Ancestral Stories #3

Annie Wheeler

My 3 x Great Grandmother

Annie’s Twenties

On 5 August 1879, my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler gave birth to her third child, her first daughter, Charlotte. Annie was twenty-two. She named her daughter after her older sister, who was a neighbour in Salamanca Street. 

Annie’s husband James was still labouring, working in the nearby factories and on the docks. Salamanca Street was still blighted by brawls, accidents, and untimely deaths. 

Sadly, the rate of childhood mortality was very high in the Victorian era, and that was especially true in Salamanca Street. But, somehow, against the odds, Annie and her family continued to survive.

Newspapers in August 1879 reported on the state of the water system in my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler’s street, Salamanca Street. Living conditions were far from ideal. Assaults, and serious fires in the industrial buildings in the street were also commonplace.

On the 16 August 1881, my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler gave birth to her fourth child, and second daughter, also named Annie (pictured later in life, c1920, with two of her daughters). This was a significant event for me because daughter Annie is my 2 x great grandmother 🙂

Salamanca Street, 1881. Living in number twelve, Charles Wheeler (my 3 x great grandmother Annie’s brother), along with his wife and daughter. Charles was a carman. Number thirteen: Annie, her husband James (a cement porter) plus their children James, Henry, Charlotte and Annie. James and Henry were in school. Charlotte and Annie were too young to attend at that stage.

Also in number thirteen, Samuel Noulton, Annie’s father-in-law and a widower, who worked with husband James as a cement porter. You would think that seven people made for a crowded house. However, there were more: Charlotte (Annie’s sister), Thomas Miles, a general dealer (Charlotte’s husband) plus their three sons James, Joseph and Thomas. 

Thomas Miles’ brother, William, and his family lived at number fifteen, so you can see how Annie and her extended family had a significant presence in Salamanca Street.

With the rats, leaking water pipes, crumbling floorboards and overflowing sewers in my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler’s street, Salamanca Street, it seems incongruous that in December 1881 the local cricket club were holding their annual dinner in the local school, only a stone throw’s away. Yet, they were. A snapshot of the dichotomy of the Victorian era.

In 1884, the newspapers reported transport developments near my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler’s street, Salamanca Street, including widening the South-Western Railway. These reports offered a reminder of how noisy and polluted the street could be.

Meanwhile, at the age of twenty-seven, in 1884 Annie gave birth to her fifth child, a third son, George. By the time George was baptised, on 13 August 1884, Annie and her family had moved to 1 Albert Buildings. However, this was a brief stay – the family returned to Salamanca Street, albeit to number twenty-five.

On 20 December 1884, the newspapers reported that Charles Wheeler, a carman and my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler’s brother, was involved in an accident.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

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