The Theaker Family

The Theakers' shop, 15-17 Baslow Road (photo: Josie Dunsmore)

We are delighted to have received this enquiry from a relative of one of Totley Rise's earliest shopkeepers.

Hi,

My sister has researched the Theaker family as far as possible, unfortunately my Grandad Joseph Henry Theaker who married my Grandma Ada Steele was disowned by his family. We can not therefore trace his sibling's children. His siblings being Ethelbert, Ruth Ada Matilda, Lilian, Harriet Maud, Lottie. My Grandad was the youngest, we know his brother Ethelbert had a Tobacconist & Newsagents shop at Totley. What we don't know is whether he and his wife Helena had children or not. If it is possible is there any way your group can find this out? If they did have offspring it would be great to trace them and get in touch.

It’s not just offspring from Ethelbert but offspring from my Grandad’s sisters too. Joseph Theaker was 29 when he married Grandma, she was 20. She was the family’s maid from being 13. He left Grandma with 4 children to raise. Through research my sister found out he died penniless in an hostel on West Street. My Grandma had 3 sons and a daughter to him, my Dad being one of them. She got a new partner Frank Muscroft (they never married) and she had two sons. I often wonder what his siblings were told about their brother.

My great-grandad was called Henry, his wife was Ruth (from Wolverhampton). He was a general dealer in Heeley in 1901 and before that around 1881 he lived on Arundel Street and was an ironmonger.

I would really appreciate it if you could put a request for me on your website please.

Yours Sincerely

Joyce Moore (nee Theaker)

A quick search through the back issues of Totley Independent has turned up a few entries including the photograph above (February 2011) and this piece from Jo Rundle in July 2005:

The row of houses came next, to the last shop at the bottom of the row, the newspaper shop owned by Mr. Ethelbert Theaker and his wife. Until Mr.Wesley opened his shop this was the only place to obtain a newspaper, magazine or comic, but as he delivered every day there was no loss, and we could always enjoy our Comic Cuts on Monday and Chips on Wednesday and the daily paper for the adults.

Dan Reynolds mentioned the Theakers in his memoirs:

Mr and Mrs Theaker who sold tobacco, sweets and daily papers, were two small people and always jolly. Mr Theaker spoke bluntly and was very amusing in fact - they were both down to earth Yorkshire folk who kept a parrot near the doorway of the living room to the shop.

Footnote

Ethelbert and Helena Theaker appear in our transcriptions of the Totley Censuses for 1901 and 1911. In the earlier census the couple were living in Chapel Walk and Ethelbert's occupation was a wood turner. The 1911 census for Totley Rise shows Ethelbert, aged 43, a tobacconist and newsagent and Helena, aged 37, who assisted in the business. They were both born in Sheffield and had been married for 15 years. The census records that they had had two children, both of whom had died.

Trade directories show that the Theakers ran the Totley Rise shop for more than twenty years (1903-1925). They eventually moved to Bridlington. Ethelbert died in 1943 and Helena in 1946.

More...

In browsing through Brian Edwards's research files we came across this gem extracted from A Tapestry of Life by Dorothy A. Trott, former Principal of Dore & Totley High School.

The rather ugly row of workman's dwellings on Totley Rise had been constructed to house the Irish navvies recruited to build the Dore and Chinley Railway Tunnel, in 1897. The residents thought them an eyesore, but were promised that they would be demolished when no longer required. However, it was not to be, and they are still in use, ninety years later.

Converted into small shops and artisans' dwellings, the bottom one housed the local newsagent, Mrs. Theaker.

She always appeared to be very angry and swore violently if we lingered around her shop longer than was necessary to buy a pennyworth of sweets, but we lived in hope of catching a glimpse or a sound of the brown horse she kept in her cellar. Some had seen it, some had not and on rare occasions, she let it out and harnessed it to the little trap she kept in her back garden.

Fortunately, our limited vocabulary was not impaired by Mrs. Theaker, for we neither understood nor remembered the terrible oaths she spat at us, but our parents warned us not to go near the shop.

The only newsagent for some miles, Mrs. Theaker made a lot of money, retired to a bungalow in Skegness and our Mrs. Bainbridge took over the prosperous little shop.

Update

Madame Ruth Theaker, Ethelbert's Mother, in 1904

Ted Jones has been in touch with us regarding the family of Ethelbert Theaker who, with his wife Helena, ran a newsagent and tobacconist shop at the bottom of Totley Rise in the early part of the 20th century. Ted is the great grandson of Ethelbert's sister, Harriet Maud Theaker.

We are very grateful to Ted for the information he has supplied including a family tree and this delightful photo card of Ethelbert's mother, Ruth, which dates from 1904 when she ran the Britannia Acadamy at Old Havelock House, 2 Myrtle Street, Heeley. She styled herself Mme. Theaker M.B.A.T.D., (Member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing) and later U.K.A (United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dance). She advertised her Adult Learners' and Improvers Classes regularly in the Sheffield newspapers teaching "Waltz, Schottische, Lancers and Veleta" in one term.

Descendants of Henry Theaker Courtesy of Ted Jones Descendants of Henry Theaker.pdf Adobe Acrobat document [309.8 KB]

The New Heeley Voice, September 2012 page 15 recalls Havelock House and the Theakers.

Sid's Sites

Memories of Heeley with Sid Wetherill
No. 2 Myrtle Road was a large, seven-room detached house overlooking the River Sheaf and the railway line. It stood at the corner of Prospect and Myrtle Roads. It was occupied in 1891 by the Theaker family: Henry, an ironmonger whose shop, 'Rag & Tag' was in Sheaf Market, and his wife, Ruth, a teacher of dancing - her studio was on the premises. The Theakers were still there for the 1901 and 1911 census. After the Theakers the Golds moved in and No. 2 was a 'corner shop'. Alfred was the shopkeeper and his daughter Jessie was a dance teacher using the studio. In the 1930s it was still a corner shop but a Miss Bamforth was renting the dance studio. The house was finally demolished in 1962.