.

Named St Helier after their honeymoon destination an early picture is shown here on the left.

In the same year he got married William was transferred from Ledbury to Colwall still as a clerk, later becoming Station Master in Bromyard.

Bromyard station was on the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway a single track branch railway line, from a junction south of Worcester to join the Hereford to Shrewsbury line south of Leominster. Although popular it was never profitable, all stations became unstaffed from September 1949, and the service was withdrawn completely in September 1952.

William was Station Master in Ledbury in 1954. With the Queen's visit in 1957 probably already in the planning stage he was to play an important role in the proceedings as this series of pictures shows.

In 1960 William was promoted to manage a busier station, Dawlish in Devon and then later he was Station Master at Torquay. He died in Exeter Hospital in 1981.

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More on Richard Edwin Drinkwater

Gertrude and Richard's marriage was recorded by the Gloucester Citizen of May 27th 1930:

A LEDBURY WEDDING. Drinkwater - Brookes.
The wedding took place at Ledbury Parish Church yesterday of Mr. R. E. Drinkwater, son of Mr. and the late Mrs. R. Drinkwater, Southend, Ledbury, and Miss Gertrude A. Brookes, only daughter Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brookes, Portland House, Ledbury.
Both bride and bridegroom are well known in Ledbury, and are prominently identified with the local branch of the Junior Imperial League, of which body the bride was Hon. Secretary until recently.
The service was conducted by the Rev. A. H Knapp. rector of Pixley and Aylton, and included the hymn " Lead us. Heavenly Father," Mr. A. N. Jones being at the organ.
The bride, who was given away her father, was attired in an ivory satin gown, and she wore a veil which had been in the family for years, surmounted wreath of orange blossom. She carried a bouquet of pink roses.
Three small bridesmaids attended her, the Misses Monica Taylor, Dorothy Evans, and Joyce Meredith, who wore pink dresses and also silver bangles, the gift of the bridegroom. They carried posies of flowers.
Mr W. C. T. Brookes, brother of the bride, acted as best man.
The reception was held at the home of the bride's parents, and later the bridal pair left by car for Aberystwyth, where the honeymoon will spent touring.

The Junior Imperial League was a Conservative political organisation formed in 1906.
After WW1 it was given a fresh impetus to encourage the younger generation to sign up to the Conservative cause, Members were entitled to wear this fetching badge.
It evolved into the Young Conservatives organisation.





Richard Edwin Drinkwater was baptised on Mar 29th 1905. His parents Richard and Mary were licensees of the Biddulph Arms (now the Full Pitcher) at that time, it is their Ledbury story I am following here.

The first Drinkwater of interest is Edwin, a farrier, born 1832 in Ross. He married Mary Elizabeth Martin on November 6th 1855 in Longhope.
Their numerous children's birthplace gives us some idea of their travels before they arrived in the Homend Ledbury by 1871:

They had:

A farrier all his life Edwin established his Ledbury business in the Homend in what is now No 70, having access to a useful yard at the back down "Fox Lane" to carry out his business.
Mary died in 1888, Edwin in 1894 and his son Richard carried on the business.

He married Mary Thomas in 1889 in Ledbury.
They had:
In August 1901 Richard took over the licence of the Biddulph Arms, now the Full Pitcher leaving there for the Talbot in 1907.
From the Hereford Journal Dec 21st 1907:

LEDBURY.
PETTY SESSIONS.
Wednesday. Before Messrs. J. Riley (Presiding). S. H. Bickham, R. A. Swayne, H. Bray. J. Boyd. and C. W. R. Cooke.
Tbe licence of the Old Talbot Inn, Ledbury, was transferred to R. Drinkwater, on the understanding that the skittle alley would not be used.

He was here until he retired in 1920, aged 62, to No 40 Southend.

Mary died here in 1927, Richard in 1932.

More on Molly's mother, Alice Marjorie Davis, aka Maymie

When she was born her two sisters were 16 and 13 and would have had little to do with her upbringing. They married while Maymie was still a girl.
In Ledbury her youngest sister, Ruby Florence, married Wilfred Brown, an eletrical engineer from Chalford,in 1919 and they lived there after the marriage.
Her older sister, Doris May, was presumably married by that time as one of the witnesses at Ruby's marriage was Doris May Poutifex. This name is a transcript from the parish register and there are plenty of opportunities for it to be spelt incorrectly. I cannot find a marriage of Doris May Davis, perhaps it was overseas.
Maymie was just 11 at this time and after the marriage there would have been no young people at home.
Little is known about Alice's early life, there is a suggestion that she went to Abbey House School in the Homend run by Miss Ballard.








With her father an organist, although having to earn a crust as a baker, music would have featured in her life

In 1923, aged just 15, she was awarded a junior certificate in Pianoforte playing by the London College of Music and another in 1924 in the Senior Section. These certificates show she was a pupil of Thomas Frederick Davis (no relation). More on him is shown below.
In 1933, aged 25, she was awarded a Teaching Diploma from the Royal Academy of Music.








Determined to lead an independent life after her marriage to William Brookes in 1933 she appears as part of the Supierrots Concert Party in 1934. For more on the Supierrots see the Eric Williams page.

There are quite a few pictures of her on a bigger stage in the Royal Hall in Ledbury (for more on the Royal Hall see the Royal Oak on the Southend page).
The pictures are unfortunately undated but Tilley's lists entertainment and concerts at the Royal Hall throughout the 1930s.
Here is one picture on which she can be identified:

Maymie is on the right of the three in the middle

Her other passion was the Girl Guides of which she was a Captain.

On June 13th 1934 the Duke and Duchess of York visited Ledbury and according to Tilley's Retrospect (in the 1935 Edition) the chief object of the Royal Visit was the inspection of local ex servicemen, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, this ceremony taking place in the High Street.
As local Captain of the Girl Guides Maymie had an important role in the presentation of the guides and several pictures of the event are shown here.

A meeting of the Guide Leaders!

Alice Marjorie Brookes died on April 12th 1999

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Notes on Thomas Frederick Davis.

Thomas Frederick Davis was born in Much Marcle to William Davis, a farmer, and Mary. The 1851 census records him as blind.






In 1870 he is advertising his services in the Ross Gazette as shown here.




And established in Ledbury by 1871 where he is lodging as a musician with William Williams, a general dealer, in the High Street.
In 1876 he married Mary Mailes Clare in Cheltenham (District). She was 48 he was only 27 and in 1881 he is in New Street as an 'Organist of the ? Church. Tchr of Music & Tuner of the Pianoforte.', Mary is with him of course.
The name of the church is indecipherable but a later newspaper report shows it is the tin church in Bye street later known as the Chapel of Ease.

In 1891 and 1901 he is listed in New Street as an ‘Organist, Teacher of Music &c’.
Mary died in 1907 and, now 58, he wasted little time in remarrying Fanny Howell in Colwall on July 7th 1909. She was just 35. Was she a pupil of his?
Living in Colwall, where he is recorded as being the organist at a wedding in the Parish Church in 1909, they had a daughter christened Mary Mendelssohn in 1910.

He died at Elm Tree Cottage, Bank Street, Great Malvern on August 7th 1932.

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