Chapter 1 Origins
The Beginnings
My main vehicles for recording family history are Ancestry.co.uk where you will find my family tree under the user name John Winchurch and the tree name is John Winchurch 20170730 and also my blog sites :-
On Wordpress the URL is https://jonvic42.wordpress.com/ with various sub headings leading to different family branches.
On Blogger you can find similar material on http://winchurch.blogspot.com/ . This tends to be updated more often and is now the site I use most after Ancestry.
Here is a basic pedigree version of my family tree as it currently stands
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| John Winchurch - Family Tree Here is a link to a much more comprehensive tree : |
My Grandparents
When I was born in 1942, three of my grandparents and also, unusually, three of my great grandparents were still alive, as you can see from the family tree.
Since all of my grandparents had a significant influence on my childhood in various ways, I will give a short biography of each one. More detail can be found by following the links I have set out above.
Percy Walter Winchurch
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| Percy - about 1939 |
Percy was born on 15 April 1882 at 83, King Edward Street Birmingham. He was the seventh child of Benjamin Winchurch and Eliza (née Tester). Benjamin was a glassblower and at times publican of the Cross Keys public house in Upper Windsor Street, Aston.
Percy’s grandparents, Thomas and Ann Winchurch had kept the Cross Keys since about 1855.
Percy was therefore well acquainted as a child with the effects of too much alcohol on those around him and cited this as the reason for his lifelong teetotalism.
In Kelly’s directory of 1880 Benjamin is listed as a shopkeeper at 83 King Edwards Rd, the address at which Percy was born two years later.
In the 1880 Kelly’s directory of Birmingham, Thomas Winchurch (almost certainly Benjamin’s older brother) is listed as a glass maker in Phillip Street; surrounded by gun manufacturers and finishers.
The proliferation of new businesses and technologies in this area must have made it the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the late nineteenth century.
Benjamin died in 1891 at the age of sixty two, around the time of Percy’s ninth birthday.
Later, Eliza had a grocer’s shop. In the 1901 census she is described as a widow aged 58, Head of household. Shopkeeper Grocer ‘on own account’ (i.e. supporting herself) ‘at home’ at 64/65 Wheeleys Road Birmingham.
At the same address were:
Percy aged 18, an Engineer fitter, Roland aged 17, a Machine Tool Maker and Lizzie Smith aged 15, a servant
How difficult life was financially at this time is difficult to judge, but Eliza was certainly concerned about money, or at least the mysterious ‘Tester fortune’. I heard as a child Percy joke about being ‘descended from a German Baron’. He was not alone in the family to have heard of an ‘unclaimed will’ originating from the early 1800s. I have copies of the letters between Eliza, her youngest sister Clara and their cousin Maria about the existence of a will and their mutual cousin Betsy’s attempts to lay claim to any proceeds.
I have recently been in contact via Ancestry with other Tester descendants who were also aware of the legend and letters.
I believe that Eliza was a driving force behind her sons’ successes. My grandmother, Marion described her as a formidable lady with a Cockney accent and Marion was not given to exaggeration.
Several of the Winchurch boys became keen cyclists as this photo of Percy with a cycling club about 1901 indicates. (Click to enlarge)
Winchurch Brothers cycle shop preceded the garage started by Percy and his younger brother, Roland.
How many of the brothers were involved in addition to Roland and Percy, I don’t know, but it is fair to assume that the cycle business prospered, because in 1905 Percy and Roland set up ‘Winchurch Brothers Limited ‘. The business was initially at 152a Ladypool Road (Kelly 1907 and 1908 )
By 1912, no less than four cycle shops are listed by Kelly at Ladypool Road, Moseley, Waterloo Road in Smethwick and at 134 Sandon Road in Bearwood.
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| Percy outside the cycle shop in Ladypool Road. 1904 |
At some point after 1912 ‘Edgbaston Garage’ in Sandon Road, Bearwood was opened. The premises eventually occupied numbers 102 – 120 involving the demolition of several houses as it expanded. Certainly the earliest driving licence I have for Percy, dated 20 October 1914, lists Sandon Road as his business address.
