Horatio Holmes is perhaps typical of the many thousands of artisans from the North of England and scotland, who packed up their ,often large, families and headed south to participate in the late-nineteenth-century industrialization of the rural  counties that were southern england. His is a story of a determined, and eventually highly successful man
   

Horatio Thomas Holmes was born in  early in 1842 (bap 24 mar) in Great Driffield, Yorkshire. The 4th of 11 children.  His father William Holmes was a Cooper  originally from Scarborough .  In 1845 when Horatio was just 3 years of age his mother Maria died . The family subsequently moved to The Sculcoates area of Kingston-upon-Hull.

The parish of Sculcoates was situated on the west bank of the River Hull, with the town of Hull to the South and the Parish of Cottingham to the North and West. The boundary followed the River Hull to the east and the town walls (later Queens Dock and now Queens Gardens) to the south. It then continued in a north-westerly direction along the line of the Derringham Dike (now Prospect Street) and Derringham Bank (now Spring Bank) and north along what became Newland Tofts Lane (now Princes Avenue). It continued along the line of the Setting Dike (now Queens Road), travelling eastwards to join Beverley Road. From here it took a north-westerly course along field boundaries to meet the River Hull at Stoneferry. If you look at a modern map of Hull, you will see that it includes part of what is now the city centre - Albion Street, George Street etc.

In 1849 Horatio's father, William married Betsy Brumpton in Holy Trinity Church, Hull; It was Betsy who brought him up, and he was to name his first child after her.In the same year a cholera outbreak struck the town, 1,860 died in a few months, 500 of them in one week in September. Many were buried in a mass grave in the then newly opened General Cemetery on Spring Bank . The Cholera memorial marks the place. Horatio's half-sister Mary Jane tragically died in 1851 aged one.

Horatio's oldest brother, Joseph (b1834) married Elizabeth Teall in 1857 . Joseph became Landlord of the Barrel Inn in Walkington .

                                   Joseph Holmes & family outside the Barrel Inn

Joseph's 2nd son (b.1862) was also called Horatio Thomas Holmes and became landlord of the Moulders Arms, Beverley. How appropriate that his nephew and namesake  should run a pub named after the profession in which our Horatio should make such a mark. (He later became landlord of the Dog & Duck,Ladygate)

On Christmas Day 1862 Horatio married Jane Ward in St.Mary's Church Sculcoates, the neice of his step-mother Betsey Brumpton (who had died earlier that same year) . Horatio and Jane had two children whilst living in HULL; Betsy(1863) and John William “Bill”(1865) .

SUNDERLAND had boasted over 65 shipyards since the 1840's. Horatio was by profession a brass founder, and  It is likely that he worked in one of the large shipyards on the Wear. Whilst in Sunderland, Horatio and Jane had a further 6 children; Eleanor(1867), Thomas “Tom” (1869), Henry“Harry” (1872), Jane (1876), Alfred “Alf” (1877) and Eliza (1880). These were productive times for the Holmes family!

 In 1875 Thomas Ridley Oswald moved his shipbuilding operation from the Wear to Woolston and by 1881 would be employing over 1200 men. ,the major source of employment in a village whose total population in 1871 had been fewer than 1,500.

History of the Woolston Shipyard

        Oswald Mordaunt Shipyard c 1876

Just 5 years after TR Oswald moved his operations south, Horatio moved his family to Woolston;  I suspect that Horatio was motivated to become a big fish in a small pond. This must heve been quite a move for Horatio; His wife would have been pregnant with Edmund , and Eliza still a babe in arms, plus seven other children ranging from Betsy 17, to Alfred just 3 years old.

In 1881 Woolston had yet to become part of Southampton. and was a small but growing independent parish on the east side of the Itchen River.

The 1881 Woolston Census shews Horatio living in New Road with the new born Edmund. New Road became Onslow road sometime before 1891, finally becoming Swift Rd in the 1920s.

