Walter the carriage builder

Walter Snow was born on 11^th January 1863 at Geranium Cottage which was situated at the junction of Sidney Road with Marsh Hill in Homerton.  Walter was the seventh child and third son of Richard and Clara Snow. Walter’s older siblings were Clara, Eliza, Richard,  Anne and the twins Algernon and Susan.  In those days Homerton was barely more than a hamlet adjoining the surrounding villages of Hackney, Hackney Wick and Clapton and lay close to open fields. Marsh Hill led downhill to the marsh gate and the marshes that lay beyond. Walter’s father was a cattle salesman and is likely to have used the Hackney marshes as grazing lands for cattle until it was time to sell them. It is not difficult to imagine young Walter accompanying his father to the marshes to inspect his livestock.

Marsh Hill 1890

As Walter grew up, his parents had more children so he was no longer the baby of the family. Sarah Jane came into the world when Walter was two and just over three years later, his brother William James was born. By the time Walter was eight years old, the family were still living at Geranium Cottage. Walter was attending school and his elder sisters, Clara and Eliza, were both working as teachers, possibly even at the same school. Walter would have been old enough now to notice changes in the world around him. Homerton had been connected to the railway network in 1868 and among his childhood memories must have been the images of new buildings being constructed. Gradually the fields of his early childhood were being replaced by rows of houses. Towards Hackney Wick the chimneys of industry stretched skywards and beyond, at the southern end of the Hackney marshes, the Great Eastern Railway depot had increased in size. Walter remained at Geranium Cottage until he was at least eleven years old.

During his young life he had witnessed enormous changes and as he approached his teenage years, events were about to take a dramatic turn. Heavy and prolonged rains fell in November 1875 and again in April 1878. Both events lead to widespread flooding. The River Lea burst its banks and inundated the surrounding marshlands. In Hackney and Homerton the basements of many houses were flooded. At that age the floods must have been an exciting but slightly scary experience for Walter. It is likely that Walter’s father lost livestock in the floods which may have lead to some short term hardship.

The following year sixteen-year-old Walter began working at the Great Eastern Railway’s Stratford depot as a carpenter. His starting salary at the rank of “Boy” was 1s 4d a day. Two years later Walter had left the family home and was lodging at 1 Edith Road in Stratford New Town with his older brother Richard, who was a cattle salesman, Robert who was a milkman and a brush maker, called George English, who was perhaps a friend. Walter and his brothers were lodging with the Gobbett family. The head of the family, John Gobbett, and his wife Sophie were both from Suffolk. John and Sophie had six of their children living at the house with them: Walter, Arthur, Albert, George, Thomas and Clara. Their two eldest children, Walter and Arthur, were both plasterers. Albert was a brush maker. George was a plasterer’s labourer and Clara was a twelve-year-old schoolgirl. The nature of their occupations gives some indication of the local industries at the time. There must have been a brush factory in the area and the fact that Walter was a carpenter and that four of the others were plasterers suggest there was a lot of building work going on in the area.

As time passed it is clear that Walter made quite an impression on the young Clara, who was on the verge of becoming a woman. Being five years her senior, he must have seemed quite alluring to her and over time, the feeling became mutual. This must have been quite a concern for Clara’s parents and by the time she had reached the age of seventeen Walter decided, or was persuaded by her parents, to take Clara’s hand in marriage. The wedding took place at Emmanuel parish church on Romford Road in Forest Gate on 2^nd November 1885 and among the witnesses signing the register, was her father John Gobbett. Perhaps he was just making sure that Walter would go through with the wedding! Or perhaps Walter had grown close to the family and it was only natural for her father to be the best man. At the time of the wedding both bride and groom were living on Chobham Road in Stratford.

Emmanuel Church, Forest Gate

Within two years of their wedding, Walter and Clara started a family of their own. Walter junior was born in around 1887, John in around 1889 and Thomas in around 1891. Sadly Walter’s own father, Richard, passed away on 12^th April 1890. He had been ill for a year with heart disease. By this time Walter and his family were living at 25 Stewart Road, just a few minutes walk from his previous known address. Walter’s younger brother William, who was working as a milkman, was also living with them. Walter was still employed at the Great Eastern Railway’s depot as a carriage builder.

Over the next decade, Walter and Clara’s young family continued to grow. Their first daughter, Violet Lily, was born on 27^th May 1892 at 39 Edith Road. Clara Alice was born three years later and a further three years after that, Annie was born. With a wife and six young children to support, money must have been tight, so when Walter was promoted to the rank of foreman on 19^th March he must have been very pleased. As a foreman, his wages jumped to 45s a week. He was now assisting in the supervision of repairs, painting and cleaning to suburban carriage stock and in addition repairs to some mainline stock. He also assisted in supervising the writing of destination boards and lacquering work for carriages.

Entrance to GER works, Stratford

Now that Walter was earning more money, he decided to leave Stratford New Town for one of the recently constructed houses that had been erected in Manor Park.  The open fields surrounding Little Ilford had, over a period of just over a decade, been built into neat rows of houses that joined with East Ham and Forest Gate. The houses had been built speculatively and were aimed at workers commuting into London. For Walter it would have been a short train or tram journey down Romford Road to work.

In the first year of the new century Clara became pregnant again and early in 1901 Nellie Snow was born. By the time the census was taken that spring, Walter and his family were living at 108 Dersingham Avenue. The remainder of the year was to prove a difficult one for Walter. During the summer months his mother passed away and then within weeks of that, baby Nellie died too. As painful as this must have been for him, he had to continue working to support his wife and family. Within two years of these tragic losses, his wife Clara fell pregnant once again. Their fifth daughter Edith was born in around 1903.

