Death at Old Priory Hospital, Leominster

[sophiewilliams]

Hello everyone, I'm new here:-)

I'm having big problem!s with my mum's family, brick wall after brick wall! Here's my story!

My great grandad, David Waters, was born in 1885 in Jarrow, South Shields to Henry and Martha Waters.  They moved to Upton Bishop in 1891, then Weston Under Penyard on the 1901 and 1911 censuses.  David then married my great grandmother, Alice Goode, formerly of Brampton Abbots, in 1917.

Now to Alice ..... She had a first husband, George Bick, whom she married in 1899 and who had two daughters with for definite.  Then George died in 1916 in Burghill Asylum - why he was there nobody knows.  His death certificate says he had had paralysis of the insane for two years .... In the meantime, Alice gets pregnant with my grandmother Kathleen.  Kathleen's paternity is not really reliable.  Kathleen was born on 6th June 1914. Family stories said Alice got pregnant not with George. Maybe he was in the asylum!

The fact she went on to marry David makes us all think he is Kathleen's father.  Kathleen's birth wasn't registered and she wasn't christened unlike her legitimate sisters!  What a different world.

David then had a sad life, he was thrown out by Alice when they moved to Ross and went from one poor union to another, ending up in Leominster Old Priory Hospital where he died in 1964.  Nobody spoke of him and my mum never met her grandad.

Hereford council tell me he wasn't buried in Herefordshire?!!

How can I find out where he was buried?

Any help much appreciated!

Thank you.

Sophie

[mazi]

Hi Sophie and welcome to Rootschat 

reading your post it seems to me that when David died there would be no relatives to arrange a burial, in which case he would be buried by the local authority, which then was Leominster borough council. It is possible that when local government was reorganised in the seventies.records from the old boroughs were not kept by the new huge organisation that followed, which may be why Herefordshire council are unable to help.

It is my thought that, if there were no relatives then he will be buried in Leominster cemetery, these records may be in Hereford record office, which is currently closed, and does not have an online catalog.

sorry not to be of more help,  also I cannot find out exactly what Leominster old hospital was in 1964, it was not a hospital[ as we think of one today

mike

[sophiewilliams]

Thank you Mike, that's a great help and makes a lot of sense.  He moved around so much from one union to another, he wouldn't have had a place to call home as such.  Interestingly, his one step daughter went to see him but his other step daughter didn't and his daughter didn't either or, if she did, my mum never knew of his existence. Very sad.

Wondering how big Leominster Cemetery is ...........

Thanks again

[mazi]

I ought to know, I've been past it often enough  , its not huge but the grave is unlikely to be marked, these are just my thoughts, not certain facts.


mike

[sophiewilliams]

Thanks Mike, have that feeling too about the grave .  Alice didn't seem to have a lot of luck with her husbands.  As regards her first husband, think patients at Burghill were buried in mass graves from what I've read but wonder if a trip to Burghill churchyard might reveal a resting place for George Bick, don't really want to pay £17 for another burial search to Herefordshire Council that might not be fruitful!

The Old Priory Hospital at Leominster - really hard to find anything out about this place?

All very frustrating!

Sophie

[sophiewilliams]

.......Another thing.  Relatives of the two stepdaughters (George's daughters) don't seem to remember anything about any of this, which I find incredible. That's what makes me even more determined. Wonder if this is common in families, secrets hidden even years afterwards?

[Spidermonkey]

Just to follow up something Mazi mentioned further up the thread - the Old Priory Hospital is behind Leominster priory, and is now a Youth Hostel.  It had been part of the workhouse http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Leominster/

Any remaining records are held at Herefordshire Record Office

[sophiewilliams]

Hello

I went to find my relative's grave in plot G, number 166 today....except it wasn't there, in fact a whole load of numbers were missing.  Really disappointing after searching for him, thinking I had got somewhere and then there is no sign of the grave 😢