Mabel Winnie ENGLAND 1888
Mabel Winnie England was born 3 May 1888 at Verona House, Overstrand, Norfolk. She was baptised 1 July 1888 at St Peter and St Paul Church, Cromer and the details recorded in the register identify her parents as William & Sarah England, father's occupation Baker.
Mabel appears as a child in both the 1891 & 1901 census. Naturally, given her age, she was living with her parents in Verona House, which doubled as the family home and village bakery.
By 1911 the family had began to leave the nest. Mabel Winnie England was recorded as a 22 years old shop assistant half way across Norfolk. She was gainfully employed at William & Isabel Aldiss, Draper, Outfitter & Boot Merchants in Fakenham. Aldiss are still trading.
Having left Overstrand, it appears Mabel changed address more than once. The War Service Record of her brother William, places her in North Walsham and later far flung Peterborough. However it seems she spent most her life in and around Overstrand. In her later years she lived with her sister Lilly in Cromer Road, Overstrand whilst working in a local grocers in the centre of Cromer.
Both sisters lived in a time when the War ensured men and husbands were in desperate short supply and unfortunately, whilst a positive flock of 'Mabel Englands' were able to secure a husband in the years following the war, our 'Mabel Winnie' was not in that number.
She died unmarried but middle name enhanced. Mabel 'Winifred' England died in late 1983, aged a very substantial 95 years.
Lillian Maud ENGLAND 1889
Lillian Maud England, known as Lilly in the family, was born 5 August 1889 and baptised 13 September the same year at St Peter and St Paul Church, Cromer. In keeping with her older sister, Lilly was born at Verona House. Unfortunately Lilly had a substantial curvature of the spine and a pronounced stoop. In the 1911 census, when her sisters were off seeing the world, well North Walsham & Wolverhampton, she was recorded at home with her parents. Significantly or possibly not, she was aged 21 with no occupation.
Lilly was never to marry, but she did have a son, whom she named Wilfred. The family story unfolds with Mabel & Lilly at a village dance. Mabel, chaperone of Lilly for the evening, was momentary dazzled by the splendour of it all and 'poor Lilly was led astray by a military man'. The end result was Wilfred, who also had a curvature of the spine.
Lilly lived in Overstrand her entire life. First with her parents and in later years with her sister Mabel on Cromer Road. She died in late 1967 aged 78 years.
Lilly's son Wilfred married Eleanor Hope Grice, 27 January 1940 at St. Peter Church, Sheringham. Eleanor hailed from the well known Sheringham fishing family. Wilfred and Eleanor had two daughters who in turn married and had children and grandchildren of their own. Sadly their eldest daughter Carol Eleanor England, born 31 December 1943, Sheringham died 1 June 1996 aged an extremely young 52 years.
Wilfred and his family lived his entire life in Sheringham whilst he worked as retail manager at Bradley's Outfitters in Cromer. Wilfred died 12 October 1972 aged an equally young 58 years whilst Eleanor Hope England (nee Grice) born 28 August 1918, outlived her husband by 32 years and died 3 February 2004 aged 85.
Their descendent live in Sheringham to this day.
Gladys Ida ENGLAND 1892
Gladys Ida England was the third daughter of William & Sarah, born 11 December 1892 but in a break from tradition, the first to be baptised in Overstrand.
Naturally she was brought up in Verona House fighting for space with her sisters, brother, servants, various assistants and parents.
During the Edwardian era over 1.3 million people were employed 'below stairs'. Ironically, Edwardian girls, the first generation of females to be educated, entered the work force in the most menial jobs. Girls from good lower middle class homes were in high demand in the opulent houses of the rich. But the suffragette movement was gaining traction and new opportunities in shops and offices made the hard work and long hours of domestic service far less appealing. The Great War brought it all to a close.
Gladys like many girls of her period followed this course. By 1911 Gladys had decamped to rural Warwickshire and was employed as one of seven staff at Shustoke Hall, a 17th-century moated building. Gladys, aged 18, was a 'Housemaid' in the employ of Sarah Elizabeth Croxall, who in turn recorded her occupation as 'Widow of R.F.T. Croxall, wealthy landowner'.
Less than two years later, 4 August 1913, Gladys, aged 20, married Sidney George Gray, aged 21. The marriage took place at a part time registry office in Northrepps, and the couple started married life in a modest cottage behind the Foundry Arms. As the children arrived the family moved to a less well appointed cottage at Hungry Hill, located between Northrepps and Sidestrand but close to the farm where Sidney worked.
The Hungry Hill cottage had all the amenities of the fifteenth century, no running water and a toilet out the back. 'Times were hard & the winters were cold' and the water was collected by yolk and two buckets from another cottage a substantial walk along the road.
