Once again, PeaBee has done some research on a subject of only
peripheral interest to his main line of enquiry, (appropriately enough on
bees!) so, not wishing to waste it, he offers it to his various readers. In
this case, the research has not been in great depth – although it ended up
being wide ranging and Topsy-like. It was done to answer a couple of questions
– which it did – and another question, which it didn’t. Never mind, perhaps
someone else will find some of it useful.
Beekeepers’ Appliance Manufacturers in Bromley and Aylesbury
The Apriary, 24
Stanley Road, Mason’s Hill, Bromley, Kent
Chudleigh Villa, 22
Bierton Road, Ayelsbury, Bucks
These were small, related
businesses but interesting nonetheless. The Bromley company appears to have
been started by Stephen James Baldwin,
a former Metropolitan Police Sergeant, in the 1870s. Baldwin may have employed
a young carpenter, William Barwell,
in addition to his adopted son, Robert
Baldwin, to make the beehives. About 1900, these two younger men moved to
Bierton Road, Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and set up a beehive business there.
Meanwhile, the Bromley business continued under Stephen Baldwin until his death
in 1904 when it was taken over by his housekeeper Elizabeth Seadon, and then by her son Edwin Roger Seadon. In 1922, the business was incorporated into a
London-based firm, although Edwin Seadon continued working for the new
organisation as works manager. Later it appears the business, which always
traded as S. J. Baldwin, regained its independence under Edwin Seadon although he
also became a house decorator. William Barwell had returned to Bromley by 1911
and lived in 12 Stanley Road, working as a carpenter, although perhaps helping
the Seadons in the beehive business.
Stephen James Baldwin (1833-1904) was the youngest of five children
born in Kemsing, Kent, to Kipps Baldwin
(1759-1836) and Joanna Downs
(1801-1867) before Kipps died in 1836. Stephen was baptised on 14 April 1833.
[The name Kipps Baldwin appears in several generations of the family,
both in Kent and in the USA]
Joanna (who
was originally from County Kerry) later married William Hunt (b1802) from Galway on 22 October 1839 at Christ
Church, Marylebone.
[The record has her name as Balding but as she could only make her mark,
she may not have realised the name was misspelt, and the priest at Marylebone
may not have understand her or her husband’s Irish accents]
Stephen lived
with his mother and stepfather in Kemsing in 1851, where he was an agricultural
labourer, and William an umbrella maker. Stephen married Ann Morris (1827-1889) in Lewisham in 1856. He had joined the
Metropolitan Police and by 1861 had been promoted sergeant.
Joanna and
William had two children, the youngest being Ann Phoebe Hunt (b1843).
Stephen
Baldwin seems to have been close to his young half-sister, even after she
married and emigrated to America. She was living with Stephen and family in
Dulwich in 1861 (noted as step-sister) and gave her address as Upper Norwood
when she married Alfred Smith Campbell
(1839-1912) at Greenwich in 1863.
The Campbells had
two children in England before emigrating to the USA in 1866. They lived in New
Jersey and had several more children including Charlotte Campbell (b1875) and Isabel
(or Isabella) Campbell (b1880) (In later life, Stephen would take an annual
holiday at their home.)
Police
Sergeant Stephen Baldwin and his wife Ann had moved to Gipsy Cottage, South Vale, Upper Norwood by 1871 and had a visitor, Ellen Mercer (b1844), and her
8-year-old son Robert Mercer, living
with them. However, 10 years later, this young man was listed as Robert Baldwin (1862-1954), living with
Stephen and Ann at 24 Stanley Road, Bromley. There was no sign of his mother.
[Ellen Mercer was born in Lymington, Hampshire in about 1840. She was a
lodger in St Pancras in 1861 and was listed as the wife of a gentleman’s
coachman, although her husband was absent; he was also absent in 1871 – Ellen
said she was married, not widowed. Robert was born in Finsbury in 1862.]
The British Bee Journal, in it issue of
1 October 1874, opened its report on The Great Bee and Honey Show at the
Crystal Palace: “This wonderful exhibition, which has formed the chief topic
for discussion in the British Bee Journal during several past months, was
duly-held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the 8th, 9th, and 10th of
September last, and in its result was most eminently successful. No such
exhibition has ever before been attempted in the United Kingdom, and its promoters
have every reason to congratulate themselves on the apiarian wisdom which
induced them to project so extraordinary an undertaking.”
