The puzzle of the Cluderay family

 It is not uncommon to find people following one or both of their parents in becoming residents of the Charterhouse.  Researching one family, however, leaves us with a particular puzzle.

Ruth Ives married James Cluderay in Wortley, Leeds, in 1865.  Their 3rd child George William was born there on 6 August 1871.  By 1879 they were in Hull where their 4th child was born.  James was an engine fitter, and the family had settled at 57 Reform St.  Sadly, James died in 1883.  By 1891 Ruth was head of a household which consisted of herself and her 4 children, her mother-in-law and 2 boarders.  She was working as a machinist and son George was a clerk.  One of the boarders was Sarah M Wilkinson, at 19 the same age as George Cluderay.  5 years later George and Sarah married.

In 1901 Ruth was still living at the Reform St address with 2 of her unmarried children, George (who was described as single) and Arthur.  George was a "labourer in gas house".  In June 1910 she was admitted to the Charterhouse and died in June 1925.  And still described as "single", in 1911 George was living alone at 2 Charlotte Terrace, Waterloo St.  He was working for the railway company as a goods porter.  We lose track of him after that until the 1939 electoral register, when he is in the Charterhouse - with Sarah.  We don't know when they were admitted.  George died in 1944.

The puzzle, obviously, surrounds the marriage and apparent separation of George and Sarah.  Sarah is on the 1901 census as Sarah M Cluderay and married but living with the Branton family and described as their daughter.  With her is her baby son Fred M.  Fred then disappears from the records but Sarah is still living with the Branton family in 1911.

So what was going on in the Cluderay marriage?  Married in 1896, were they together, if only temporarily, in 1900, or was the baby not George's?  They were living apart at least as late as 1911.  When did they get together again?  Sarah lived to be 101, dying in 1972.  

Back to Ruth and James and their youngest child, Arthur, born in 1879.  In 1903 he married Maria Halley and by 1911 they were living at 6 Spring Grove, Hull.  No further record of them is available until the 1939 electoral register, when they were living at 12 Park Rd.  At some point after 1948, when the Charterhouse re-opened (we don't have a date) both were admitted to the Charterhouse.  Arthur died in 1953, Maria in 1961.

Two generations ending their days in the Charterhouse is not uncommon.  But a mother followed by 2 of her children seems to be unique.

Picturing the 1780 Charterhouse

 The first pictures we have of the 1789 Charterhouse building are, of course, not photographs but drawings.  

This one seems to commemorate the opening of the new building.

This one appears in Tickell's book on the history of Hull and is dated 1793.  On the western edge is the archway which was the last remaining bit of the priory, and through it can be seen a windmill.  There is no paved road outside the building and no obvious boundary to the property.  The angle from which the drawing has been made is slightly different from what one could achieve today; there are buildings in the way now.

There are very few depictions of the buildings other than the original 1780 structure, including the blocks built behind it.  

This one by F S Smith is the only one which survives, drawn in 1885.  Even when photography was common very few people ventured round the back, so this is a particularly valuable image.

The oldest photo we've found of the Charterhouse is a postcard dated 1904.  This one looks very much like it so is of a similar date.  I wonder if the residents are lined up outside waiting for a funeral procession to go by.  The fascination of this photo is in the external appearance of the building.  It is covered in ivy (or is it virginia creeper?); we know that this didn't survive intact into WW2.  A photo taken in 1941 after an air raid caused blast damage shows most of it has gone from the front wall.  However, the flag pole is still there in the later photo.  Most obviously, the early photo shows the boundary wall and railings.  We don't have the date for when these were installed.

 When the building we now know as Old House was rescued from near-dereliction after the war the brick-work was stripped of all plant life, and the trees were removed.  From then on the photos of the Charterhouse mostly look very similar.  This is one I took about 10 years - but it's out of date.  The very tall chimneys have since been shortened to reduce the risk of them succumbing to high winds.  

People who live and work around the Charterhouse have access to other angles from which to take photographs.  Here are a few.

 

Occasionally photographers have tried manipulating their pictures to produce something out of the ordinary.

I'm not sure how this curved image was done.

And this one owes much to Photoshop.

There are many ways of looking at the Charterhouse.

[Thanks to, among others, Carol Osgerby, Adam Randall, Ken Hines and UniqueImagesof Hull.]