The Turland's

Sophia Lavina Turland

My Gran was a character... of course, everyone says that about 'their old gran'. No difference here; she was certainly a product of a poor but proud working class life.

What makes 'Granny Hickey' a.k.a. Sophia Lavinia Turland unique to me is that she is the only relative I have (had?) who was born in the 19th Century that I actually remember chunks of detail about, even though I was just 5 years old when she died. She was, from what I remember, a short (4'10") but well proportioned (read well-rounded) lady who had an aversion to all things 20th Century i.e. the T.V., Washing Machines and in fact, all things electrical.

She always wore a 'pinner' (a cross-over pinafore) in a busy floral pattern, and black lace-up shoes with what I remember as a Cuban heel, and her hair was always in a bun at the nape of her neck... The door and front woodwork of number 52 Frances Road was always, always painted in Cherry Red and Cream.

As a child, many members of my family still lived on the same street as Gran. I remember on many occasions waiting outside the pristine front of number 52 with Gran... we would be waiting for the 'pigman' who came once a week. Gran would say 'look-out for the Pigman', but I never saw him. I had already conjured up visions of a man with a pig-like head so when his cart was heard trundling down the road, I was off. Today, my Gran would be a champion of Environmental recycling, but in the 60s common sense dictated that any scraps or waste were set aside in a large round sieve-like tray for collection by the Pigman for, I suppose - his pigs.

Thursday has always been my favourite day; this I believe stems back to early childhood. My parents made Thursday their 'night out' and my Nan Rose would babysit. From the age of 3, this meant being taken by my Nan up the road to Granny Hickey's for some thick, home-made rice-pudding and being allowed to stay up late to watch 'Mrs Thursday' on the T.V. My Nan and my Gran naturally indulged me. Saturday's were much the same; dinner-time was spent with her continuously frying steak for the family to have with HP sauce whilst everyone picked their horses. Later on, we'd settle down to a tea of tinned salmon (red), Hovis and salad. And even as a 4 year old, I'd flit from living room to front (best) room to watch the Jimmy Clitheroe Show followed by Dixon of Dock Green. Oh happy days.

My Gran bless her could not read nor write. She only went to school (so 'twas said) for half a day, but she was a bright as a button and used to take bets for a local man. This of course happened before street betting was made legal in the early 60s. Everyone in my family - and anyone else in the neighbourhood who liked a flutter would use a pseudonym and place bets with her. My Nan (who was religious to the end) used S.A.G - St Anthony's Guide for the patron saint of lost 'things'!.., my Mom whose name is Eileen was known as 'Eileen Allanah'... it didn't take a genius to work it out.  If, as happened on occasions, the local Bobby paid a visit (plain clothed of course), the book would disappear upstairs with one of her sons and out of the boxroom window... If they weren't quite quick enough to 'lose' it, my Gran would end up making a court appearance - all expenses paid of course.

I do believe that my Gran was quite embarassed about her illiteracy. I know that during a spell in hospital in the 60s, she was asked to sign papers and she made the excuse that she couldn't find her glasses... The story goes that she was not able to attend school regularly because from the age of 7, she took in washing to keep her family above subsistence level. This is somewhat corroborated by the fact that her father - John Buckler Turland was a Laundryman by trade - but family lore has it that he was a drunk who could not hold down work.

My Gran was, like thousands of women of her generation, a very hard-working, matriarchal figure who had to organise her family - lest it fall apart. She had it tough - but only as tough as the next person. Within the duration of the Great War, my Gran had lost 2 children at birth, 1 son of Scarletina, a son and a brother in the battlefields of the Somme and her father due to illness at the close of the war. By the time WW2 had climaxed, she had lost a nephew in Burma, had two sons taken prisoner of war also in the East and lost a sister-in-law, a nephew and a niece in an air-raid on the Ellen Street Schools in Hockley in 1941.

How did they cope?

My last memory of my gran is of me clambering onto her sickbed in the days before she died. I was nearly 5 (I have the memory of an elephant); I remember other great aunts surrounding the bed and my Auntie Mollie sobbing as I spoke to her, and everyone else seeming very solemn; I of course was oblivious to what was happening. My Gran, I seem to remember seemed very resolute and ok and didn't mind being hugged or climbed upon - of course she wouldn't... she was my Gran after all.

