Samuel Shepley Jones

81 Uxbridge St

Ashton Under Lyne
County of Lancaster

1881 Census

Duckinfield (Film RG11/4052-9-120):

41 Hall Green, Dukinfield, Cheshire - Parliamentary Borough of Stalybridge: N.B. U signifies Unmarried.

Frederick Jones Head 56 House painter Born Pendlebury, Lancs
Elizabeth Wife 54 Born Gee Cross, Cheshire
Elizabeth Ann U Dau 30 Cotton Weaver Born Godley, Cheshire
David U Son 22 Cabinet Maker Born Dukinfield, Cheshire
Samuel U Son 19 Cabinet Maker apprentice do
Gertrude U Dau 2 do

1901 Census:

81 Uxbridge Street, (Ashton):
Samuel Shepley Jones, Cabinet Maker, Head 39 Born Dukinfield
Martha Jones, Wife 39 Born Ashton
Raymond Jones, son, Office Boy 14 Born Ashton
Mary A Jones, daughter 12 Born Ashton
Elizabeth E Jones 11 Born Ashton
Frances Jones 9 Born Ashton
Joseph Jones 7 Born Ashton
Samuel T Jones 4 Born Ashton
George Hulme, Street Scavenger 70 Born Lancashire, Droylsden


Herbert McDermott wrote to Alan Ray-Jones (14 September 1999):

Hall Green Dukinfield: was a small area situated at the entrance to Hall Green Road, and while even numbered houses are still standing the rest of the area has been redeveloped.

81 Uxbridge St: There are some terraces of original houses still in existence which have been restored under an \\\'area renewal project\\\'. No. 81 is one such. The later address of Samuel and Martha Jones is however the one I remember - No. 109 Uxbridge St., and this was in use from at least as early as January 1911. This house was the end house of the last terrace on Uxbridge St., and adjoined the boundary wall of the National Gas and Oil Engine Company\\\'s works (30 acres), - not that this ever seemed to pose a problem to 109. It was also a handy place for the Jones\\\' brothers (Raymond Jones [later Raymond Ray-Jones] and Sam) and later cousin Raymond, although I don\\\'t think he ever resided at 109. You will be aware that your father worked in the drawing office and our Uncle Joe eventually worked his way via Chief Engineer to Managing Director, becoming a very notable figure in the diesel and gas engines world. Paul Sanderson was very impressed when he discovered while working in the ship design industry that Uncle Joe was still well remembered in ship building circles.

Sadly, the terrace including 109 has been demolished and the site cleared - for a new road - though the houses were well built, spacious and by no means ill kept. It was still standing when I last inspected it about the time of Paul Sanderson\\\'s researches.

I enclose photographs of the restored Library and Art Gallery formerly housing the School of Art and Technical School where both of our fathers spent some time studying for a period at the same time; also the Blue Plaque which Philip photographed at its unveiling and which is now mounted to the right in the porch entrance, and photographs of the Jones\\\' graves in Dukinfield Cemetary. I also enclose what I believe is a portrait of your father as a young man taken in London by B.A. Kohn of 124 King\\\'s Road plus a small photo of our grandfather Samuel Shepley and a memorial card for our grandmother Martha.

NB: \\\'The gravestone at Dukinfield reads: Here Lie Samuel Shepley Jones d. 1932 aged 70. Martha his wife d. 1927 aged 66. Their daughters Elizabeth Ellen (Linda) d. 1968 aged 78. Frances d. 1971 aged 80. Dorothy d. 1988 aged 86. Eternal rest give unto them O Lord\\\'


OBITUARY

From an unknown paper (probably local to Ashton Under Lyne):

