The Livings family

submitted by Andy Robinson

Charles Livings worked at Libury Hall as an agricultural labourer. He was born Charles Henry Plumb in 1849 at Westmill. His mother Ann Plumb married George Livings of Ardeley, and they brought up Charles and two further children at Haultwick.

Charles' wife Emma was Emma Brimson, only child of John Brimson (who also worked at Libury Hall) and Mary Ann Tottingham of Braughing. Emma was born in 1855 at Poole, Dorset, where her father was working short term as a steam engineer.

Charles and Emma had two children, both present in 1901 : Arthur and George Henry Livings. Arthur Livings was known locally as "Jummy", served in the army in WW1, and married Maud Foster. Their son Charles Livings and grandchildren Marion, David and Veronica Livings were last heard of living in the Woolmer Green area.

Charles and Emma's younger son George Henry Livings (known as "Harry") was in the RAMC in WW1, married one of the servants from Green End House (Millie Cummins) in 1915, and ran a pub in Chitterne, Wiltshire until the late 1920s. He returned as a widower to Haultwick in about 1928 with his two sons Vivian and Archie Livings. They all lived with Charles and Emma at Haultwick during the 1930s in an old cottage in Giffords Lane (long since demolished).

Many older residents will remember Harry(who lived in old age in Dane End, and who died in the early 1970s). His sons Vivian and Archie married a pair of "London gells" down from Edmonton : Edna Hazell and Ruby Baker respectively. Archie and Ruby had four sons born and brought up in Dane End (Bill, John Pat and Ralph Livings, now all living in Australia), while I married Vivian and Edna's daughter Margaret Livings of Haultwick, at Little Munden in 1969.

It is amazing to think that there must be an equally broad tale to tell for each of the families recorded so briefly in the Census.