Category: Persons – Surname beginning with H

Information about persons whose surnames begin with the letter H.

Teaching Can Be Tough

Thursday 11 June 1998

Danny Howell writes:

Our very great friend and colleague, Andrew Houghton, who teaches at Kingdown School, Warminster, has a letter in today’s Independent newspaper, in reply to a letter about education by Anne Simon.

Andrew penned:

“I was very saddened by Anne Simon’s letter (Your views, Education+, June 4) but I have to admire her passion for teaching in the face of real difficulties.

I, too, have taught for 25 years – but under three head teachers who fought for higher standards, smaller classes, and better discipline.

Yes, teaching can be tough – but don’t overstate the case!

Andrew Houghton, Warminster, Wiltshire.”

Halliday Commonplace Book

Danny Howell writes:

In November 1993, Warminster Dewey Museum received notification from Nancy Lunden (who grew up in Warminster in the 1930s, her father being W.R. Marshall of the firm of solicitors Ponting & Marshall) of Sweden that she was to dispose of her book collection by auction at Sotheby’s in December 1993.

Of particular interest was a commonplace book kept by Edmund Halliday of East Street, Warminster. Halliday, a member of one of Warminster’s oldest families, was sent to Spain as a young man to learn the wine trade. In the book, handwritten in small but clear writing, were accounts of local items including the finding of a live newt in a fossil at Warminster, the corn and flour trade at Bishopstrow Mill, and the falling in of his mother’s grave at the Minster Churchyard.

The Museum passed details of the book and the auction to Steve Hobbs, County Archivist at the Wilshire Record Office, Trowbridge, who was successful in purchasing the book for £200. It is to be added to many other items regarding the Halliday family which are already deposited at the Record Office. Steve says the book is in excellent condition and a typical example of Halliday’s avid quest for facts and information. Steve is happy for Warminster History Society members and other interested persons to call at the Record Office if they wish to see the book.

The Baptist Church And John Halliday

Extract from The Changing Face Of Warminster by Wilfred Middlebrook, published in 1971:

Further along North Row, at the opposite side, is the Ebenezer Baptist Chapel, built in 1810, with schools and classrooms added later. Before its erection, Baptist worshippers went to Common Close or walked out to Crockerton, where a small chapel had been built before the 1719 chapel of Common Close. The Crockerton Chapel was built on a piece of land called “The Waste’ to “accommodate worshippers who had been walking from Crockerton and the Deverills to the Old Meeting House in Warminster.” It was a kind of half-way house, still existing as a chapel forty years ago.

Mention has been made of the Halliday Pew being ejected from the Minster. A curious sequel to this was that John Edmund Halliday, by his will of June 1905, left the whole of his £20,000 estate “to his wife Kate for life, after which it goes to Warminster Baptist Church.” The Halliday family, this branch of it at any rate, were supporters of the Old Meeting. John Halliday, born 1671, was connected with the Presbyterians in 1691. John Edmund Halliday, of Yard House, East Street, was his great-grandson.

John Halliday purchased his own pew when the Old Meeting House was built but this was not the one that caused such a commotion in later years, the one ejected from the Minster Church. Edward Halliday purchased the freehold of a pew site in the Minster Church in 1680, and installed a pew five feet high, “in shape resembling a cattle truck.” Apparently, the Trustees of the Baptist Church had a reversionary interest in this pew, which they surrendered in 1914 when the widow of John Edmund Halliday expressed a desire to see the pew, with all rights pertaining to it, restored to the Minster Church.

John Hall’s Paint And Varnish Works, Warminster

Extract from The Changing Face Of Warminster by Wilfred Middlebrook, published in 1971:

One of the oldest businesses in Warminster was the paint and varnish works of John Hall And Company, founded in 1830. ‘Moonraker’ paints were well-known over the whole of southern and central England, this being Wiltshire’s only paint works. Their address was simply “Wiltshire Mills, Weymouth Street.”

