1

About the Author

Patricia Jolly was born in West Ham in 1946 into a family of
greengrocers. She recalls her early childhood through the 40s and
50s to being a teenager during the 60s with Mods and Rockers
and the years beyond to 2008. The stories she shares are of
tragedy, humour and sadness.

Dedication

In memory of my mum and dad, Billy and Bette Jolly, my

inspiration.

Patricia Jolly

A JOLLY TIME IN CANNING

TOWN

Copyright Patricia Jolly (2015)

The right of Patricia Jolly to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims
for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British
Library.

ISBN 9781785543821 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781785543838 (Hardback)

www.austinmacauley.com
Published (2015)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ

Printed and bound in Great Britain

8

Acknowledgments
Thanks to John Calloway who suggested the title for this book.
To Theresa, Barbara, Diane, Jackie, Kay and our dear friend
Denny for all your love and support over many many years.

AN INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO THE SOCIAL

HISTORY OF THREE GENERATIONS OF COCKNEY
COSTERMONGERS LIVING AND TRADING IN
CANNING TOWN IN THE EAST END OF LONDON
1870-2008

THE AUTHOR

1946 was the year I was born. The Prime Minister at that time
was Clement Atlee. Britain had not long come through a war
that had left it almost broke. The country was going through a
tough time of austerity and rationing. They were truly anxious
times.
My mother and father had anxious times of another kind.
Mum was pregnant and having a difficult time of her own
bringing me into the world. As I grew up I realised that I must
have been a blessing in disguise. Watching me grow must have
helped my parents in taking their minds off the dreariness of
living through those austere times. I grew up to be a happy
child and always thought that my surname of Jolly was
appropriate to my nature. I became curious and inquisitive
about my name and my forebears who bore it, so I set out to
discover more about them and how they eked out an existence
as costermongers. And that is how I came to writing this book,
which is my cue for the first chapter.

Chapter 1

I have been trying to trace my family tree on and off, for a

number of years. At the start I thought it was going to be easy.
I felt I knew a lot about my maternal and paternal families,
having grown up with lots of aunts and uncles and also greataunts and uncles and cousins.
Because of my mother originating from Newcastle I
thought that my mums side of the family would be hard to
trace. She had a bad memory for dates and family events. For
example, my mum, born in 1922 said she was 14 when her
mother, Isabella Rosina Ladysmith Taylor (I love that name)
died, making the year 1936. I later found that her mum actually
died in 1940 and my mum was 18 years old.
I knew my maternal grandfather, John Taylor had
remarried in 1948 and lived in Wallsend, near Newcastle. I
saw little of him, so I didnt get to know him very well. But,
from the little I did see of him I knew him to be a nice man and
I did love him. I will mention more of him later on in this
book.
Mum had three brothers and two sisters, Ernie, Freddy,
Ethel, Lilla and Eddy. They had scattered themselves around
the country after the war. I did get to meet all of them, some
more regular than others. Sadly they all died fairly young in
their 50s 60s and early 70s. So it was for these reasons that I
thought it would be easier to trace my fathers side of the
family first, as I still had a few aunts and uncles left on the
Jolley side of the family. How wrong I was about that! But I
4

decided to go ahead with the little I did find. I thought it would

be interesting to see it set down on paper.
When I was younger, I was happy to listen to the stories
that were told. Some questions were asked, but we never had
the foresight then to dig deeper into the history of these tales.
One day we would be very interested to know where we came
from, who were these people, and what were they like? Were
they different to those we actually knew? I wish I had dug a lot
deeper because I might have found out a lot more. But I found
out enough to relate the following stories of my foreparents,
one of which is my great-grandfather, William Walter Jolley.
He turned out to be a slippery little character and a bit of a
mystery. The only thing I am sure about at this time is that our
family surname was originally spelt with the letter e, Jolley.
I think I have pinned down that my great-grandfather
William Walter was born around 1870, in Hundon in Suffolk
The earliest story that everybody knows and seems to agree on
is that William Walter Jolley made his way to London with a
friend called Charles Webb (nicknamed Jinksy), and that they
came from a farming agricultural background. William
Walters father was called George and he was a butcher.
Which makes sense since Suffolk was known for breeding
pigs.
London beckoned these two young men trying to make
their way in the world. They did odd jobs along the way for
farmers in order to gain bed and board. One of the jobs they
took was to act as scarecrows in a field, to frighten the crows
away. (One would do anything for a crust.) Once they arrived
in East London, William W took board and lodgings with a
family in Canning Town who were costermongers. This is
most likely where he decided this was the business he
eventually would become involved with. The costermonger
trade was one in which the Jolly family were to stay in for
three generations.
William had a bit of an eye for the ladies, and quickly set
up home with a very young girl from Shadwell called Letitia
Miller. No one seems to know how he or she met. He was
5

