4 Castle Street

Hubert and Edna Fudge

1840 Tithe Map
(PDF file format)

Castle Street
Numbers
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6 Oriel Cottage
 7
 8 Oriel House
 9 Lion House
10 Wigmore House
11 Porch House
12 Epworth House
13
14 Bank Cottage
15 Clematis Cottage
17 The Priory
20
22
24
26
28 & 28A
30
32 to 42
44
46
48
50 Munday Cottage
Fairfield House
Stokefield House
The Hatch
Thornbury Cottage 
Thornbury House

Click here to read about the other owners of 4 Castle Street

The house now called 4 Castle Street in Thornbury was long associated with Hubert (Bert) Fudge and his wife Edna and it is still owned by his family.

At first the house was owned by his father, Samuel Fudge, who was also an architect and surveyor, amongst his many other jobs.

Hubert Harry Fudge’s birth was registered in the May quarter of 1899.   He grew up at 4 Castle Street.

The 1901 Census shows Hubert with his family at 4 Castle Street.  His father Samuel Fudge aged 39 an architect working on own account born in Gloucestershire, Eliza Fudge was aged 30 from Somerset and the two boys were born in Thornbury, Gerald E S Fudge aged 7 and Hubert H Fudge then aged 2.

The 1911 Census shows Samuel Fudge aged 48.  He was an architect who had been married to his wife Eliza for 18 years.  They had three children and the Census shows that a fourth child had died. Hubert aged 12 and his sister Kathleen aged 7 were both still at school.

Hubert was educated at Thornbury Grammar School and served his apprenticeship as a toolmaker with Straker Squires of Fishponds Bristol.

In Christmas 1917 Hubert Henry was, like many men serving in the forces, sent a Christmas gift from the people of Thornbury.  Each parcel contained a Christmas card, one tin of gingerbread biscuits 50 cigarettes, one khaki handkerchief, and one tablet of soap provided out of the money subscribed and in addition one pair of socks made and given by the ladies knitting party in connection with the Thornbury working party.  From the newspaper report of this gift we know that at that time Hubert was stationed at "Killingholme" with the Royal Naval Air Service.  Killingholme was the site of an airfield and a sea plane base. 

He then served at Aston under Lyme before he went over to America as a tool maker for Ford's.  Samuel worked in Detroit and his photograph album shows his excitement at this bustling modern city which must have been so different from Thornbury and even Bristol so soon after the First World War.  The thumbnail photograph on the right shows the Ford Factory in Detroit and the showrooms of Ford and Lincoln cars with a line of Ford cars.  Click on the photograph for a larger image.

Hubert's father Samuel died on 1924 on June 21st.   A later newspaper article said that when Samuel died Hubert was working in America and he received a telegram from the Inland Revenue asking him to come home.   Hubert sailed home via Montreal on the SS Montcalm July 4th 1924.  On his return to England he learned that his father was dead.  Samuel was appointed Collector of Taxes in his father's place.  He also became manager of the employment office on April 4th 1928.  The photograph above shows 4 Castle Street during its time as the Employment Office and on the original photograph it is possible to read the sign in the window which declares its official status.

On 4th July 1929 Eliza Fudge conveyed the house to her son, Hubert Harry Fudge, a collector of taxes.  Eliza moved across the road to number 5 Castle Street.  This move may have been triggered by the fact that Hubert was intending to marry.  Hubert married Edna Coleman in the September quarter of 1930.  The electoral registers showed that he continued to live at number 4.  It is likely that his sister Marjorie Fudge moved with her mother at this time.

Hubert and Edna worked together.  A newspaper report about about the couple says that she helped him to register nearly 2000 National Servicemen.  We believe that this was as a result of the National Service (Armed Forces Act) of 1939 which reintroduced National Service and must have created a great deal of paper work for civil servants as the country prepared for war.  During the Second World War they also issued the food, clothing and other coupons. 

Hubert had many other jobs and interests.  He was Clerk of the Thornbury Town Trust for 35 years.  He was also a freemason.  Mrs Fudge  seems to have been a very busy person as she later ran the Candy Store at 3 High Street in Thornbury.  The Trade Directories show that Annie Pitcher was trading as a confectioner in that shop until 1966 when she must have been 90 years old so it comes as no surprise to hear that the shop became too much for her and Edna Fudge took it over.  Click on the thumbnail picture for a large image of Edna Fudge in her shop.

Eliza and Hubert had two daughters, Angela and Judy, both of whom were educated at Thornbury Grammar School.

The deeds held by the present owners of 4 Castle Street show that Sidney Dearing had moved here from his larger premises at 14 The Plain.  He signed a lease in 1963 to use the one room now divided into two rooms downstairs "until recently occupied by the ministry of labour as offices" as a chiropodist.  This does not imply that the Ministry of Labour no longer held offices as there are also documents which relate to the two rooms and a pantry (with use of the WC)  that the Ministry of Labour and then the Department of the Environment rented from Hubert Fudge.

In 1972 documents show that Edna continued to rent out the ground floor of the property even after her husband's death.  Sydney Dearing surrendered his lease of the rooms on the ground floor in July 1982.

On the 7th February 1986 Edna Fudge conveyed number 4 Castle Street in trust to her two daughters Angela and Judy, who by this time were both married and living away from Thornbury.

On Dec 10th 1987 Edna Fudge and her trustees leased the greater part of the ground floor to Mr John C Bryant, a licensed conveyancer (This is apparently a specialist property lawyer, someone who is trained and qualified in all aspects of the law dealing with property) who in 1995 demised the lease to a local solicitor, Mr Alan Hodge who currently practises from that address.

After their mother's death, Angela Talintyre and Judy Joyce continue to own the house.

Click here to read about the other owners of 4 Castle Street  Click here to see a clock owned by the Fudge family.

This page was last updated: 29/01/2012