I was looking through Pike’s 1901 directory for Hastings and St Leonards when I came across a full-page advertisement for Joseph Harvey’s shop at 53 King’s Road, as shown below.
I have mentioned this man before on this blog. The advert mentions his home address of Woodmancote, Woodland Vale Road. Harvey was responsible in 1901 for building 2 Woodland Vale Road, while living across the road at no. 21 (see Notes on the history of Coonoor, 2 Woodland Vale Road). The drawing contrasts only a little with the same building today except that the elaborate first floor has been simplified.
In the 1881 census Joseph Harvey and his wife Elizabeth were in Dursley, Gloucestershire, he employing two apprentices as a house decorator and painter. They had married at Norman Road Methodist Church, St Leonards, in 1871. In the 1891 census they were living at 53 King’s Road, with four children and a boarder, Elizabeth stating that she was born in St Leonards. In the 1851 census she was 10 years old, one of 13 living in what must have been an incredibly cramped 2 Union Road, her father William Clark a domestic coachman, her mother Hannah Clark a laundress.
By the 1901 census they were on Woodland Vale Road instead of living above the shop at King’s Road. He was beginning to build on the street and it is possible that, as was common, he included a house for himself but I have not investigated this in detail. His name appears as owner in numerous planning applications between 1894 and 1936, as reported in the Hastings Observer; by 1936 he was in his mid-eighties.
When you research a tradesman in newspapers you never know what you will find — a victim of a fire or a robbery, perhaps, or an advert for staff in this case, as in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 6 August 1904, under the heading of ‘Situations vacant — Lads’:
SMART YOUTH wanted for shop. — also Apprentice to the house decoration trades. Apply, between 7 and 8 am, Joseph Harvey, 53 King’s Road, St Leonards.
Another newspaper mention is his redecorating the Warrior House Hotel, Warrior Square (Hastings Observer, 20 September 1900).
In the 1911 census Harvey was of Clifton, Woodland Vale Road. He was 61, a builder and decorator, born Dursley, Gloucestershire. As was required in that census he said he had been married (to Elizabeth, 60, born Hastings) for 39 years and they had had 9 children — of whom, he stated, 6 were alive. An incredibly insensitive question to ask.
In the 1921 census they were still at Clifton, with Harvey stating that they he was working at 53 King’s Road. The couple had what was described as a ‘French visitor’, five-year-old Jean Ruteau, born Paris, who was also said to be their grandson. Their daughter Mary Winifred had married Charles Jean Jacques Ruteau, merchant, at Paris in 1910. The French marriage details on the priced Ancestry database are amazingly detailed, such as naming both sets of parents, and not just the fathers, and the fact that she was born in Hastings on the 16 February 1884. Her mother’s maiden name was named as Clark.
Harvey died at Clifton in 1924, aged 74. He was a town councillor, member of the Board of Guardians, and an active Methodist besides his building activities. There is a detailed obituary in the Hastings Observer, 1 November 1924. It stated that he had lived in the town since 1867 except for a break of ten years. ‘His inherent optimism and bright disposition made the friend of all who knew him.’ The account also said that he both named and built nearly all of Woodland Vale Road. His widow died just after World War II.
Their son Henry Joseph Harvey was also a builder. The Regal Cinema, on the site of what is now Ocean House, London Road, was built by him in 1932 with the architect being John Bernard Mendham of Chelsea. His son supervised the work as foreman. There is a detailed description of the cinema in the Hastings Observer, 30 July 1932, just as it was being finished.
In 1934 Mendham pursued a High Court action in London against Harvey, claiming that £1453 out of £2663 in charges for the cinema and other work was owing. Harvey was named as the original owner of the cinema, although he sold it in 1933. Harvey claimed that Mendham had been negligent, and that he only owed £85. Many interesting details came out in the newspaper, such as Mendham making over 200 drawings [Hastings Observer, 17 and 24 November 1934]. In the end, Mendham was awarded £1010 [Hastings Observer, 15 December 1934].
There was a separate case in 1935 when Harvey applied for planning permission to build a house on Boscobel Road but failed to send in the plans for the identical house forming the other half of the semi-detached pair. Harvey stated that he had built ‘scores of houses’, and the case was dismissed after he had paid 20s costs [Hastings Observer, 12 January 1935].
Harry Joseph Harvey, master builder, died in 1941 at Fernside, Hollington Park, aged 67. I have not researched the address in detail, but as late as 1948 his son was still working as a builder from 53 King’s Road.