"ORGANIST FOR 48 YEARS - Death of Mr. S.S. Jones:
The death occurred on Sunday in hospital at Preston, of Mr Samuel Shepley Jones (70), of 109 Uxbridge-street, Ashton, for more than 48 years organist at St. Ann\\\'s Church, Ashton. Mr Jones had enjoyed very good health until about seven weeks ago. He developed pneumonia from which he died on Sunday night.
Mr Jones was one of the best known members of St. Ann\\\'s Church, and for forty-eight years had been organist and choirmaster. He had been absent on comparatively few occasions, and there was never a deputy organist officially appointed.
Mr Jones was a pupil together with the late Mr. Eli Cope, who became organist at St. Peter\\\'s Church and later at Dukinfield Old Chapel. It was Mr. Jones\\\'s proud boast that he played his first complete Mass through before he was twenty-one - Mozart\\\'s "Twelfth Mass." He was appointed organist at the church while in his early twenties.
Until a preference was shown for music of a simpler character in the Catholic Church, the Masses of the great masters were often given in the church, under Mr. Jones\\\'s direction. Masses by Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn were frequently given, and there were several occasions when a full orchestra was present.

Conducted Whit-friday sing.

Mr. Jones took a leading interest in arranging the procession on Whit-Friday. He was generally entrusted with the musical side of the event, and conducted the "United Sing" and the bands on the Market Square.
Mr Jones was a cabinet maker by trade. His wife predeceased him some years ago, and he is survived by three sons and four daughters.
Requiem Mass was said at church on Thursday, and Councillor Harold Burgess played the organ. The Rev. Father flynn, Rector, conducted the service and also officiated at the interment at Dukinfield Cemetery. Members of the Order of St. Vincent De Paul, acted as bearers. The mourners were: Miss Jones, Miss Frances Jones, Miss Dorothy Jones, Mr Raymond Jones, Mr and Mrs McDermott, Mr and Mrs Joseph Jones, Mr and Mrs Sam Jones....."

From an account by Joan Arbour of Samuel\\\'s sister Mary Frances Shepley Jones (copied from a document written in Joan Arbour\\\'s presence):

My grandmother was a Grande Dame and no mistake, she walked to St Peter\\\'s Church every Sunday dressed in a black nipped in-waist jacket and full skirt, which dripped jet beads and sequins, boots and gloves. Not a tall lady, she nevertheless was very regal. She paid for a front pew in the church, and woe betide anyone who mistakenly sat in it.

I don\\\'t remember what my own grandfather (Tim Morrisey] did for a living, but my grandmother\\\'s second husband was a boiler maker and worked at "The Forge", an iron works at the bottom of Bayley Street. This was the street on which my Grandmother had a Grocer\\\'s shop: dinners (hot pies, stew and dumplings and cakes - she was a very good cook) were sold to the workmen, which Gran cooked and served as well as running the shop. I think she was trained in confectionery.

Joe Martin (my step Grandfather) was a man who drank a lot but was reckoned to be a good workman, he was sent by his firm to work on the Titanic. He was very proud of this, and devastated when it sank. My sister tells this tale: (she) went in the shop and found our little Grandma threatening to kill her large husband with a tiny toffee hammer (one she used tto break home-made toffee with). She had caught him with his hand in the till: Joe needed 2 1/2d to buy a gill of beer. Because he was a good darts player he was sure to win any following drinks. .

When I first became aware of my grandmother I must have been about 4 years old. We lived in a large house in Quay Street behind Bayley Street. It had four large rooms downstairs, a large hall and a rather grand staircase with a stag\\\'s head on the first landing. My grandmother and Joe occupied a room downstairs next to the kitchen and it had a nice fireplace, a table, two fireside chairs on either side of the fire and a three quarter bed. Poor Joe could not go up the stairs so they both ended up sleeping downstairs. (I think) she was brought up in Dukinfield, but I\\\'m not sure of that.

Grandma used to take me on her knee, to read the strip cartoon for me: I think the paper was the Daily Herald.

My Gran had a brother, Sam Jones [Samuel Shepley Jones], who used to visit my mother and listen to my efforts on the piano. He was a very good pianist. It must have been torture for him. He wore a tall shiny hat, spats, a black tightly fitted suit and was very tall (frightened me to death).