The selection of the name ‘Edgbaston Garage’ is in itself interesting since, as anyone familiar with districts of Birmingham will be aware, Edgbaston is (even now) very much more ‘upmarket’ than Aston or Bearwood.
This seems to have been part of a shrewd move by Percy and Roland to target a wealthy section of the population who were about to lead the country into a long lasting love affair with the motor car. In the same year as Winchurch Brothers’ foundation, Herbert Austin formed the Austin Motor Company and began production at Longbridge in 1906.
There are gaps in my knowledge of many aspects of Winchurch Brothers in the early years, from 1905 until my father’s earliest memories from around 1918. Percy’s surviving driving licences from 1914 to 1919 include an endorsement ordered by Kings Heath Police Court on 21 November 1916 for ‘not obscuring headlights’ on 29 October 1916, for which he was fined 10 shillings. This was, of course at the height of the Great War, but how much real risk ‘not obscuring headlights’ caused is a matter of speculation !
Percy Walter Winchurch married Marion Brown, the daughter of Henry Ambrose Brown, a tailor, and Alice Plucknett Brown (nee Sternberg) on 18 April 1911.
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| Back row: Marion Sternberg, Henry Ambrose Brown (Marion’s father), Roland Winchurch, Percy, another Winchurch brother (Harry?) with wife ? Middle: Alice Brown (Marion’s mother) Mildred Brown, Marion, Marcelle Prentout (French milliner), Eliza Winchurch (Percy’s mother) Front: Harry Brown and Edith, his wife. |
Percy was 29 and Marion 28.
On their marriage certificate Percy’s address is 11 Newton Road and his occupation is ‘Cycle Dealer’, underlining the fact that the motor side of the business was less important than bike sales in the early years.
Their first child, Francis Victor Winchurch, known for most of his eighty three years as ‘Vic’ was born on 5 February 1914 at 12,Waterloo Road in Bearwood not far from the garage. His birthplace was the family home where Percy, Marion and Vic lived until the move to Pargeter Road (I think in around 1918). Interestingly, Percy is described on Vic’s birth certificate as a ‘Motor Engineer’. So only three years later, the motor side of the business had presumably become the more important.
Jeanne Marion Winchurch was born on 5 July 1919.
The business clearly prospered during the 1920s since photographs show Percy and his family in increasingly comfortable surroundings and on holiday in Devon and later Cornwall. The children both had private educations and lifestyles befitting the rising generation of a ‘well off’ family.
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| Jeanne, Vic, Marie, Percy, Millie, Mary Alice. |
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| Percy, Jeanne, Vic, Horace Bench (husband of Millie, Marion’s younger sister), Millie, Mary Bench, Alice Brown (Marion’s mother). About 1925 at Meadfoot Beach, Torquay. |
Roland meanwhile had Married Alice Wood in 1914. They had four children, Barry, Betty, Molly and Pat between 1915 and 1927.
The brothers bought houses in the newly expanding suburb of Quinton. Roland, with his larger family, probably moved from Galton Road to 757 Hagley Road West in 1931, with Percy following to 755 a year later. A high wooden fence separated the back gardens !
The brothers also owned the semi detached ‘other half’ of Percy’s house 753, which was rented to a childless couple from London called Perrott. Hugh Perrott was a travelling salesman for a children's clothing manufacturer.
In February 1930, Vic was 16 and a pupil at King Edward VI Grammar School at Five Ways. He took his School Certificate examination that year and in January 1931 he began training with Smethwick Borough Council as a weights and Measures inspector. I believe Percy had misgivings about him joining Winchurch Brothers straight from school and wanted him to gain experience of outside employment first.
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| The Regent Billiard Hall about 1947. Notice the newly installed fluorescent lights – a pioneering feature. |
The Billiard Hall (or to give it its full name ‘The Regent Billiard Hall’) was situated adjacent to the garage fronting onto Bearwood High Street. It features in Kelly’s 1933 trade index to Birmingham and judging by references to its profitability in 1936, it had only been running for a few years. My guess is 1932.
