Sophie Towers, x3 great-granddaughter of the ‘original’ George Penrose, looks back at the origins of her family name and the legacies they left behind.
In 2023, we said goodbye to a place that holds a mountain of memories for our family.
George Penrose and Sons was taken over in 2017 when the final Penrose retired; Peter Lewis being the 2x great grandson of the original George. The name and business Penroses are still in existence, thanks to Guy and Sarah Filer, but the shop itself has a new owner as well as a new trade.
The family can trace their lineage back to 1195 with the first recorded spelling of the name being Philip de Penros, a then resident of Cornwall during the reign of Richard the Lionheart; the likelihood being that they had travelled over with William the Conqueror in 1066.
The coat of arms (see below) has the motto Rosa sine Spina translated as ‘A Rose without the Thorn’.
The family eventually moved to Yorkshire in 1680, settling near Fountains Abbey fish pools where trout and eels were reared.
In 1833, George Penrose Senior was born in Aldborough, North Yorkshire. He grew up in The Aldborough Arms, his father Thomas being the Innkeeper there. He began work as an Innkeeper himself at The Ship Inn, Aldborough and as a shoemaker but his passion was in playing cricket. As a professional player, he joined Alnwick Cricket Club, moving to Alnwick and living in Painters Hill (now the site of St. Michael’s Church Hall), in 1860. He and his wife Hannah had four children, Thomas, Annie, George Junior and Mary Jane.
In an article from The Alnwick Mercury, dated Tuesday October 1st, 1861, George’s prowess on the Cricket field is noted – ‘the two crack bowlers, Messrs. Dixon and Penrose, are both benedicts, and their splendid bowling told heavily on their opponents.’ It seems George Senior was quite the sportsman & was certainly deserving of his visit to the ‘Nags Head’ that evening!
Alnwick Cricket Club c1895
In and around the 1880’s George Senior, affectionately named “Owld Pen”, suffered an unfortunate fate, finding himself gored and crippled when picking mushrooms. According to his obituary in The Morpeth Herald, George Senior ‘went over the hedge [in Washburn Field], to gather mushrooms, and a cow in the field charged at him and gored him severely, breaking his leg, and causing other injuries.’ It is also noted that ‘…only through his strength and determination…he escaped with his life’. He was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with, even by bovines! He was an avid fisherman, spending time on the River Aln ‘plying his art’. After his accident, the then 6th Duke of Northumberland granted him ‘permission to fish in the “Pasture”’, a privilege only granted to the Percys themselves.
We find him again mentioned in The Alnwick Mercury in 1873, having caught a rather large fish ‘below the “Sumph” – ‘[it] was 22 inches in length, 11 ½ inches in girth, 5 inches deep at shoulder, and a weight 4 ½ lbs.’
His exploits at his Painter’s Hill home brought him to court in 1875 due to ‘wasting the town water’. It seems George felt that there was a ‘very serious deficiency’ and took matters into his own hands, ‘tying up the handle of his water-closet so as to allow the water to run full tap’. He was fined 15 shillings, including costs for this misdemeanour.
George Penrose Senior passed away in 1902 aged 69. He was then residing with his daughter, Mary Jane Charlton in Aston Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
