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Bessie Dakin, Quorn – Sampler and Postcard
Bessie Dakin was born in 1885 and moved to Quorn with her family in 1906, where she lived until about 1918.
Below is a large, though simple sampler, sewn by Bessie in about 1908, when she was 13 years old. It is 39 cm (15 inches) by 52 cm (20 inches) and uses mainly cross stitch in red thread, on fairly coarse cream linen. The text reads: ‘Bessie Dakin, Age 13, Cheveney Lodge, Quorn’
The 1911 Census
The 1911 census revealed Cheveney Lodge (sic) to be on the corner of Chaveney Road, opposite Buddon Lane, now 45 Chaveney Road, with the name Cheveney Lodge still carved above the door today. The unconventional spelling of ‘Cheveney’ is not incorrect as such, as it has been spelt in different ways over the years.
The 1911 census form records:
Henry Knowles Dakin aged 67
Elizabeth Dakin (wife) aged 50
John Henry Dakin (son) aged 20
Margaret Ward (servant) aged 17
There was no mention of Bessie, but the form indicated that there was another child alive. A further search of the 1911 census showed 16 year old Bessie Dakin at Brentwood Boarding School in Southport. A search of the 1901 census found the family living at 17 West Street, Leicester and Bessie’s birthplace and the age recorded, confirmed that the 1911 entry was the correct one.
Who was Bessie?
Baptism records for St Andrews Church in Leicester confirmed that Bessie was baptised in 1895 and birth records confirmed she was born earlier that same year; from where it could be concluded that the sampler was made in 1908.
Bessie’s parents were married on 20th June 1889 in Leicester when Henry was 44 and Elizabeth was 28. Their first child, John Henry Dakin was born in May 1890. He went on to have distinguished war service in WW1, married twice and was a moderately successful stockbroker. Their second baby died in infancy and Bessie came along in 1895.
Henry was a yarn agent and in 1906 the family moved from Leicester and bought the newly built Cheveney Lodge. This was convenient for Henry who could commute using the nearby Great Central Railway. Bessie, aged 11, transferred to Thomas Rawlins Grammar School, where she stayed for 3½ years, before going to boarding school in Southport in 1909. During 1907 Bessie won her form prize and passed Grade I of the ‘London Institute for the Advancement of Plain Needlework’; this was the year before she made the sampler.
Henry’s death in 1916
It is not known if Bessie worked after she left school, but life certainly changed for her with WW1 starting in 1914 and her brother joining the Leicestershire Regiment. Two years later in October 1916 another life changing event occurred, when her father Henry died aged 71 in Narborough Asylum. By this time Bessie was 21 and would become part of a generation of women that suffered from a lack of eligible men to marry. Being the only daughter of a widowed mother, it is not surprising that she was destined to look after her mother and remain single.
Moving from Quorn
Articles appeared in the press in August 1918 about a burglary at Cheveney Lodge, indicating that Bessie and her mother Elizabeth were still living there, but they moved shortly afterwards. The 1920 electoral roll and the 1921 census reveal that Elizabeth, John and Bessie have moved to a three storey Victorian terraced villa at 17 Glenfield Road in Leicester. They were only there two or three years before moving again, this time to ‘The Rise’, 118 Roman Road, Birstall, which was a new stylish detached house. They carried on living in Birstall until WW2, when the 1939 index finds Bessie and her mother Elizabeth living in Hallaton near Market Harborough. This was the village where Elizabeth was born, and perhaps they thought it would be safer than being close to Leicester.
Leaving Leicestershire
Elizabeth and Bessie returned to the house in Birstall before the war ended and it was their permanent address when Elizabeth died in January 1945 aged 84. John continued to live in the house with his first wife, but for Bessie it was time to move on, and she went to live in Wimborne in Dorset.
Bessie died in Wimborne on 4th October 1983 aged 88. After leaving £25,000 to her good friend who she shared a house with, the rest of her £125,000 estate was divided between Cancer Research and the RSPCA.
Below
Next to the sampler is a postcard/photograph of the Dakin family outside Cheveney Lodge in about 1906.
Left to right: John Dakin, Bessie Dakin, Elizabeth Dakin, Henry Dakin, their maid.
This photograph was taken by William Shuttlewood who was the chemist in Quorn from 1905 to 1909. He was also a photographer and his children were at school with Bessie.
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Submitted on: |
2025-10-24 |
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Submitted by: |
Sue Templeman |
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Artefact ID: |
2631 |
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Artefact URL: |
www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=2631 |
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