The Heighton brothers, William George (1864-1936) born at Dunton Bassett, and Peake (1853-1911) born at Shearsby, were builders and had built a number of properties on Croft Road in Cosby. Unfortunately in 1899 they went bankrupt. By the 1901 census William, a carpenter, and his wife Caroline (nee Pochin 1861-1944) were living at Littlethorpe in one of The Narrows cottages. With them were their children: William (1887-1963), Elizabeth b.1888, Alma b.1890, George (1892-1976), Caroline b.1897, Richard (1899-1918), William 1904-1991.
The Cottages on Narrow Lane in 1966
Extract from the 1901 Census for Littlethorpe showing William and family shortly after their arrival in the village.
Sometime between 1901 and 1911 William and his brother Peake acquired a number of plots on Cosby Road and built what are now No’s 1, 3, and 5, and established their Sawmill and workshops next door (where No’s 7, 9 and 9a stand today), they also had a timber storage yard on the other side of the road (Now No’s 6 & 8). Here they stored complete tree trunks prior to cutting them to size in the sawmill, The trees would in the main be local, bought as they stood in the local hedgerows and left to season in the yard. The sources were all reasonably local because of transport which in the early days would have been by horse drawn timber bob such as the one pictured below.
19th century timber bob used to transport large baulks of timber. The trunks would be loaded sideways on over planks and pulled by the horse with either ropes or chains.
The Heightons had a stable at the rear of the workshops where they kept the horse, or horses used for transport. There were numerous notices for sales of standing trees “of interest to carpenters, joiners, coopers, and wheelwrights” in the field in the local press.
The Headstone in Cosby Cemetery for the son of Peake & Mary Anne Heighton who died 9th December 1901. No doubt a more thorough search of the cemetery will reveal more .Heighton family graves
A recent photogaph showing 1 – 5 Cosby Road with the site of Heighton Bro’s Sawmill & Workshops next door at what would be No’s 7 and 9.
The 1911 census sees the addition of daughter Rose Ellen b.1907. Also there is Carolines brother George Pochin a baker born in 1858. By this time they had built the above mentioned properties. Caroline senior kept a grocery store at No.5 (this was later to become The VG Stores run by Eric & Kathleen Hall who acquired it in the late 1940’s). Caroline was a typical Victorian woman with ankle length dresses and her grey hair always tied back in a tight bun. This is a story related to me about her “They used to sell potatoes out back and old Mrs Heighton would serve these with never a thought to washing her hands afterwards. One day somebody said to her that they’d had a bath installed, her reply was, I’m 83 and I’ve never had a bath in my life and I’m not going to start now”. She was a lovely old character. She was assisted in the shop by daughter Caroline known as Cam.
In the 1921 census William senior now decribes himself as builder employer. Son William junior is an apprentice carpenter, no doubt employed by his father. Also there is his grandson Harry Hall b.1913, the son of Alma, and three boarders.
Report of fire in the Leicester Evening Mail of 23rd July 1929
George & Carolines Golden Wedding as reported in the Leicester Mercury dated 26th May 1936. The only thing they appear to have wrong is the date of their arrival in Littlethorpe because they appear in the 1901 Census as shown above. They were living at 1 Cosby Road known then as “Central View”. Sadly William died later that year on the 17th December.
1939 and Williams sons are running the business of Heighton Brothers, not only were they builders but also carpenters, wheelwrights, and undertakers with some blacksmithing thrown in. George was living at 4 Cosby Road, and William at “Linden Lea” also on Cosby Road.
The Leicester Mercury of Monday 8th January report of fire at Heightons Sawmill. Unfortunately they have the address wrong because it was Cosby Road. Never believe all you read in the newspapers!
The workshops were entirely timber built as I remember, and with all the wood stored and sawdust the fire would have spread rapidly. The sawmill itself had big planers, circular saws and bandsaws, all of the sawdust from these went into a brick lined pit in the floor and over time would build up to height of six feet. The following story was related to me by Nev Duncan and took place in the 1940’s ” One Saturday morning three or four of us sitting in there Bill come in, What you lads doing? just sittting here Bill. Do you want a job? what’s that Bill? If I take the trap doors off there and give you some bags. Would you lads like to clean the sawdust out for me and bag it? I said, yeah, all right, Bill. Thinking in terms of what we’re gonna get. So we bagged it, come lunchtime I went home and we had’nt quite finished so we agreed to go back in the afternoon. Now you know there was a cinema called the Plaza at Whetstone and they used to do a Saturday afternoon, 4 o’clock matinee. So we thought, great and we filled all these bags. We tied them up. We stacked it all. We emptied it, cleaned it and put the lids on. So how’s that then Bill, I’m not joking He gave us tuppence each”.
Bill Heighton died in 1991 having retired from business earlier and living in Cosby. The Business continued to be run by his son Tony (1927-!994), he established an hardware shop at the front of the old workshops on Cosby Road. As a young married man he also lived in The Narrows just prior to their demolition in the 1960’s, two bungalows were built on the old woodyard and were numbers 6 and 8 Cosby Road, Tony lived at No.8.
An early 1970’s Advert for Heightons DIY Shop.
Tony Heighton (pictured far right) with members of the parish council.
Sources: Nev Duncan, Find My Past, Cosby a Leicestershire Village Volume 2 by Brian Screaton, Rachel Cooper,
As with any local history research continues on this and more information will hopefully be added as it is found, so keep checking for the latest updates. In fact if you can add anything to the above please get in touch via the contact form
