Does anyone know Axminster, Devon at all? Historical knowledge sought.

[AnotherPoster]

Sorry, I was sure there was a genealogy section here but I can't find it, hence posting in chat.

I'm looking for some local knowledge of Axminster in Devon. My great grandparents married in the area and I was just looking at their marriage certificate, trying to work out what is written as their residence at the time of their marriage. I can see it is the same place. I know it looks a bit like it says Work H (workhouse) Axminster but I know it is not 'workhouse' because they were both in employment. He was a gardener and she was a domestic servant. It occurred to me they must have worked in the same place, hence having the same address. But I cannot work out the name of the house. I thought maybe someone with local knowledge might be able to recognise the name of a local house/village.

Any ideas please?

Changed my mind. It may say something St (street) Axminster. There is another H written on the form that looks nothing like what I took to be an H in the sample I showed here.

Hmm this is a conundrum. I think the first letter of the street name is an H but there's no street now beginning with an H. Could it be Silver St?

I will say though, that there were a lot of small workhouses in Axminster and around, it's not impossible that they lived there and did their occupations in or out of the house. I think the records of the Axminster one, which was first on West Street and then near Musbury? I think? Are fairly comprehensive so might be worth a shot?

Also you may want to ask these guys axminsterheritage.org/axminster-historical-society/ I'm sure they'd help

Thanks @RosalieDene, for replying. I don't think the first letter is an H because it would not be capitalised and the rest of the form is very punctilliously written with correct capitalisation. Which begs the question, which letter could that possibly be? I also doubt they were in a workhouse because the groom at least came from the area and had a wide and extensive, and deeply respectable, family all around him, not least his own mother still alive at the time. I know I sometimes make up stories about my ancestors to fit the bare facts, but everything here really does point to a family who looked after each other. Anyway, the workhouse was known as the Union in formal documentation, wasn't it?

I think in an earlier census, the groom was living in on the estate of a big house, working as a gardener, and certainly later on, as a married couple, when their daughter (my grandmother) was born, they lived in a cottage that came with a job, so my first thought was that they were living in the local Downton Abbey when they married.

Thanks for the link. I can browse the site but I can't see any way of contacting them by email?

North Street is my guess. And there is a North Street in Axminster.

Maybe this fancy looking house (at the town end of North Street)? Looks big enough to need a gardener. Or there's a row of small cottages.

Do'h posted too soon! Pics attached.

The attached map is from the 1890s. The red circled house is Castle Hill House, which is the one in the google streetview grab. The map also shows the run of workers' cottages further up.

Oo fabulous research, thanks for that! North St is a possibility, although the th would have a bit missing if that is the case. The N certainly looks likely. And the house looks like a good possibility too.

I meant to add, they were married in St Mary's Axminster, but I presume that doesn't signify a location as it was presumably the only parish church in Axminster at the time.

To my surprise they do have an email! I thought they might not have the internet yet ;) [email protected]

Yeah I don't think it says workhouse at all, just wanted to flag that just because they worked doesn't mean they weren't there iyswim.

The only reason I thought it might be a lower case h is because the a in Axminster also isn't capitalised properly - but I think you're bang on that they probably lived in accommodation provided by their employer - even at that time they might have done, is there a census record for Axminster that shows who lived with them, that might be a lead?

Sadly, no to the census. They married in 1895. In 1891, he was living with another undergardener on the estate I referred to earlier (actually miles away from home in Northumberland - that was a surprise when I discovered it as, like I said, he was from a tight knit family with centuries long connection to South East Devon). She was still quite close to her family home in Cornwall, living as a live in domestic servant to a family in Fowey. He must have moved back home, and she moved further east and I am presuming they met wherever they worked at the time of their marriage in Axminster.

Sorry if I go on about it too much. I just love slowly discovering minute details of my ancestors' lives, and piecing together the overall picture. The detail of where they lived in Axminster isn't really important but it would be fun to know.