St Paul's Road, Salisbury

[ktk8]

Hi, I'm hoping someone here may know more about St Paul's Road in Fisherton Anger, or know where I might find more information.

I am looking at a birth certificate from 1895 which gives the mother's address as 2 Pleasant Terrace, St Paul's Road, Salisbury. The birth in question is rather mysterious, as the mother was not local, and I'm hoping it may hold some clues to a secret liaison!

There seem to be only a small number of properties in St Paul's Road on the 1891 census, and rather more by 1901, so I presume there was a lot of building work there in the interim. Many of the houses on the 1901 census have fancy names, but I can't find reference to a Pleasant Terrace.

I wonder if anyone here might have some inside knowledge of properties on this road, or know where I can find further information, in the hope of discovering which property 2 Pleasant Terraces became by 1901.

Does anyone know if there any electoral registers for this area available, and if so, how I might access them?

Many thanks

[Milliepede]

Don't know the road I'm afraid but if the mother was not local could she have gone to a relative to have the baby or a lodging house of some kind - where was she from? 

Am guessing there is no father on the birth.  Did she and the baby stay in that area or go back to wherever she came from?

[ktk8]

Hi, Thanks for your reply.

The mother's husband is named on the birth certificate, but it is doubtful he is the biological father. I have an idea of who the real father might be, based on another later child. This man may have local family connections, I just haven't managed to prove them yet. I'm wary of giving too much information regarding names, as I don't want to offend any of his legitimate family.

The mother came from London, but appears to have spent a fair period of time in Salisbury, as her baby was baptized at Fisherton Anger, and was also buried there several months later, having died at Salisbury Hospital. The baby's birth was registered in Bournemouth, at an address which I presume to be a boarding house, but the reasons for her travelling to Bournemouth are equally mysterious.

I have carried out quite a lot of digging into possible local connections with relatives, etc. and have not come up with any answers, which is why I thought I'd now try with the address itself and work from there...

[Milliepede]

Oh I see.  Quite understand you not wanting to name names.

Good luck with finding more about the address 

[hanes teulu]

This is an 1881 Town Plan showing St.Paul's Road - cannot spot Pleasant Terrace.But could have been built post 1881

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html#/Map/413804/130265/13/10037

(may need to click on 1881 map to generate?)

[diplodicus]

The whole of the north side of St Paul's Road is now the Salisbury Ring Road (dual carriageway).

Google Streetview here at the start of what's left of the dwellings. (The ring road is on the right and there are no properties on that side).

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.0733316,-1.8007275,3a,75y,218.04h,93.69t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPN0nA3w1VNtbxJy03wWksA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[Jebber]

Can you give the address the child was born at in Bournemouth, it may give a clue as to  what type of property the Salisbury address may have been.

[ktk8]

Thank you all for your kind replies

Interesting to look at the maps. From the Old Maps site, it appears most of the properties in St Paul's Road seems to have been built between 1887 and 1901, and it certainly gives a fuller impression of the area before the ring road was built. Even though the properties on the north side are now gone, the earlier maps indicate they had a similar footprint to those that are still standing and visible on google maps, so were presumably similar terraced houses of the period. It strikes me how close this area is to the train station, if indeed that was the way people would've travelled from London to Salisbury back then.

The child was born at 2 St Michael's Round, St Michael's Road, Bournemouth. I have had similar difficulties trying to identify this exact property, when looking at the 1891 and 1901 census data.

The mother returned to 2 St Michael's Round a year later in 1896 to give birth to another child, although this time she gives a home address in London. This was just a few months after the death of the first child in Fisherton Anger.

The story continues to become more mysterious, as the second child born in Bournemouth was put into foster care in Yeovil! By 1901, the mother is back in London, so I am guessing she left St Paul's Road sometime shortly after the death of the first child.

[Jebber]

My late mother-in-law’s mother was living in a home for fallen women when MIL was born, although the birth did not take place there. I wondered if yours was a similar situation with the address in St. Michael's Rd being one of the numerous homes in Bournemouth, but I cannot find anything to indicate it was.

It is possible a Street Directory may show the type of property, you could try the Heritage Zone at Bournemouth Library, or the Dorset History Centre.

You may also want to try Salisbury Reference Library or the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives for the Salisbury address.