Life story retold by Rhi Smith
Clara Mary and Harriet Revell are sisters. They were from Norwich and lived with their mother in her lodging house there. Harriet Revell Adwick was a governess in Norwich and Ely teacher’s Training College (1881) and then became a headteacher. Still tracking down details and why she moved to Reading.
1901 in retirement she took in boarders with her sister Clara May on Redlands Road (listed as living on private means). One of their boarders is the subject of our project Eliza Chattaway who went to the training college where Harriet had previously worked. The other was Ada Mary Fawcett (Kendrick School).
By 1911 Harriett had died and been buried in the cemetery. Eliza bought a house and called it Revell (clearly for Harriett) Ada and Clara lived there with her and subsequently her brother Harry. Ada died in 1925 and Clara 1927 after the three women had all lived together since probably the late 1890s. Eliza also lost several members of teaching staff young to illness in the 1920s so it must have been a tough time for her. Eliza finds another housekeeper/ friend/companion Agnes Chapman, retires in 1934, Harry dies 1935, she moves to Bournemouth in 1939 and dies in 1956. Agnes dies in the 1990s and had been holding onto her very small archive.
Section 67, Row B, Plot 18 (writing on the kerbs)