1861 Census: Indecipherable name in Filey

[thewideeyedowl]

Please can anyone decipher the name of this street:



The census reference is: RG9/Piece 3615, Folio 38, p30

It looks perhaps something like "Musford" or "Musfed" Place (???). I have checked out a site that gives an index of the current street names in Filey and - predictably - cannot find anything remotely like this. On going through the handwriting of the enumerator, I was wondering whether the initial was in fact a "B". Does the name possibly start "Br..."(???). In the modern street index there is a "Barden Place".

William Ezard, a joiner, wife Hannah, and six of their children - Eliza, Emma, Joseph (my great-grandfather), Annie, William and Arthur - are living at no 3 Indecipherable Place. it seems to be next to the Belle Vue Hotel, if that is any help.

Many thanks for taking a look at it for me.

Owl

[arthurk]

I don't know Filey and haven't done anything to check this, but simply from looking at it, I wonder if it's Prospect Place.

Arthur

[helachau]

Looking at the street names either side of "? Place" on the '61 Census, I can see Cliff Cottage, North/South Cliff Villas, Alma Square, Belle Vue Hotel, The Crescent.
On an 1891 map of Filey I can see North/South Ciff Villas, Belle Vue, Alma Terrace and The Crescent - with a Mitford Street in the same area. Can't see a Mitford Place (but there is a Mitford Place in modern Filey) Wondered if it was the enumerator's attempt to capture "Mitford"?. .

[Pamelawagster]

Find My Past has the address transcribed as Prospect Place.

[thewideeyedowl]

Thank you to you all....... I think I will go with 'Prospect Place! Once Arthur had suggested that, I was immediately able to read it that way myself, so it is interesting that that is the transcription on FMP. (I am using Ancestry.)

After posting, I had also wondered whether Indecipherable Place was in fact a terrace of three properties in a bigger road (?), which might explain why it is so difficult to trace. Because Cliff Cottage and Cliff Villas are nearby, I have also been wondering whether this address was on the seaboard side of Filey. Just don't know.

I have never been to Filey, so this is a whole new terrain.

Anyway, thank you again for taking a look at the entry. (When I write it up tomorrow, I will note that there is some uncertainty about the address.)

Owl

[thewideeyedowl]

Thanks for the help you all gave me some months ago. Once I was able to read the name (Prospect Place), I did further detective work.

Prospect Place seems to have been a terrace of three, either at the end of The Crescent or just round the corner in Belle Vue Street. You can check it out on Google Maps. The Crescent was built in 1850 and has always been a prestigious address in Filey. The properties look out over Filey Bay and The Brigg, which is a limestone spit of land - a famous landmark and a place where children have always scrambled. The view was a selling point when one of the properties was advertised for auction in 1872.

In 1861 William EZARD and his young family lived at 3 Prospect Place, Crescent, Filey. Ref: RG9 Piece 3615 Folio 38 p30. His son Joseph was then nine and a scholar.

Fast forward to 1891, and young Joseph EZARD (1850-1926), now an up-and-coming builder, lives at The King's Gap, Hoylake, in Brigg House. The names of the properties are not given on the census page - RG12 Piece 2877 Folio 21 p36 - but I know from family that he (my great-grandfather) lived at Brigg House for some years. It might have been one of the houses he built(?), and it was surely named after a beloved landmark of his childhood. (At the time of his Golden Wedding in 1924, he is described as "a proud man of Filey".)

I have been able to make the Brigg/King's Gap/Filey connection simply because Arthur was able to decipher the handwriting. THANK YOU very very much .

And to all who have taken a look at this thread or despaired of handwriting: PERSEVERE - it really is worth deciphering an address.

Owl