Edwin Edinborough

Census Address: 31 Broad Street
Place of Birth: Stamford
Date of Birth: 1896
Enlistment Address: --
Regiment: --
Service Numbers: --
Place of Death: --
Date Died: --

  8th December 2015

Edwin Drake Edinborough – 31 Broad Street

Edinborough and Sons shopfrontWilliam Edinborough and Emma Drake married in Stamford in 1886 and lived for a number of years at 8 Chapel Yard off North Street. William worked as a County Court Bailiff and furniture restorer. In 1911 they had 5 children, all living with them at 31 Broad Street. He describes himself as a furniture broker but he also had what he called a ‘Curiosity Shop’ selling curios and antiques. He had store rooms and workshops behind and specialised in converting old pianos and spinnets into “beautiful escritoire dressing tables and other articles”. Both of his elder sons worked in this business at times.
In 1911 William Henry was 23 years old and working for the Burghley Estate as motor mechanic. Millicent was 21 years and working at home and so was Samuel Bernard 20 years , a Furniture Broker. Reginald was a grocer’s assistant and was 17 years old. Edwin was 14 years old and still at school. He had attended the Endowed School and may have gone on to the Grammar School.
William joined up as a mechanic soon after the beginning of the War and by 1915 the other two older boys were also serving, Reginald in the Royal Army Service Corps and Samuel Bernard in the 1st Lincolnshire Regiment. William lost his life and is listed on the Stamford War Memorial.

The Curiosity Shop continued at 31 Broad Street until around 1950, Edwin didn’t marry until 1942 and he had a daughter born in 1949.

 

Edinborough and Sons chair

Edinborough chair label

Edinborough Furniture Label

Edinborough furniture label

Edinborough writing desk label

Edinborough writing desk label

Edinborough writing desk

Edinborough writing desk

 

Amendments and Addenda

The picture above top left was sent by someone who took it at a recycling centre in Exeter. The label was attached to a large and odd kind of dressing table or desk, it reads "Reconstructed by Edinborough and Sons Broad Street Stamford."
The picture above top right was received in 2023 - "I was browsing the internet for some information about the furniture label on my chair and came across your website. Just thought you might like to see a photo of it - similar to the one you already have. You also might like to know that I have just shipped this chair from the UK to Australia. It belonged to my grandmother, her family lived in Peterborough at some stage (1870-1906?), not far from Stamford, I am guessing that’s how it ended up with my grandmother in the UK and now me in Australia.
Thanks to your website, a Stamford boy and his family are remembered in Australia, many miles and many years later."
The pictures in the lower row were also received in 2023. They show an antique desk that was recently bought in Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia, which again has the same plastic label - most likely bakelite.
Photos by Bob Brooks and then in 2023 by Antonia Hart in Australia and later by Victoria Kinnaird in the USA.