Edward Clulow
EDWARD CLULOW Victorian railway booking clerk, bookseller, newsagent, stationer and sub-office Postmaster (by Peter Billson)
Edward Clulow was the son of William and Elizabeth Clulow. He was born at Hathern, Leicestershire in 1812 and baptised there on 21 June. In 1815 the Clulows had a second child, a daughter who was named Eliza. On 28 February 1834 Edward Clulow married Elizabeth Mary Frake of nearby Castle Donington.
Sometime before 1835 Edward and Elizabeth moved to Oatlands Park which lies close to Weybridge, Surrey. What took the Clulows there is unknown, but there is record of an Aaron Clulow marrying one Elizabeth perkins earlier on 4 April 1819 at nearby Chertsey, oniy 4 miles away from Oatlands. It is quite possible that Aaron was an older rilative of Edward's and may have encouraged him to kavel to Surrey for a ProsPect of employment of some sort. On 25 July 1834 the projected London and Southampton Railway was incorporated by Act of Parliament' By 21 Uay f ila3 tn. fi.st section of the line had been opened for public traffic from its London terminus at Nine Elms through to Woking Common in Surrey, with one of the intemediate stations located at Weybridge The consti:ctio1 of the railway had necessitated maior earthworks in constructing the long deep cutting past Oatlands and through Weybridge. These works and the coming of the railway must have excited local interest and living nearby, Et*ara Clulow would have been equally aware. There is no known record but it is quite a possibility that ddward obtained a post with the railway comPany at Weybridge Station, and this in turn may irave led to his subsequent railway emptoyment at Derby. All that is of certain record of this period is that Edward and Elizabettr had two sons while living at Oatlands - George, baptised at Weybridge on 17 January 1835, and William baptised there on 9 April 1837. Edward Clulow came with his family to Derby at the time of the opening of the North Midland Railway on 1 July 1840. It isn't known why the Clulows came to Derby from Weybridge but it may have been the opportunity of advancement in employment at the headquarters of this new railway, together with the chance to return near to the area of their origins.
The North Midland Railway had been building its line betrveen Derby and Leeds since 1835, but it was not until 1838 that it was agreed with two other companies coming to Derby - the Midland Counties and the Birmingham & Derby junction Railway that a joint station should be built at Castlefields. Of these .companies only the North Midlinds decided to make its headquarters at Derby and base these in the station building - the great Derby Tri-Junct station designed by Francis Thompson.
By early 1841 the North Midland Company had found it necessary to build houses for its employees and therefore let con6acts for 92 houses and a pub to be built oPPosite to the station frontage. These were laid out in a triangular plan with four shops incorporated in the layout, two of these on the corners of the triangle, and ,,The Bruiswick Railway and Commercial Inn" at the apex pointing to Siddals Lane. The first houses were complete in 1841, although the whole group was not finished until early 1843.
The Clulows' third child was a daughter called Emma, born in St Werburgh's Parish, Derby in 1840. The Clulows seem therefore to have rented a house or lodged somewhere in that parish before moving into one of the newly-completed North Midland houses, no 8 Midland Place (then called Midland Terrace) in early 1842. At that time Ed-ard was described as a book-keeper with the North Midland Railway. The Clulows subsequently had their fourth child that year (7842), another daughter who they called Elizabeth. It happened that thls house, no 8, lay iust outside the Derby Town boundary and in adiacent Litchurch Township, since the dividing line cut across the Midtand Place/Railway Terrace corner of the triangle. However, she was born in the Derby St Peter's Parish as the ecclesiastical parish extended beyond t}te town boundary and encompassed Litchurch.
