Delving into the Dingle dynasty

He was Francis Dingle (1829-1915), Mayor of Worcester in 1877-78 and a wine and spirits merchant in the city for many years. He owned the King Charles' pub in the Cornmarket and the large licensed premises at the corner of Broad Street and Angel Place, known for years as "Dingle's" and later as the Dolphin.

He spent 50 of his 86 years living in the Faithful City, where he and his wife Georgina Maria brought up 10 children.

His home for the last 42 years of his life was Thames House, a large Georgian property standing in Barbourne opposite St George's Square and set in three acres of beautiful gardens and grounds.

Worcester Grammar School for Girls was later built on the site - a complex now forming an annexe of the city's College of Technology.

Francis Dingle was also a significant land and property owner in Worcester, with 14 houses and cottages in Butts Walk and Infirmary Walk, an acre of land in London Road occupied by a nursery and four houses, and a large villa at Portefields.

I've been learning all about Francis Dingle from his great grandson Brian Dingle, who lives in the American city of Pittsburgh, and from his granddaughter, 97-year-old Mrs Vera Dick, of Droitwich.

Out of the blue, Brian Dingle recently wrote telling me of his painstaking researches into the Dingle dynasty and, following e-mail messages between us, he has kindly sent me from the USA the substantial biography he has compiled on his great grandfather.

Francis Dingle was born in October 1829 as the latest of "The Dingles of Darley," an extensive estate lying near Liskeard, in Cornwall. The family trace their ancestry at Darley back several centuries to 1373. Francis's older brother, John Williams Dingle. inherited Darley until his death in 1903 when his son John Darley Dingle became the last owner of the estate.

However, Francis Dingle always had his eye set on much wider horizons and at 21 was "given passage to Australia, one hundred pounds sterling, and letters of introduction." It is believed he arrived at Melbourne in about 1852 aboard the vessel The Bank of England, and it was not long before he had set up in business as a grocer in that Australian city.

In 1854, he was married at St Paul's Church, Flinders Lane, Melbourne, to Georgina Maria Hookway, daughter of a Devon baker, who had sailed to Australia aboard The Great Britain from Liverpool in 1852. At the time of their marriage, Francis was 25 and Georgina Maria 18.

Melbourne directories of the time listed "Dingle and Sloggatt, Grocers" in Swanston Street, but after four years of marriage and the arrival of their first two children, it is clear Francis and Georgina became home-sick for England. They packed their bags in 1858 and sailed back to the UK aboard the Indemnity, settling at Boscastle, then a small fishing village on the north coast of Cornwall.

The family were to remain for seven years at Boscastle where more children arrived and Francis was in business as a timber and coal merchant.

However, it was in 1865 that Francis and his growing family made their last and most telling move - to Worcester where he was to spend the remainder of his life.

Francis immediately set up in business as a wines and spirits merchant at 18 Broad Street, the substantial licensed premises at the corner with Angel Place. The family initially made this their home until moving to Castle House, a large and elegant Georgian property in the shadow of Worcester Cathedral at College Green.

A granddaughter of Francis Dingle, the late Mrs Georgina Moore was later to recall visits to Castle House: "The gates of Edgar Tower closed at 10pm, so the excitement of a late return at party time was to have Drinkwater, the coachman, ring the bell and get the Gate Keeper down to open up. Invariably he appeared in night shirt and night cap plus some jacket, to the glee of the children."

Francis Dingle's business gradually expanded out from 18 Broad Street, which became widely known as "Dingle's." He bought the historic King Charles pub in The Cornmarket and another property, thought to have been in the Foregate area and called "The Vaults." It was not a public house but a place of storage for Francis's stock of wines and spirits, possibly part of the Hopmarket block.

The offspring of Francis and Georgina also expanded to the final tally of 10 with the arrival of another four children in the early years after their move to the Faithful City.

Francis was clearly prosperous in business and gradually built up a significant land and property portfolio.

In 1873, he bought Thames House in Barbourne as his family home - an elegant Georgian property boasting "an entrance hall, four reception rooms, nine bedrooms and dressing rooms, bath room, two store rooms, cellaring and good domestic offices, convenient outbuildings, coach house, stables, large yard, driveway, and three acres of gardens and grounds comprising a croquet lawn, double vinery, a fountain centrepiece, lawn tennis court, excellent kitchen garden, pasture field and pasture orchard."

Thames House was expensively and comfortably furnished and fitted out with the likes of mahogany suites and oil paintings, and the family had three servants - a cook and two housemaids.

Also on the property front, Francis Dingle bought six "newly built" houses in Butts Walk (Nos 6 to 16), a further five houses in Butts Walk (Nos 18 to 26), three houses in Infirmary Walk (Nos 6, 8 and 10), "a valuable piece of freehold land in London Road containing about one acre and occupied by four houses and a nursery," and Portefields Villa, about half-a-mile from Shrub Hill Station.

