1920s switch from manual work
A combination of silver screen and architecture is Cutlock & Co’s top find from a speedy trawl through the online 1921 census records, made available for free by Findmypast over the recent Remembrance Weekend. Plus some other items of interest.
Thatch and bright lights
The husband of great aunt Ellen (nee Neal), Henry JV Williams, appears in the 1911 census as a general decorator (and earlier as an upholsterer/paperhanger) – the same line of work as great grandfather Arthur AB Howes. But by 1921 he has become a stage manager at the Thatched Theatre, employer RH Bond & Sons Ltd. This may be a slightly glorified title – at Ellen’s death the following year he gives his occupation as ‘stage carpenter (picture house)’. This is all in Norwich.

A search online gives some insights into the “theatre”. From Cinema Treasures website (link is worth a look for its old photograph):
The Thatched Assembly Rooms Cinema was opened in the ballroom of the Tudor style building on 11th November 1915
and goes on to say that the cinema closed in 1930. Not being equipped for sound it suffered from the coming of the “talkies” and reverted back to ballroom use {1}. The local newspaper (Eastern Daily Press) has a “do you remember” article from 2020 giving more of a flavour of the cinema in its heyday:
The Thatched Theatre boasted a restaurant and an elegant ballroom, while cinemagoers were treated to films accompanied by a string orchestra and afternoon teas.
Not your average trip to the flicks, then. It doesn’t quite explain what a stage carpenter (or manager) would be doing there, but hints that it was a multi-purpose venue could indicate the need to move or change various physical items on a regular basis. Maybe still largely a manual role, but his son found a different, but related, job.
A cinema architect
How many cinemas were run by architects? The Cinema Treasures web page says the named licensee was J Owen Bond, who went on to design the Carlton Cinema across the road, and a son of RH Bond {1}. Henry and Ellen’s eldest son Henry (known as Harry) became an architect, and yes there he is in 1921 employed as architect’s assistant at 29 Castle Meadow by one J Owen Bond! Did Henry senior introduce Harry to J Owen or was it the other way round?

Assuring the way ahead
Grandfather on the maternal side Len (aka Levi) Watkins left school just before his 12th birthday to start work in one of the coal mines around Tonypandy, despite having passed the scholarship entrance examination for secondary school. As mum relates in her “Recollections and Reflections”, his elder brother William was a delicate child, so it was down to Len to take on the traditional eldest son responsibility of bringing in more money as soon as possible, to supplement the family income.
He managed to educate himself through night school nevertheless, becoming an insurance agent, from about 1926, then inspector and branch manager. But it turns out he had a role model, and likely assistance, in that pursuit – brother William. William’s 1921 census entry, with his wife and two children, shows him earning a crust as a local Agent with ‘Refuge Assurance Company‘ (life insurance and pensions provider) {2}.

On the other hand (or foot)
Women were some way behind in the move out of manual trades. Both great aunt Gertie and great aunt Edie stayed unmarried and working in the Norwich shoe industry.
On our Howes family page, Gertrude’s entry reads: “A boot and shoe worker, cutting leather; when at Start-Rite she cut the uppers for royal family children.” In 1921 she is still ‘at home’ with her mother at 55 Churchill Road, a boot & shoe machinist with J Southall & Co Ltd in Crome Road. This did indeed become the Start-Rite firm – see the information tab on Norwich Boot and Shoe Heritage web pages. The factory was just round the corner from Churchill Road.
Edith Neal was also living with her widowed mother, at 7 Guernsey Road. An assistant in the boxing department for Howlett and White, later known as Norvic – more on them in Norwich Record Office’s blog from 2016.
A commercial artist’s job is perhaps equal parts manual and brain work, as illustrated (sorry) by Arthur Hagg, the unexpected lodger with Sydney and Emily Howes in New Cross. His tale is told in the earlier Cutlock piece Illustrating a strong objection to war, but with sight of the actual 1921 form we now can see that he gives a work address in Ludgate Hill, a hub of the publishing industry. Working on his “own account”, how could he afford to be based there? Most likely an arrangement with some business, getting facilities in return for his services.

Minor additions
The family details of some more distant relations were waiting on the 1921 census for details of offspring, as common surnames reduced the usefulness of searching on birth registration records.
For instance, William Robert Osborne (a great great uncle), marrying in 1918, now has two children born in Clydach (Tonypandy), Daniel 18 months old, and Phyllis just 10 weeks. The presence of a stepson also shows that his wife wasn’t a Williams by birth. Together this removes some speculative offspring from the tree research.
The census also helped ‘tidy up’ children for Parry/Watkins and Passmore/Scott couples.
Notes
- RH Bond & Sons is the same business which ran the well-known Bonds department store (now part of John Lewis). There are slight discrepancies between the information quoted above and that contained in a Wikipedia article on Bonds of Norwich, most notably on what happened to the Thatched Theatre after 1930. It would appear that Bonds already owned it, while Wikipedia (at Nov. 2024) says they acquired it at this point, using it as a restaurant and offices (and no mention of a ballroom). James Owen Bond was the third son of founder Robert Herne Bond (who died 1924) – his older brothers William and Ernest were the ‘& Sons’. James had his own architectural practice – Owen Bond Partnership Ltd was only dissolved in 2020.
- William Watkins, despite his poor health, did work down the mines, at least for a while per the 1911 census, but in a less physical demanding role than ‘hewer’. His occupation was ‘engine plane’, presumably in charge of such a steam or electric driven hoist (as defined here).
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