JOSEPH ADEY
DEATH OF MR. JOSEPH ADEY
A WELL-KNOWN NEWBURIAN
Death removed a well-known Newburian in Mr. Joseph Adey, who passed away on Wednesday at his residence, Cary-cottage, Wash Common. A f few years ago he was one of the most active and energetic of local business men, but his health began to fail, and he retired to the pleasant southern suburbs, where he spent the closing days of his life. He was in his seventy-sixth year, and had well earned the leisure which came over half-a-century’s strenuous attention to the extensive trading concern of which he was the head.
His father, Mr. Joseph Adey, died in 1855, at the age of 43, and his eldest son was called from school when only sixteen to take charge of the coal, hay and straw business in West Mills, which has been established about two hundred years. For some years he managed on behalf of his mother and later he was joined in partnership by his brother, Rupert, and under Mr. Joseph’s active direction it developed into one of the largest concerns in the district. In former times the wharf at West Mills was busy with the firm’s barges unloading cargoes from the Somersetshire coal fields and transporting gravel from the district. In similar fashion Adey’s wagons carried coal into the country parts, returning loaded with hay and straw. It was a characteristic of good management that both barges and vehicles seldom made empty journeys. Traffic on the canal has practically ceased, and coal is now conveyed by rail. But the firm’s well-horsed wagons are still a familiar feature on country roads.
The late Mr. Adey was ever a lover of horses, and cleanly treatment. It was for this reason that he was one of the keenest supporters of the Newbury Horse Parade, and the firm’s turn-out was always one of the special features. Mr Adey was a trustee of Newbury Savings Bank and a director of Newbury Steam Laundry, also a sidesman, for a time, at the Parish Church, where he was a regular attendant.
He had little inclination for public life, but was one of those whose strict integrity and sound judgment are of such great value to the commercial reputation of a community.
Mr. Adey was twice married, and leaves a widow, two sons and two daughters. Mr. Adey’s mother was the last to be buried in the parish churchyard in 1888, in the family vault of the Leonards, of whom she was a daughter.
The funeral took place on Saturday afternoon, the first part of the service being held in the Parish Church. The officiating clergymen were the Rector of Newbury (Rev. Lionel H. Majendie), etc.
JOSEPH ADEY continued
The mourners were Pte. Bruce Adey and Mr. Joseph Leslie Adey (sons), Mr. Rupert Adey (brother), Mr. J.G. Troup (son-in-law), Miss Louisa Adey, Mrs. J. Thatcher, Miss M. A. Adey (sisters).
A long list of those present in the church and those sending wreaths follows.
Newbury Weekly News 5 October1916
Mrs P. p65 H 10(c)
Died 27 September 1916 aged 75
Buried 30 September 1916 Bk 1899 p 292 no. 9533
See also
Clifford Plummer Adey buried 30 Sept. 1886 aged 2 years 9 months
The Adey coal etc business was run from West Mills Yard, adjacent, to West Mills Wharf, and continued through the C19th century and into the 20th, before becoming Brighton and Adey, with a coal yard at the railway goods station.
Source: David Peacock. March 2018
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