2 - The Gregory Butchers

Six people lived in the second household, a family of five unmarried siblings and a male servant named Greetham Capps (1855-1877).

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The Gregory-Greaves family owned a number of properties on Romiley Road and nearby Holehouse Fold, as well as the butcher's shop, a draper's shop and a large amount of farming land. 

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Head of the family was George Gregory (1834-1908), who was said to be a quiet, calm man, but who could also be very judgemental  and pedantic, rubbing people up the wrong way. He never married but he did support his family. Although he was the head, he wasn't the eldest. James Bromley Greaves was the first son of Ann Greaves and half brother of the Gregory family. He had been born out of wedlock and seems not to have been accepted by his stepfather but appears to have been considered part of the family by his siblings. He also never married but made a great deal of wealth dealing in cattle.

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Ann Gregory ran her own draper business and remained independent and single throughout her life. 

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Hannah, Alice and Sarah Gregory don't appear to have worked and whilst Hannah had a premature death in 1877, Alice and Sarah had very comfortable lives, living at Sterndale in their later years.

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Thomas Gregory, another butcher, did not live with his siblings but started his own separate business with his wife Julia Fairbairn. They had six children together, including John James who would become a very well liked member of the Conservative party and Julius who became a professional footballer before losing his life at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

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Martha Gregory had married before the 1871 census and became very wealthy and well-known in Bredbury. Her husband was Joseph Edwin Ward of the Ward's hat manufacturers who died at just 46 years of age.

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You can find out more about the Gregory family in the book "Residents of Romiley Road" which will be coming soon.