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1. The Waller Ancestry
2. The Children of Joel Waller (1847-1923)
3. Leonard Waller - The closing of The Old House at Home Public House

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1. WALLER ANCESTRY

The Wallers were several generations of coal miners and their families who lived in Swanwick and Somercotes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

William Waller 1826-1887 (born Swanwick) married Mary Bowler 1829-1873 (born Heage). They married in the parish of Alfreton in 1846. Their wedding record shows that William was a coal miner, like his father before him, also named William, while Mary Bowler was a servant. During their marriage they had nine surviving children, five sons and four daughters before Mary died in 1873.

Their children were:

*1. Joel 1847-1923

2. Eliza 1850-1939

3. Joseph 1852-1910

4. Mary Elizabeth 1854-1887

5.Horatio/ Horace 1856-1932

6.Hargrave 1859-1917

7.Margaret b. 1860

8.Albert 1862-1928

9. Miriam 1864-1874

 

*1. Joel Waller 1847-1923 (Leonard and Jean Waller’s grandfather.)

Joel was the oldest child of William and Mary Waller and was born in Swanwick. In 1871 (aged 23) he lived with his parents and siblings on Sleetmoor Lane where his father was employed as Coal Miner and his mother was a grocer. Two years later in 1873 he married for the first time – Mary Fletcher, a dressmaker who lived in Swanwick. However, their happiness was short-lived as the 1881 Census showed that Joel Waller (33) was a widowed grocer living with his young daughter, Miriam (5) on Derby Road, Swanwick. In 1883 he married for the second time when he wed Susan Challoner (n. Turner) 1853-1948. Susan Challoner was born (Susan Turner) in South Wingfield and was a kitchen maid at Swanwick Hayes for Mr. Fitzherbert Wright and his family for a time (1871 Census) before marrying Robert Challoner. She was left widowed with a young son, George Challoner, in 1875. By 1881 she had returned to Greenhill Lane to live on the family farm run by her widowed mother and in 1883 she married Joel Waller.

During their marriage Joel and Susan Waller had five children. They were:

 Leonard Philip Waller 1884-1966

Mary Ellen Waller 1886-1972

 William Uriah (Bill) Waller 1888-1962

* Joel Archibald (Arch) Waller 1893-1988 (Leonard and Jean Waller’s father)

 Florence Mary Waller 1893-1988

SEE “CHILDREN OF JOEL WALLER”.

In 1901 the family lived on Somercotes Hill, Somercotes, as follows:

Joel Waller 54 Coal Miner

Susan Waller 49

Leonard 17 son Miner Hewer

Mary Ellen daughter 15

William Uriah (Bill) son 13

Joel Archibald son 6

Florence Mary daughter 4

Local newspapers in 1903 reported that Joel Waller purchased three cottages situated on Derby Road Swanwick Rental Income £17 p.a. for £250. In the 1911 Census Joel Waller (63) was a Coal Miner Contractor while his wife Susan Waller was a greengrocer. They still lived at the same house on Somercotes Hill. When Joel Waller died his effects totalled £3170.15s 6d which he bequeathed to;

Leonard Waller Beerhouse Keeper (The old house at Home, Pye Bridge) (son)

William Uriah Waller (Son)

Joel Archibald Waller (son)

Luke Jepson (son-in-law)

His wife Susan continued to have the shop at 24 Somercotes Hill until her death in 1948.

2. ELIZA WALLER 1850-1931 (GREGORY)

Second born and oldest daughter of William and Mary Waller, she married George Gregory 1847-1903 (born at Lea Mills) in 1868. In the 1871 Census they lived on Sleetmoor Lane, Somercotes where George (23) was employed as an Iron Moulder. By 1881 because of the enormous expansion of coal mining in North Derbyshire George Gregory had moved his family to Seymour, Staveley where he was a Coal Miner at Seymour Colliery near Woodthorpe. They lived first at 28 Seymour and in 1891they lived at 17 First Row, Seymour, Staveley.

