Miscellaneous documents
Reference: D/X 1475 Catalogue Title: Miscellaneous documents Area: Catalogue Category: Other Records Description: Thomas Rowell and Sons, undertakers, 2 California Street, New Seaham
Covering Dates: 1952-1968
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- Miscellaneous documents
Catalogue Description
Records given:9 March 2005 Acc: 3115(D)
Catalogue Contents
The undertakers' business run by Thomas Rowell is first listed in Kelly's Directory of County Durham, 1910. From the outset the business operated from California Street, in New Seaham.
At the end of the nineteenth century there were several Rowell families in New Seaham, including William Rowell of 1, California Street, who was a master joiner. Thomas Rowell was probably the son of Robert and Mary Rowell, baptised at New Seaham, Christ Church, on 26 January 1873. On the 1891 census he was a joiner, resident at 4, California Street.
Thomas Rowell's sons were Robert Rowell and Thomas Rowell. The business was taken over by George Ranson Rowell (died 10 May 1972) at the end of the Second World War. The workshop premises were transferred from California Street to the Mill Inn area of New Seaham in 1937.
The records of the business are principally copies of itemised funeral accounts, in chronological order, which record the name, address, date of death, and age of the deceased, the hospital attended, and the location of the funeral service and burial or cremation. There is one account book covering general joinery and repair work carried out in Seaham, Ryhope and Hawthorn area, again in the form of itemised accounts which record the name and address of the customer and a description of the work undertaken.