In 1871, Francis Dingle also entered the civic life of Worcester, being elected to the City Council from St Peter's Ward. He was initially a Liberal but joined the Unionists at the time of the Home Rule split. He bowed out of the council in 1874 but two years later, when outside the council, was appointed High Sheriff of Worcester and, in the following year, was elected Mayor.

During his year as First Citizen, he gave a lavish "breakfast" to mark the 150th anniversary of the Three Choirs Festival and also took a leading part in the successful campaign to provide Worcester with a public library, becoming the first chairman of the city's Library Committee.

Berrow's Worcester Journal was to describe his Mayoralty as having been "distinguished by unfailing courtesy and good temper."

At the end of his term as Mayor, he was appointed an alderman and sat on the City Council until 1886 when he resigned due to ill health - it was the year his wife died. He had been the council's representative Governor of the Cathedral King's School and was for many years a city magistrate and also a director of the Worcester Gas Company. In later life, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire.

Francis Dingle was succeeded in his wines and spirits business by his eldest son Francis James as well as by a Mr Charles Edwards, the firm then being styled Dingle, Son and Edwards.

Alas, Francis Dingle was pre-deceased by his son Francis James Dingle, who lived at Chacewater, a large residence at Barbourne Park, Worcester. Francis James died in 1913 at the age of 55, just two years after his wife Ellen.

Another son John, believed to be a sea captain in the merchant navy, also pre-deceased his father, dying in London in 1901 at the age of only 41.

The Dingle wine merchant firm was eventually taken over by Charles Edwards. No 18 Broad Street later became the Dolphin pub and is now "TJ's." The King Charles pub, known too as "The Tubs," has undergone several name changes in recent years including the "Slug and Lettice."

Georgina Maria Dingle died at Thames House in January 1886 at the age of only 49, leaving Francis a widower. He was to outlive her by 29 years, dying in July 1915, at the age of 86 and being buried beside her in Worcester's Astwood Cemetery.

After his death, his executors - spinster daughter Clara Dingle and son-in-law Samuel Southall, the Town Clerk of Worcester and husband of Emlin Dingle - put up for sale all of Francis Dingle's properties including Thames House, the cottages and houses in Butts Walk and Infirmary Walk and the land in London Road.

Clara Dingle did not think it proper either that the family name should be displayed on a public house so Francis Dingle's licensed premises at No 18 Broad Street and at the King Charles pub in The Cornmarket passed to Charles Edwards Limited.

For some reason, it was not until 1920 that Thames House and its three-acre grounds was sold, the buyer being Worcester City Council which paid £3,000 for it as "the new site of the Grammar School for Girls."

For several years, the Worcester Secondary School for Girls - forerunner of the Girls Grammar School - had been in Taylor's Lane as part of the Victoria Institute complex, but it had considerably outgrown this accommodation. As a result, the Upper School moved into a converted Thames House, the Lower School remaining in Taylor's Lane.

However, after about eight years, Thames House was demolished to make way for a complete new Grammar School for Girls.

What happened to the surviving children of Francis and Georgina Maria Dingle?

n Clara Dingle who had lived with her father at Thames House moved to 37 Shrubbery Avenue which she renamed "Thameshurst." She died there in 1935 at the age of 71.

n Charles Edward Dingle married Louisa Georgina Everall and became a farmer at Tibberton, having four children including Veronica Mary ("Vera"), now Mrs Dick of Droitwich.

n Elizabeth Dingle married Joseph Southall of Worcester and had a good sized family.

n Marion Georgina Dingle married Charles Dutton and lived for some years in Droitwich.

n William Murray Dingle lived in Britannia Square, Worcester and died a bachelor.

n Frederick Burrington Dingle was Magistrates' Clerk at Worcester for some years and then Clerk to the Courts in Sheffield and Editor of Stones Justices Record.

One of Frederick's sons, Philip Burrington Dingle was Town Clerk of Manchester for a long time and was knighted for his services. Another son, John Rodger Dingle was a solicitor with a law firm in Worcester for many years, and his widow, Mrs Mary Dingle still lives in the city.

Frederick Burrington Dingle's eldest son, Frederick Robert Dingle became a doctor in Gateshead and was the father of Brian Dingle, now in Pittsburgh. Brian tells me that in compiling his biography of his great grandfather Francis Dingle, he received invaluable help from the late Colin Roberts of the Worcester Guildhall staff and his cousin Barbara Dingle, daughter of Mrs Mary Dingle of Worcester.

Brian Dingle was educated at public school in Cheltenham, served as a pilot in the RAF and worked as an electrical engineer with major companies in the UK for several years until 1976 when he left for America where he completed his career. He is married with two children.

*Best behaviour at Grandpa's house

IT was as a small girl back at the end of the Edwardian era that Veronica Mary Dingle paid her first happy and memorable visits by pony and trap from Tibberton to the Worcester home of her grandfather, Alderman Francis Dingle.