about 20 and she was about 17. She had fallen pregnant and
had a baby that they named Willie who was born 11 October
1894. William and Letitia didnt marry until 16 December
1895. At this time William was working as a stoker at Beckton
Gas Works. With so much fuel on hand he would steal some of
the coal and then go around the streets with a cart selling it on.
With this side-line he was able to start saving money to start
his dream job as a greengrocer and become his own boss.
By 1900 William and Letitia had three more children
Mary, John, and baby Letitia. They were now living in
Rathbone Street, Canning Town, above the Home and Colonial
grocers shop. He was now the fruiterer and greengrocer that he
had aspired to be, with a stall in Rathbone Street Market, and
also a horse and cart.
Whilst living above the Home and Colonial, William and
his wife Letitia suffered a terrible tragedy. Baby Letitia, just
seven months old, was accidentally suffocated between her
parents in bed. It must have been a terrible time for the family
to lose a child that way and so young. Subsequently, Letitia
went on to have two more children, Joseph and Jane. Then in
1907 Letitia died, aged 31.
It emerged that William, as well as being a ladies man
was also a bit of a wife beater. The story is told that as he
walked behind his wife Letitias coffin, people started to throw
stones at him, he quickly scooped up his youngest child Jane
and carried her, thus putting a stop to the stone throwing for
fear they might hit the child.
By 1911 aged 41, William had found himself another
woman, aged 28, with several children of her own, and
proceeded to have a couple more with her, a boy and a girl.
Not much is known about the boy, but the girl was called
Alice; she became known as Franny. There is a story about
how she came to be called Franny. She was quite a small child,
and the smallest denomination in the coinage of the time was a
Farthing; the cockneys called it a Fardn. So that became
Alices nickname, eventually it evolved into Franny.

Williams eldest daughter, Mary, didnt want to have

anything to do with this new woman. As soon as she was able,
she took her brothers and sister and set up home in Hallsville
Road and looked after them herself. She was just 17 so she was
taking on quite a responsibility for one so young. But Mary
and young Willie still carried on working on their fathers stall
in Rathbone Street Market. Their father was a hard taskmaster,
very strict in business. But this didnt stop young Mary
stealing money here and there to help look after her siblings.
When her father found out about her stealing he beat her with a
horsewhip. Mary was a strong woman who went on to become
a good businesswoman herself with a shop in Pretoria Road,
Canning Town.
In time Marys own daughter, whom she called Letitia
after her mother, later became known as Jenny. Jenny along
with her husband Billy Crick had a greengrocers shop in
Hermit Road and traded under the name of Jen Jolly for many
years.
William Walter Jolley was what you would call a dapper
man; he would strut along like a cock wearing his bowler hat
and fancy suit, as he approached his stalls and those working
on them he would call Heads up! meaning for everyone to
stand up to attention. By all accounts he was a bit of a
taskmaster.
My granddad Joseph Jolley was born above the Home and
Colonial shop in 1898, not a lot is known about his childhood
apart from being taken off to live with Mary when he was just
13 years old, he probably helped out on the stall when he
wasnt at school and learnt the trade he was to follow in.
In 1916 Joe was about 18 and joined the Merchant Navy,
Obviously the Great War, as it came to be known, was taking
place having started in 1914, but whether Joe saw any of the
action is not known. His older brother John was in the Great
War and was wounded. He was brought back to England but
later died of his wounds. Joe was listed as a Ships Fireman. I
know he sailed to the Americas and the Orient from the many
souvenirs he brought back from his travels.
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Joe was a good-looking young man with black hair and an

easy smile. As he entered his twenties he started courting a
beautiful looking young girl called Elizabeth Watson. Liz as
she was known lived just a stones throw from Joes family.
The Watson family were also in business as general dealers;
they also had a stall in Rathbone Street Market. These two
people would have known each other from very young
teenagers.
Liz Watson was born in 1898 to George and Annie
Watson. Following her were Jessie, who died in her teens,
Then Alec, Maud, Henry, George and John. This was a very
formidable family, hardworking, very strict with high
principles, probably due to their Catholic upbringing. Liz was
about 17 when she went to work in the munitions factory at
Woolwich Arsenal. At its peak, during World War I, the Royal
Arsenal extended over some 1,300 acres and employed around
80,000 people. The Royal Arsenal by then had the Royal Gun
Factory, the Royal Shell Filling Factory (which closed in
1940), the Research and Development Department and the
Chief Chemical Inspector, Woolwich (the successor to the War
Department Chemist).
In addition to both the massive expansion of the Royal
Arsenal and private munitions companies, other UK
government-owned National Explosives Factories and
National Filling Factories were built during World War I. All
the National Factories closed at the end of the War; with only
the three Royal (munitions) Factories (at Woolwich, Enfield
and Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills) remaining open
through to World War II.
During the quiet period after the end of World War I, the
Royal Arsenal built steam railway locomotives. The Royal
Arsenal also cast the memorial plaques given to the next-of-kin
of deceased servicemen and servicewomen from the Great
War. Liz was a real grafter and wanted to do her bit. While
her young man Joe Jolley was away at sea.
Joe wooed Liz for a long time, but she was having none of
it. Joe would get dressed up in his Sunday best with his high
8