The journal
also reported: “Mr. S. J. Baldwin, a sergeant of Police at the Palace,
exhibited a hive which, although unnoticed by the judges, attracted a great
deal of attention; in its manufacture it embodied many of the principles
enunciated in the British Bee Journal, and obtained a cheerful purchaser at
three guineas.”
Stephen
Baldwin was also mentioned in the list of prizewinners in the Cottagers Class,
taking second place “for the largest and best exhibition of super honey in
comb, gathered by one stock, or united swarms of bees, the property of the
exhibitor” and third “for the best exhibition of honey in comb, produced in one
apiary, without the destruction of the bees”.
He was to take
many more prizes in shows across the country in the years to come – and sell
many more hives.
Stephen
Baldwin had left the police to devote more time to his bees and at the AGM of
the British Bee-keeper’s Association held on 12 February 1879, “Mr. S. J. Baldwin was appointed as expert
to conduct the manipulations and give lessons in bee-management” at various county shows in a
specially-constructed Bee Tent. It was also announced that “Mr. S. J. Baldwin had been appointed agent for a prominent Italian apiarian, who had shown
himself to be most anxious to become connected with the British Association”.
His address was still being given as Gipsy Cottage, South Vale, Upper Norwood as late as the autumn of 1880,
but then the following letter appeared in The
British Bee Journal:
HONEY SALESMAN.
Will you kindly allow me through your Journal to inform the members of the British Bee-keepers’ Association, and also the members of the affiliated County Associations, that I, as the authorised officer or agent, have, with the concurrence of the Honey Sales Committee, made arrangements with some of the oldest and most respectable houses in London who are willing to take any reasonable quantity of good honey put up in a neat and saleable form 1 Comb-honey in sections or boxes of 1 lb. and 2 lb. each glazed, will command the best price and quickest sale. Any member wishing to sell his honey has only to communicate with me, and send a sample, carriage paid, in the form in which it is to be offered, stating the lowest price he will take, and the quantity he has to dispose of. As soon after the sale has been effected as possible, I will remit, by post-office order or otherwise, the amount realised less the very small commission of five per cent.
— S. J. Baldwin, Expert of the British Bee-keepers' Association.
The Apiary, Stanley Road, Bromley, Kent,
1st. January, 1881.
According to
the census, he had become an “Apiarian Appliance Maker” by 1881, and Robert was
listed as an “Apiarian Worker”, an arrangement that was continued in 1891 after
the death of Ann Baldwin in 1889.
Robert Baldwin
married Annie Elizabeth Penfold
(1869-1941) from Farnborough on 16 October 1893.
Annie was the
daughter of the landlord of the Coach & Horses Inn, Farnborough, Henry Nathaniel Penfold (1844-1906) and
his wife Anne Matilda (nee Mitchell)
(1840-1907).
In 1901,
Robert was with his parents-in-law and was listed as a bee-keeper while his
wife was in Aylesbury in a house called Chudleigh Villa, Bierton Road, a
property shared with William Barwell
and his family. William Barwell was described as an Apiarian Appliance
Manufacturer. In 1911 Robert was in Aylesbury with Annie at 22 Bierton Road,
and was described as a bee expert. Robert ceased to be listed in local business
directories after 1911 and the couple later moved to 2 St Mary’s Square,
Aylesbury. Annie died in 1941 and Robert remarried in 1943, Grace Edith Taylor (1896-1963). He died
in 1954 and Grace in 1863.
William
Barwell (1868-) had been born in Swanley, Kent. In 1891, he was living with his
parents in Aylesbury Road, Bromley, and was described as a beehive maker. He
married Minnie Smitherton (b1875) in
Bromley in 1898. The couple had two children, the first born in Bromley in 1900
and the second in Chatham in 1904: it would appear that the Barwells were not
long in Aylesbury – perhaps only visiting on census night, perhaps just helping
Robert Baldwin set up his business. Certainly, by 1911, the Barwells were back
in Bromley, significantly at 12 Stanley Road, and William was described as a
carpenter and joiner.