On 10 May 1844 the three railways at Derby amalgamated to form the Midland Railway Company, creating a much gteater enterprise, but significantly retaining and centring its headquarters and works at berty. mwira Clulow was retained by the new establishment and continued to live at no 8 Midland Place. In 1845 we find him described as a railway clerk. A fifth child, Edward junior, had been born in late 1845 and the family was completed with the arrival of a further daughter called Caroline in early 1848. These last two children were baptised at the new church of Christ Church (built 1838-41) on the Normanton Road, so by 1845 the Clulows seem to have joined that congregation. Possibly the pressures of financial need and extra space for a sixth child were the catalyst, or it may simply have been pure enterprise on Clulow's part in moving in about late 1848 into the shop and much larger house known as no 23 Railway Terrace on the corner of Midland Place, prominently opposite the station. Edward Clulow then became listed in Directories as a 'Bookseller and Clerk on the Midland Railway'. Presumably his wife Elizabeth ran the shop whilst Edward worked over at t}re station. The 1840s had been difficult economic years nationally, but despite some revival in the mid-decade it wasn't until 18'18 that the economy began to revive, continuing onwards into the 1850s. This circumstance may also have been an encouragement to Edward Clulow to ventqre into business. The shop/house, no 23, was paired with no 22 Railway Terrace. These two houses were different from all the other houses in the group in being the only three storey dwellings, although like a1l the others they additionally had basement kjtchens, larders and coal stores. The shop had originally been occupied by an Ellen Poulton in 1842 and may well have been a grocery. In 1846 John and Charles Bakewell were there as 'Grocers and Tea Deaiers'. Adiacent no 22 was purely a house and originally occupied by George Rickman, the first stationmaster at Derby. Rickman moved out across to the station building when Matthew Kirtley, the celebrated first Locomotive Superintendent of the Midland Railway came to take up his post in 1844 and went to live in no 22. These moves were reversed when Kirtley went to live at The Mount, Burton Road in the later 1850s and Rickman then moved back in until his untimely accidental death in 1855. These two houses together with another thirteen adjacent, including Clulow's original house, no 8, were demolished in 1891 to make way for the new Midland Railway Institute which was built over t}re site. By 1851 Edward Clulow was described as a 'Railway Clerk in the Booking Office' while at the same time continuing as a 'Bookseller and Stationer'. The separate business was expanding, since by this time he had secured the right to trade on the station itself selling newspapers and books. This he would continue to so until the largel comPany of W.H. Smith supplanted him on Derby and other Midtand stations in around 1859. By 1851 the family also had a live-in shop assistant Henrietta Gandy, who was a relative, and a house servant, 21 year old Elizabeth Squire - both from Syston, Leicestershire. Although Edward Clulow had advanced by the age of 45 to the position of Head Clerk in the Derby Booking Office of the Midland Railway, he also extended his private business by opening in 1858 an additional shop in the centre of town in Victoria Street. But prior to this he had with foresight purchased a plot of tand in December 1850 on the corner of Park Street and Midland Road. The plot was bought from the Trustees of the Borough or Borrow Estate who still owned an extensive remainder of the original Castlefields lands. It cost f,503 and had a frontage of 69'-9" (27.26m) to Midland Road, immediately adjoining the recently built york Hotel, and with a site area of 1059 sq yds (885.43m2;. When bought, the site was in use for allotment rype gardens for local houses. Clulow didn't build on the site until the later 1850s. But shortly after opening t-he Victoria Street shop in 1858 Clulow had a new shop buitt on the right hand side of the site next to the york. Over the shop were two floors of domestic rooms. To the rear a garden was laid ou! with greenhouses at the bottom against outbuildings and a coach-house ' with access to the latter of Park Street. The Park Street side of the site was later built on with an office building used in the late 189Os/early 1900s by the Midland Railway's Architects Department. The eldest CIuIow son, George, and Edward junior both worked in the family firm. By 1862 George was living in his own house on Litchurch Tertace on Osmaston Road, next to Litchurch Street Edward junior ultimately took ovel the management of the Victoria Street shop. William, however, followed his father's original course and in 1862 is described as a railrvay clerk on the Midland Railway and living at 15 Sacheverell Street. Of the girls nothing further is known other than Miss Emma was still alive in 1910, living at "Branksome", 8 Mill Hill Lane, Derby. When the Midland Road shop opened, the Clulows moved out of 23 Railway Terrace, giving up the original shop there at the same time