Dorking, Henry

Notes on Henry Dorking

See interview tape 44.

Born 1900.

Parents
Herbert Maurice Dorking (born c 1882, died at age of about 74).
Katie born c 1875, died before her husband.

Brothers and sisters (younger)
John, Maurice, Ena, and another sister.

School
Chipping Hill infants then National School.

Residence
1900  Born in Braintree Road, moved away when a baby.
1900-1920s  28 Chipping Hill. (middle one of three backing onto church.
1920s-c 1940s  38 Cressing Road
1940s to c 1970,  forge house, 18 Chipping Hill
c 1970 onwards, 14 Gimson Close.

Son (only child) Roger Dorking, 37 Lancer Way, Billericay, Essex, CM12 0XA

Employment
From leaving school (14?) to 17, horse boy on the railway.
From aged 17 to aged 70, blacksmith at the forge, 18 Chipping Hill. At first working for Quy family, then for self from 1957 onwards..

Died 31 May 1986
Extracts from relevant documents

1901 census
RG 13/1725, f/.75, p.4, schedule 22, Chipping Hill
Herbert M Dorking    Head    Mar    19    Builders yardman    born Essex, Faulkbourne
Katie Dorking    Wife    Mar    26        born Suffolk, Ubbeston
Henry Dorking    Son        3 mo        born Essex, Witham

Essex Weekly News, 14 July 1916, page 6, col 4. Tribunal re conscription. ‘Present – Hon C H Strutt, JP, CA, chairman; Messrs S Abrey, Q D Greatrex, P Hutley, JP, CA; Eb Smith, E J Smith, W Taber, and E Wood. Mr P E Laurence, JP,. and Mr E Pelly, military representatives. Mr S Daniel, clerk.’
Mrs Smith builder of Terling wanted exemption for only two workmen, Herbert M Dorking, 34, foreman bricklayer and plasterer, and  Fred Smith, 40, carpenter’. Neither passed for full service. Applicants’ ‘three sons had joined Army and another who was just 18 would have to go’. Six months postponement.

Essex County Chronicle, 2 March 1917
page 3, see xerox. ‘Railway foreman sentenced. Bad example at Witham.’ Petty Sessions. Bertie Rayner, 36[?] goods foreman porter of GER. Stealing tea, soap, gloves etc. property of GER. Defendant lived at Maldon. Employed at Witham for 6 months. … Three months hard labour …
Cecil Coppen and Charles Norman Bugg, Chelmsford, and ‘Henry Dorking and Arthur Wm Bentley, Witham, porters on the G.E.R., each aged 16 years,’ all charged with various thefts. All four formerly working at Witham, two transferred to Chelmsford before theft discovered . Coppen said ‘he paid Dorking 3d for the gloves’. All pleaded guilty. ‘Coppen, speaking for them all , said : We saw Rayner, the foreman, take things, and we did the same. If it had not been for him we would not have done it. – The Chairman: Was it a common thing to see the foreman taking things; was it wholesale robbery? – Coppen: we were all in the goods shed and saw Rayner taking things. – The Chairman said the defendants were young men, and the Bench did not want to make felons of them. Each would be bound over in the sum of £10 to be of good behaviour for three years.’

1920 electoral register
The Green, Chipping Hill. Herbert Morris Dorking; Kate Dorking

1930 electoral register
38 Cressing Road. Herbert Maurice Dorkin [sic]; Katie Dorkin; Henry Dorkin; John Dorkin; Maurice Dorking

1938 electoral register
38 Cressing Road. Herbert Maurice Dorking; Henry Dorkin; Maurice Dorking; Ena Dorkin.

1947 electoral register
No Dorking at 38 Cressing Road or 18 Chipping Hill (the latter occupied by Quy).

Braintree and Witham Times, 4 April 1957
Window on Witham has similar report on forge as on 11 April.

Braintree and Witham Times, 11 April 1957
page 10. ‘Picture of forge at Chipping Hill. In the Quy family 76 years. Mr Frank Quy retiring. He born there 72 years ago. ‘His right hand man’ for the past 39 years, Mr Henry Dorking, has now taken over. . ‘The demand for the old craft of shoeing is gradually dying out’.

1961 electoral register
18 Chipping Hill: Henry Dorking, Margaret Dorking.

Conversation with Roger Dorking, October 2002
He was son of Henry Dorking, blacksmith at Chipping Hill, first of all assistant to Frank Quy there.
Roger born 1941 at which time they lived in Council House in Cressing Road. In 1957 they moved to live next to the forge, at 18 Chipping Hill; the house was all one then (now 18 and 18A). Frank Quy the blacksmith moved to a bungalow in the Avenue and Henry rented the blacksmith’s house from him at first. Then when Frank died he left the house and the forge to Henry. But needed lots of work doing to it and Henry couldn’t afford to do it, so Council took it and Henry bought bungalow at Moat farm.

 

 

 

 

 

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