Veronica was to become better known as "Vera" and is now a 97-year-old widow (Mrs Dick) living at Droitwich. I interviewed her the other day to tap into her distant memories and was accompanied by her daughter, Mrs Jennifer Foxall, of Malvern.

Vera's grandfather Alderman Dingle was a past Mayor of Worcester and lived at Thames House in Barbourne, an elegant Georgian property set in three-acre gardens. Worcester Grammar School for Girls was later to be built on the site.

Vera's idyllic childhood and youth were spent at Tibberton as the youngest of the four children of farmer Charles Edward Dingle and his wife Louisa Georgina (maiden name, Everall). Charles was one of the sons of Alderman Dingle and had been given a very generous gift by his father to set him up in life.

"Grandfather Dingle bought farmland at Tibberton which had a dilapidated old farm house on it. He had this pulled down and a new farm house built on the site which he gave to father as a wedding present," explains Vera. As something of a misnomer, the farm continued to be known as The Old House, Tibberton.

From around the age of five, Vera, with her older sister Georgie, was taken by the family's pony and trap to visit Alderman Dingle at Thames House. He had been a widower for some years and was being looked after by his daughter Clara and three servants.

"Our pony and trap would be left at the stables behind the Talbot Hotel, Barbourne, which was only a very short walk from Thames House," recalls Vera. "Grandfather Dingle's home had superb gardens with a croquet lawn, tennis court and a fountain, and Georgie and I very much enjoyed strolling around them.

"Aunt Clara would give us tea with sandwiches and home-made cakes, and we obviously had to be on our best behaviour. I can see my grandfather now - an amiable old man with white whiskers, though I understand he could be very fussy and demanding, no doubt still setting the Victorian standards to which he had become so accustomed in life. He was clearly very well known and highly thought of in Worcester, and I remember seeing him all dressed up in his uniform as a Deputy Lieutenant of the County."

The Tything and Barbourne area of Worcester was to play a significant part in the life of Vera into her 30s. Her education for 11 years was at the Alice Ottley Girls School, and it was again aboard the family pony and trap that she was dropped off in The Tything each school morning and picked up in the afternoon.

Her father or mother would usually be at the reins, and two other Alice Ottley girls were also passengers - her sister Georgie and Margaret Hartwright whose family lived on an adjacent farm at Tibberton. In fact, there was one occasion when the pony and trap skidded on an icy Lowesmoor canal bridge and threw Margaret Hartwright unceremoniously out on to the road.

By a remarkable coincidence, Vera and Margaret are now in the same residential home for the elderly at Droitwich!

As she approached her teens, Vera began cycling quite often from Tibberton to Worcester, not only to school but on errands to collect essential items for the farm such as binder twine from Wards in Broad Street, and to pick up provisions like meat from Molineux, the butchers at 43 The Tything.

The round trip from Tibberton to Worcester and back was around 10 miles and meant scaling at least two quite steep and demanding slopes. Vera would also bike around the country lanes, and her brothers Harry and Charles had always cycled to school at King's.

Regular cycling and playing tennis on the lawns of her Tibberton farmhouse home clearly made Vera something of an athlete. She excelled in sports at the Alice Ottley and was captain of the school's tennis, cricket, lacrosse and hockey teams! Vera was always a fine tennis player and regularly competed at the Bromwich Lane and Northwick tennis clubs.

The Dingles of Tibberton made regular shopping trips into Worcester, again on their pony and trap which was "parked" for such visits at the stables behind the Star Hotel in Foregate Street. Their horse power for all these outings was their faithful steed Dick, who was called up for service in the First World War and, alas, came back from the battlefronts partially blinded. Even so, he was still able to find his way around locally.

On completing her education, Vera trained as a teacher, working first in the kindergarten at Alice Ottley and then teaching for 16 years at Worcester's Sunnyside School, which stood opposite Gheluvelt Park.

At age 18, she swopped her bike for a car when she was kindly given an Austin Seven by her Aunt Clara, and from then on, driving was to be Vera's great delight for the next 70 years.

In fact, at the height of the war, she signed up for military service and spent 3 years in the Mechanised Transport Corps, driving 1,000-gallon petrol tanker lorries from the Diglis Depot to airfields and other military bases. It meant her frequently having to clamber on top to check the dipsticks.

Her MTC lorry driver chums at Worcester in those war days included two other Alice Ottley old girls - Joan Faram and Joan Jerram.

In 1942, Vera had married Scotsman Hector Dick whose working life was spent mainly with the engineering company of Alley and MacLellan on Worcester's Westside. The couple set up home at Pound House, Hallow but Vera had to bow out of her military lorry driving in 1946 when she became pregnant with their only child, daughter Jennifer. Among Vera's prized possessions still are her khaki MTC uniform and photographs from her military service, "doing my bit for the war effort."

She and her husband and daughter moved some years later from Hallow to Fernhill Heath, but Hector Dick died in 1969.

Vera is now the only survivor of all the many grandchildren of Alderman Francis Dingle.