Grid Reference: L 10b

Eric Pickering

Personal Life

The Pickering family came to Wednesfield in the mid-1850s via Woolwich, Walsall and Willenhall. In 1856, Samuel Palmer Pickering married Hannah Banks at Wolverhampton, in a civil ceremony. Their first child, also named Samuel, was born in 1857, and the couple would go on to have a further eight children over the next 20 years.  

Samuel senior was a lock and latch maker. The 1881 census showed him employing eight men and three boys, but also running (and living at) a general shop in New Street in Wednesfield.  Ten years later, in 1891, the family were still in New Street, and Samuel is still a lock and latch maker, but the census does not record the existence of a general shop.  However, Samuel and Hannah’s youngest child, William Palmer Pickering (registered in the birth records as Willie Palmer Pickering), was described as a 13-year-old Barber, which gave him the basis of a successful future business.

Business—Supporting the Growth of Wednesfield

In 1898, William/Willie married Maud Evelyn Kelley and the 1901 census shows him as a hairdresser and tobacconist, working on his own account. The census also records the house as being at the start of Church Street, but if it is the same building that the family would later call home, we would call it number 3 High Street today.  By 1921 the family business had expanded to incorporate both numbers 3 and 5 High Street and offered hairdressing for both men and women, plus a general shop. William and Maud would have 5 children, the youngest being Eric Pickering.  Eric and his father are the ones that older folk of Wednesfield still remember.  Local legend has it that Wednesfield Urban District Council notified Willie that numbers 3 & 5 High Street were earmarked for demolition and so they moved across the road to number 2 (see picture below).  Ironically, numbers 3 & 5 are still there! Eric and his father William both passed away in 1956.  

The headstone pictured at the top of the page has the name Margaret Enoch at the top. Margaret was a well-known enthusiast for the history of Wednesfield until she passed away in 2019. Her mother was Eric’s older married sister, Vera. Margaret’s two Pickering uncles, also commemorated on her headstone, are Eric and his older brother Harold Palmer Pickering who died in 1923 aged just 22.