**SEYMOUR INFORMATION: The sinking of a shaft for the colliery was started in 1855 and production began three years later in 1858. It was capable of producing 700 tons of lucrative locomotive coal for the railway companies on a daily basis. Because of the growing colliery work force the company built the Seymour Cottages to house their families. More than a hundred houses were built in four parallel terraced rows. They were built of brick and each house had its own outbuildings with earth middens (toilets) and allotment gardens. Each house had one main room downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. The large living room had red tiles or flag stones for a floor and the fireplace was an opencast iron one with an oven on one side of the grate and a boiler on the other, water being put in by bucket. A stone sink was provided and lighting was by paraffin. There was also a row of three houses set away from the main blocks which were referred to “Gaffer’s Row” as they were for the colliery’s management and another row of workshops which served the colliery. A small chapel was built at the side of the terraces and Woodthorpe School and “The Albert Inn” were also added. At the height of production Seymour Colliery employed 523 men underground and 85 surface workers. The manager was S.B. Gilroy and the Under Manager was R.S. Knight.  After its closure in 1919 the miners transferred to other local mines at Oxcroft, Ireland, Hartington and Markham. The Seymour houses were condemned as unfit for human habitation in 1929 and most were demolished by 1932, although two small blocks were left standing until the 1960s. Unfortunately, they no longer exist.

George and Eliza Gregory had 10 children. After her husband’s death in 1903 Eliza Gregory continued to live in North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire near to her children. In 1911 aged 62 she lived at 1, Carlisle Terrace, New Street, Dinnington with two of her grandchildren and several boarders. She was a certified midwife. She died in 1931.

3. JOSEPH WALLER 1852-1910

Like his siblings Joseph Waller was born in Swanwick. He was third born and second oldest son of William and Mary Waller. Until 1873 when his mother Mary died in April, he lived in the family home on Sleetmoor Lane Somercotes and was employed as a Coal miner. In October that year he married Mary Jane Redgate 1855-1919, a Somercotes girl. By 1881 Joseph Waller was a Police Constable in Derby Borough and the couple lived at 17, Oak Street with their two sons, George (6) and Samuel (2). In 1891 the family still lived in Derby but had moved to 4, Douglas Street as they had two more children – Elizabeth Ella and William Ewart. In 1901 Joseph Waller had progressed to Police Sergeant and they lived in Osmaston Road, Derby. Joseph died aged 58 in 1910 at 37, Norman Street, Derby and Mary Jane Waller died in 1919. They are both buried in Chaddesden Cemetery, Derby.

4. MARY ELIZABETH WALLER 1854-1887 (SUTTON)

Mary Elizabeth Waller lived a very short life dying at the young age of 32. After growing up with her siblings in the family home, she married George Sutton 1846-1931 and in 1881 they lived at 57 King Street Alfreton. Their Census details were recorded as follows:

John Sutton 76

George Sutton 35 Engine Tender

Elizabeth Sutton 26

John 6 and Mary 2

Henry Sutton Boarder

Little else is known of Elizabeth except that she died in 1887.

5. HORATIO (HORACE) WALLER 1856-1932

More detail is known about Horatio (called Horace) Waller than some of his other siblings because of several newspaper articles about him in “The Ripley and Heanor News” in 1926 and 1932. Horace Waller commenced work as a boy in the Engine Department of Shady Colliery, Birchwood. After a short stay there he transferred to Swanwick Colliery where he was an Engine Driver (stationary) remaining there until his retirement in 1913.  In 1875 he married Sarah Arnold 1855-1932 and they were married for more than fifty years. Horace and Sarah had eight children born with four sons surviving. They were Albert, Mark, William and Horace. The family lived at 24 Sleetmoor Lane from 1891 onwards.

Horace Waller was an accomplished musician and could play several instruments extremely well. He was one of the founders of Somercotes Brass and Reed Band where he played the solo euphonium. However, he did not play with them on their first performance as they surprised him by playing at his wedding. He also founded the Somercotes Ambulance Service along with Mr W. Argyle and Thomas Daykin. He was well known in Somercotes. Horace Waller died in 1932 and his wife died just one month later.

