The Harrison family lived in the end terrace house on the left of this postcard between 1891 and 1919.
Walter Harrison and Harriet Dunnett (née Tinley) were married in 1864 and began their married life living in Doe’s Alley in Melton. Their first son, Anthony, was born in 1864 and their second, Frederick, arrived two years later in 1866. In 1881, the family moved to The Street, where the whole family were in employment; Walter as a maltster’s labourer, Harriet, as a staymaker, and both Anthony and Frederick, as foundry labourers. In 1883, Walter and Harriet’s third son, Harry, was born. Walter and Harriet continued to live at 83 The Street for the rest of their lives. Walter died in 1919 at the age of seventy-eight and Harriet, in 1928, at the age of eighty-six.
By 1891, the elder sons, Frederick and Anthony, had left the family home. Anthony married Agnes Taylor in 1893, moved to Foxhall Road, Ipswich, and worked as a labourer. While Frederick married Eliza Lilley in Lexden, Essex, in 1892. Ten years later, in 1901, Frederick and Eliza had had four children; Anthony, Frederick, Ernest and May. Frederick Sr. was working as a blacksmith in Stoke-by-Nayland.
By 1900, Walter and Harriet’s youngest son, Harry, had left home. He became a professional soldier and in 1911, was recorded in the census as serving in India.
His brother Frederick, by this time, was a shoeing smith living at The Forge in West Bergholt. Federick Sr’s eldest son Anthony had left home and was working as a blacksmith’s striker in Colchester, while Frederick Jr. was helping his father in the forge. Their youngest, Ernest, was an errand boy.
When the First World War broke out, Harry was still in the services with the 8th Hussars. Anthony and Frederick were too old to serve, but Frederick’s sons were not. There are no records to show that Anthony or Frederick Jr. served in the war, but Ernest did with the 1st Essex Regiment.