5 Pullins Green

Sergeant Vaughan

Sergeant James Vaughan (shown on the right when he was living at the Police Station in the High Street).

Following his retirement from the Police force, James and his wife, Mary Ann, Vaughan lived in Pullins Green in the 1920's.  Miss Higgins remembers that the Vaughan family lived in number 5.  The electoral registers show that they lived there from about 1925 through to 1930.  In Thornbury Museum there is a copy of a testimonial signed by citizens of Thornbury and framed and presented Sergeant Vaughan on his retirement.  It expresses their appreciation for the service James and given to the community during his twelve years here as police sergeant.

James died in October 1930 aged 66 years.  Mary Ann died in February 1945 aged 82 years.  Both are buried in Thornbury Cemetery.

We have learned something about their earlier years.  James was born about 1863 in Bredon Norton, Worcestershire.  He was the son of James and Susan Vaughan.  James senior was a shepherd in 1871 and an agricultural labourer in 1881.  James junior started his working life by becoming an agricultural labourer in 1881.  After that date, young James moved from Bredon and married Mary Ann Hobby from Ham, near Berkeley and became a policeman.   In 1891 they were living in Rose Cottage, Shirehampton, Bristol.  James was a policeman aged 27 and Mary Ann aged 29.  They had three children: Florence Annie aged two,  Mabel Francis aged 1 and an as yet unnamed baby aged less than one month.  His mother-in-law, Ann Hobby, a widow aged 61 from Woodford, Gloucestershire was also living with them.

In 1901 the family were living in the Police Station at Chipping Sodbury.  James had become a police sergeant.  He and Mary Ann now had 4 children: Florence, Mabel, Agnes A. and Wilfred J. (aged 5).  It was sad to see the unnamed child reported in the last census didn't survive.  Two police constables were boarding with the family.

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This page was last updated: 23/06/2008