Frederick H Nicholls & Emily Alice Calver

frederick holness Nicholls 1878-1943
& (emily) alice calver 1880-1973

Frederick, the son of Thomas and Emily Nicholls, was born on 2 May 1878 at Hackington, on the outskirts of Canterbury in Kent. In his youth Frederick delivered bread for a baker whose shop was in the High Street at New Romney. His rounds included Iden Parsonage, where he probably met his future wife, Emily Calver, who was always known as Alice.

Alice was born in Eastbourne on 18 March 1880, one of the six children of George and Emily Calver. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Godalming in Surrey. Alice later became a parlour maid at Iden Parsonage, in service to the Reverend and Mrs Bates; he was the vicar of Iden, near Rye.

Frederick & Alice were married on 17 June 1907, at Godalming, Surrey. Later that year they bought a bakery and pastrycook's shop at No 7 St Dunstan's Street, in Canterbury, and this became the couple's home and business for the next 29 years. It was here that they raised their family. Their daughter Mary later wrote a book about her early life in the city. An extract from the book, 'A Canterbury Girl' reads:

It is the evening before Good Friday in 1930 and Dad and Alf Woodcock are preparing for a night of hard work in the bake house. By hand alone they will make hundreds of spiced, buttered and current varieties of penny and ha'penny hot cross buns, all marked with an 'X'.

By 6 o'clock in the morning the buns will have been baked and brought into the shop to be put into bags, on which Florrie Austen has written the customer's name and quantity required.

Orders have come in for six pen'orth or three pen'orth of buns and they will be delivered, still warm, before breakfast by Dad and Alf in the bread barrow or in the baskets on their bicycles.

Harry and I, and some school friends, will help by walking to our customers, carrying our heavy but delicious-smelling baskets.

Mum has cooked a ham joint, and a good breakfast will await us on our return.

But the day's work will not end then. Although the shop will be closed, the bake-house and the baking trays will have to be cleaned and Dad will wash the oven with his scuffle, a mop made of rags attached to a very long handle.

Florrie will sweep and tidy the shop, ready for opening the next day. The blinds will be drawn, the shop door locked, and in the evening the dough will be made for the bread to be sold on Saturday.

Hard work, well done.

In 1936 Frederick & Alice sold the bakery to Alf Woodcock, who had been their assistant for many years. They moved to Herne, where they bought a general shop in Herne Street. When they eventually retired they bought a house called 'Tresco' in Lower Herne Road. This was the first time they had lived in a house without a shop; but Frederick never really stopped being a baker, and used to help out at a local bakery, until he died on 10 June 1943.

After he died, Alice moved back to Canterbury and lived in a cottage in Old Dover Road. She later went to live with Mary & Ted in St Lawrence Road, until she died on 15 November 1972.