1891 - Coulson - South Shields - *The house, not the people*

[dtcoulson]

Hello again experts,

In researching my ancestry, one record in 1891 has been of particular interest to me:

Thomas Coulson etc etc
Page Number:   55
Registration Number:   RG12
Piece/Folio:   4170/ 82

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WJMM-MN2




The house is interesting because so many relatives are squeezed into it.

The house is 'headed' by Mr Forster, who is a painter.
We see his wife and a few children.
We also see the wife's father, Thomas Coulson as well as two of her brothers.
One of these brothers, William, is fresh back from London with his wife and their first baby.
There's also an aunt named Mary Ann Sanderson who appears to be visiting.

The spelling of these names by the way is absolutely attrocious.
Be warned. Sanderson for example is Suderson. Coulson is Corlson.

--> My interest is not the people but the house.
Please do not go wildly off into other censuses looking for these people because I have already researched these relatives quite intensely.
What I would like to know now is the nature of house and how all these people likely
crammed into it.

I have a picture in mind of a city row house (Coronation Street style), with two bedrooms upstairs and a living space below and a kitchen at the back. Please correct me if this is wrong. Then I superimpose not just one but two families, a single brother and a widowed grandfather, and a visiting aunt. How do you suppose these people distributed themselves throughout the house?
I imagine the two young families would occupy the two bedrooms upstairs (if in fact there were two bedrooms) and the others would spread themselves around the living space in the evenings after everyone had gone off to bed at night. Would there be a fireplace in the kitchen or in the living room, or both? If we can establish the geometry of the house we might get a better picture of how everyone lived in it.

I am trying to write a short history of my ancestors and I have reached this particular household in 1891 and want to paint a realistic picture, not let my imagination run riot.

Any clarification would be most welcome.

-David C

[stanmapstone]

They were living at 52 Tennant Street, Hedworth Monkton and Jarrow District 41 RG12; Piece: 4170; Folio: 82; Page: 55

See  130 years ago - Hebburn.org   https://hebburn.org/pages/other_docs/1881census_notes.html

Township of Hedworth, Monkton and Jarrow (population 62,795)
(the population of the Parliamentary Division of Jarrow in 1881 was 62,795, whilst the population of the Parliamentary Borough of South Shields in 1881 was only 56,875)

Jarrow Riverside housing was bursting at the seams ... In what was relatively new housing
In the poorer areas houses where sub-let, so you could have 3 to 4 families to a house, and the lodging houses contained upwards of 20 persons a house
This also existed in parts of Hebburn
These conditions prevailed until the 1930s, when because of mortality rates and disease the Heath Authorities brought in new laws
Hebburn was still a Subdivision of Hedworth, Monkton and Jarrow (in the Township of Hedworth, Monkton and Jarrow)
Tennant Street (numbered odd numbers 47 to 61) 8 houses
Tennant Street (numbered even numbers 46 to 66) 11 houses
Tennant Street/Back (numbers 49 and 43) 2 dwellings

[Ruskie]

Is this the right Tennant Street?

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17&lat=54.9732&lon=-1.5204&layers=168&right=BingHyb

[dtcoulson]

Thanks Stan & Ruskie,

The map shows a row house configuration, in line with what I was thinking.
Is there any way to get a sense of what the lifestyle was like in these places?
I hear what you say Stan, about the normality of overcrowded houses in those days.

Just my luck that Tennant Street no longer exists, so I can't inspect the houses from street view.

Just wondering now... is it possible that Tennant Street was removed because of damage in one of the wars? I saw somewhere years ago that South Tyneside took some hits by a Zeppelin raid.

-DC

[dtcoulson]

I decided to view the housing on some adjacent streets and found this long building.

Do you think this building would have been around in 1891, and be typical of the housing in the area?

[heywood]

“The house is 'headed' by Mr Forster, who is a painter.
We see his wife and a few children.
We also see the wife's father, Thomas Coulson as well as two of her brothers.
One of these brothers, William, is fresh back from London with his wife and their first baby.
There's also an aunt named Mary Ann Sanderson who appears to be visiting.
”

If you are writing this up, i am just pointing out that Thomas Coulson is the head in 1891.
The census was of the occupants on one night but, apart from the visitor, the others are boarders and lodgers which would imply that they regularly stayed there, although you say William and family were newly back from London so may be temporary. Perhaps that is why they are described as lodgers rather than boarders as the others.
The four roomed house I was brought up in had fireplaces in all rooms.
Our kitchen was our living room and if yours was similar, then you would have three rooms to be occupied by the residents as sleeping quarters.
Stan has outlined the overcrowding which was similar in many places.
Just an afterthought, although nothing mentioned in the census, people did also occupy cellars - Manchester Irish population comes to mind but I have seen it when looking at neighbourhoods in my own town.

Heywood

[heywood]

If you look on Google images there are photos but I am not sure whether there are Tennant Streets in both Hebburn and Jarrow.
This is one site.
I think Ruskie has posted the correct one so the photos would also seem right - taken from Rose Street.
http://www.oldtyneside.co.uk/page%20360/P415%20008.jpg

[heywood]

Shop at 43 Tennant Street - scroll down the page

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/gallery/pictures-new-book-streets-hebburn-12245598

[dtcoulson]

Thank you, Heywood.

Your correction about the head of the household is noted.
And thanks for the description of your house interior.
Everything was a bedroom therefore except for the kitchen.

Yes, William married in 1889 in London and his daughter was born in London the same year. They are in this house in Tennant St in 1891. I imagine that he is low on money and staying with his rellies until he can save up enough for a house of his own. He moves around a fair bit within South Shields in the next twenty years so am I right to deduce that he probably rented instead of buying and selling homes?


I see also that there are separate Tennant Streets in Hebburn and in Jarrow.
The names Shamrock St and Charles St feature in other censuses so I think Stan's selection is the right one.


-DC