Household:1881 Census

Initially Horatio  lived in No.15, but very shortly moved to No.5 which was a much larger house . In 1883 his youngest son Joseph is born.  Horatio remained in Onslow road until 1911.  Edmund Holmes lived in Onslow/Swift Rd all his life , as did his son Tom.

the illustration below is from kelly's street directory 1912

A short while after arriving in Woolston, Horatio established a foundry business At first the foundry was located to the rear of No.5-11 Onslow Rd next to the bridleway leading to Brown's Bakery (church road) . By the early 1900s The Foundry was located in Wharf road next to the Floating Bridge and the shipyard, also not far from Pemberton billing/ Supermarine (could they have produced castings for them?).

The foundry is listed in various business directories from
1907-1940 (FOUNDRY)

In 1908 Horatio's wife Jane died, they had been married for 46 years.          Horatio married the widow Mary Jane Pollard (nee Parker) in 1911 and moved home to what is now Radstock Rd . Horatio retired from the business sometime after 1920; From 1925 the business is listed as Holmes H & A. (Harry & Alf )

Horatio died in 1928

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FAMILY DETAILS

Horatio had 11 brothers and sisters & 10 children

Horatio m. Jane WARD( neice of Betsey Brumpton) 25 Dec 1862,in St.Mary's, Sulcoates, Hull.
Jane (daughter of John WARD and Eliza BROUNTON) c. 5 Jul 1844, Nafferton East Yorks; d. 1908, Woolston, Hampshire.

Children:[ add short family stories]
1   Betsy Ann HOLMES b. 1863, HULL East yorkshire England; d. 24 Dec 1913, 27 Gamble Rd ,North End ,Portsmouth.
 2  John Wm HOLMES b. 1865, HULL Humberside England; c. Goodramgate, Holy Trinity,Yorks; d. Abt 1956.
 3  Eleanor HOLMES b. 1867, SUNDERLAND,Durham; d. 24 Dec 1937, Southampton.
 4  Thomas HOLMES b. 1869, SUNDERLAND Durham; d. Abt 1960.
 5  Henry HOLMES b. 1872, SUNDERLAND , Durham.d 1957 Southampton.
 6  Jane HOLMES b. 1876, Hull, 13 Villiers Rd; d. 9 Mar 1932, Portsmouth, Hants, England.
 7   Alfred HOLMES b. 1877, Sunderland, Co. Durham; d. Abt 1962.
 8    Eliza HOLMES b. 1880, SUNDERLAND Durham England.
 9    Edmund HOLMES b. 1881, Woolston; d. 1964, 13 swift rd,Woolston,Southampton.(Pattern maker)
10  Joseph HOLMES b. 1883, Woolston.

Horatio m. Mary Jane POLLARD (nee PARKER) 26 Sep 1911, StMary's Presbyterian Church, Woolston. Mary (daughter of John PARKER) b. 1862, Plymouth Devenport England



LINK TO FAMILY GROUP

Horatio' s fatherWILLIAM HOLMES a Cooper from Scarborough Married 3 times

Maria FRYER, b. 28 Jan 1810, Pocklington d. 1845 Bridlington
Wedding 16 May 1831	Pocklington
1. Joseph HOLMES, b. 4 Jun 1834, North Cave, Hull (Pocklington? )   2. Ann Elizabeth HOLMES, b. Abt 1836, South Cave, E. Yorks.   3. Edward HOLMES, b. 11 Nov 1838, Southcave   4. Horatio Thomas HOLMES, c. 24 Mar 1842, DRIFFIELD Yorkshire   5. William Fryer HOLMES, b. 25 Mar 1844, Driffield,YORKS
Betsy BESSEY, Brumpton, b. 7 Apr 1830, Nafferton d1862 Sculcoates
Wedding 15 May 1849	Holy trinity Hull
1. Mary Jane HOLMES, b. 1849/1850, Hull, Yorks.   2. Henry Brumpton HOLMES, b. 10 May 1851, Hull, East Yorkshire   3. Norman HOLMES, b. 11 Jun 1854, HULL East York   4. Allisada HOLMES, b. 1858, Hull   5. Mary Jane HOLMES, b. 1860, Sculcoates, Hull
Ann ROBINSON, b. 23 Mar 1830, long Riston, yorks
Wedding 21 Oct 1871	Hull registry Office
1. Robert HOLMES, b. 1871