Friday 5th March 2021  

12 Freehold Street, Quorn – Shop and Off-Licence

The first of these photographs was taken in about 1909 and shows Joseph Birkin standing outside 12 Freehold Street, which was a shop and off-licence. Although Joseph worked as a fitter (in a hosiery factory), the family pulled together and ran the shop.

Joseph and his wife Sarah had seven children. The four here are Joseph Frank Brookes Birkin (known as Frank), Sarah Gladys Birkin (known as Gladys), George Robert Birkin and Phyllis Jane Birkin (later Warren, born 1907). Frank Birkin was killed in WW1 and if you compare this picture with the photograph of him in Artefact 2335, you can see they are the same person, especially around the mouth.

The lower photograph may be a little later. In 1928 Joseph and Sarah moved to 1 Victoria Street and William Birkin, Frank's younger brother, took over the shop with his new wife Dorothy (nee Kidger who used to live next door at no 10). Gladys Birkin married Reginald Clarke in 1929 and they took over the shop in 1938/39.

Today the property is no longer a shop.

Submitted on: 2020-05-09 Submitted by: Photograph from Richard Thompson, research Sue Templeman Artefact ID: 2387 Print: View artefact in printer-friendly page or just on its own.