John Shean at Bow Bridge in the barge builders yard

John Shean lived in Bow and built boats and barges. He married Susanna Bailey and later re-married her sister, Caroline. The family had a strong nautical background. John and Caroline had a son called Josiah, who was born in Bow on 29th September, 1861. Josiah was listed in the Thames Watermen and Lightermen records of 1878, but by age 19, had found employment in a chemist's warehouse.

Josiah married Annie Azubah Horton on 17th September, 1882 in St. Leonard's St May, Bromley in the Borough of Tower Hamlets. They had five daughters and two sons; Florence, Beatrice, Annie Miriam, Ivy Barbara, Elizabeth Althea, Josiah Henry William and Horace Horton. Sadly, the 1911 Census shows that two other children died, but no further details are known. While Mother stayed at home to look after the children, Josiah changed from being a warehouseman to a gas attendant. By 1901, he was an artificer (archaic term for 'skilled craftsman') at the Royal Mint. Twenty years on, he was still working at the Royal Mint, based in the Electrical Department.

Josiah and family moved homes a lot and lived in Aldgate, Tottenham and Ilford High Road. Annie, his wife, died in 1927 and it is uncertain if she actually moved into the New North Road cottages. However records show that in the 1930's, three members of the Shean family occupied 12 New North Road, Chigwell Row, which was the place where they would settle. Josiah, now receiving a Civil Servant's pension, moved there with his two daughters Beatrice and Annie (aka Minnie). Beatrice was incapacitated and Annie was doing unpaid domestic duties. The address changed to 692 New North Road, Hainault when the new estate was built after World War II.

The Shean family in Hainault Forest c.1936

The family album photo above shows the Shean family in Hainault Forest. Miss Annie Shean is the young lady sitting to the right of the child in the pram. Her father, Josiah Shean, is the gentleman resting on his side. There is a net on a cane at the back. Sold in many local shops these were used by children to investigate aquatic life in the lake and streams. Ron in the centre is obviously the joker in the family and has cheekily decided to poke his tongue out.

John E Bowen also lived in the New North Road cottage during 1939. He made nautical and aeronautical items. There was a Hainault company specialising in this type of work. They were originally clockmakers that began making sextants and chronometers for ships in the River Thames. Their factory produced marine and aircraft instrumentation including sonar. This company would later become 'Kelvin Hughes'. Similar work was done by Plessey, a firm that took over a three-mile stretch of tunnel from Gants Hill to Leytonstone during World War II, converting it into a factory to make aircraft components. The tunnel gave protection against air raids to ensure that the production line was not hindered when bombs fell. This tunnel would later became part of the Central Line Underground.

Shean family gathering in Hainault Forest, Whitsun 1938

Josiah Shean passed away in 1949 and Beatrice in 1966, aged 79. This left Annie Shean in the cottage alone. Annie, or 'Miss Shean' as she was commonly known, was a quiet, reserved lady. Born in Stratford in 1889 and baptised in the Parish of St. Marks, Whitechapel eight years later. She worked as a Domestic Servant when younger and remained a spinster all her life.

New North Road Cottage

The living room in Miss Shean's cottage was always dark. This was due to a tree outside blocking the light. Once when wasps were a particular nuisance, a trap was made using a piece of string tied around a jam jar neck to form a handle. The jar was then half-filled with water and a tablespoon of sweet strawberry jam dropped in. It was then hung outside on a tree. The next day, 6-7 wasps had drowned while attempting to get the jam. This procedure was repeated. Quite a few flying pests met their demise this way. Before aerosols this was a common way to kill wasps and better for the environment than using poisonous sprays.

Wallpaper beads

Annie Shean made wallpaper beads which were strung together to make bracelets and necklaces. This was once a traditional craft, revived in the 1920's. Wallpaper was rolled around knitting needles and paste applied to stick it together. The shape and size of the beads could be varied by altering the triangular cut of paper being rolled. When dry, the beads were polished with vanish. This helped protect the paper from moisture, but it wasn't a good idea to get the beads too wet. 

In Victorian times, when this craft probably started, wallpapers coloured green, contained the highly poisonous element, arsenic. It is likely that a few Victorian ladies fell ill due to arsenic poisoning caused by their handmade jewellery. Luckily, Miss Shean's beads were made when modern wallpapers were safer. During the 1960's, wallpaper shops were found in most High Streets. These gradually disappeared when the large D-I-Y stores started emerging. Shopkeepers would discard outdated wallpaper sample books and children would sometimes ask for these because they could use the plain side as drawing paper.

Mail from New Zealand

Beatrice Shean received this letter celebrating New Zealand's first Balloon Post. Boundary changes and house renumbering sometimes caused confusion with postal deliveries. Annie Shean lived in the cottage until the Council decided to replace the terrace with modern houses. The cottages were demolished in 1971.

READER CORRESPONDENCE

Penny Watts responded to the original article about Annie Shean. The website would like to thank Penny for sending extra pictures to add to the story...

"I was so excited to see the article about Annie Shean. Annie was my Great Aunt (we called her Auntie Minnie) the photo (Whitsun) in the article I can name everyone bar one of the people. I share the same birthday as Beatrice (Auntie Beattie) and recently came across a letter saying how delighted she was that I was born on her birthday. We have many family photos as Horace Shean's Father-in-law (William Sutton) was a very keen amateur photographer. Even my Dad David Shean is in the front row of the photograph. My Grandfather Horace (back row, 2nd from left) was born at the Royal Mint, my father also worked there for a time, eventually working for Beechams. I also have a photo of John Shean at Bow Bridge in the barge builders yard, I understand his wife was very strong and good at hooking drunk people out of the river Thames! My father was a very keen naturalist, and spent a lot of his youth enjoying the flora and fauna of Epping Forest. He moved to Cranleigh in Surrey in 1963 where my mother still lives, here he developed 3 1/2 acres of land as a conservation area, planting many trees." Penny Watts(nee Shean)

Annie 'Minnie' Shean with family including Penny Watts,