The Allsop family of Glascote Locks

The right hand lock cottage overlooking Glascote top lock, number 2 The Locks, has long been associated with the boatyard at Glascote Basin. Before Norton Canes came to the basin, it was the home of the boatbuilder Steve Hudson.

For many years, from before 1881 to 1929, the Allsop family lived there. Peter Allsop was previously a labourer. He started working for the Canal Company in about 1874. By 1881 he was living on the canal side in Glascote, most probably at the top lock, and working as a canal clerk. William Smith next door was working as the toll clerk.

Peter and his wife Ann (nee Cooper) had nine children between 1874 and 1893: Frank, Walter, Emma, Willie, Arthur, Ernest, Alice, Edith, and Ruth. It must have been quite crowded in the little two bedroom cottage.

1891

In 1891 Peter was again living by the top lock, and he was listed as a Canal Clerk. There was a new toll clerk next door, John Morgan.

Sadly several of Peter and Ann's children died young. Edith was the first to die, aged 22 months, on 29 May 1891. Ernest was the next to die, aged 11, in 1897.

1901

In the 1901 census, 2 The Lock was named as 'The Canal Locks'. Peter Allsop was listed as a 49 year old canal boat clerk, living with his wife Ann, and five of their children, Frank, age 25, was a market gardener, Walter age 21, an iron moulder, Willie age 19, a stoker, Arthur age 17, an iron moulder. The youngest were Alice aged 13, and Ruth aged 8. Their grandson, Emma's son Frederick Charles Edden, was staying with them at the time of the census, probably to help his mother, who had just give birth to a new baby, Maud.

1902

Peter and Ann's son Willie George Allsop had been born in 1882. In 1901 Willie was working as a stoker at a brickyard. He would have been kept busy cleaning, firing, and watching over its boilers and furnaces. There was a brickyard right opposite the lock cottages, but it had closed by 1902, so I think he might have worked at the brick and tile works at the end of what is now Clifford Street. Willie was a Staff Sergeant in the Glascote Company of the Church Lads Brigade. I wrote to them to see whether he was mentioned in their magazine, but they have not replied. Willie died of tubercular meningitis on 7^th November 1902. He seems to have been a popular lad. The Church Lads Brigade attended his memorial service, and his fellow workers (he was still a brickyard fireman) erected this surprisingly large headstone for him. It’s beginning to lean over and show its age now, but it still stands as a lasting memorial to a young man who died far too young.

Two years later his parents placed a notice in the local paper. It read: "IN MEMORIAM. In loving memory of Willie George Allsop of Glascote Locks, who died November 7^th 1902 aged 20 years. Two years have passed and still we miss him. Friends may think the wound is healed, yet they little know the sorrow, deep within our hearts concealed. Thy will be done. From his Father and Mother, Brothers and Sisters."

1904

In 1904 Peter's son Walter married Mary Ann Hood. They had a son, Reginald Walter Allsop on 1st July 1905, but in February 1906 tragedy struck when Walter died.

1906

In October 1906 Peter and Ann's son Frank married Annie Butcher. They went on to have five children.

1908

Peter's wife Ann Allsop drowned in the canal in 1908, about 30 yards north of the lock, having gone out in the fog to meet her daughter.

Ann was buried at Glascote Cemetery.

1911

In the 1911 census Peter Allsop was listed as a widower, age 59. Peter was still a toll clerk for the Coventry Canal Company. Three of his five surviving children were living with him: Arthur, age 27, who was an iron moulder, Alice, age 23, who was a tape weaver, and Ruth, age 18, along with Emma's son Frederick Edden, now aged 12, and Walter's son, Reginald Walter Allsop, age 5. It is likely that Peter had adopted Reginald, whose mother had remarried and started a new family.

Later that year, Peter's youngest daughter Ruth got married to Frank Tape.

1913

In 1913 Arthur married Martha Brown.

1915

In 1915 Alice Allsop married Christopher Leedham, a local miner.

1921

In Peter's later years, his daughter Ruth, her husband Frank, and their three children lived at the Lock cottage with him.

1929

Peter Allsop died at 2 The Locks, on 8 Jan 1929, from shock after falling into the lock.

Peter, Ann, and several of their children, are buried in Glascote Cemetery, which is right beside the Coventry Canal. Despite Peter's long career as a canal clerk, not one of his children continued in the canal business.