Mary Emily Mole

(My Great-Grandmother)

It is said that Emily's mother used to drink gin and all the things she had collected in a blanket box for her "bottom drawer" when she would be married (linen, towels, blankets, etc) were all sold to buy gin. It is also said that her husband was not so nice when he'd been drinking. Probably as a result of this, Emily was tea-total and a member of the "Rechabites". She went to church every week.

Before she married she was a seamstress and later in life she made clothes for babies in hospital. She also made trousers for her granddaughter, (they were kept at Emily's, since Eva wouldn't allow my mum to wear them).

There was a long garden with a summerhouse at the back of her house in Briarwood Ave. There was a gate at the back and the same stream that went through Jesmond Dene. Emily loved gardening; she grew raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, apples and vegetables.

She liked baking and always had a fruitcake in a tin in case anyone came to visit. She also kept 'Black bullets" (a kind of mint) for the kids.

They had a chalet in the countryside on a farm at Brompton (from Gilsland), they had free train travel, so would go with friends and sister (Emily Urwin ?). They always had Christmas parties. She had a posh front room with a chaise-long, that no one ever went in! She had a red-setter called "Prince", but it got killed on the road. She later had a Pekinese.

Emily with her eldest grandson, about 1925

Details

Born: 1875, Newcastle on Tyne Father: Roger Mole Mother: Mary Jane Simpson, daughter of David Simpson Married: 1899, Newcastle on Tyne Spouse: John Skeen Died: 1955, buried Gosforth Children: Emily Evelyn Skeen

		Lillian Stuart Skeen
		B.1902, D.1903

		John Stanley Skeen
		B.1906

		Charles Alan Skeen
		B.1915, married Connie Perkins

Census

1881:  68, Cottenham Street, Westgate, Newcastle						
Roger Mole		Head	Joiner			M	35	M	Newcastle
Mary J. Mole		Wife				M	36	F	Newcastle
Charles Mole		Son	Scholar				9	M	Newcastle
Emily Mole		Daur.	Scholar				6	F	Newcastle
George Pye		Lodger	General Labourer	U	58	M	Newcastle

						
1901:119, Saltwell Road, Gateshead						
John Skeen		Head	Railway Clerk		M	25	M	Newcastle
Emily Skeen		Wife				M	25	F	Newcastle
Emily Skeen		Daur.					10mon	F	Newcastle

Back to Skeen Family Tree

Back to Jenny's Home Page