(Ford
Street..
Ford St
UnionWorkhouseDashper X Files #11
X Files #11 (posted by Gloria Beek from Ottawa, Canada)
Ford Street Tavistock numbering mystery
(Ford
Street.. Ford St
UnionWorkhouse
"Have received photocopied maps of portions of Tavistock
showing Ford Street (where most of the Tavistock Dashpers
lived in 1850's) 1842 and 1883. The 1883 map shows a
blowup of Ford Street in the Charity House area which is listed
as Maynard's Charity House not Ford St. Charity House, at that
point in time.
Behind the Charity house (Agnes
Dashper's address 11/11/1841 was Union
Workhouse, Tavistock) more
exactly, behind houses next to the Charity House, is a
building titled Old Workhouse. We now have to consider that the
Old Workhouse and Ford St. or Maynard's Charity House are 2
separate entities. I looked at the photos I took and didn't
pick out the old building where the Old Workhouse was. But
unless my memory fails me, I think I saw an old building back in
off Ford St. The maps are 12'' by 24" nearly. I don't
think I can scan them in any realistic way. The chap
sent what must be a more modern map of the area with a few
of the Ford street numbers slotted in. He said that was all he
could find in the records. It is truly laughable. One
side of the street seems normal with numbers going in sequence,
(but starting at 11??, 12, 13, 14 etc.) heading toward the
town center. Of course that is not the usual custom in most urban
centers, unless the town center moved over the years.
The other side of street seems to begin with 9 facing 18 on
the other side of the street, with numbers declining up to in
front of the Ford St. Charity House and then inexplicably rising
again as they head down to the modern downtown where the Church
and Abbey remains are located.
The only explanation I can give for the confusion, is they numbered the existing houses and when a block of new houses were built , they just assigned them numbers. We may need the services of a local historian to find where the Dashper's actually lived. I will try to find out if there is a Tavistock historical society to get some answers to the above."