Civilian Life

Alfred’s son, Allen believed that the family split up shortly after their return to England, and that Elizabeth and Catherine went to live at Strood, near Rochester, Kent. Where Elizabeth worked as a prison warder. Eventually committing suicide by shooting herself.

However, the 1881 census shows Alfred and Elizabeth living at 115 Porter St, Sheffield and Alfred working as a hair dresser. There is no mention of Catherine at this time.

Homecoming and Separation

Elizabeth did go to Rochester some time after the 1881 census, not to work as a prison warder. But to become the common law wife of James Pickett. It can be no coincidence that James had been a sergeant in the 4th Hussars. In 1881 he is a serving soldier in Aldershot with a wife and family. By 1891 he is living at 13 Millivey Terrace, Bonstead, Rochester with Elizabeth and Catherine.

It is reputed that after his army service, Alfred returned to Sheffield and knocked on the door of his father’s house. An upstairs window was opened and a voice called out. “Who is that?” When he replied “Alfred”, the riposte was, “It can’t be, he’s dead.”

Eventually, Alfred was able to persuade the family that he was still alive, and presumably he stayed in the family home for a while. During his time in Sheffield he worked as a grinder in a cutlery mill, which was driven by water power. He also honed the blades for cut throat razors, on a contract basis, at home. A lot of the blades were for razors for the army. Allen’s comment on these razors was. “They were alright for chopping wood, but not much good for shaving with.” The blades were not hollow ground but were more of a wedge shape. What Alfred did was to finish them by honing them on a little oil stone. This was known as ‘setting’ the blades. They had already been forged and ground. Once honed, the blades went back to the manufacturer to be fitted with handles. Alfred was paid by the gross. In effect he was working as a ‘Little Mester’.

It is difficult to follow Alfred’s movements between 1881 and 1889. At some point during this period, he went to Manchester and was employed by his brother, Allen, and was taught the saw making business. Allen, Alfred’s son, believed he later returned to Sheffield where he borrowed money from a loan shark and was unable to repay the debt. Allen also believed this was the reason for Alfred’s move to Chesterfield.

Marriage and Two Occupations

The bride was Sarah Ann Jenkinson, aged eighteen and a spinster. The groom gave his age as 45 (he was in fact 49) He gave his occupation as hairdresser and that of his father, Samuel Ibberson, as clerk. The witnesses were Ebenezer Proud and Charlotte Sims. Charlotte was Sarah’s mother who had now married. She was unable to read or write, so made her mark.

The 1891 census shows Alfred living on Chatsworth Rd, Chesterfield, with his wife Sarah and daughter Jane. Their ages are given as 49, 20 and 9 (the record of baptisms for St Thomas’ Church gives Jane’s date of birth as 12 July 1890, so the census should read 9 months) Alfred’s occupation is recorded as ‘self employed’.

Alfred’s son, Allen remembered being told that his father had a barbers shop on Chatsworth Rd. The address was 1 Stone Row, which was somewhere near the junction with Barker Lane. “The shop front was on the right hand side of Chatsworth Rd and at the side of it was a passageway, leading back twenty yards or so, and Stone Row was up that Yard. The Row belonged to old Harry Mason, who worked at Plowright’s. The entrance to the shop has since been blocked up and it is all one wall now.”

Alfred had an inventive mind, and whilst living on Chatsworth Rd, he experimented with building an incubator. On one occasion he filled the drawer with eggs and waited expectantly for them to hatch. Unfortunately on removing the drawer to inspect the eggs, he dropped it and broke the lot. No doubt the crash was accompanied by some choice Drill Sergeant’s epithets.

Apparently whilst running his business on Chatsworth Rd, Alfred also spent several days each week cutting hair in Brimington. Later the family went to live there when the Chatsworth Rd shop lost custom to a higher class establishment that opened three doors away. Whilst living at Brimington, Sarah used to walk to Chesterfield, to the market.

Sarah told Allen that she used to carry a loaded revolver in her muff on these trips.