I remember Fred Winchurch and Fred Payton serving behind the bar in the late 1940s. That bar, however served only non alcoholic drinks, a legacy of the aversion to alcohol that Percy had throughout his life, resulting from his upbringing as a publican’s son.
The years during the war cannot have been easy. Car production ceased and fuel was rationed.
In February 1941, Vic and Margaret were married at St Paul's Church in Smethwick.
Vic had joined the Royal Navy in January 1941 and became an operator of the new equipment known as Radar. He was in Durban on the battleship HMS Valiant when I was born and didn't see his new son until early in 1943.
Both Percy and Jeanne wrote to Vic whilst he was away and I have a few of the heavily censored letters they were allowed to send.
Percy, along with a large part of the population on Britain, ‘dug for victory’ growing vegetables and keeping hens. He slept at Sandon Road on fire watch on a regular basis in a concrete ‘Pill Box’ next to the showroom.
Birmingham was bombed by the Luftwaffe on several occasions between August 1940 and May 1941 and Bearwood Road School was hit, fortunately at night and there were no casualties. I don’t know how much fuel was stored at the garage at this time, but it can’t have been a comfortable place to be. I still have Percy’s wooden and canvas camp bed from this time. It became my bed for several years when I was a child.
In the post war years, the business prospered. Restrictions on prices meant that second hand cars with low mileage were more valuable than new ones. Consequently, Percy and to a lesser extent, I think, Roland had a succession of new cars often for no more than six months. I can remember well the excitement of being collected in the latest of ‘Grandpa’s new cars’
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| Percy and John, summer 1946 |
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| Jeanne and John , summer 1946 |
My brother David Christopher Winchurch was born 13 December 1946 and I can now understand how Percy must have felt at this point that he was laying a path for all of us for the future.
Vic had been added to the payroll of Winchurch Brothers after demobilisation from the Navy in 1946. I don’t think his employment did anything to remove Percy’s earlier misgivings about his involvement in the business. After a spell in the workshop, which I believe was not a great success, he was moved to the stores. My pleasure as a result of this was derived from having a typewriter to play with when I called there. David remembers that too and additionally a narrow passageway between the back of the line of timber buildings and a brick wall behind. We both think used engine oil was stored there before being burned as fuel in the heating system.
The minutes of a meeting and the associated financial report from 1947 reveal that Winchurch Brothers Limited was on a sound financial footing. Percy proposed that the directors’ fees be increased to £520 per annum from 1 October 1946, This was carried.
Some £1500 was paid out in dividends that year and I believe that at this point only Percy and Roland were shareholders.
Percy made a move in 1947 to appoint three extra directors, Horace Bench, his brother in law (through Millie, Marion’s sister) plus Vic and Frank Angel, the company secretary, of whom I know very little, but he seems to have had a legal background since he was asked to produce a report on the operation of the company if these appointments took place and also in the light of a further proposal by Percy to issue shares to Vic, Jeanne, Betty, Molly and Pat ( but excluding Barry, who seems to have left the family behind him by this time – he eventually died in Rochdale in 1975)
This is quite clearly marks the intention, on Percy’s part to marginalise Roland and lead to a breakup, or takeover, of Winchurch Brothers.
In the same year, 1947, Percy staged a dinner and concert at the Red Cow Hotel in Smethwick
‘To commemorate the completion of 25 years service of Miss O. Parr with Messrs Winchurch Brothers Limited’
It is noticeable that it was Percy who sent out the invitations although Roland does seem to have been present to perform the presentation to Olive. He is, however totally absent from photos I have from that evening.
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| Percy making a speech with Olive Parr standing next to him and Marion sitting on his other side. Vic is seated on the extreme right of the picture |
About this time, Millie Bench reported with some amusement that Roland had sidled up to her, cigarette in mouth and in his broad Birmingham accent enquired :
‘D’yow think as ower Percy’s susceptible to flattery’ ? Her reply was ‘Yes Roland, I think he probably is’. Millie had a wry sense of humour.