Robert Edward Seadon (1842-1899) from
Suffolk married Elizabeth Mitchell
(1850-1915) from Hayes in Kent in Bromley on 17 April 1876.
[If there is any relationship between Elizabeth Mitchell and Anne
Matilda Mitchell, it could not have been close. Both had fathers called John
born about the same time, one in Chelsfield and the other in Farnborough]
Robert was a
gardener and Elizabeth had been a servant in Bromley College, a charity
providing housing for the widows of clergymen. In 1881, the Seadon family –
Robert, Elizabeth, Edwin and William (1879-1883) – lived at 21 Stanley Road.
Ten years later, they were at 19 Stanley Road. Robert was still a gardener but
15-year-old Edwin had become errand boy. Soon after the 1891 census was taken,
Robert and Elizabeth had a daughter, Annie
Louise M Seadon (b1891).
In 1898, Edwin Robert Seadon (1876-1950) married
Ada Maria Bagshaw (1870-1910) and
the following year their first daughter, Annie
Elizabeth A Seadon (1899-1906), was born.
In Bromley in
1901, Stanley Baldwin was still at 24 Stanley Road as a beehive manufacturer. The
recently widowed Elizabeth Seadon was his housekeeper, and lived at No 24 with
her daughter Annie, not quite 10. Next door at No 23 was Edwin Seadon, Ada and
their daughter.
There were
other people staying at 23 and 24 Stanley Road: the Campbell family (Stephen
Baldwin’s half-sister and family) visited England from New Jersey, arriving 22
March 1901 in time for the census – the parents, Ann and Alfred Campbell,
stayed at 23 Stanley Road (home of Edwin Seadon) while two daughters, Charlotte
and Isabel, were at 24 Stanley Road. Also in the Baldwin household was another
of Stephen’s “nieces”, Florence Baldwin
(b1855), in fact the granddaughter of Stephen’s eldest brother, John.
On 8 October
1904, Stephen Baldwin sailed from Liverpool in order to visit the Campbells at
their home in New Jersey, as he had on several occasions before. He landed in
New York on 15 October.
Stephen died
on 30 December 1904 while still in New Jersey; he was 71. His apiarian
appliance business was then taken over by his former housekeeper, Elizabeth
Seadon, to whom he left it in his will.
There was a
brief announcement of his death in The
British Bee Journal on 12 January 1905:
Mr J S Baldwin (sic)
We deeply regret to announce the
death, on December 30, of the above highly-esteemed bee-appliance manufacturer
of Bromley, Kent. The sad news reached us from the family – soon after its
receipt by cablegram – too late for insertion last week, and pending further
particulars, which are to follow, we defer a more lengthy notice of our friend,
the late well-known bee expert. It may be remembered that we inserted in our
issue of September 15 last, a brief notice of Mr Baldwin’s departure for
America on a visit to his sister, and we learn that he had already booked his
passage home on steamer leaving New York on 7th inst. His demise was therefore
probably sudden and quite unexpected.
We are requested to say that the
business will be carried on as usual at the old – and only – addresss, The
Apiary, Bromley, Kent.
A fortnight
later, BBJ published the following
obituary:
DEATH OF MR. S. J. BALDWIN.
Following the brief notice, on page
19 of our issue for January 12, notifying the death of Mr. S. J. Baldwin, we
have now received further particulars, which will no doubt be read with
sympathetic interest by many.
It was known to Mr. Baldwin's
family and his more intimate friends that he never quite recovered from the
shock received some years ago while attending a show in the country. A sudden
terrific thunderstorm broke over the place, and Mr. Baldwin, who had taken
momentary refuge under a tree, was struck down by lightning. He soon recovered,
however, and was able to attend to business as usual, though the effects never
entirely left him.
After establishing himself at
Bromley, Kent, his business grew and prospered, and — as will be seen in the
illustration — he established a good-sized apiary, where hives of all types
could be seen at work, and where the business will still continue to be carried
on in his name as usual.
