Edward Oxtoby

Edward Oxtoby, 1871 - 1918, coachman, 44 (now 39) Brunswick Street West.

Hello folks, it is good to join you for a few moments.

I am Edward Oxtoby from Skirlaugh, Yorkshire. I lived in the rooms above the stable in Brunswick Street West with my family for 13 years. It lies to the rear of the main house 44 Brunswick Square. Like many stable workers I was born into a farming family. My father was a shepherd. There were many Yorkshire folk working as servants in Hove. 

I only have a few minutes so let’s get on.

When I was 20, I was lucky to be working as a groom for Lt. Col. George E Maule, a retired Royal Artillery Officer. That was at ‘Woodlands’ in Sevenoaks. He must have considered me a hard worker because when he brought his wife and family to Brunswick Square, I came too. The other servants did not and so I was very proud. 

That was in 1899. 

These were exciting and eventful times. I married my lovely Alice Jane Brunger Homewood who hailed from Pluckley, Kent that same year and was promoted to Coachman  - the top of the ladder in the stable hierarchy. In 1901 our daughter Hettie Alice was born. 

But to come back to earth, all was not an easy life. I was in charge of all the stable work including that usually done by the stable boy and groom. This included removing the dung; adding fresh hay to the mangers; mopping down the stable; feeding, watering and grooming the horses; dealing with their minor ailments as well as cleaning and maintaining the coaches.

Lt. Col. Maule and his wife Emily had two popular, single daughters living at home Florence, 21 and Moonah, 19 so I was constantly busy, driving the coach on a daily basis.

My Hettie was able to attend the local protestant school, St Andrew’s on George St, but with all the noise and smells coming up from the stables at night and having to help me with my tasks, she must have been tired most of the day. She played with a few friends, Florence May Rossbrook and the Hyde children, in the street doing their best to avoid the horses and coaches and the dangers of the dung pits along the road. Of course they were not allowed in the Square gardens. 

By 1913 my employer, now aged 74, had left the Square and the need for stable workers was lessening in Hove. 

I died in 1918 at the London Hospital and am buried at St Mary the Virgin, Chigwell if you ever go that way. You have still to find out if, as an experienced horseman, I supported the war effort. A story for another day. 

I am fading away now. 

Goodbye, Edward