Childhood at Hardington

Charles Ernest Gilham, the second child of Samuel and Harriett Gilham, was born at Hardington on 2 August 1875.[1] His father, Samuel, was a labourer.

After his father died in 1891, his mother married Thomas Woodland.

Early occupations

After leaving school, Charles worked as a labourer. By March 1895, he was a labourer and groom.[2]

Courtship and a stolen scarf pin

By January 1895, Charles, 19, was courting Emma Trask, the sixteen-year-old daughter of an Odcombe shepherd.

Although Emma’s family were Primitive Methodists, she stole a gold scarf pin from her employer, a critical incident that severely tested their relationship.[3]

Emma committed the crime in January 1895 while working for William Cridland, the landlord of the George Inn, Yeovil. Noticing that a gold scarf pin was missing, Mrs Cridland asked Emma where it was, and Emma said she would look for it. Suspecting her of having taken it, the Cridlands dismissed her on 20 January after only two weeks in their employment.

Some weeks later, a policeman visited Charles’s home to search for the missing pin. Charles’s mother took it from Charles’s tie and gave it to him.

Emma appeared at Yeovil Borough Police Court on 22 March 1895, charged with stealing the pin. Charles was compelled to give evidence but did so reluctantly. After showing some resistance, he eventually testified that Emma had sent him the pin anonymously by post. He said that when he asked her about it, she laughed and told him she bought it at Mr Elliott’s, a watchmaker and jeweller next to the George Inn. The magistrates found Emma guilty and fined her 10s. One of them upbraided Charles for giving his evidence in a surly and improper manner.[4]

Marriage

Despite Emma’s dishonesty, Charles stuck by her and by the end of the year, she was pregnant with his child.

Keen to leave Yeovil after the court  case, Emma moved to Milborne Port. Emma and Charles were married there on 13 June 1896. The register shows Charles as 21 and Emma as 19, but their actual ages were 20 and 17.

Their first child, Hilda Maud, was born at Hardington on 10 August 1896.

Over the following ten years, Charles and Emma led a restless existence, living in at least four places, including Cardiff.

Pilsdon

Charles and his family lived at Pilsdon in 1898 and 1899. His second child, Ethel May, was born there in 1899. Charles worked as a carter.

Cardiff

By June 1900, Charles and Emma lived in Cardiff. At about that time, their second child, Ethel May, died.

In March 1901, Charles was a horse keeper for the Tramway Company at Roath, Cardiff. He and his wife and daughter lived in two rooms of a six-room house in 6 Agate Street.

West Coker

On 1 January 1902, their daughter, Daisy Florence, was born at West Coker.

Haselbury

By 10 March 1906, when their daughter, Daisy Florence, was baptised, Charles was a carter at Haselbury.

Hardington

By April 1910, Charles had returned to Hardington because his eldest daughter joined the village school. He and his family lived at Hardington Marsh in one of the railway cottages. Charles was a platelayer.

Charles and Emma’s fourth daughter, Ivy Lily, was born on 3 July 1913. According to the 1921 census, she was born at Pendomer, which, if correct, would suggest a move to Pendomer followed by a move back to Hardington.

By 1915, Charles had returned to farm work. He and his family occupied a cottage at Bridge Close Farm.

In 1916, Charles and Emma’s eldest daughter, Hilda Maud, married Maurice Arthur Best, a rabbit trapper of East Chinnock.

Pendomer

By May 1921, Charles and his family lived at Pendomer. Charles worked as a farm labourer for Arthur Ascott.

In May 1921, Charles advertised a six-room cottage for sale in the centre of Hardington Mandeville.[5] He advertised it again in February 1926.[6] Both adverts give the seller’s name as “Gillim, Pendomer.” At the moment, it is unknown how Charles came to own the house.

In 1922, Charles and Emma’s daughter, Daisy Florence, married Wilfred Harwood Hann, a builder’s labourer of Nether Compton.

In September 1923, Emma agreed to maintain Gerald Dane’s child for three years after his wife died. He failed to pay her the sum agreed, and in June 1924, she took legal action to recover £20 15s. The magistrates ordered Dane to pay £1 a month and gave him a prison sentence of 21 days, suspended for as long as he kept up the payments. He was also fined £2 for not appearing in court.^[7]

West Coker

In 1933, Charles and Emma’s daughter, Ivy Lily, married Charles Dennis Nevill of Martock, a labourer at a poultry appliance workshop.

In September 1939, Charles and Emma lived at 4 Font Lane, West Coker and Charles was a coal carter.

Death

Charles and Emma died in 1963: Charles, aged 87, in the Yeovil district in the second quarter of 1963, and Emma, aged 85, in the Taunton district in the fourth quarter.

Children

Charles and Emma had five children, two of whom died before April 1911.[8]

References

[1] The Civil Registration Birth and Death Indexes spell Charles’s name “Gilham.” The Civil Registration Marriage Index spells it “Gillim.” Other records spell it “Gilliam.”

[2] Western Gazette, 29 March 1895, p.6.

[3] Western Chronicle, 18 May 1891; 5 June 1891, p.5

[4] Western Gazette, 29 March 1895, p.6.

[5] Western Gazette, 27 May 1921, p.6.

[6] Western Gazette, 19 February 1926, p.9.

[7] Western Chronicle 13 June 1924 p.6

[8] According to the 1911 census, Emma had borne four children, two of whom were alive. A fifth child was born in 1913.