It’s easy to forget now that once upon a time and still within living memory, real people lived in Imber and carried on real and very normal lives. One of our postcards of St Mary’s Church was sent to a recipient in Imber so we see not only a part of our own village but also get a reminder of our lost neighbour.
Lavington Church interior before the organ was moved
This is the village church here in Market Lavington in a colour tinted card. We know it is an early postcard because we can see the organ in its old place at the right of the church rather than behind the choir stalls where it is now. But actually, if you didn’t spot that this could have been a taken recently image for little has changed. The font cover, in the foreground is still the same. The pews haven’t altered. As is often the case the village church is unchanging or very slow to change.
Now let’s turn the card over.
Card reverse – sent to Mrs Meaden in Imber
We can see this was a Walton’s series card and it was posted in 1908 and it was sent to Mrs Meaden of 32 Imber. The message is what we’d send by text or some other electronic form these days. Annie is telling her aunt she’ll be home on Saturday evening.
We think Mrs Meaden was Anna the widow of Jack and that Annie, her niece was Annie Collins. But Meaden was about the commonest surname in Imber so we could be wrong there. But Anna Baker Meaden (née Sainsbury) was related to the Baker family who were white smiths in Market Lavington. Ida Baker of Market Lavington lived with her at the time of the 1911 census. She had become an Imber school teacher.
Market Lavington Museum 
April 20, 2016 at 4:03 pm |
This is indeed Anna Baker Meaden nee Sainsbury living in Imber – her address in the 1911 census is given as 32B High Street, Imber, when both Ida Grace and Annie Hilda were living there as well. Anna Baker’s mother was Mary Sainsbury, who married Alfred Sainsbury, both of West Lavington, and the name Baker comes down through Mary’s own mother, who was Anna Baker before her marriage to Mary’s father Stephen Sainsbury.
Alfred and Mary were married in West Lavington in 1846 and Alfred died in 1848, leaving Mary a widow. In 1851, she and Anna Baker Sainsbury were living with her brother William, who was a whitesmith also. Mary remarried in 1853 to a John Collins, West Lavington and they had two children, William and Louisa – William was the father of Annie Hilda, while Louisa married a Baker and she was the mother of Ida Grace. Mary herself died in West Lavington in 1879.
Anna Baker Sainsbury is on our family tree, and her husband John (or Jack!) Meaden was a third cousin of Rosemary.
April 20, 2016 at 5:44 pm |
Fantastic information. Thanks so much.
Rog – Curator