In preparation for Bridgeland Street Open Day on 17 September, our research continues. One surprising finding is that, although it was built for merchants and well known for its solicitors and doctors, it was actually a street of women!

In 1861 about three quarters of the adults living there were women, including almost all the thirty-five servants, who worked as housemaids, cooks, or nursemaids to young children. Most of these came from outlying villages like Frithelstock, Monkleigh, or Weare Giffard. By the 1920s live-in servants were a rarity, but women still outnumbered men by two to one. Who were they and what were they doing there?

The genteel urban setting of Bridgeland Street close to shops and social company was a draw for wealthy widows or unmarried women of independent means. Pigot’s Directory of 1840 lists Bridgeland Street as a favoured location for ‘Nobility, Gentry and Clergy’ living in Bideford.

Susannah Glynn, of the well-to-do Cornish Glynn family, was one of these. She lived at number 23 (now the Con Club) with her niece Gertrude and several servants, up to her death aged 84 in 1855. The presence of solicitors’ offices in Bridgeland Street must have been handy for ladies like Miss Glynn when drawing up their wills. 

The schools in Bridgeland Street during the Victorian era meant that there were many children living there – 42 in 1861, compared to 103 adults – and these provided employment for women working as teachers. As well as the two Helen Leys discussed in a previous column, we find Jersey-born teacher of French Mary Pinckney, while her lodger Annie Ryder was a teacher at the ‘British School’ – the school set up at Lavington Chapel by dissenters against Church of England teaching. 

Jane Curtis, daughter of an officer at the Customs House, was a milliner while Sarah Tinson described herself as a draper’s assistant. 

By the 1920s, the women of Bridgeland street were employed in many more occupations. Amy and Nellie Smith were proprietresses of the Red House tearoom. Emily Bird ran a small sweetshop at number 13A. Minnie Wiltshire was stewardess of the Conservative Club, along with her husband Henry. 

The spacious houses which had accommodated live-in servants were now filled with lodgers – both male and female. Mary Veale, aged 27, boarded at number 29 and worked as a secretary for Bartlett, Bayliss and Co, timber merchants in East the Water.