According to a personal family communication, he trained at Ashridge Estate: I have no documentary evidence for this and the timeline does not seem to support this.
1871 born in Weston, Herts.
1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses still in Weston.
1891 census occupation given as agricultural labourer.
Sometime between 1891 and 1898 he moved to Kensington where his cousin Louisa was living with her grandmother and her siblings.
1898 marriage to Louisa: living in Kensington, occupation gardener. Louisa’s father is also given as a gardener.
1899 baptism of son Charles: living in Kensworth, gardener
1901 census: living at The Grove, Kensworth, working as a domestic gardener
Grove Farmhouse was previously known as The Grove, owned by the Jones family. The 1901 census has Stuart with his family living at The Grove as well as Sophie Grace Jones and her family, seemingly as two separate households.
1902 Daughter Christina’s baptism: living in Kensworth, gardener
1903 Electoral Register, living at The Grove, Kensworth (village-road)
Alperton: what was Stuart doing? What prompted the move?
Lancelot Road: House names Haslemere and Mayfield
1907 Electoral register: Mayfield, Lancelot Road, Wembley, Harrow, also mentions Haslemere, Lancelot Road. Presumably this register drew on data from 1906 before the family moved to Buscot (see below)
1906 Aug 27th Buscot School, Charles’s admission: living in Buscot, previous school Alperton, Middlesex
1907 Buscot School, Christina’s admission: living in Buscot, previous school Littleworth
1909 Buscot School, Charles and Christina left the school as the family left the village.
Buscot: Where was Stuart working? as a gardener?
1911 census: Moffats, North Mimms, domestic gardener (Mr Henderson head of house)
1920 Electoral register: Moffats
1921 census: North Mimms, still at Moffats? [check this and who else was there, owner?]
1925 Electoral Register: Moffats
According to family communications, Stuart’s son Charles was living in Chipperfield when he met his future wife Margery who he married in July 1927. So Stuart must have moved to Chipperfield before then. Check Stuart’s occupation on the marriage certificate.
1928 Electoral register: Braziers Farm, King’s Langley
Braziers Farm is next door to Chipperfield House where Stuart worked for Arthur F Holt.
A reference letter dated December 1927 from Arthur Holt states Stuart had worked for him for eight years; five and a half at Moffats and two and a half at Chipperfield House.
1929 photo album: Chipperfield – photo taken around August 1929
1929 Electoral register: Braziers Farm, Tower Hill
1930 Electoral register: Braziers Farm, Tower Hill
1930 City Directory: Chipperfield, gardener to M K Whitlock esq, Tower Hill
1931 census – eagerly awaited to find our where he was!
1933 Kelly’s Directory has a new resident, Norman Kelly, in Chipperfield House. Is this when Stuart stopped working at Chipperfield and moved to Buscot? By the time of the 1939 register, the previous owner of Chipperfield House, Mark Whitlock, had moved into Stuart’s previous home, Brazier’s Farm; he was still there when he died in 1968 (probate). Norman Kelly remianed at Chipperfiled House until he died in 1957 (probate).
1935 & 1937 photo album: Bampton, head gardener at Weald Manor
Stuart’s grand-daughter Mary remembers the Colvilles from the Manor and going into the grounds of the manor when she visited her grandparents, who lived in 1 Weald Manor Cottages just over the road from the entrance to the Manor.
1939 register: Stanley Avenue, St Albans, retired gardener
1948 Golden Wedding invitation: Stanley Avenue, St Albans
1951 Died in St. Albans