No. 474

When and Where Died Ninth September 1912

Name and Surname Ann Rebecca Stokes

Sex Male

Age 68 years

Rank or Profession Wife of Frederick Stokes Wheelwright (journeyman)

Cause of Death Mitral incompetence

Pneumonia 5 days

Certified by W G Alexander MB

Signature,Description and Residence of Informant

Frederick Stokes, husband, in attendance

Broadway

When registered Tenth September 1912

Registrar Philip J Bayliss

No. 345

When and Where Died Nineteenth February 1917 Cricketers Arms Beoley Road Redditch UD

Name and Surname Frederick Stokes

Sex Male

Age 72 years

Rank or Profession Coach builder Master

Cause of Death (1) Hemiplegia 1 1/2 months

(2) Exhaustion

Certified by J Stevenson MB

Signature,Description and Residence of Informant

Albert Parker Edwards

Son in law

Present at death

Cricketers Arms, Beoley Road, Redditch

When registered Twentieth February 1917

Registrar Frank Jeffrey

Side note For no 345 Col 4 for "72 years" read "71 years" corrected on the [1er] March 1917 by me Frank Jeffrey Registrar on production of a statutory declaration made by Albert Parker Edwards and Annie Elizabeth Edwards

In loving memory of Prudence wife of Reginald STOKES who died March 20th 1929 Aged 40 years. Peace after pain

Also of Reginald STOKES who died Oct 31st 1933 aged 45 years

STOKES Reginald Walter of 44 Council-cottages Broadway

Worcestershire died 31 October 1933 at the Cheltenham and

General Eye Hospital Cheltenham Administration (limited)

Birmingham 7 June to Annie Elizabeth Edwards widow and

Kate Spence (wife of George Spence). Effects £205 10s. 5d.

ertified Copy of an Entry of Death

1962 Death in the Sub-District of Driotwich in the County of Worcester

No - When and where died - Sex - Age - Occupation - Cause of death - Signature, description and residence of informant - When registered - Signature of registrar

65 - Thirtieth December 1961, Ravenscourt Nursing Home, Old Coach Road, Droitwich - Annie Elizabeth EDWARDS - Female - 90 years - Widow of Albert Parker Edwards a Hotelier - 1(a) Broncho pneumonia (b) Chronic bronchitis Certified by Jeanne C Addenbrooke MB - Grevillw R Edwards Grandson, Firs Farm, Impney Estate, Droitwich - First January 1962 - Vernon H Hedges Registrar

Droitwich Guardian

5th January 1962

MRS A. E. EDWARDS

The death of Mrs. Annie Elizabeth Edwards, formerly of Collinsfield, Evesham, which took place in her ninety-first year at Ravenscourt, Droitwich (on December 30th 1961), sees the passing of one whose family had long connections with Evesham and Broadway. She was born in Evesham and was one of the three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stokes, who then lived on Merstow Green at a house adjacent to the Almonry.

There on Merstow Green, Thomas Stokes carried on his business as a wheelwright and it was he who built the first "Famous Vale of Evesham Light Gardening Dray for a Half-Legged Horse to Trot" (the quotation is from his account book) a century ago, the forerunner of many that became so familiar a sight in the towns and villages from the sixties onwards. He built many more for the use of the Vale gardeners and among the familiar local names listed in his notebook for whom he made drays, traps, carts and trucks were such prominent figures in Victorian Evesham as Mayor Allard, Alfred Haines, Henry Masters, Messrs. Espleys, Fred Hirons, John Idiens and Fred George.

Thomas Stokes also had long-standing business dealings with the people of the circus and fairgrounds, and had a contract to effect necessary repairs and renewals to their waggons whenever they visited the district. He built living waggons for many of the show people's families as well as shooting galleries and other equipment peculiar to the trade of his wandering customers, and among the names figuring in his books are some still familiar today, such as Wilsons and Chipperfields.

The family eventually lived at La Quinta, Broadway, and in this village the drays and carts continued to be made and to play their part in the district's leading industry. Here the wheelwright's children grew up, and when the Maxton family visited the village to stay with Mr. and Madame de Navarro at Court Farm, they offered Mrs. Edwards a family post with them which took her for several years to Paris and other parts of the continent.

In 1897 she married at St. Lawrence Church, Evesham, Mr. Albert Parker Edwards, of Birmingham and they spent many years at Redditch and later Droitwich in the innkeeping and hotel industry. In the 1920's they were for several years proprietors of the Bear Hotel, Evesham and were afterwards at the Red Lion Hotel, Astwood Bank until Mr. Edwards death in 1930. A few years later Mrs. Edwards returned to Evesham living in Cheltenham Road and then at Collinsfield, until she moved to Droitwich a few years ago.

She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. H. J. Phipps, of Evesham, and Mrs. W. J. Weaver, of Bromsgrove, and two sons, Mr. Ralph Edwards, of Droitwich and Mr. Osmond Edwards, of Fownhope, Hereford. One daughter died in infancy, and her eldest son, Bert, died several years ago.

A joint memorial service for Mrs. Annie Elizabeth Edwards and her sister Mrs. Kate Spence will take place at St. Michael's church, Broadway on Wednesday.

Both Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Spence were born at Broadway.

SPENCE Kate of Cotswold Basset Terrace Portreath Redruth

Cornwall (wife of George Robert Spence) died 7 January

1962 Probate Bodmin 23 March to the said George Robert Spence retired chief engineer Merchant Navy and John

Mackat Spence commercial artist.

Effects £815 10s.