6. HARGRAVE WALLER 1859-1917

In 1871 Hargrave Waller was aged 11 and a scholar living with his parents and siblings in Sleetmoor Lane, Somercotes, and was only 13 when his mother died. Nothing is currently known about himuntil 1881, when aged 22, he was an Assistant Railway Stoker living at 7, Brunswick Street, Openshaw Lancashire. Two years later he married Mary Jane Clarke at All Saints Church, West Gorton, Manchester and they had six children. Census records show that Hargrave Waller (31) was an Engine Driver on the railway for the rest of his working life. After the death of his first wife, he married Hannah Boardman (1875-1922) in 1909 and died in 1917. His descendants continued to live in Greater Manchester.

8. ALBERT WALLER 1862-1928

Albert Waller also became a train driver like his brother, Hargrave. In 1871 he was 9 years old and lived with his parents and siblings at 18 Sleetmoor Lane. Nothing is known of him after this until the 1891 Census where he was listed as a Boarder (29) Railway Stoker living at 15 Wortley Grove, Wortley Leeds.  When he was 30 in 1892 Albert Waller married Martha Elizabeth Lambert. The 1911 Census was very detailed and was the first one to be completed by the householder (not an enumerator).  Albert and Martha lived at 21, Brooklyn Place, Armley Leeds and Albert (49) stated he was a Railway Engine Driver. They had been married for 18 years with 11 children born and 8 (all girls) surviving. He died in 1928.

9. MIRIAM WALLER 1864-1874

Miriam (Minnie) Waller was the youngest child of William and Mary Waller. She died aged only 10 in 1874.

 

2. THE CHILDREN OF JOEL WALLER (1847-1923)

As previously stated, Joel Waller married twice.

MIRIAM WALLER 1876-1907

Miriam Waller was the only child of Joel Waller and his first wife, Mary Fletcher. In 1881 Miriam was five years old and lived with her father on Derby Road, Swanwick. Miriam’s mother died in 1876. Ten years later in 1891 Miriam Waller (15) was a servant to George Lumb (77), a farmer who lived at Top Farm Pentrich Lane, Alfreton. She married Joel Gregory (the son of Eliza Waller’s husband) in May 1899 at St. Thomas’ Church, Somercotes and in 1901 the couple lived at Waleswood, Yorkshire where Joel was employed as Coal Miner at Waleswood Colliery. Between 1900 and 1905 Miriam Waller bore six children. They were Wilfred Gregory (1900-1975), Olive Gregory (1902), Gladys (1903-1973), Ivy (1903-1987) and Joel Archibald Gregory (1905-1957). Miriam Gregory died at the young age of 31 in Rotherham in 1907.

MIRIAM WALLER / GREGORY WAS THEREFORE HALF SISTER TO THE CHILDREN OF JOEL WALLER AND HIS SECOND WIFE. (SEE BELOW)

Joel Waller remarried in 1883 and his second wife, Susan Challoner bore five children who were:

1. LEONARD PHILIP WALLER 1884-1966 JW1

Leonard was the oldest child of Joel and Susan Waller (Challoner). As a young child he attended Swanwick National School. In 1901 he was 17 and a Coal Miner, living with his parents and siblings on Somercotes Hill. He lived with his parents until 1911 when he was a Boarder at Dinnington, Nottinghamshire and he married Ruth Rebecca Shooter (1888-1947) in Mansfield later that year. In March 1921 “The Ripley and Heanor News” reported that he purchased three cottages on Somercotes Hill from the Cressy Hall Estate for £175. From 1911 he was landlord of “The Old House at Home” public house in Pye bridge which stood on the Pinxton canal and lived there in 1939 with his family while working at the Chemical Works in Pye Bridge. He was still landlord in 1954 when the pub closed. (See “The Ripley and Heanor News Sept 24^th 1954) Leonard and Ruth Waller had five children who were: Frederick b. 1920, Florence b. 1922, May b. 1925, Marjorie Ellen 1928-1988 and Archibald 1912-1988. Ruth Waller died in 1947. It is unclear when Leonard left “The Old House at Home” but when he passed away in 1966, he was living at 19, Cinder Road, Lower Somercotes. He was buried at Leabrooks Cemetery. It is not known when the pub was demolished but it no longer exists.