Above - The Funeral Card of my Gran, Sophie Hickey nee Sophia Lavinia Turland who died in her 90th year...  It wasn't until she died and my Nan went to register Gran's death that the family realised that for all of her 89 years, Sophia had been celebrating her birthday a week later than it actually was!

The grand looking lady on the left is Lavinia Mary Turland nee Harris (Sophia Turland's mother).  This   picture was probably taken during the late Victorian period.

Sophia Lavinia Turland ~ 4 Generation Tree

Generation No.2 ~ Maternal

 
3. Sophia Lavinia TURLAND. Born on Oct 04 1879 in b/o 258 Farm Street, Hockley, Birmingham. Sophia died on Jan 15 1968 in Cotteridge; she was 88.

On Dec 19 1896, when Sophia was 17, she married Laurence HICKEY.
They had the following children ...
            i.         John (Jack) HICKEY (1897 - 1969)
            ii.        William Lawrence HICKEY (1899 - 1918)
            iii.        Alfred George Baden HICKEY (1900 - 1969)
            iv.       Catherine (Kate) HICKEY (1903 - 1986)
            v.        Christopher HICKEY (1906 - 1971)
            vi.        Ernest HICKEY (1910 - 1973)
            vii.       Vincent HICKEY (1912 - 1962)
            viii.      Joseph HICKEY (1913 - 1917)
  1       ix.        Rosina Beatrice HICKEY (1917 - 1983)
            x.         Reginald HICKEY (1921 - 1971)
     
 
2. Laurence HICKEY. Born on Jul 28 1872 in 12 half Ct, Kenion Street, All Saints, Birmingham. Laurence died on Jun 26 1949 in Cotteridge, Birmingham; he was 76.

Generation No.3 ~ Maternal

 
6. John Buckler TURLAND. Born on Jan 27 1851 in Union Place, Coventry. John died in 1918 in Birmingham; he was 66.

On Dec 25 1869, when John was 18, he married Lavinia Mary HARRIS.
They had the following children ...
            i.        Henry John TURLAND (1870 - 1870)
            ii.        Laura Ellen TURLAND (1871 - 1951)
            iii.       Walter Joseph TURLAND (1873 - 1873)
            iv.       Lily Rose TURLAND (b.1875)
            v.       John TURLAND, b.1877 (1877 - 1918)
  3       vi.       Sophia Lavinia TURLAND (1879 - 1968)
            vii.      William Joseph TURLAND (1882 - 1915)
            viii.      Ellen Louisa TURLAND (b.1884)
            ix.       Alfred George TURLAND (b.1886)
            x.        Ernest Harland TURLAND (1890 - 1892)
            xi.       Rosina Beatrice TURLAND (1891 - 1943)
     
 
7. Lavinia Mary HARRIS. Born on Aug 03 1851 in Birmingham. Lavinia died in 1926 in Selly Oak; she was 74.

Generation No.4 ~ Maternal

 
12. John TURLAND. Born in 1826 in Long Lawford.

On Apr 09 1850, when John was 24, he married Sophia BUCKLER.
They had the following children ...
  6       i.       John Buckler TURLAND (1851 - 1918)
            ii.      Walter TURLAND (1853 - 1859)
     
 
13. Sophia BUCKLER. Born in 1820 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England. Sophia died in 1891; she was 71.
     
 

14. Unknown UNKNOWN. Born in 1830 in Unknown.

Ellen Elizabeth HARRIS did not marry UNKNOWN
They had one child ...
    7       i.      Lavinia Mary HARRIS (1851 - 1926)
     
 
15. Ellen Elizabeth HARRIS. Born in 1834 in Aston juxta Birmingham. Ellen died in 1884; she was 50.

Generation No.5 ~ Maternal

Generation No.6 ~ Maternal

Generation No.7 ~ Maternal

Generation No.8 ~ Maternal

Generation No.9 ~ Maternal

Generation No.10 ~ Maternal

Who, What, When & Where ~ Turland

o 1841 Census – Henry Turland (Ag Lab), Mary & family were living at Long Lawford in the Parish of Newbold in Warwickshire

o 1850 – John Turland (Baker) married Sophia Buckler on 9 April at St John the Baptist, Coventry. Both gave Spon Street as their place of residence.