The late Mr. Baldwin occupied a
prominent position in the bee-world for between twenty-five and thirty years,
and was the first bee expert and lecturer engaged by the British Bee-keepers'
Association to give demonstrations in the bee-tent with live bees at shows and
elsewhere. His services in this connection extending over a number of years —
indeed, long after he became a manufacturer of bee appliances — and those who
have seen him in the bee-tent will remember his many gifts as a fluent and
interesting lecturer, one whose audiences never wearied of his cheery and
ready-witted addresses on the hive-bee and its work.
The business at Bromley was not
confined to the home trade, for he sent bees and bee goods to all parts of the
world, including America, Australia, Canada, the West Indies, and New Zealand.
To the last-named place we remember him sending also a large consignment of
humble bees in 1884 for the purpose of fertilising the seed of red clover in
that country.
Though advancing years had begun to
tell on him, he was able to attend to business up to the last, the only rest he
took being a two or three months' holiday at intervals of a few years, which he
always spent with his sister, Mrs. Campbell, who with her husband emigrated to
the U.S.A. some years ago, and the latter has now established a very large
photographic business at New Jersey. He always returned home reinvigorated by
his American trip, the last outing being notified in our pages a few months
ago.
The latest communication received
at Bromley from Mrs. Campbell mentioned his having paid a visit to
Philadelphia, and the weather turning cold very suddenly, he caught a chill,
which caused him to return to New Jersey at once, where he was confined to his
room for some days. The last letter he ever wrote was penned from this room on
Boxing Day, and in it he mentions “having to keep his room through a bad cold,
but hoped to be well enough to start for home on January 7, for which date his
passage had been already booked.”
He died on December 30, and was
interred at Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.A. It will, we think, surprise many
besides ourselves to find that our late friend would have completed his
seventy-third year on March 20 next had he lived. The portrait on page 34 is
from the latest photograph of him, taken in America at Mr. Campbell's studio.
Mr. Baldwin has willed the business
to Mrs. Elizabeth Seadon, who was his devoted housekeeper during the whole time
he was a widower, Mrs. Baldwin having died in 1889. He never had any family,
but of late years Mr. Edwin R. Seadon (who is seen in the apiary along with Mr.
Baldwin), son of Mrs. Seadon, has been intended to carry on the business for
his mother, and was very carefully trained with that object by Mr. Baldwin
himself. Indeed, Mr. Seadon for some years has, we learn, done all the expert
work connected with the apiary, and is fully acquainted with all the necessary
details of the business in all its branches, so that it will continue, as heretofore,
at the old place under the old name.
[In a rather spooky
aside here, just a few days before finding this obituary, PeaBee heard a piece
on BBC Radio 4 which mentioned that a conservationist group were trying to
re-establish a species of bumble bee that had gone extinct in the UK. The group
had discovered that someone in the 19th century had shipped this
particular species to New Zealand to pollinate the red clover that had been
introduced as cattle feed, and the bees were thriving there. However, the New
Zealand bees had mutated into a slightly different race and so the
recolonization of Kent was being done with Swedish bees!]
Kelly’s Directory
of Kent for 1913 has under category heading “Beehive & Beekeepers’
Appliance Manufacturer” the entry: Seadon Mrs Elizabeth, 24 Stanley rd, Mason’s
hill, Bromley. The 1911 census shows Elizabeth Seadon and her daughter Annie at
24 Stanley Road. Elizabeth is referred to as a beekeepers’ appliance
manufacturer while Annie is involved in “home work” – it is not made clear if
this means she ran the home or worked at home (possibly in the bee appliance
business).
Edwin Seadon’s
wife Ada died early in 1910 and at the time of the 1911 census, Edwin was
listed at 23 Stanley Road, with two young daughters: Ethel Winifred Grace Seadon (b1902) and Gertrude Maggie Morris
Seadon (1907-1934). He was described as a “Bee Appliance Maker and Bee
Expert”.
Elizabeth was
proud of her granddaughter Ethel and, in the 1909 equivalent of Facebook,
“posted” the following letter (and a photograph) in The British Bee Journal:
OUR YOUNGEST LADY BEE-KEEPER.