2. MARY ELLEN WALLER 1886-1972 (SANSAM)

Mary Ellen Waller was the second born and oldest girl of Joel and Susan Waller. She married David Sansam (1881-1953) a coal miner from Lower Birchwood in 1908 when she was 21. His parents were Samuel (1833-1889) and Elizabeth Sansam.

(NOTE: The Sansam family history is complicated and takes a bit of understanding. Elizabeth Parkin married three times. She married two brothers: James Sansam (1843-1947) and after his death she married Samuel (1833-1889), his older brother. She had 10 children by both brothers MAKING THE CHILDREN HALF SIBLINGS.

Children by James Sansam were: Ann 1865, Henry 1860-1947, Ann Elizabeth 1868-1943, Charles 1871-1939 and James 1873-1959.

Children by Samuel Sansam were: Samuel 1876-1876, Kate 1878, Isaac 1879, David 1881-1953, and Ada 1886-1887.

It is further complicated because she married for the third time (William Collier) after Samuel had a fatal accident at Shady Pit in 1889). She died in Queen Street in 1912 (Elizabeth Collier).

In 1911 David (29) and Mary Ellen (25) Sansam lived on Somercotes Hill with their young son, David Eric Sansam (1909-1983). When he grew older Eric Sansam became a building contractor and lived on Nottingham Road. For a while he had a yard just below Birchwood Chapel which local people referred to as Sansam’s Yard.

3.WILLIAM URIAH WALLER 1888-1966 (BILL)

William Uriah Waller (Bill) married a local girl Kate Wheatcroft (1891-1966) who had grown up on Sleetmoor Lane. They married in 1914. Like many of his family and contemporaries, Bill was a Coal Miner. In 1939 he lived with his wife and daughter, Eva, (b. 1918) at 27, Somercotes Hill. He was listed as a Colliery Fireman Chargeman and Eva as a Ladies’ Hairdresser. His widowed mother, Susan lived at 24 Somercotes Hill.

4. *JOEL ARCHIBALD WALLER 1893-1988 (ARCH)

Arch Waller was the third son and fourth child of Joel and Susan Waller. He was a coal miner and was employed at Birdswood Colliery, Alfreton when he left school. Miners were not automatically called up for national service during WW1 but Joel entered the army reserves in February 1916. He married Ida Ellen Sansam (1897-1974) at Birchwood Chapel in December 1917. When he was mobilised in April 1918, he was posted to the Coldstream Guards in Putney S.W.15 and stayed there until his discharge in December 1918. After the war he returned to coal mining.

(Ida Sansam’s parents were James Sansam (1873-1959) and Ann Elizabeth Johnson (1875-1961). They married in 1895 and in 1901 they lived on Birchwood Lane in the last house before Chapel Yard. James and Ann had three children, Ida being the oldest, Charles (1902-1950) and Harold (1909-2000). In 1939 James and Ann Sansam lived at 95 Birchwood Lane with their youngest son Harold (1909-2000). Their other son, Charles (1902-1950) lived next door at No. 94 with his wife Elsie.

Arch and Ida Waller were married for 56 years and had two children:

Joseph Leonard Waller 1918-2006 (L. WALLER PHOTOGRAPHER)

Jean Susan Waller 1926-2015

Arch Waller lived to be 94.

