Researched by Richard Curtis, Lead Volunteer on Collections.
We recently discovered a letter of reference given to blacksmith William French when the business of Charles Burrell & Sons Ltd was closed down in 1928, which had lain in an unmarked file for many years. At the time, William French had worked for the company for 41 years.
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William was born on 8 June 1871 in North Walsham in Norfolk but was living in Whitehorse Lane, Thetford by the time of the 1881 census. His father, Joseph, was an agricultural labourer.
William was 16 when he first joined the business in 1887 as an apprentice blacksmith. The 1891 census tells us he lived with his family in Pike Lane, Thetford.
On 25 December 1892, age 20, he married a local girl, Mary Ann Chilley, and together they had nine children, two of whom also later worked for Charles Burrell & Sons Ltd.
His son William Edward was an apprentice turner when age 17 he joined the territorial army in 1911. The 1921 census records that son Walter (age 21) was also a turner. In the latter part of the Victorian era and early in the 20th century we know of several examples of members of the same family working for the firm, so this was not uncommon.
52 years after he joined Charles Burrell & Sons as an apprentice, the 1939 Register (a snapshot of the population taken at the start of WW2 for identity card purposes) shows that William French, then age 68, was still working as an engineering blacksmith.
Census and Register of Electors records tell us the French family lived in Guildford Street and at 2 Melford Terrace before settling at 60 Melford Terrace, where William was still living when he died on 12 November 1954, age 83.
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Below is a photograph from the museum archive that shows the employees of Burrell’s blacksmith shop in circa 1890.
A copy of this photograph has been posted on the Ancestry genealogy website by a relative of William French who identified William French (then age 19) as the lad standing/leaning on the far left of picture.