Sidney George Gray, one of eight children, was born 1892 in Northrepps. He was the son of Robert Gray and Harriet Phoebe Bumphrey.
Like his father before him, Sid, who could barely read or write, lived his entire life as a farm worker. He started as a farm boy and worked as a ploughman in the days of horse drawn ploughs. He worked on a small farm in Sidestrand and his grandson recalls seeing him at work 'He was ploughing using a pre-war clapped out Fordson Major tractor - pulling an old horse plough - hand steered by his workmate 'Ikey' Risebrow. They swapped over for a while, but Ikey was useless on the tractor'.
In the seventeen years following their union, Gladys and Sid had in total sixteen children, this included three still births never officially recorded. Of the remaining thirteen children, five, including a set of premature twins, were to die as infants.
The family lived in the primitive cottage at Hungry Hill but necessity dictated that occasionally some of the kids, at least for a short period, lived with relatives. The arrival of each new baby invariably saw a reshuffle with annual updates. At least two of the children were more or less permanently billeted out, whilst the youngest child had the dubious pleasure of sleeping in a drawer.
Sidney died in 1964 aged 71 years and Gladys, his wife of 51 years, joined him three years later, in the summer of 1967. She was aged 74 years. The couple are buried together in Northrepps churchyard.
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William Randell ENGLAND 1895
 The final resting place of William England, Cementry at Blauwepoort Farm c. 1920
William Randell England, only son of Sarah Randell and William England, was 'Killed in action', 27 May 1915 in Belgium. He was nineteen years old. He is buried in Blauwepoort Farm Cemetery which is located 3 kilometres south east of Leper (Ypres) in Belgium. The cemetery, which is tiny, contains 82 First World War burials. The cemetery was started by the French in 1914 and used for a year or so. The French graves were removed after the Armistice. An early photograph of this cemetery, believed to date from the early 1920s, shows the haphazard layout of the graves, indicating it's wartime origin.
The War Service Record of William Randell England reveals quite at lot about him. Beside his regimental number, 9108 and date of birth, 12 June 1895, is a physical description: blue eyes, fresh complexion, brown hair with a small scar across bridge of the nose. He was five foot eight inches and 126 lbs when he enlisted on the 28 April 1914. The medical officer recorded his occupation as an Indoor Servant and his physical condition as fair. His age was 18 years 320 days.
His next of kin were recorded as father - William England, and sisters, Mabel, Lilly, Gladys and Edith. Their address was 5 Gunton Terrace, Overstrand but Mabel and Gladys were in North Walsham and Northrepps respectively.
A 'Killed in Action' document, dated 26 May 1919, lists his next of kin as above but includes his mother Sarah and notes Gladys as Mrs Gladys Gray of Hungry Hill, Northrepps. Mabel was also noted as a resident of Peterborough.
Several references to William's postings overseas are listed in the detail. He arrived in Belgium, 1 December 1914, was evacuated from Ypres, 18 April 1915, having sustained a face wound. He was admitted to hospital in Boulogne the following day.
William Randell England rejoined his comrades near Zillebeke, Belgium, 17 May 1915 and spent the remaining ten days of his life in the trenches.
In an odd postscript he received a Victory Medal, 4 November 1931. His father William, whom I presume to be aged 70, signed the associated paper work.
 Sarah & Mabel England
Edith Harriet ENGLAND 1897
Edith Harriet England was born 13 December 1897 at Verona House and baptised 30 January 1898 in Overstrand. Being the youngest of Sarah & Williams children Edith was recorded at home in 1901 and also in 1911 when she was a scholar aged 13. By 1911 the family had moved to Harbord House, at the corner of Harbord Road and High Street, Overstrand.
In the December quarter of 1924 Edith H England married Frederick C S Green in a service registered in the district of Erpingham. Eleven long years later, September 1935, Edith and Fred were blessed with a single child. Edith was aged 37 when she produced her one and only child but it appear Fred, who is something of a mystery was considerably older than Edith and 53 years when his son appeared.
Sadly Frederick Charles Skipper Green died in 1955 at Norwich Hospital. He was 73 years old whilst his son was only twenty.
Frederick C S Green was born 1882 in the Erpingham district of Norfolk, his father by all accounts was Frederick Skipper Green. Unfortunately nobody of that name appears in any records. It's reasonably to assume 'Skipper' is a mothers maiden name, a maternal grandmother or if he was a fisherman a nickname.
Six years after the death of her husband Fred, Edith married a second time. In the December quarter of 1961 Edith H Green married Charles C Dix.
Edith Dix, (nee Green, formerly England) died
aged 76 years in 1974.
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