CFHS code : AL469
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Loving Remembrance of OLIVIA the dearly beloved wife of GEORGE REYNOLDS d 2 May 1873 aged 42 also GEORGE REYNOLDS husband of the above d Feb 25 1899 aged 68 also of their daughter ELIZABETH d July 23rd 1940 aged 88
Monument : Headstone
Above information amended from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This headstone/cross combination stands roughly 9 rows east of the central path close to the southern boundary. of the parish of Andrew the Less. The carved inscription is badly eroded. It appears to read Olivina which may be how the family recorded her name. The cross was broken and restored at some point.
Inscription
In Loving Remembrance of OLIVINA the dearly beloved wife of GEORGE REYNOLDS
Who departed this life 1 May 1873 aged 42 years
2 lines illegible
Also GEORGE REYNOLDS husband of the above died Feb 25 1899 aged 68 years
At Rest
Also of their daughter ELIZABETH who died July 23rd 1940 aged 88 years
Ollivina Reynolds (née Everett) (1830 – 2 May 1873)
(Also sometimes spelt as Ollevina and Ollevenor and Olivina)
Ollivina was the daughter of carpenter Frederick Everett and his wife Ann (née Brown). She was baptised on January 26th in the parish of Andrew the Less and the transcript of the baptism record is Olivina as on the headstone. She grew up at 9 Union Row and married George Reynolds on November 23rd 1847 in the parish of Andrew the Less. They had at least nine children: Sarah Ann (1848-1926), Harriet Maria (1850-), Elizabeth (1853-1940), Emma (1854-1945), Alice (1857-1943), Thomas (1859-1937), John (1861-1912), George (1864-) and Harry (1867-1902). When they married George was a confectioner and they lived in Wellington Row then 37 Fitzroy Street. However by 1861 they were running the Woolpack Inn, Newmarket and he was documented as being both a publican and musician. By 1871 they had returned to live at East Road, Cambridge and he was working as a musician. Ollivina died at East Road aged 43 years old.
George Reynolds (1830 – 25 February 1899)
George is believed to have been the son of John and Ann (née Parr). After Ollivina’s death he married widow Charlotte Huntlea (née Sell) (1837-1896) in 1874 and they had a further two children: Herbert George (1876-1915) and Laura Maud (1879-1890). They continued to live at 36 East Road and he was documented as a musician (1881) and musician/repairer (1891). He was widowed for a second time in 1896 and died at East Road aged 68 years old.
George and Olleviner’s granddaughter Olivina (Ollie) Kirkup is also buried at Mill Road Cemetery
Elizabeth Pope (Bartholomew) (née Reynolds) (11 June 1852 – 23 July 1940)
Elizabeth was the third daughter of George and Olleviner and known as Lizzie. She married Samuel Pope (1845-1913) on 19 July 1869 at Christ Church, Cambridge. They went to live at Market Street, Newmarket where Samuel was a hardware (glass and china) dealer (1871). The marriage appears to have broken down and by 1881 Samuel was living in Newmarket with Lizzie’s younger sister Alice (1857-1943), who bore him three children. She was described as a housekeeper in 1881, but in later census records was detailed as his wife, although they are not thought to have married. Alice and Samuel had moved back to Cambridge by 1901 and lived at Hills Road and then Cherry Hinton Road. Samuel and Alice are buried together at Newmarket Road Cemetery.
Lizzie meanwhile lived with William ‘Sol’ Bartholomew (1849-1917) from at least 1881 onwards – again there is no evidence that they married. Sol had been valet to the famous jockey Fred Archer, and had been born and raised in Newmarket. It is thought they couple moved to Cambridge in 1879. At first they lived at Ashley Villa, 31 Kingston Street (1881/1891), where Sol was documented as being a turf agent/bookmaker. By 1899 they had moved to The Poplars, 102 Grantchester Meadows, where Sol ran the ‘Electric Light Skating Field’, more commonly known ‘Bartholomew’s’ which was the first electrically illuminated skating field in Cambridge and a ‘very popular resort among undergraduates and skaters generally’. The skating field is believed to have been just behind The Poplars, and was artificially flooded during the winter. The Cambridge Daily News wrote an article which declared ‘Cambridge has every reason to congratulate itself upon its geographical position. Hardly any other town or county is so favourably situation or can produce such exponents of this admirable exercise’. It consisted of nearly ‘five acres of pure glassy ice’ and opened on 22 December 1891. The lights were supplied by Messrs’ Baily and Grundy of St Mary’s Passage, and the centre arc light alone was said to throw light equivalant to 10,000 candles – over and above Chinese lanterns also adorned the ice, and eight other powerful lights. The overall effect was one that ‘when the skaters are in full swing, the scene is a most animated and pituresque one – an al fresco fete, in fact’. Hundreds of skaters poured in on the first day and refreshments were supplied by the Granta Brewery, Newnham.
Sol also held an Annual Carnival on the ice rink every January. Masqueraders came dressed up in costumes such as a clown, a huntsman, a grandfather clock, a pack of cards, harlequin and others described as ‘both pretty and comical’. The winners on Friday 6 January 1893 were Miss F. Moyes, who won the ladies prize [a gold and pearl horse shoe bracelet] dressed as a lady barber, and Mr J. Weeds who won the mens prize dressed as Father Christmas with an illuminated Christmas tree. In January 1894 the lighting was further upgraded with the addition of even brighter lights.
In 1895 Sol donated the entire gate money of Saturday 9 February ‘for the relief of the suffering poor’, which was to be distributed by Councillor Burford and a small committee the following week. Many skaters paid more than the admission fee, and Sol also donated a private cheque towards the appeal. An estimated £50-£60 was raised and the needy were donated ‘6d and 1s tickets for bread, coals and groceries’. Sol also ran ‘a Grand Carnival and Monster Rose Show’ on Butt Green, Midsummer Common held each June for many years. He died in June 1917 after a short illness and was buried in Grantchester, Lizzie was described as Mrs Bartholomew on the funeral reports. She left a wreath at his grave which read ‘To my dear Sol,, parted only for a time, your loving Lizzie’.
She continued to live at The Poplars, 102 Grantchester Meadows, with servant Agnes Wick and the pair ran a University Lodging House from the property. She died at home aged 88 years, and probate records give her surnames as both Pope and Bartholomew.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
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