100 Fishponds Road in December 1961

[Skoyen89]

My great grandmother Mary Ann ELLIS (nee Sparkes, born 1878 in Cardiff area) died in Bristol on 16th December 1961.  On her death certificate it says she died at 100 Fishponds Road, Bristol. 

On Google it shows this address was variously a Workhouse, Bristol Blind Home, Old People's Home, Refuge for families and currently it is housing and a Doctor's Surgery.  I want to find out whether she lived there or just died there.  Does anyone know what it was in 1961?

[Girl Guide]

Hmm, may have been a residential house, just found the below from the Gazette

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/43846/page/12075/data.pdf

Look for the name WALFORD Henry Charles died 17 November 1961

[Skoyen89]

Thanks Girl Guide.  It is remarkably close in time and may fit with the backstory.  I have just spoken to my mum and dad again and they can recall being told that she 'had moved up to the old workhouse'.

My father's mother died when he was young and so he lost touch with his grandmother on the Ellis side in about 1954.  He can recall her being referred to as Mrs Boucher or Bowcher (spelling may be wrong) and he never met his grandfather on that side despite him being alive for twenty years of my dad's early life.  So I guess they split up and he stayed in the Penarth/Cardiff area.  Mary Ann Sparkes/Ellis/Bowcher was a bit of a mystery that I am trying to solve! 

[Seoras]

Apparently after WWII it became an old people's home and was demolished in 1972

Photo of it here.

http://www.brh.org.uk/site/articles/eastville-workhouse-unmarked-graves-paupers-rosemary-green/

[Girl Guide]

Mary Ann is in Bristol in 1939 as Ellis but with Boucher in brackets which suggests she gained that name after 1939.  (Transcription record)

Hmmm but the original shows her as Boucher which has been crossed out and Ellis added. On her own, no-one with her.

[Milliepede]

He can recall her being referred to as Mrs Boucher or Bowcher (spelling may be wrong) and he never met his grandfather on that side despite him being alive for twenty years of my dad's early life.  So I guess they split up and he stayed in the Penarth/Cardiff area.  Mary Ann Sparkes/Ellis/Bowcher was a bit of a mystery that I am trying to solve! 

Sounds intriguing!

[Skoyen89]

Thanks to Seoras for that information.  I guess (or perhaps 'hope' is more accurate!) there must be some records for the Home in the Bristol or Gloucestershire Records........

Mary Ann is in Bristol in 1939 as Ellis but with Boucher in brackets which suggests she gained that name after 1939.  (Transcription record)

Hmmm but the original shows her as Boucher which has been crossed out and Ellis added. On her own, no-one with her.

Thanks again Girl Guide!  This is the first sign of the name in anything formal - the source of the information to date was just my dad remembering her as 'Mrs Boucher' (pronounce Bough - cher) but he said that at his age he didn't even know her first name or dare to ask! 

She married Walter James Ellis in 1903 and they appear in the 1911 Census as living in Penarth in 1911 with their two children.  As Walter James Ellis did not die until 1955 they must have split up before the war. 

She seems to have been living with her grandmother and an aunt respectively in the 1881 and 1891 censuses even though she was only aged 3 at the time of the former.  I cannot find her in 1901 and then in 1911 she is back in South Wales, married and in Penarth.

It is indeed intriguing (and maybe a little bit sad as it sounds a pretty chaotic life).

[Milliepede]

Do you know who her parents were?

Guessing this could be her birth registration

Mar 1878 Cardiff
Sparkes Mary Ann

ancestry links to an Annie Sparkes 23 servant in Surrey for 1901 but there is another Annie about so not sure if she is your Mary Ann

[KGarrad]

From the Workhouses website:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Clifton/
The Clifton Poor Law Union was later known as the Barton Regis Union.

The Eastville (Fishponds Road) Workhouse was erected in 1847 at 100 Fishponds Road.

The Eastville Workhouse subsequently became a home for the aged, but was demolished in 1972.
All that remains are some parts of the boundary wall and the original entrance pillars which, remarkably, still carry the number '100'.

With apologies to Seoras for the repetition!