as Edward Clulow gave up his railway employment. The new Midland Road shop was advertised as EDWARD CLULOW & SON - Printers, Booksellers, Stationers, Binders, Subscription Library, and agents to the Railway Passengers Assurance Co. The Victoria Street shop had traded under a similar styte. Shortly after, the Midland Road shop added - "the supply of all London, Provincial daily and other newspapers, including Foreign, advertising agent and agent to the Caledonian Insurance Company'' to its already extensive list. On 10 January 1840 the new system of uniform penny post came into operation nationally, followed on 6 May by the use of the pre-paid 'penny black' stamps. A post office sorting office was established at the new Derby SLtion when it opened shortly after on 30 June 1840, as mails were already being carried on the early railways. A facility for posting letters at the Station was provided from 19 August that year, but until 1855 the sole Post Office in Derby was the one under the Royal Hotel in the Cornmarket. By that year the General Post Office had decided that a branch office was needed near the Midland Station. A minute of 31 January 1865 records: " Recziaing House and M.O.O. to be established in Midland Road. The Reuioers salary to be f3 pu yeat u/ith E1 allowanu for second collection." T"tte Derby Mercury newspaper for 15 March 1855 reported: "Btanch ffice in Midtand Road to be opened on 1 Ayil. Mr Charles Chadfield, stationer, is to be appointed to keep the officz." Savings Bank facilities were provided from 8 May 1855. Chadfield's shop was at no 9 Midland Road, two shops past the Station Inn, towards the London Road. This initial provision proved short lived for some reason. On 1 September that year Edward Clulow was appointed Post Office Receiver (ie Postmaster) instead, at the higher salary of €5 per annum and the branch post office was kansferred into his Midland Road shop. These Midland Road branch offices were in fact the first sub-post office to be provided in Derby, although in actuality it was just inside Litchurch until the borough boundary was extended a decade later. In August 1872 it was agreed by the General Post Office that a Telegraph Office for the public, and Midland Hotel guests use, should be provided at Edward Clulow's sub-post office, in view of its convenient Position opposite the Hotel and nearness to the Station. For this exba duty Clulow was paid an additional allowance of f,10 a year. From its convenient position Edward Clulow's post office soon came to supply all the Midland Railway Company's postal needs for its head office in Derby. By 1876 Clulow further widened his business in Midland Road by including additional goods as the "Derbyshire Spa and Marble Repository''. George Pratt in his Midland Railway reminiscences described Clulow thus: "Edward Clulow hnd a fine shop ulith statiot&ry goods in one toindmo and chint ornaments in the othet. He was a oery irascible ffian, and thc aerbal encounter he had atith his customer .... (who) often uent ready t'or the fray ..... helped to gioe the by-gotu to dull care" . In October 1887 Edward Clulow retired and sold the Midland Road shop. At the same time he resigned as a Post Office receiver and the sub-post office in the shop was closed. As a temporary arrangement the postal provisions were transferred to the Parcel Post Office on Carrington Street south of Midland Road, until a substantial new post office was built shortly after by the GPO, fronting the Midland Road. Edward Clulow was 75 when he retired. He died 19 months later on 8 June 1889 at his home'Treoworth' 132 Whitaker Road, Derby, the house built for him in around 1851 on the then new Littleover Hill Estate. Edward Clulow junior continued to run the Victoria Street shop under the amended title EDWARD CLULOW JUNR, stitl offering the same extensive range of services, but with the further additions of 'Librarian' (he offered a subscription library) and 'agent for Thomas Cook & Son'. Following his father's death Edward iunr. went to live in the Whitaker Road house. fi Sometime between 1904 and 1910 Edward junior closed the Victoria Street shop (Burton's Menswear currently spreads over the site) and expanded into much larger premises at no 2 Iron Gate. This splendid 4 storey shop had been built in 1859-71 for J & G Haywood - ironmongers and ironfounders. With an outstanding elegant frontage of cast iron, it had been designed by the distinguished architect Owen Jones and fabricated in Haywoods' own Phoenix foundry in Exeter Street. Edward Clulow junior's business continued in this shop until 1922 when he had to move out as the premises regrettably were to be demolished with other shops to make way for Barlow & Taylor's new department store (now converted to the Derbyshire Building Society's city branch). Clulow moved to a smaller shop at no 18 Iron Gate on the corner of St Mary's Gate, where booksellers remain today under the continuing name of Clulows - although Edward junior, the last Clulow in the business retired in the tate 1920s. In conclusion. it is also of interest that Edward Clulow Junior was a founding subscribing Member of the Derbyshire ArchaeologicaI Society back in 1878.