Whatever form Percy and Olive’s relationship took at this time ( he was now 65 and Olive 46 ) there was no attempt to conceal it. Olive acted as chauffeuse on family outings as well as business and her family, particularly her sister Hilda Martin, husband Harold and children Denise and Roddy, were part of a large circle that Percy gathered around them.
This behaviour earned the vociferous contempt of Margaret, my mother, particularly when Olive went on holiday with Percy, Marion and entourage.
Percy however had no evident signs of acceptance the received morality of a late Victorian childhood !
He was equally contemptuous about organised religion. I remember how, towards the end of his life, on a trip to Pembrokeshire with Marion, Jenny, (Fred’s widow) and myself in the car, he replied to Jenny’s favourable comments about the picturesque appearance and setting of St Issel's church at Saundersfoot with the remark :
‘Yes Olive and Midge went there one Sunday. God knows why. Some time when they were feeling extra religious, I suppose.’
I can still hear those words today, over fifty years later and to me as a ten year old, such deliciously daring blasphemy both amused and horrified me.
I don’t think I ever told my mother !
Life with Percy was fun. I often sat on his lap in the front passenger seat of the car up to the age of about six. There were, of course, no seat belts in cars before the late 1950’s. Percy would often sing along with the car radio as Olive drove us to Wales, Malvern, or in this case, Sutton Park
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| Percy with a rather scared looking John at Sutton Amusement Park about 1948 |
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| Winchurch Brothers with flags and bunting flying for the 1953 Coronation, three months before Percy died |
In June 1949, Jeanne committed suicide, as I have reported on the pages that I have written about her here
https://winchurch.blogspot.com/2020/07/jeanne-marion-winchurch-1919-1949.html
The plans that Percy Winchurch made in the four years after Jeanne’s death were far reaching and profoundly affected my life and the lives of many members of my family.
In 1939 Percy, Marion and the Paytons (Fred and Beattie) had gone to Pembrokeshire instead of the more customary West Country. I think this might have been on the recommendation of Frank Collins, who was a Winchurch Bros employee and who later retired to Penally, I believe.
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| Unknown man , Beattie Payton, Percy Winchurch, S Beach Tenby 1939 |
After Jeanne died in June 1949, Percy and Marion immediately put the house in Hagley Road West on the market and they moved to Stennels Avenue in Halesowen within months. Devon and Cornwall would have brought back painful memories, I guess and Percy’s thoughts must have turned to alternative holiday destinations. Pembrokeshire quickly moved to prime position and he began to make retirement plans. These included roles for my father and David and me (his grandsons). I don’t know whose idea boatbuilding was, but it clearly had links with my father’s wartime service in the Royal Navy.
Percy entered into negotiations with Vic Morris, who owned St Brides Garage in Saundersfoot, to either purchase the business outright or go into partnership. I don’t know how the formula was arrived at, but plans were drawn up to add a boatbuilding venture to the motor business, to be known as ‘Saundersfoot Marine Company Limited’.
Then, early in September 1953, Percy suffered a major stroke. He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, but never regained consciousness and was dead within twenty four hours on 9 September 1953.
Marion
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| Marion Brown at 21 in 1903 |
My grandmother Marion Brown was born on 9 August 1882 at Cannock in Staffordshire. She was the third child of Henry Ambrose Brown and Alice Plucknett Brown (neé Sternberg). She married Percy Winchurch in 1911.
Our grandmothers were affectionately known to us as ‘big’ (Annie) and ‘little’ (Marie) grandmas
Marion (or Marie, with the stress on the first syllable rather than the French pronunciation) had an elder sister Norah (b1879), brother Harry (b1881) and younger sister Millie (b1890)
Marie was perhaps the most introverted of the four. There was an underlying sense of humour within the family, which delighted me as a small boy. Life with the Browns was fun !
I am lucky to have known and loved all of them in their different ways as my childhood years overlapped with the later years of their respective lives.
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| Norah and Marie C 1903 |
It was a conversation between Norah and Marie 1n 1963 that was an early inspiration to look into family history more.