starched collar to go calling on Liz. The more she spurned

Joes advances the keener he got. Joe persevered and finally
won the girl he wanted, and they were married in 1919 in St
Margarets Catholic Church in Barking Road, Canning Town.
He was 22 and she was 21. The marriage of two people from
costermonger backgrounds would have meant no expense
spared and so it would be a very large wedding. (Sadly, no
photographs survive of this event, but we know that it was
usual for costermongers to have a large group photos taken
with the horse carts in the background with the shafts raised).
Joe and Liz took up residence in 27 Brunel Street, Canning
Town, close to where they were both living previously because
according to the 1911 census the Watsons had been living in
49 Brunel Street. (Brunel St is named after the Victorian
engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Canning Town Ironworks
supplied the ironwork for the Royal Albert Bridge over the
Tamar at Saltash, which Brunel designed and built.
Incidentally this is also where West Ham FC originated, they
had crossed hammers as their insignia hence the name The
Hammers.) There was living accommodation above the shop;
it had a large yard with room to stable a horse and cart as well
as the stall. It wasnt long before Joe and Liz started a family
and first to come along was Joseph junior, then William (Billy
named after his grandfather William Walter) followed by Jean
(known as Jinny).
Liz and Joe worked very hard and as they had a good
living they were able to pay for someone to look after the kids.
Her name was Mrs Hawkins. She was a friend of Lizs, but she
was Nanny Hawkins to the children, and the kids idolised her,
especially Billy.
Nanny Hawkins liked a beer and she liked to take snuff.
She would sometimes take the kids to the Queens Theatre in
Poplar. When the call of nature came upon her and she wanted
to do a wee, she would just lift her skirt a little and put one
foot on the pavement and one in the road and just relieve
herself. Billy didnt like her doing this and found it

embarrassing, but it didnt stop him loving his Nanny

Hawkins.
Joe Jolly used to lend money to people. Many people
didnt have much in those days. It seemed however, that a lot
of them possessed a musical instrument of some kind. Very
often it was their musical instruments that they gave Joe to
hold on to till they could afford to get them back from him.
More often than not the instrument remained his property and
he learned to play most of them including the harmonica, but
not a lot of people knew this, especially his own children, as
Billy was to find out in later life.
27 Brunel Street suffered a few tragedies in its past history
and many ghostly stories could be told about it. In 1929, Lizs
own mother, Annie Watson, fell down a steep flight of stairs at
the wedding of her own daughter, Maud. She broke her back
and died a few days later in Whipps Cross Hospital. In early
1948 her brother John (known as Jack) suffocated by turning
his face into a pillow during one of his many fits.
Liz liked to relate spooky stories about 27 Brunel Street.
One is about the night everyone was in bed and she could hear
someone playing the piano in the parlour. She crept downstairs
and sure enough the piano was being played but no one was
sitting at it; the keys were moving by themselves. On another
occasion a funny noise woke them up and again creeping
downstairs they found all the cups, which were on the hooks
on a dresser, were swinging to and fro.
This prompted them one summer evening to have an ouija
board sance. There was Liz and a few of her friends, and also
Nanny Hawkins. They were all very serious about what they
were doing but a little scared. The ouija board is made up of
letters of the alphabet laid out in a circle, with two more words
yes and no. The people lightly put their index fingers on an
upturned glass placed on the board and wait for the glass to
move.

10

Usually someone will ask a few times, Is there anyone

there? and the glass gradually starts to move and picks up a
bit of speed.
Then one of the people in the circle will start to ask
questions like, Who are you? Then the spirit should spell out
their name by making the glass move to each letter in turn.
Well, in Lizs sance the glass started to move around the
board and Liz asked the question, Was anyone there? The
glass slowly started to move towards the letters and as it did so
they were trying to work out what name was being spelled out.
Suddenly, the curtains in the kitchen they were sitting in
parted and a large head shoved its way in through the window
and made a loud noise. The women jumped up screaming and
falling over each other as they tried to get away from this
ghostly creature. They found out soon after that it was one of
the horses that had walked out of its stable and was being a bit
too inquisitive. The experience frightened the life out of all of
them, and they stayed away from sances for a long time after
that.
In those days a lot of yards were like farmyards and in the
Jolley yard, besides the horse, were chickens, goats, and a
donkey. Any of which would cause havoc from time to time.
Nanny Hawkins was down on her hands and knees cleaning
the front step one day when the donkey barged over her
followed by the goat and went running off up the street to be
caught luckily by a few local children before the animals did
any more damage. My granddad, Joe, brought home some
ducklings to join the rest of the fowl roaming around the yard.
My nan decided that because they were ducks they must need
water to swim in, and so she put them in a high sided tank with
plenty of water. But there was no means for them to get out.
She was surprised when she came down the next morning to
find they had all drowned.
Joe and Liz liked to go out together to the races or other
events. Young Billy didnt like to see his mum and dad going
out and leaving him. For some reason every time they went out
11