Throughout the early 1900s Walter’s wages increased further to 60s a week. However while Walter’s work life was flourishing, there were worrying developments at home. His wife Clara was ill. What started out as an annoying cough developed into something altogether more sinister. The coughing would have worsened as the months passed and her weight would have dropped as her condition deteriorated. She had Tuberculosis. Clara died at their home on Dersingham Avenue on 14^th May 1908 with Walter by her side. She was just 39 years old. Interestingly, in addition to TB, the death certificate cites exhaustion and cirrhosis of the liver as the causes of her death. This suggests she may have had a drink problem. It is not too far fetched to assume that she may turned to alcohol when her daughter Nellie died. 

Clara Alice Snow burial record at City of London Cemetery, Manor Park

With his wife’s death, the responsibly of looking after the household chores would have fallen on the eldest daughters Violet and Clara. They would have been aged 16 and 13 at the time. Walter would have returned to work, no doubt stricken with grief, but at the same time relieved that his wife’s sufferings had ended. This grieving period did not apparently last long and whether it was for companionship, love or for more pragmatic reasons, he set about finding a new wife. On 4^th April 1909, less than 11 months after Clara’s death, he married Alice Maud Lee. Alice was the daughter of a publican and was originally from Market Harborough in Leicestershire. They married at St Leonard’s Church in Bromley-by-Bow and in the days leading up to the wedding Walter took lodgings within the parish at 11 St Leonard’s Street.

Following the wedding, Walter took his new wife back to Manor Park and in the following year, their first child was born. Doris, as she was named, was the eighth of his surviving children. Following the birth, Alice quickly became pregnant again and in the early months of 1911, Edward was born. By this time the family had moved to 21 Wentworth Road. Clearly the house in Dersingham Avenue contained too many sad memories. The census records that Walter’s son John was also employed as a “coach maker” and father and son would have probably travelled to work together. His eldest son Walter is not listed and had by this time left home to find his own way in the world. His other son Thomas was working as a blacksmith. His daughters Violet and Clara were engaged in household duties. Towards the end of the year Alice fell pregnant again and in the spring of 1912 she gave Walter another son. He was named Richard after his own father.

The following summer his eldest daughter, Violet, got married. By the time of the wedding Walter and his family had moved again and were living at 34 Third Avenue. Alice was pregnant yet again and within weeks of his daughter’s wedding she gave birth to a daughter whom they named Ivy. Even by the standards of the day, this was now a large family.

GER carriage workshop, Stratford

As 1913 gave way to 1914 Walter received another promotion at work. He was now in charge of 88 staff comprising 54 coach makers, 5 carriage makers, 10 trimmers, 1 leather worker, 3 labourers, 2 horse keepers and 13 boys. He was one of 3 foremen assisting the chief foreman in the suburban carriage workshop. He was now 51 years old and had been working at the GER for 35 years. The evidence suggests he was an experienced and well-regarded member of staff. Meanwhile back at home, his wife was pregnant yet again and on 21st May she gave birth to another daughter whom they named Queenie.

War broke out in August 1914 and the next four years saw changes at Walter’s workplace. Firstly, an increasing number of women were employed to fill the vacancies created by young men going to fight for king and country. Secondly, the GER introduced bonus payments as an incentive to boost productivity. These payments rose from 2s a week at the start of the war to 28s 6d a week at its end. During the war Stratford Carriage Works manufactured munitions and converted passenger stock to ambulance trains. The bonus payments were a means of encouraging workers to work extra hours working for the war effort.

Site of GER works 1890s and present day

Just as Walter was doing his bit for the war effort his eldest sons were expected to do theirs. By the end of 1915 both Walter and John had enlisted with the army service corps, a unit that supplied the troops on the front line. Meanwhile, Thomas became a sergeant in the Essex Regiment and was involved in the Gallipolli campaign. In the midst of all this, Walter’s wife had become pregnant with another child and in the autumn of 1915 Marjorie Snow was born. 

Walter with one of his children

The war ended on 11^th November 1918 and all three of his sons had managed to emerge from their years of war service unscathed. By August 1919 Walter’s salary had peaked at £310 per annum, but with the war now over, the systems of bonus payments was gradually phased out.

Walter and Alice's final child, Rupert, was born on 17th February 1922. At the time his wife was 40 and he was the ripe old age of 59. The rest of the decade was a turbulent period for industrial relations and matters came to a head in May 1926 when the miners staged a national strike over a pay dispute. The TUC decided to back the miners and on 3^rd May workers engaged in heavy industry, building, railways, transport, gas, electricity and printed walked out in sympathy. The general strike, as it was known, lasted for 9 days. During the strike many people in the middle classes volunteered their time in order to do their bit to mitigate its effects. Walter remained loyal to the railway company and did not participate. This is perhaps not surprising considering that he was 63 years old at the time and approaching retirement. He had his pension to consider after all. Walter officially retired from the Great Eastern Railway on 3^rd February 1928, although his last day at the Stratford Carriage Works was 27^th January 1928. 

Following his retirement it appears that he continued living at 54 Third Avenue with his wife and children as just over a decade later, the 1939 census shows him living at the same address with his wife, Alice; his daughter Queenie, who was working as a wholesale drapers assistant and a redacted person who we can assume is his youngest son Rupert, who would have been 17 at the time. Sadly, this is the last record we have of Walter in life as just two years layer he became ill with prostrate cancer. He passed away at Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone on Christmas Eve 1941.