o 1851 Census – Henry and family possibly mistranscribed as ‘Ireland’, living at Long Lawford, Warks

o 1851 Census – John Turland (Baker), Sophia & family were living at Spon Street, Coventry, St Michael, Warwickshire

o 1861 Census - Henry Turland (Ag Lab), Mary & family were living in the village of Long Lawford in Warwickshire

o 1861 Census – John Turland (Miller), Sophia & family were living at 32 Mott Street, St George’s, Hampton Ward, B’ham

o 1871 Census – Henry Turland (Lab’r), Mary & family were living in the Civil parish of Newbold on Avon in the town of Long Lawford, Warks

o 1871 Census – John Turland (Miller) & Sophia were living at 32 Mott Street, St George’s, B’ham

o 1871 Census – John Buckler Turland (Jeweller) & Lavinia were living at 23 Mott Street, St George’s, B’ham at the home of Lavinia’s grandparents.

o 1881 Census – John Turland (Miller) & Sophia were living at Court 59, 4 House, Farm Street, Cambridge Place, St George’s, B’ham

o 1881 Census – John Buckler Turland (Bricklayer’s Lab’r), Lavinia & family were living at 25 Court, 8 Clifton Road, Aston

o 1891 Census – John Buckler Turland (Laundry Man), Lavinia & family were living at 42 Court, 3 House, Great Russell Street, St George’s Ward, B’ham

o 1896 - Sophia Lavinia Turland married Laurence Hickey of 13 Pope Street, Hockley on 19 Dec 1896 at St Paul's (the Jewellers Church) in Hockley.  Witnesses were Samuel and Nellie Grimmett.

o 1901 Census – John Buckler Turland (Metal Worker), Lavinia & family were living at 44 Hubert Road, Selly Oak, Northfield, Worcestershire

o 1901 Census – Sophia Turland is now married to Laurence Hickey and living at 6 Gumley Terrace (off the Dingle nr Canal Wharf), St Mary’s, Selly Oak, Northfield, Worcestershire

o 1911 Census – John Buckler Turland (Labourer General) and wife Lavina Mary (married for 41yrs) were living at 44 Hubert Road, Selly Oak, Kings Norton, Worcestershire with 2 of their daughters - Ellen Lavinia age 26yrs and Rosina Beatrice age 19yrs

Who, What, When & Where ~ Harris (Staffordshire)

o 1841 Census – Joseph Harris (Male Journeyman), Mary and family were living at Lower Tower Street, St George’s, B’ham

o 1851 Census – Joseph Harris (Waggoner), Mary & family were living at 81 Mott Street, St George’s, B’ham

o 1851 – Lavinia Mary Harris born on 3 August at 81 Mott Street to Ellen Elizabeth Harris (Gold Polisher). Father not named

o 1861 Census – Joseph Harris (Carter) & Mary were living with granddaughter Lavinia at 23 Mott Street, St George’s, B’ham

o 1871 Census – Joseph Harris (Labourer) & Mary still lived at 23 Mott Street with their now married granddaughter Lavinia and her husband John Buckler Turland

Who, What, When & Where ~ Buckler

o 1815 – 18 June 1815, the marriage between John Buckler and Sophia Hands took place at St Martin's in the Bull Ring, Birmingham.  Witnesses to the marriage were Sarah Garnett and Eli Buckler.  The Bride, Groom and both witnesses were all able to sign their own name.

o  The gravestone of William Buckler, his wife Mary and 2 of his brothers has been set into the paving outside St Pauls Church in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham.  All four were buried in a grave in the churchyard but many of the headstones were moved after the church and churchyard underwent extensive refurbishment due to its dilapidated state.  The gravestone reads...

 It appears that  Mary and William were buried in a grave with two of William's brothers.  John is possibly one of the brothers; he was buried 4           October 1822 at St Pauls Church.