5. FLORENCE MAY WALLER 1896-1978 (JEPSON)

Florence May was the youngest child of Joel and Susan Waller. She married Luke Jepson in 1918 (youngest brother of Edward Jepson, who eventually became the managing director of J. Abbott and Co. in Somercotes. In 1939 Luke and Florence Jepson lived with her mother, Susan, at 24 Somercotes Hill along with their two children, Leon b. 1920, an apprentice upholsterer and Mavis b. 1935 under school age. Luke Jepson was employed as Colliery Ambulance Room Attendant. Luke Jepson died aged 69 in March 1962. Florence May lived to be 81 before dying in Chesterfield in April 1978.

 

3. LEONARD WALLER - THE CLOSING OF THE OLD HOUSE AT HOME PUBLIC HOUSE

OLD HOUSE AT HOME CLOSES. PYE BRIDGE PUB AWARDED COMPENSATION

Ripley and Heanor News Sept. 24th 1954

The 70-year-old Licensee, Mr Leonard Waller, returned to “The old House at Home” at Pye Bridge, a two-hundred-year-old public house last week, but it was empty. “The Old House at Home” had been able to withstand floods, wars and even nationalisation, but the increased rail traffic dealt it a death blow.

Once it was one of the most colourful pubs in the country. London bargees travelling up the Nottinghamshire canal to collect coal from the local coalfields always stopped at the pub which is at Pye Bridge at the side of the canal. The front door faces the water.

During the 1914-1918 War the canal fell into disuse. Few bargees ever called for a drink. For thirty years Mr. Waller struggled to keep the public house open. When the canals were nationalised, the pub was nationalised too, and was taken over by the British Transport Commission. Mr. Waller will get £150 and Transport Commission will receive £150.

Mr. Waller told a reporter afterwards “I tried to keep the doors open all these years, hoping the bargees would return and that trade would improve. They have not come back and “The Old House” has not been the same since. I have been the Licensee of the old pub for 44 years and I have seen the bargees die out. They were a good, friendly crowd generally. No one passes up the canal now”.

Mr Waller has received special permission to continue to live in “The Old House” where he made so many friends.

“PASSING OF THE OLD HOUSE- SOON IT WILL BE AT HOME NO LONGER"

Following is a transcription of an old newspaper article which has been kindly loaned by Mrs Heather Parkin. Although it has a handwritten date of 1955 on it, there is no evidence to show the local newspaper from which the article was taken.

The little backwater pub ‘The old house at Home’ which stands on the towpath of the Cromford Canal is now a quiet place. At one time the tap rooms were filled with a host of bargee personalities, colliers and farmers. But now they are almost as quiet as the silent waters of the nearby canal, which have known no industry since coaling by barge between Pinxton and London ceased during the 1914-1918 War. The glory of the old ‘bargee house’ has faded with the years, and soon the sign board announcing that ‘Leonard Waller is licensed for the sale of beer’ must be removed. After April 4^th the Old House will no longer be ‘at home’ to its patrons.  For on that date the licence expires and ‘on the grounds of redundancy’, the licensing justices have declined to renew it.

Seventy-year-old widower Mr. Waller, who occasionally has had to plunge into the canal to haul out customers who found the tow-path too narrow, saw the last of the bargees. He married the niece of the former licensee, the late Mr. Henry Dawkes, and took over the inn in 1911. In those days Mr. Waller served from the tiny bar from 6am until 11pm. Early in the morning he would be roused by the clank of chains and the plod of hooves as the bargees removed their horses from the stables and departed their slow way south. Sixpence was the charge for stabling.

Not long after the bargees had set off miners would call, anxious to appease dry throats after a night shift- and their arrival was heralded by thunderous banging at the door at 6am. Mr Waller’s day had begun! Crates of beer would be taken by parties of week-end revellers aboard the licensee’s boat, moored at the canal side, and merriment would continue throughout the night. ‘Sleep?’ said Mr. Waller dryly, ‘I had to put up with it’ Among his regulars was a grand old lady of 80, who drank her beer like a man and smoked a blackened clay pipe.

Mr Waller lives at the inn with one of his daughters, May. He has two other daughters and two sons, all married. The future of the Old House, after the expiration of the licence, rests with its owners, the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive.”

                                        

Transcribed by Judith Fitzhugh February 2021.