I have pleasure in sending you a
photograph of one of the youngest bee-keepers in the world, my grandchild,
Ethel Grace Seadon, who is in her eighth year. She goes into the bee-tent with
her father and drives the bees while he gives his lecture, and is quite as
skilful as a grown-up person in managing her little pets. She is to assist her
father at the Beckenham Flower Show this summer, and her presence in the
bee-tent, fearlessly handling the “dangerous insects” (as some people think
them), is quite an object-lesson to spectators as showing how harmless bees are
when properly managed.
— Mrs. Seadon, Bromley, Kent.
After the
death of his mother in 1915, Edwin Seadon took over the beehive business and
moved his family into 24 Stanley Road: directories of 1918 and 1922 give him as
a beehive and beekeepers’ appliance manufacturer at that address.
In both 1921
and 1922 the Kent and the Surrey Bee-keepers’ Associations held a joint honey
show at the Crystal Palace and in 1923 they decided to broaden its basis to a
National Show. The originally suggested title of “Home Counties Honey Show” was
abandoned in favour of “The National Show of Bees & Honey”. Edwin Seadon
was one of the organising committee members representing the Kent association.
The show continued at Crystal Palace until the fire.
The juveniles
in the family continued their precocious interest in bees. Several local
newspapers across the country carried a syndicated report on 8 September 1927:
BOY BEEKEEPER
TOOK FIRST SWARM AT THE AGE OF TWO
A 13-year-old boy, with a handful
of live bees, was one of the sights at the National Show of Bees and Honey,
which opened at the Crystal Palace today.
He is Edwin Seadon, son of a
Bromley (Kent) beekeeper, and has helped his father with the bees for 11 years.
“I took my first swarm when I was two years old,” he said. “I held the skep
while father shook the bough. I missed the queen, though. I can do better now.
Yes, I am interested in beekeeping, and want to take it up as a trade. I am not
at all afraid of the bees. I am used to them.”
On 8 June
1922, The British Bee Journal carried
the following announcement as part of an advertisement for Dickinson & Owen
Ltd (“The only Bee and Hive store in London”):
TO MY PATRONS —
I wish to announce that the Bee Hive
and Appliance business which I have been carrying on under the original title
of S. J. Baldwin for eighteen years, with which I have been connected for the
past 30 years, and which is the oldest Bee Hive business in the United Kingdom,
has been amalgamated with that of the “Langstroth” Specialists, Messrs.
Dickinson & Owen, Ltd., of 25, Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn Circus, E.C.4,
who will continue the business as before, utilising the plant and machinery,
wax foundation mills, etc., for the production of “Langstroth” Hives and
equipment.
I have much pleasure in stating
that I shall be joining Messrs. Dickinson & Owen, Ltd., as Works Manager,
and continuing at the old address, Stanley Road, Bromley, where a full range of
samples and stock will be kept. For those who find it necessary to continue use
of British Standard sizes, a stock will be kept on hand.
Not being a victim of prejudice, I
have become a convert to the “Langstroth” Hives, which I consider suitable in
every way for use in this country, and I am quite convinced that they will soon
be the Standard Hives in the United Kingdom as in most countries.
Their great simplicity is the
compelling feature, and should appeal to all.
Trusting that your greatly esteemed
patronage of the past will be continued to the new firm, and proffering my best
thanks for favours received.
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) E. R. SEADON.
Dickinson & Owen’s take on the merger was:
The letter on the opposite column
speaks for itself, so we need not repeat the announcement; but in confirming it
we would like to say that the combination of the oldest Bee Hive business in
the country with one of the youngest, combining the ripe experience of many
years with the vigour, enterprise, and initiative of youth, should surely make
for success, bringing us many new friends and, we trust, no enemies.
However, the
“vigour of youth” lacked staying power and this union did not last long –
Dickinson & Owen seems to have disappeared in short order and Edwin Seadon
was back running the business still under its long-time trading name of S J
Baldwin. The last mention so far found is in Kelly’s 1938 Directory. However the
family had also taken a new line of work in the 1930s: E. R. Seadon & Son,
decorators.
Edwin snr died
in 1950 and left an estate valued at £310 0s 9d. The family continued to live
at 24 Stanley Road – in Edwin jnr’s case until about 1966.
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