Abbots Langley

Arthur CAVE, Fishmonger

 		 

I saw this very faded post card advertised on  ebay and took pity on it - with a view to restoration using Corel Paint Shop Pro. The cart carries the words "...r A. W CAVE Poulterer" and the ebay  advert suggested that it was from Abbots Langley.

So  who was A. W. Cave - I decided to find out ...

Alfred William Cave's father, William Cave, was born in Kings Langley in 1838, the son of William and Fanny Cave.  His father was a shoe maker and the family lived at Waterside, Kings Langley. In 1860 William married Elizabeth Bint and the following year (1861) the couple were living at Station Cresent, Abbots Langley, where William worked as a paper maker.

Their first child Ada was born in Abbots Langley, but Arthir William Cave was born in Bromley, Middlesex, in 1863, and his sister Harriett Elizabeth Cave was born there in 1865. In 1866 William moved to Hunton Bridge where he established a business as a fishmonger and un subsequent years three more children were born. William is listed at Langleybury (which included Hunton Bridge) as late as 1882 but had moved a short distance to the High Street, Abbots Langley, by 1886. He is still listed as a fishmonger in Abbots Langley in 1895 but by 1901 he was a retired fishmonger living in Leicester, and was still living there in 1911.

In 1881 Arthur William Cave is shown as working for his father in Abbots Langley as a fishmonger. In 1889 Arthur married Annie Slade, whose soldier father, Joseph Slade, had retired to Abbots Langley by 1871 and whose widow was living in Railway Terrace, Abbots Langley, in 1881. Maud Annie Cave was born in 1890 and the family were living in Temple Villas, Abbots Langley, with Arthur as an employed fishmonger in 1891. By 1899 Arthur was listed as a fishmonger in the High Street.

Unfortunately his first wife, Annie, died in 1893, possibly at the time of the birth of Arthur William Cave junior (who in turn died in 1898). It is not known when Arthur married Emily Bushby, who in 1891 had been living with her widowed aunt Ann Toovey at Hazel Grove Farm, Abbots Langley, but in 1901 he was living in the High Street, Abbots Langley, with three additional children, Herbert Bushby in 1895, Ethel Elizabeth in 1897 and Doris Lilian in 1899, followed later by Arthur Lawrence in 1901 and Florence Emily in 1902.  Between 1902 and 1917 Arthur is listed in trade directories as a fishmonger and fruiterer, but from 1922 reverts to simply a fishmonger. By the time of the 1911 census young Herbert is recorded as working as a fishmonger. In 1929 Kelly's trade directory records the business as "A. W. Cave & Son, fishmongers, T.N. Kings Langley 7117"

Established 1866                                    ' Phone 7117

A. W. CAVE & SON

THE QUALITY

Fishmongers, Poulterers, Game

Dealers, Fruiterers, Greengrocers,etc.

HIGH STREET, ABBOTS LANGLEY

Families waited upon daily

ORDERS CAREFULLY ATTENDED TO.

Arthur died in 1931 and by 1933 the business was being continued by Arthur Evans. Between 1948 and 1964 it was the Village Post Office and later became the Bud-Jet Flight Shop. It is now an estate agents called Your Move.

 16 High Street

Abbots Langley

In the past it was not uncommon for houses set back from the road to be converted into shops by building a front extension. Is this what ahs happened here? If so the frontage was probably erected by William or Arthur Cave.

Sources

The above information came from the census returns (I used Findmypast), FreeBMD, and various county trade directories. The picture of Arthur in front of his shop, the advert, and some later information is from Scott Hastie's book Abbots Langley, A Hertfordshire Village, and the modern picture is from Google Street Views.

Janet Goddard (j.s.goddard @t btinternet.com) of Basingstoke has provided the following information on the Cave family.

Your article on the Cave family from Abbots Langley was very interesting as I didn’t know much about them as I am related through Arthur William Cave’s ( b.1863) second wife Emily Bushby who came from Lancing in Sussex.  Arthur of course is the gentleman in the postcards you have.  I know a little information about some of their children which I go into detail about below.

 

I knew that Arthur’s seond wife Emily had connections to Hertfordshire as her mother, Elizabeth Dolamore, was born in Leavesden and also she was staying with her Aunt Ann Toovey (nee Dolamore) when the 1891 census was recorded.  Emily and her Aunt were living at Hazel Grove Farm in Abbots Langley.  Emily Cave nee Bushby was one of ten children born in Lancing, Sussex to William Bushby b.1835 and Elizabeth Dolamore b.1860.  Her elder sister Clara born in 1861 was my Great Grandmother.

 

William Bushby was a Miller from Lancing and his family all came from this area but his wife Elizabeth Dolamore came from Leavesden which is where they were married in 1860.  I am not sure how they met being as they lived in different parts of the county but obviously their paths must have crossed and they ended up married.

 

Elizabeth Dolamore was one of nine children born to David Dolamore and Mary Ann Walker.  David was born in Abbotts Langley in 1803 and Mary Ann Walker in Stanmore in 1803. They married in Abbotts Langley in 1823 and David was a Carpenter by trade.

 

David Dolamore’s parents were William Dolamore b.1774 and Charlotte Kimpton b.1771 both from Abbots Langley.  David and Charlotte were married in 1794 in Watford.

 

Anyway back to the Cave Family.  My mother knew that Arthur William Cave and his second wife Emily Bushby lived in Abbotts Langley and she also knew that they ran a shop but she wasn’t aware that it was a fishmongers.  She knew three of his children, Ethel, Doris and Florence as they were her mother’s cousins and they all kept in touch even though my grandmother lived in Petersfield, Hampshire and the Cave sisters lived in Hertfordshire.  None of the three sisters ever got married or had children as far as we are aware

 

My mother was not aware that Arthur had been married before to Annie Slade and that he had two children with her.  I have since found out that Maud their daughter married George Crabbe in 1914 but I have not found any children yet.

 

Herbert Bushby Cave was Arthur and Emily’s first child born in Abbotts Langley in 1895.  He worked with his father in the shop according to the 1911 Census.  In December 1914 during WW1 he joined the Hertfordshire Regiment and was in the 1/1st Battalion.  He fought in France but was sadly ‘killed in action’ on 13th November 1916 near Thiepval in the Somme.  He was only 21 years old and the family must have been devastated.  He is buried in Connaught Cemetery near Thiepval in the Somme.  His name is also on the War Memorial in Abbots Langley.

 

On Herbert’s Army Service Record, which can be seen on the ancestry website, he mentions his parents, three sisters, his half sister Maud who is now Mrs Crabb, and his brother Lawrence.  He states that his brother Lawrence is 18 years old although he is actually only 14, I wonder whether he did this so that his brother would be able to join the Army even though he was underage.  As far as I have been able to find out Lawrence did not join the army during WW1.

 

Arthur and Emily’s youngest daughter Florence worked ‘in service’ so moved around the country with her work but she ended up living in Midhurst, Sussex, where I can remember going to visit her.  She died in 1985 aged 83.

 

We don’t know much about Lawrence Cave other than we think he married twice and died in Launceston, Cornwall in 1989.  We don’t think he had any children but are not 100% certain about this.

 

As far as we are aware Arthur and Emily did not have any grandchildren and Arthur died in 1931but I do not know when Emily passed away.

Arthur William Cave 1863 -1931

 

Emily Cave Nee Bushby  b 1862

 

Herbert Bushby Cave 1896-1916
December 2011   Page created
May 2012   Informationn by Janet added