6 St John Street

Occupants

We are not really sure when the house was built or who lived in the house in the early years.  We are also disappointed that we have not been able to find out more about the various occupants of this house.  We do know that the following families lived there:

David Cogswell Ovens - in 1891 the house was occupied by David Cogswell Ovens, described as a sergeant major pensioner aged 47 years from Cirencester.  We later found that he had been a soldier in the 13th regiment.  His wife, Sarah Jane, aged 47 years was from from Broadstairs in Kent.  They had two daughters, Sarah Natalie aged 13 who was born in Natal, South Africa and Jane Margaret aged 7 years born in Taunton. 

The records of St Mary's Church in Thornbury show that Sarah was his second wife, whom he married on January 9th 1887.   The entry describes him as a widower.  David was the son of Joseph Owen Ovens a furniture broker.  Sarah Jane was Sarah Jane Brown a widow and the daughter of Christopher Pierce, a civil servant.

A year after their marriage the Bristol Mercury for Saturday, May 19, 1888  reported a court case which gave an interesting insight into the personality of David Cogswell Ovens (or Owens as he was called in the article).  The court case was against Austin Edgar Hodges for assault on Cogswell Owens.  It seems that on several occasions when Cogswell Owens was walking down John Street he had buckets of "filth" thrown over him.  There were also instances of a bucket of tar being aimed at him and an egg shell containing red paint.  These came from more than one house. The home of George Hodges seemed to be the main source of these mysterious missiles.  Eventually when an egg shell of blue paint was flung at him David lost his temper and forced his way into the house and found Austin Edgar Hodges hiding behind a door.

The reason for all these assaults became clear in the cross questioning of Mr Cogswell Ovens.  The first revelation was that on an earlier occasion they had been fighting over a young girl called Miss Nelmes.  It also mentioned that he had been in court before; once in Taunton for assaulting a little boy who had hit his son and once before a court martial for embezzling 2s 4d.  Mr Cogswell Ovens private life also appears to have been complicated.  He was asked if he had been married in South Africa  ("never"), in Ireland ("I refuse to answer") and in Thornbury ("yes").  He refused to answer whether his present wife was the mother of all four of his children.  He admitted that he had lived in Taunton but appeared to have left after the inhabitants burned an effigy of him.  When asked if once he came to Thornbury he seduced Emma Hodges whilst she was under the influence of a drug, he gave the interesting answer that "she was not unconscious at the time".  The defence lawyer also mentioned a seduction in Malmesbury.  There was also a Miss Fitzpatrick whom Cogswell Ovens had sent to school in Stroud.

The questioning about David's marriages seem to stem from the fact that he was to have married Emma Hodges and that he had first told her that he was married and then that he was a widower.  From the ages of his children it is possible that he had been married to Sarah Brown in Ireland and was still married when he arranged to marry Emma Hodges.

The case against Austin Edgar Hodges was not proven because a Mr Cornock was in the house at the time and he said he had not seen Hodges throw the egg.  However the defendant, Cogswell Ovens was imprisoned for 21 days with hard labour and the payment of £1 10s 6d and other sums for the damage caused to property and other costs.

The marriage did not last much longer as Sarah Jane died on October 12th 1897 aged 54 years.  On the other hand David Cogswell Ovens seemed to prosper.  By 1901, David had moved to Oak Villa, Morton Lane where he was living with his daughter Jane.  By 1910 the trade directories show that he had moved to Epworth House, Castle Street.  He died on June 11th 1913 aged 69 years.

Of David's daughters, we know that Jane Margaret married George Till Young, a highway surveyor from Morton, on 9th November 1910.

Johnson  - the 1901 census shows Sarah Johnson living in the house.  Sarah was a single lady aged 67 years who was born in Winchcombe and described as 'living on her own means'.  Living with her was her niece, Mabel A Clark, who was single, aged 20 and born in Painswick.

The 1861 and 1871 censuses show that Sarah was the servant of Sophia Evans of "Greenfields" in Leckhampton.  She died 6th October 1903 aged 70 years.

Newport - the house was occupied by Leonard Charles Newport and his wife, Lilian May from about 1930 until just the early 1950's.  Leonard was the manager of P. G. Hawkins builder's merchants business.  They had at least 2 children, Gerald Leslie born in 1932 and baptised in St Mary's church Thornbury 3rd July of that year and Stella Vivienne born in 26th June 1946.  The Council School records show that they also seemed to look after, at least for a short time, Emily Violet and Nancy Agnes Newport.  These girls came from Dornock and attended the school for a couple of years whilst living with the Newports in St John Street.  We understand Leonard and Lilian moved to Bristol.

The accounts of the building firm of W.W. Pitcher & Sons show that when they carried out some building work on 'Newport's house' in 1935, it was owned by a Mrs Prickett who lived in Blackpool.

Wilkinson - from 1954 until at least 1965 the house was occupied by Cyril and Kate Wilkinson who were operating the bakery business next door.  Click here to read  more

The house was demolished about 1970 as part of the town's re-development.  The house has been replaced by a new section of road linking St John Street to Rock Street.

This page was last updated: 23/06/2008