The Braithwaite's Coachman

We have heard from Mike Wearing in Nova Scotia, Canada, who used to live in the area and whose grandfather worked for the Braithwaites at The Highlands.

Mike writes:

"My grandfather, Joseph Henry Wearing, worked for Mr. Joseph Bevan Braithwaite and his son Joseph Gurney Braithwaite, as a coachman and later as a chauffeur as well as a gardener.

Joseph Gurney Braithwaite, was the Member of Parliament for the Hillsborough Division of Sheffield. Braithwaite's father was Joseph Bevan Braithwaite of Blencathra, Burnham-on-Sea. Joseph Bevan Braithwaite was a stock share broker (1901 census) and Chairman of the City of London Electric Lighting Company. (He got my father, William Leonard Wearing, his first job as a draughtsman at their Bankside Power Station, in Southwark, London.). Joseph Gurney Braithwaite lived at the Highlands, Abbotts Road, New Barnet when Parliament was sitting and at Burnham-on-Sea during the holidays. One of Joseph Henry Wearing's jobs was to walk the horses from New Barnet to Paddington station in London for transportation to Burnham by train when the family was going on holiday. When he and Rose Poarch married, Braithwaite built a cottage, named Rose Cottage (named after my grandmother) for them in the grounds of the Highlands. The cottage was called Tudor Cottage in the 1950's.

Rose Cottage/Tudor Cottage was along a drive to the left off Abbotts Road (going uphill). The second cottage along this lane had a gate into the Highlands near the pump-house for the waterfall.

My grandparents moved from Rose Cottage to the second cottage once they had children. There was a stable/garage adjacent to the second cottage. My grandparents had four children, now all deceased.

My grandmother, was born at Burnham-on-Sea and was employed as a children's nurse by the Braithwaite's. That is how she met my grandfather.

Joseph Gurney Braithwaite paid for the paddling pool at Burnham-on-Sea in thanks for his sons (all) surviving World War 1.

Air Raid shelters were built on the lawn tennis courts during the War. I remember them being demolished after the war.

I lived in Bulwer Road, New Barnet, from 1942 to 1955."