Part 2: Working around Horsham - A cold Horsham December

The following is a complete transcription of one of Billy Hoad’s diary entries for December 1894. Billy was still working as a journeyman painter for Sendall Brothers and living at home with his parents in Park Street, Horsham.

I have selected this month for its ordinariness. Billy goes to work each day, he goes to chapel on Sundays, he takes in a few evening engagements during the course of the month. He goes walking with his friends and he shows interest in a couple of local girls. Nothing very exciting happens, in fact his Christmas Holiday is so boring he actually looks forward to returning to work. 

But this month’s account, like the previous one for May, provides a picture of the daily round in a country town at that time.

Horsham Fire Brigade, September 1893. Billy Hoad was a ‘messenger’ in the Horsham Voluntary Fire Brigade when this photograph was taken in September 1893. Billy’s has listed the members of the Brigade on the left hand side of the photograph: Back row (from the left): J. Penfold; G.Scott, Bob Mills, Joe Goldsmith, H. Hansford, N. Newman, Jack Scott, David Richardson, George Parsons, N. (Nelson) Baker,  Tom Hall, W, Scott. Front row (from the left): Dick Allan, Percy Knight, Sam Chriss, Harry Barker, W.J. (Billy) Hoad, Fred Sendall (Capt.), Moses Brooks (Lieut.), H.S. (Harry) Hoad (messenger), Dennage, Charles Grinstead, ?, Tom Redman. Billy entered a pencilled note in 1949: “All above deceased bar [Nelson Baker, self and Harry Parker]”.

• [1] 1891 Census: Joe Goldsmith was about 27 at the time, a paper hanger living at 2 Park Terrace West Horsham with his wife and baby son.
• [2] Billy frequently served as a relief postman on the various postal routes around Horsham. During this period, he was delivering mail from Horsham out to Cowfold on every second Sunday morning. He would generally take a horse for this job.
• [3] Presumably this refers to the depth of ice forming on the local ponds.
• [4] For several years Billy was a member of the Horsham Voluntary Fire Brigade. For most of his service he was a messenger for the brigade.
• [5] Dr Heber Hart was Liberal candidate for Thanet in the 1895 General Election and was a champion of women’s suffrage.
• [6] “The Adventures of Mr Ledbury and his Friend Jack Johnson’ by Albert Smith, published by Richard Bentley and Son, London, 1886.
• [7] Tilling was a plumber working for Sendall Brothers. Billy mentions him somewhat unfavourably in his account of his time with that company.
• [8] Billy did a lot of plumbing work in the final couple of years of his apprenticeship.
• [9] 1891 Census: Miss Emma Caffyn was a lady of independent means living with a boarder and a servant at Lea Pale Cottage in Hurst Road.
• [10] Billy and his friend Bernard had recently gone halves on the purchase of a second-hand camera.
• [11] Frederic Villiers was an artist-correspondent for The Graphic and had been delivering this lecture on his experiences of the Russo-Turkish and Anglo-Eyptian wars for at least five years by the time Billy heard it. Perhaps it was getting a little stale by 1893.
• [12] Billy was a member of the Horsham Free Christian Church and did not regularly attend the Church of England. It being Christmas, he probably accompanied his parents to church on this occasion.
• [13] It appears that all these evening walks were not just for Billy’s health. They provided an informal opportunity for young men and women to meet … and gossip.
• [14] 1891 Census: Mrs Lucy Moon (36) was living at 19 Bedford Road with her husband John (71) a retired ironmonger.
• [15] When lead was used in plumbing, joints and cracks were sealed by ‘wiping’ the joint with molten lead.
• [16] Normandy is an area of Horsham to the south of the Causeway and the location of the old grammar school and the Church.
  
  
  

• Billy at Hampton Court