Mabel Sayer – property owner

Mabel Sayer, the lady who dresses up for carnivals, we know but we were not aware, until some old documents were recently given to us, that Mabel was a property owner in her own right.

This conveyance has recently arrived at the museum.

Front page of conveyance – Mabel Sayer buys a cottage

Legal documents tend to be a nightmare to read but this one starts:

This conveyance is made the twenty sixth day of May one thousand nine hundred and twenty six between William John Mann solicitor and Harry Victor Case bacon curer both of Trowbridge in the county of wilts hereinafter called ‘the vendors’ of the one part and Mabel Sayer the wife of Frederick Herbert Sayer of Market Lavington in the said county of Wilts hereinafter called ‘the purchaser’ of the other part

The property was a cottage near the old Independent Chapel on High Street which looks to have had a Mrs Potter as a tenant and others had right of entry to use the well.

Fred Sayer, Mabel’s husband had run the bus company locally. Both of the Sayers were well known locally. We imagine that at this time they had money to invest. No doubt there were potential advantages in having investments in Mrs Sayer’s name.

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Fred Sayer and Jess Trotter

Fred and Jess were both Market Lavington people when they married in the spring of 1929. A photo of the couple in their wedding finery has recently been given to the museum. (Thanks, Jim).

Jessica Hester L Trotter was the daughter of William Trotter and his wife Jessie. She was actually born at Lydd in Kent in about 1906 but by the time of the 1911 census the family lived in Market Lavington. William was landlord at the Volunteer Arms on Church Street where he also ran a coal and firewood business.

Frederick Herbert Sayer was born in about 1905 in Bath. His father, also Fred Sayer was a bus driver and in 1911 the family lived in Nailsworth but very soon after they moved to Market Lavington. When Fred took over as owner of the Lavington Motor Services the yard of the Volunteer Arms became his HQ for a while. Jess and Fred must have known each other since they were well under ten years old.

Childhood friendship presumably turned to romance at some point, leading to that wedding in 1929.

Fred Sayer and Jess Trotter in their wedding finery in 1929

What a handsome couple!

Another photo from Jim shows the couple outside a house. The couple look a little older, but we have no idea as to the location.

We know that Jess died in the Salisbury district in 1992. Fred probably died earlier, possibly in the Southampton area.

 

At the 1931 Hospital Week

Photographs do only provide a snapshot – an instant in the life of a person or place. But we think we can be fairly sure in saying that Mabel Sayer, wife of bus company owner Fred, loved dressing up and taking part in the carnival known as Hospital Week.

We have a number of photos of Mabel in various different costumes and each taken in a different year during that week when Market Lavington and Easterton raised money to support hospitals and those people who could not afford medical care.

Here we see Mabel in 1931.

Mabel Sayer dressed up for the 1931 Hospital Week in Market Lavington and Easterton

Mabel is dressed as a school girl. She carries a satchel over her shoulder and carries a notice to announce, ‘I have won a skollopship’.

These snapshots certainly give a feeling of fun. Hospital Week had a serious purpose, but was a week to let your hair down and enjoy yourself.

Mabel Weston had been born in Bath in about 1880. She married Fred in about 1900. The couple had one child. The family moved to Market Lavington in about 1912 and later retired to a nearby bungalow. We lose track of Mabel after the death of Fred in 1934.