Later on in my teens I met his children:
Sam Jones, a diet freak (his wife and son had to adhere to his rules). I now realize that his diet was the forerunner of modern thinking on diet - lots of veg, no meat, little milk, drink plenty of water, no sweets, deserts etc.. He was a very good pianist and a wonderful organist. (They had) one son, Sam, who lived in a pub in Bury. I\\\'m uncertain of what happened in his later years, he took care of himself until he was about 87, did his own shopping etc. He was playing on the organ at that age, at Ashton St Mary and [St Anne\\\'s and] St Peter\\\'s Stalybridge. The priests of both these churches allowed him the use of the pipe organ, which he loved. He played every week, two or three times a week.
Joseph Jones, an engineer at the Gas Works, he made the gas turbine engine. When he was a baby my Gran said of him (that) he would never be a soldier but would travel all over the world and wear a soldier\\\'s uniform. She was fey. During the war he went all over the world servicing engineers working for the government and was given an officer\\\'s uniform so that if he was caught he would just be taken prisoner. He became a Director of Acrow or the Gas Place in Dukinfield. He and his family resided in Ashton.
Raymond Jones worked at the same place as Joseph, in the office. He drew a caricature of his boss, the boss saw it, and encouraged Raymond to go to classes for art at Ashton. When Ray was old enough he ran away from home to London and became an Academician. He married a doctor and was an R A artist. During the war he went blind. I\\\'m not sure whether he went blind during the first World War and during the second World War he thought he would again lose his sight and we were told that he committed suicide!!?
They had three sisters, Frances and Jane(?) and Dorothy, (who) worked at Leigh and Ardens (I\\'m not sure of her name) and one other whose name I can\\'t remember. Perhaps one lady was the mother of the family of McDermots who resided in the large house facing the Ashton Library [or, opposite Ashton Armoury]. This seems to be (the only memory) I have of the McDermots.

My mother had a cousin, Frederick Jones [who lived in Macclesfield]. He lived in Dukinfield and then Abergele (Wales), he was a Painter and Decorator. In Abergele he and Florence his wife kept a boarding house. In Rhos on-sea Fred Jones was a wizard with clocks, all the antique dealers on that coast came to him with their clocks, but he could not speak properly. Fred Jones could hardly read or write, but could read and play music. He married again when he was 72, and we lost touch. They had one son, David, who was also backward at school. He could sketch and draw the most intricate designs and became an electrical engineer . He married and had I think two children - he may still live in Bollington and would be about 75 now.. During the war he was a Bevin Boy. Florence his wife died first, when I was aboout 20 years of age.

The Shepley-Jones grave (Plain C4 334) Ashton Catholics Register at Dukinfield Cemetary, was purchased by Samuel Shepley Jones on 11 June 1927. Buried there are:

9847 Martha Jones, 66 yrs, Married, 109 Uxbridge St, Ashton-U-Lyne, buried 14 June 1927, Minister J Ward.
10206 Samuel Shepley Jones, 70 yrs, Joiner, 109 Uxbridge St., Ashton-U-Lyne, buried 21 April 1932, Minister Wm Flyn.
2256 Elizabeth Ellen Jones, 78 yrs, unmarried, 175 Wilshaw Grove, Ashton-U-Lyne, buried 23 January 1968, Minister Ryan
2787 Frances Jones, 80 yrs, unmarried, retired, 175 Wilshaw, Ashton-U-Lyne, buried 1 November 1971, Minister Coultard
18110 Dorothy Jones, 86 yrs, spinster, 175 Wilshaw Lane, Ashton-U-Lyne, (buried) 23 August 1988.


END

1911 Census: Samuel Shepley Jones, joiner, 49 and his wife Martha, also 49, their daughter Mary Agnes Jones, whipper, 22, daughter Elizabeth Ellen, ticket printer, 21, daughter Frances Jones, sorter, 19, son Joseph Jones, apprentice to gas fitting, 17, son Samuel Anthony Jones, student, 14, daughter Dorothy Jones, at school, 9.