It is probably while living in Brimington that Alfred started a business sharpening saws, knives, scissors and other edge tools. For over thirty years he stood the Saturday market in Chesterfield, having a pitch at the North East corner, near the former site of Boots the Chemist. Initially he stood this pitch with a portable grinding kit, but later he was to have a stall a little further into the body of the market and a workshop near his home. On weekdays he worked as an itinerant scissors grinder and went on a regular basis to several places around the town, and to Hasland, Brampton etc. His cry of “Any knives or scissors to sharpen,” was well known in the areas he visited.

His portable grinding kit was somewhat like a tall wheelbarrow with a single large wheel. This wheel served not only as transport, but could also be driven by a treadle mechanism and was connected to the grinding shaft by a belt. On the shaft was a natural stone grinding wheel and a glazing wheel. The glazing wheel was a wooden disk with a leather covered rim. The leather had fish glue applied and was then rolled in an abrasive powder before the glue dried. The disk was used for polishing out the marks left by the grinding wheel. Attached to the superstructure of his portable kit were a saw setting block and a vice to grip the saw blades whilst they were being sharpened with a three square file. There were also hooks from which to hang the scissor blades both before and after sharpening, and a toolbox for hammers, punches and files.

Sarah Ann

Sarah Ann was born at the Poor Law Institute on Newbold Rd. By the time she married, her mother was living on Walton Back Lane, on the left hand side, close to Walton Church when heading in the direction of Holymoorside.

By this time her mother had married and Sarah had a younger step brother, Jack Simms. Jack later lived at 2 Lenthall’s Back Row off Barker Lane, somewhere near the Old Hall Rd end.

Shortly after Sarah’s death from tuberculosis in 1912, the family were evicted from 1 Dixon’s Rd and moved to Apperknowle Rd, Unstone. Within a year the family moved again, this time to Albert St, Stonegravels. Later moves took them to St Mary’s Gate and finally to 22a Soresby St, where Alfred was living when he died.

Alfred was not a big man. His height was 5ft 7ins and he never weighed more than 10st 7lbs. Despite his small stature, he kept himself fit and must have had some sort of reputation as an athlete for, around 1900 he was involved in walking from Sheffield to Chesterfield to satisfy a wager. An article describing the feat was published in the Derbyshire Times on Friday 8 March 1946, on the occasion of the death, at the age of 88, of Joseph Green, a well known publican and sportsman:

There were some aspects of Alfred’s life about which Allen was very reticent. Indeed there were some things he never disclosed to his family until after he was in his nineties. Why he was so guarded is difficult to conceive, perhaps because the values of today are so different from those of earlier times.

A Remarkable Marriage

Unbelievable as it may seem, the family were not aware that on 6 January 1923, Alfred was married for the third time. His new bride was Eliza Annetts. She eventually survived Alfred and continued to live in the town, possibly in Hasland.

Allen eventually disclosed the third marriage when asked who had attended Alfred’s funeral. He replied, “well there was me, Maude and Mrs Ibberson.” When pressed about a Mrs Ibberson he had to admit that Alfred had married again. Apparently there had been a report of the marriage in the Derbyshire Times, and it seems this marriage caused something of a stir locally.

The reason the Poor Law official thought the marriage would be illegal was because Eliza Annetts’ mother was Sarah Ann Jenkinson’s half sister.

Alfred and Eliza had a daughter, Mary, born 24 July 1930.

Alfred was a member of the RAOB (Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes) and the family have a scroll showing Alfred and the senior members of his lodge in their regalia. This scroll was sent to his sister, Selena in 1908 and returned to Allen after Alfred’s death in 1932.

Right up until his death, Alfred continued to carry on his grinding business. Allen, rather reluctantly, completed the last of the work for him when he became too ill to carry on.

The story above has been substantiated by records, but varies with the story recounted by his son Allen. Some of the discrepancies were no doubt due to failing memories, but some may have other causes. The story as told by Allen is that which Alfred himself told his children.