Norah talks about ‘mother’s father’s father’ being a ‘wonderful musician’ and ‘coming over with a German band’
She was almost right, Francis George Sternberg was actually a generation further back and was a trumpeter with the Royals and Blues Regiment. He settled in Northampton, married Frances Furnivall and established himself and his family in a music retail and education business.
At the time of this recording in 1963, it was two hundred years since Francis’s birth. It is an interesting example of how family information can be passed down the generations.
If I count my granddaughters, we have nine generations here.
Marion owned her own millinery business in a suburb of Birmingham. The landlady of the shop was Eliza Winchurch, Percy’s mother. I assume this is how my grandparents met.
She was an avid reader throughout her life, being particularly fond of Charles Dickens and an opera lover too, which I shared with her from my mid teens onwards.
Percy and Marie married in 1911 with a fine array of hats on display on their wedding photographs
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| Back row: Marion Sternberg, Henry Ambrose Brown (Marion’s father), Roland Winchurch, Percy, another Winchurch brother (Harry?) with wife ? Middle: Alice Brown (Marion’s mother) Mildred Brown, Marion, Marcelle Prentout, Employee (French milliner), Eliza Winchurch (Percy’s mother) Front: Harry Brown and Edith, his wife. |
When Marion died in 1982, she was just four months short of her hundredth birthday.
As far as I know, she is the longest living ancestor that I have. That is quite a thought if you project back into prehistory.
Arthur Downing
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Arthur in 1894 |
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| Mary Ann Downing and children. Arthur is back right. |
He was the fourth of eight children born to James and Mary Ann (née Pugh) Downing between 1873 and 1886.
In the 1881 UK census, two year old Arthur is living with his family at St George's Terrace in Kidderminster. James's occupation is described as a 'clicker' in carpet manufacture, a trade which employed a large proportion of the population of Kidderminster for many years
Ten years later, James and Mary Ann have only three children with them at Oxford]Street in Kidderminster and Arthur at twelve has already left school and is working as an 'errand boy - cart'.
Somewhere around this time, Arthur became a chorister at St Mary the Virgin church at Stone in Worcestershire, a village within walking distance of Kidderminster. The choirmaster and organist was Albert Dovey Chambers and as a child I was shown a treasured family possession, which I still have.
It was a photo album with the inscription:
'Arthur L Downing from ADC, Christmas 1894'
The humorous photo of Albert's dog 'Pug' sitting at a table with pipe and glasses appealed to me as a toddler and my mother clearly felt that her father had benefitted from his time in the choir.
Several of the photos are general shots of places visited on a choir outing, by train, presumably some time in 1894,
Locations include , Tintern Abbey, the Wye Valley and Monmouth.
I am reasonably confident that I have identified my grandfather and Albert Chambers in some of the photos.
To this end, I have been greatly assisted by Tony Brett whose website featuring the photos from glass plate negatives by A D Chambers I discovered online at
http://www.albertchambers.com/Albert_Chambers/Title.html
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| Arthur in 1894 |
The photo album might have been a farewell, present from ADC when Arthur left the choir.
In any event, it would seem that Albert held his pupil in high regard and that is the impression I got from my mother, Margaret.
In the 1901 Census, Arthur is single, living with his widowed mother in Clarence St Kidderminster, employed as a Carpet colour finder.
In August 1906, Arthur was present at the marriage of his brother Albert Downing to Eleanor Slater. Also present at the wedding was my Gt Grandmother, Lizzie Smith, whose mother was born Downing. Her husband and twenty two year old daughter Annie accompanied her. My grandparents, Annie Elizabeth Smith and Arthur Lionel Downing met for the first time at that wedding and subsequently married. They were first cousins once removed.
I have yet to find Arthur in the 1911 Census. I know that by then he was working for the GWR as a signalman at several boxes around the Welsh border.
He and Annie married in 1914 and my mother, Margaret Downing was born in 1916.
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| Arthur, Annie and Margaret in Weymouth, 1929 |
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| Margaret and Arthur |
In addition to Arthur's musical talents, he was also a skilled wood carver
These are images of some of his work and the certificate he was awarded in 1927.
