A little girl from Brixton

You can spend a whole lot of time on research when a particular fact piques your interest. This most recently happened to me when I was researching Sarah Judd who died at her home, 27 Havelock Street in 1883. For the past 140 years she has been resting in this sunny spot in Radnor Street Cemetery but before that she had lived in a great many other places.

Sarah was born in 1821 in Palling, Norfolk, the daughter of James and Rosetta Hicks. She married Frederick Judd in Chatham, Kent on January 17, 1850 and at the time of the 1851 census Sarah, Frederick and their baby son James were living with Sarah’s parents in Gillingham, Kent.

During the next 10 years the family moved about – a lot – their six children born at various addresses in Kent and Hampshire. By 1861 Frederick was employed as a Police Constable and they were living at No 19, Archbishop Place, a leafy suburb at the top of Brixton Hill, Lambeth. In 1862 their daughter Elizabeth was baptised at St Matthew’s Church, Brixton and in 1866 a second daughter Harriet was also baptised there.

The Tate Library, Brixton, Lambeth.

I grew up in Brixton in the 1950s and 60s and I know exactly where St Matthew’s Church is; it’s just a stones throw away from the Tate Public Library where I spent a lot of my childhood. Elizabeth was born some 30 years before the library was built in 1890 and 100 years before I used to borrow books there. One of my favourites was the stories about a little girl called Milly Molly Mandy who had the kind of life I wished I had. I used to carefully colour in the pictures before I returned the books.

Milly Molly Mandy and a picture in need of my careful colouring skills

The Judd family had arrived in Swindon by 1881. Frederick had long since left the police force and was working as a house painter. Still living with Frederick and Sarah were James 30 (born in Kent) Sarah 21 (born in Hampshire) and Elizabeth 18 and Harriet 15 (both born in Brixton).

Basking in the sunshine, the leaning headstone has a large ants nest obscuring the last inscription, probably the name of Sarah’s husband Frederick who died in 1907 at his home, 53 Crombey Street.

And buried in this plot in 1944 was their daughter Elizabeth, the little girl born in Brixton more than 161 years ago. I shall call round and say hello next time I’m passing.