My Great-Grandfather was a baker, he baked breads and cooked cakes.
Ernest Nichols was born in 1875 in Islington, London the son of William Nichols and Jane nee Tucker. By the time he was 16, he was recorded as a Colour Oilmans Assistant. Shortly after, he became apprenticed as a baker.
In 1902, Ern married Annie Richardson, in Dalston. Annie was almost 20 years old, while Ern was seven years her senior. At the time of the marriage, Ern was listed as a baker, and they lived at “Lucerne” in Dale Grove, North Finchley. The year after the marriage, Ernest and Annie had their one and only child, William Robert.
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| Ern Nichols on the Bakery cart |
From the late 1890s, Ern worked as a baker. He was employed by Henry Purvis who ran the North Finchley Hygenic Bakery at 81 High Street. Purvis was a “high class cook and confectioner” although Purvis died in 1908, Ernest stayed on and worked for the executors. After a decade of marriage Ern and Annie made the decision that changed their lives irrevocably. They resolved to migrate to Australia, tickets were purchased and trunks packed. It would have been a difficult decision, leaving all that was familiar and travelled half way around the world.
The Purvis Company supplied Ern with an excellent reference stating he was “leaving entirely of his own accord, to try his fortune in a new country.” He was considered “absolutely trustworthy and hard working” who had “an intelligent interest in anything he had in hand.”
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| Reference for Ernest Nichols |
Ern’s Recipe Book has survived and in it is recorded seven varieties of yeast, recipes for Queen cakes, Madeira Cake, Cornflour Cream Buns, Coconut Mac’s, Cheese Curd etc, all with large quantities suited for a bakery store.
Ern and Annie originally settled at Tilba on the South Coast, they moved north, where Ern did a bakery run between Tweed Heads and Coolangatta, then eventually settling in Richmond, where he ran the Nichols Bakery and General Store located in Windsor Street, towards the end of WW1.
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| Nichols Bakery & General Store, Richmond NSW |
The family left Richmond in the 1920s and tried their luck at poultry farming in Schofields and then moved to Riverstone and lived at 20 Castlereagh Street. For some years, Ern was employed in the bakery business working for Charlie Fisher, doing the night shift. During the day he often worked for his son Bill who had established a Service Station in Riverstone.
When Ern gave up work his asthma disappeared. He had suffered dreadfully throughout his life with the disease, often wheezing for hours on end. Not working with the flour dust in the bakeries must have helped. Son Bill passed away suddenly in March 1958 aged only 54 then Annie died of a broken heart in the December, they had been married for 56 years.
After a long and fulfilling life. Ern died on the 26 July 1967, aged 92 years old.
This is my contribution to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (#AtoZChallenge)