Sadly, Arthur died at home in fairly traumatic circumstances for my mother, grandmother and himself. He had suffered with heart problems for some time, but could not seek medical attention because it would have cost him his job as a signalman.
He died from coronary thrombosis on 24 March 1938 at the age of fifty nine
Annie Elizabeth Smith
My Grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Smith, (my mother’s mother), was born in Alexandra Street, Stone, Staffordshire on 30 September 1883 and died in Tenby, Pembrokeshire on 6 July 1958.
For the last few years of her life, Annie suffered from senile dementia and the memory of that time is in many ways painful for me and inevitably obscures a broader view of her life.
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| Annie with her father, Arthur Smith. About 1935 |
Annie was her parents’ eldest child and the only girl.
Four younger brothers followed
George (1885), Thomas (1889), William (1894) and Frederick (1899)
George died a month before the Great War armistice in October 1918 in Syria.
The remaining three were all involved in the war, but survived and lived within half a mile of their parents. I remember all three of them. Annie's brother Tom brought home a cherished memento from the battlefield of the First World War. He had entered a house almost wrecked by shelling and found a china cup, which was the only thing intact after the onslaught. Tom brought it home and gave it too his sister. Annie treasured it all her life and I am honoured that I still have it, sitting on my mantel shelf.
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| Brought home for Annie by Tom Smith in 1918 |
The couple made their home at 49, Topsham Road in Smethwick, but my mother, Margaret Downing, was born at 7, Victor Street in Stone, the home of her grandparents.
Annie and Arthur’s marriage was not a happy one, by the accounts that Margaret gave. Arthur drank heavily and was apparently abusive and violent. Paradoxically, he produced beautiful oak carved furniture by hand at woodwork classes organised by the GWR. Maybe there he found relief from the pent up frustrations of a life of poverty. Like the homes of previous generations of workers, number 49 had no bathroom and an outside toilet.
Arthur died at fifty nine on the floor of his home. He died in agony, during a severe angina attack at which twenty one year old Margaret was present. He refused to allow her to call the company doctor, since a confirmed diagnosis of heart disease would have cost him his job. Signalmen could not put the travelling public at risk by dying in their boxes !
When Margaret finally reached the doctor’s house it was the middle of the night and the annoyed GP callously threw a death certificate from his bedroom window to the distraught girl in the cold gaslit street below.
Her father’s death in such tragic circumstances affected Margaret greatly, but to my personal frustration as an adolescent attracted by the fairness of socialism, she never voted for the Labour Party with its revolutionary National Health Scheme, but turned instead to a personal attempt to ensure that she always had sufficient funds to avoid poverty. It was a difference of opinion between us that lasted until her death.
Annie was left a widow in Smethwick in 1938 and at the outbreak of war in 1939 became an air raid warden. I think that in a strange way this was probably the most self fulfilled period of her life.
So it was that I arrived in the world, after most of the bombing had finished, with a ‘gas proof’ cot with a hand air pump fitted and later a Mickey Mouse gas mask. These were ready to accompany me and my mother and a good part of the population of Topsham Road, from what I gathered, in the descent to the galvanised steel ‘Anderson Shelter’ which lay half buried at the end of the small garden. I don’t think any of the equipment was used seriously after I was born, but it made a scary, damp, dark playground for me, David and friends as we grew up and was dug out by my father and turned into an impromptu garden shed in 1950, when we and it moved to the rural heaven of Hagley.
Despite being thirty miles away, it was always Annie who was summoned when her ageing parents were unwell. This gave rise to much resentment by my mother, Margaret and in fairness, Annie's health was not good as she progressed through her sixties. I can remember a telegram from Stone arriving from some member of her family which read, quite simply, ‘Annie come at once’
Following my birth in 1942, I had a bout of gastroenteritis and Margaret attributed my very survival to the loving attention that Annie gave me during that time of great deprivation in Britain. The second world war was only just beginning to turn towards eventual victory by the Allies and food and material shortages were acute.
Annie was a very selfless and uncomplaining person. She moved in with us when we went first to Hagley and then to the Wild West of Pembrokeshire in 1954 and sadly declined in health until her death four years later.
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