Beatrice Hughes, born blind. Blackburn 1898

Beatrice Hughes was the older sister of my grandma Bertha Topping, nee Hughes (b1901 Lancaster). Beatrice was born in Blackburn in 1898, and was born blind. They also had a brother, Harold Hughes (b 1895 Blackburn).

Harold, Beatrice and Bertha were brought up mostly single-handedly by their mother
Eliza Jane Hughes (nee Downes), after their father Timothy Gardner Hughes (b 1873 Kirkham) emigrated to Adelaide S.Australia c1906-7. The story goes that Eliza Jane and the children were supposed to have followed him to Australia, but she didn't want to go. She must have had her reasons. Instead, they moved from Lancaster, where they were living at the time, back to Blackburn to be near Eliza Jane's mother and sisters. Contact was eventually lost with Timothy, and they assumed him dead. (but through my own research I know now that he was alive and living in Adelaide until his death in the 1940s)

So in the absence of any state benefits in those days, Eliza Jane had of course to work to bring up her children. When Beatrice left school, because of her blindness - she was unable to go out to work, and Eliza Jane could not stay at home to look after her, because of her own need to go to work. So Beatrice had to go into the Workhouse, where she died whilst still in her teens.

On the 1911 Census, I have discovered that Eliza Jane age 39, "Widow", Harold age 15, and my grandma Bertha age 10, are living at 81 Wensley Fold Blackburn, and that Beatrice by then age 13, is an inmate at the Workhouse. She died in the Workhouse only a couple of years later

Posting below, a transcription of one page of Blackburn Workhouse's 1911 Census returns, which includes my great aunty Beatrice Hughes. It might be useful for others who are researching any of the other names listed.

1911 Census
(RG14: PN25120 / RD474 / SD6 ED27)
County: Lancashire / District Blackburn /
Subdistrict Blackburn South Eastern / Enumeration District: 27
Institution name: Blackburn Union Workhouse, Haslingden Road
Address Haslingden Road, Blackburn.

All recorded as "Relationship - Inmate"
Name / Age / Sex /

FARNWORTH, ANN / 65 / F
FARADAY, ELSIE ANN / 29 / F
FIELDING, ALICE / 50 / F
FLEXALER, JOHANNA / 40 / F
GIBSON, CLARA / 32 / F
HENDERSON, MINETTA / 38 / F
HASLAM, FLORENCE / 12 / F
HUGHES, BEATRICE / 13 / F ***** My Great Aunty Beatrice
HOWARTH, JANE / 74 / F
HOULKER, ANNIE / 49 / F
HARRISON, MGT JANE / 52 / F
HEYES, MGT ANN / 27 / F
HYATT, EMILY / 35 / F
HULME, FLORENCE / 15 / F
HALL, ROSE / 28 / F
ISHERWOOD, MARTHA / 70 / F
JONES, MARY JANE / 34 / F
KAY, MARY JANE / 53 / F
LONSDALE, ALICE / 31 / F
LAMBERT, MARY / 4 / F
LEASH, MARY NIXON / 70 / F
MOORE, MINNIE / 25 / F
MORRIS, HANNAH / 58 / F
MC KENZIE, NANCY / 79 / F
NEEDHAM, HAROLD / 4 / M
ORNISAHW, MARY / 13 / F
PICKENGILL, BARBARA / 25 / F
RILEY, BESSIE / 24 / F
RAMSBOTTOM, MARGT / 71 / F
ROGERSON, MARGT / 44 / F
_________________________________________

Notes : This is not the full Blackburn Workhouse 1911 Census transcript - but just one page of it.

All 1911 Census returns as yet exclude the "Infirmities" column, due to the 100 year rule, and those details will not become available until 2012.

More information and search facility available at www.1911census.co.uk.