Moving an organ

We have seen Hopkins invoices before on this blog.

This one is the February 1911 account rendered to West Lavington Church. . For £1 – 8 – 6 Mr Hopkins cut along the floor, removed the organ forward and blocked up the level for temporary use in church. It was a 100% labour cost as nothing new was built or installed.

By 1911 Market Lavington born William Hopkins had moved to Littleton Panell but his firm was still based in Market Lavington.

One son, also a William, was running the acetylene works in Market Lavington at that time. Another son, Sam, was listed as a builder and employer in 1911. He, too, lived in the West Lavington area.

Postcards from around 1911 clearly show the HQ of the Hopkins business at 21 Church Street in Market Lavington.

Hopkins HQ – Church Street, Market Lavington

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The Organist

Today we look at a photo of the organist, seated at her instrument which was at St Mary’s Church, Market Lavington.

Florence O’Reilly at the organ in Market Lavington Church

The organist was Mrs Florence Anna O’Reilly, widow of George O’Reilly.

Florence Anna was born an Eldin, daughter of a former butcher in the village. Mr Eldin had the shop in the early 20^th century and it still remains a butchery business to this day.

Florence was born in Fordham, Cambridgeshire in 1893, but by 1911 she was with her parents at the Market Lavington butchers.

She does not appear on the 1926 electoral roll for Market Lavington although her parents do. However, she is with her parents on High Street in Market Lavington in 1939. This would, we believe, have been at The Red House. Her mother died in 1940 and her father in 1945.

This was also the year in which Florence married George O’Reilly, a man who had had early involvement in the bus business locally before becoming a poultry farmer. The couple made their home at The Red House.

The marriage was short lived, for George died in 1948. The message on the floral tribute from Florence read:

To my own darling sweetheart and husband with all my everlasting love of years to you. May you have peace in God’s care who called you. From ‘The Kid’

After spending much of her life in Market Lavington, Florence ended her days in Somerset. She died in 1973.