John Hall became a partner with a thriving industrialist called Reynolds, starting the paint and varnish business in 1830, and three of Hall’s sons gave a lifetime’s work to the development and expansion of the firm; with grandsons working too – three generations were thus employed in what was truly a family business. Where other old-established paint firms were absorbed in larger concerns, thus losing their identity, the firm of John Hall And Co. prided itself on keeping the business in the family, with grandsons of the founder doing business with the grandsons of the firm’s first customers.

One of the pioneers of the Tariff Reform Movement, John Hall’s work in this direction is commemorated by the clock that adorns what used to be the Conservative Club in Church Street. The eldest son of John Hall, Mr. Alfred Hall, who died in 1952, in his eightieth year, was the managing director of the firm for many years and travelled through many countries visiting customers in towns and villages, making personal contacts that did much to build up the business. Soon after the last war, with his co-directors, “Mr. Alfred” acquired the Standard Paint And Varnish Company in London, thus widening the firm’s scope. He was also instrumental in obtaining a second cinema for Warminster, with the erection of the Regal in 1935. He also took a keen interest in housing matters with the erection of Hall’s Terrace between the Paint Works and the cinema in 1921.

From Eversfield In Warminster To Eversfield In Deniliquin

Some notes regarding Dr. Hosking, written by Danny Howell in 1992:

Doctor John Edward Francis Hosking, MRCS Eng., LCRP., was born in 1860. He graduated at Guy’s Hospital, London, and first practised at Warminster, taking over Joseph Hinton’s practice (which was based at the Chestnuts, Portway) in 1893.

The Warminster entries in Kelly’s 1895 Directory For Wiltshire list him as a surgeon, and also record that he was one of three medical officers at Warminster Cottage Hospital. The 1899 Directory still records him as a medical officer at the Warminster Cottage Hospital, but refers to him as a “physician and surgeon,” with the new address of 52 Market Place (then known as Eversfield House and now used by the Gateway supermarket).

Dr. Hosking, his wife, and his son Guy (born 1894), left Warminster and emigrated to Australia in 1899. They sailed on the ship Torrens, with Dr. Hosking acting as medical officer on board. The family emigrated on account of Mrs. Hosking’s poor health. She was born at Bath on 25th January 1870. Her maiden name was Rosalie Bleeck Hinton.

On arriving in Australia Dr. Hosking commenced in practice at Deniliquin, in October 1900. His surgery was situated at Cressy Street, next door to Mr. Laman, solicitor. Dr. Hosking and his wife and son lived in a house called Winsley Chase, on the corner of Wick and Hughes Street.

Mrs. Hosking gave birth to a daughter, Katherine Lenora, on 16th August 1901 but the baby died the same day. Just over a month later, on 28th September 1901, Mrs. Hosking passed away at the home of a Mrs. A.H. Windeyer at Tarrangile.

Dr. Hosking moved to a property called Booyong, which had been built by a Mr. Fitznead, the Shire Engineer. Hosking married again, his second wife being the widow of Thomas Brown, of Tuppal Station.

Dr. Hosking took over Dr. Noyes’ practice (based in a house called Laverstock at George Street) when Noyes died in 1902. The Hoskings moved to Laverstock in July 1905. Dr. Hosking then conducted his practice from Jefferson’s chemist’s shop in End Street. Known affectionately as “Dr. John” he remained in practice until 1933, until selling out to Dr. Frederick Charles Middleton. It was, in fact, during May 1933 that Dr. Hosking handed in his resignation as medical officer at Deniliquin Hospital. His resignation took effect from 30th June 1933.

On his farewell he received an illuminated address and a wallet of notes. He purchased, for his retirement, a property east of Deniliquin which he named Eversfield after his former home at 52 Market Place, Warminster. Dr. Hosking passed away, aged 90, on 21st June 1950.

The Death Of Caroline Hinton Of Sutton Veny

From The Warminster & District Parish Magazine, August 1933:

Sutton Veny. Caroline Hinton
The death of Mrs. Caroline Hinton takes from among us one of our oldest and best-known parishioners, who will be missed by many. Our sympathy is given to her sons and daughters in their bereavement.