Florence Eldin

Florence Eldin, daughter of a butcher who held the shop which is now Dowse the butchers, has been mentioned before on this blog. Click here for that posting.

We know that Florence was born about 1893 in Cambridgeshire and moved to Market Lavington when her father took over the butchery business.

She was in her 50s when she married George O’Reilly in 1945, a marriage which lasted just three years before George died. He was quite a bit older than her.

Florence herself died in 1973 but that length of life might have seemed unlikely back in 1922.

Extract from the Market Lavington tuberculosis reporting book

As we can see, it was in that year she was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis.

This could explain her absence from the village in 1926. She is not on the electoral register for that year.

At Market Lavington Museum we have quite a substantial record book, kept in accordance with the Tuberculosis Regulations of 1911. Our book, we should be thankful to say, received very little use.

 

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Some craft work by James Jeremiah George Gye

It seems to be the habit in many local families to have an official first name but to actually use a middle name. It can cause great confusion and here we have a case in point. James is the name used in all official documents, but this young man was known as George. So from now on, we’ll call him George.

George was born in about 1876. His parents were James Gye, a wheelwright and carpenter and his wife Mary Ann (née Durnford).

We do not know a huge amount about George. In 1881 he was a scholar and the family lived at Fiddington Clay. By 1891, the family had moved to White Street, Market Lavington and had premises where the dwellings known as Gye’s Old Yard now stand. George was an apprentice carpenter, aged 15.

In about 1896, George produced this piece of carved cotton wood.

Carved panel produced by George Gye of Market Lavington in about 1896

It looks like a quality piece of work but is clearly unfinished.

George may well have been ill by the time he carved this. Our records say it was done as a hobby rather than for any known real purpose.

Sadly, George died in 1899, aged 23.

He appeared recently in photo of the family. Click here.

It is believed he died of TB.