The Forest of Dean |
Florence Mary Yemm was born on March 12, 1886, at Carterspiece. Carterspiece is a hamlet in the civil parish of English Bicknor located in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England, just a few miles from the Wales border. Winifred Foley, author of The Forest Trilogy, born just 18 years after Florence in a neighboring village, describes the Forest:
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When I was a child, the Forest of Dean was remote and self-contained. We were cut off from the world--from the rest of Gloucestershire by the Severn estuary, from Monmouthshire by the River Wye; and where our northernmost hills stopped, we stopped. A 'Royal' Forest, it had been. Ten by twenty miles of secluded, hilly country; ancient woods of oak and fern; and among them small coal mines, small market towns, villages and farms. We were content to be a race apart, made up mostly of families who had lived in the Forest for generations, sharing the same handful of surnames, and speaking a dialect quite distinct from any other.
Florence was the fourth of six children born to Richard Yemm and Esther Cooper Yemm. Sister Esther and brothers Joe and Stephen were older, brother George and sister Ada Blanche (Dollie) were younger. With few exceptions, Florence's family had indeed lived in the Forest for generations, and the family surnames--Yemm, Harper, Cooper, Jenkins, Thomas--were common ones. Her father was a collier (coal miner), and her mother took care of the children and the house. The Yemms were poor, as were their neighbors.
The Forest Trilogy paints a picture of the living conditions of a mining family: Dwellings were cottages, two up, two down, with a back kitchen-cum-coal-house. Large gardens were cultivated and flower beds were maintained. Families kept pigs and fowl, but horses were not typical. Walking was the primary means of getting from place to place. There was no electricity, only candles and paraffin lamps. All water, except for rainwater caught from the roof in tubs, was hauled from a village well. Privy buckets were emptied into holes dug in the garden, slops were thrown between the cabbages, and all other rubbish (including buckets of ashes) landed on the ashmix, sometimes a handy throwing distance from the doorways.
The Forest Trilogy paints a picture of the living conditions of a mining family: Dwellings were cottages, two up, two down, with a back kitchen-cum-coal-house. Large gardens were cultivated and flower beds were maintained. Families kept pigs and fowl, but horses were not typical. Walking was the primary means of getting from place to place. There was no electricity, only candles and paraffin lamps. All water, except for rainwater caught from the roof in tubs, was hauled from a village well. Privy buckets were emptied into holes dug in the garden, slops were thrown between the cabbages, and all other rubbish (including buckets of ashes) landed on the ashmix, sometimes a handy throwing distance from the doorways.
In the census records, Florence first appears in 1891. At that time, the Yemms lived on Birch Marsh at Carterspiece, English Bicknor. All six of the Yemm children were then living at home. There is a notation on the census form (but not on later censuses) that Florence was "deaf and dumb." However, that reference was probably intended for her younger brother, George, listed on the line below Florence. Little Georgie died in May 1894 at the age of 6 of "epilepsy, chronic diarrhea, and exhaustion." Florence's sister Esther was in the Yemm household at the time of the 1891 census, but she went into service shortly thereafter--age 13 according to family anecdotes, and almost certainly by 1893, when she was 14. According to The Forest Trilogy:
In families like ours, there were only three important birthdays in your youth; the one marking your arrival into the world; the fifth, which meant you could go to school and leave a bit more room under mother's feet; and the fourteenth. This birthday meant, for a daughter, that she was old enough to get her feet under someone else's table; in the case of a son, that he could follow his father down in the pit, thereby lessening a little the wrinkles in his mam's purse, but adding a few more to her brow from worrying about his safety. For girls, going into service was our only future. There was no employment for us in the village, and leaving home at fourteen was common to us all.
In the next census, taken in 1901, the Yemm family was living at Trafalgar Colliery in East Dean. Esther, age 22, was a servant in the household of John W. Barnett, an accountant in Gloucester. Joe and Steve, ages 19 and 17 respectively, were living at home and working as coal hewers, as was their father. Florence, age 15, and Dollie, age 11, were also at home. Perhaps three incomes coming into the household allowed Florence to stay home rather than go into service. Perhaps, too, she was needed at home, as Godfrey Cooper, age 1, had joined the household. Godfrey, born on January 1, 1900, was the child of James Cooper (half-brother to Florence's mother) and his wife, Emma, who died during or shortly after childbirth. James' and Emma's several children ended up with various relatives. Esther and Florence always spoke with great fondness of little Godfrey and his time in the Yemm household. Perhaps he helped fill the void that George's death surely left in the family.
During Florence's growing-up years in the Forest, many relatives lived nearby. Her paternal grandmother, Ann Harper Yemm, lived at Worrall Hill in Upper Lydbrook until her death in 1899. (Florence's paternal grandfather, Stephen Yemm, died when she was just one year old.) Also living at Worrall Hill were Florence's uncle Stephen Yemm and his family and aunt Sarah Yemm Woolley and her family. On her mother's side, Florence's uncle James Cooper (father of Godfrey) lived at Camomile Green in Lydbrook with his family. Florence's Aunt Pollie (Sophia Mary Cooper Harman) and her family also lived in Lydbrook until about 1897, when they moved to Gloucester. |
The Yemm children all attended school for at least a period of time and learned to read and write. Their parents could also read and write although many of that generation could not. A poem written by Florence's brother, Joe, tells of their mother reading the Bible, nursery rhymes, and stories aloud to the children in the evenings.
The next decade brought many changes to the Yemm household. By 1911, only Florence's parents and 11-year-old Godfrey were still in the Forest. They had moved to Worrall Hill, where Florence's father was born and would live for the rest of his life. The Yemm children had scattered far and wide. In 1904, Joe immigrated to America, followed by Esther and Steve in 1906. At the time of the 1910 U.S. Census, Joe was living in Ursa, Illinois, with his wife, Minnie, and son, Dean, and was employed as a preacher. He had entered the Christian ministry in 1909. Esther was married to Arthur George, a coal miner from the Forest of Dean, and had a daughter, Ruby. They lived in Cuba, Illinois. Stephen, also a coal miner, lived with Esther and her family. Dollie, age 21, was working as a nurse/nanny in Carmarthenshire, Wales, for the family of David Williams, a surgeon. Florence, age 24, is not enumerated in the 1911 census, but records show that she started nurse training at the London Hospital on February 10, 1911. It was the beginning of an exciting new chapter in her life!