{"id":1009,"date":"2019-09-07T20:46:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-07T20:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:38:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:38:48","slug":"they-paved-paradise-a-cooks-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/07\/they-paved-paradise-a-cooks-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"They paved paradise\u2026 a cook\u2019s tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

They paved paradise and put up… well, not a parking lot, in this post about the origins of a place name, and the story of a cook who jumped through a window.<\/p>\n

Paradise on Earth<\/h2>\n

It is one of those sad ironies in life that builders and developers name streets after features they have destroyed by building them.<\/p>\n

Around the UK, there a streets with names like Badgers Mead, Plantation Road, Orchard Drive that tell us what USED to be there before they were sold for development.<\/p>\n

Other \u2018pretty\u2019 street names are just that \u2013 meant to sound nice. Housing estates called after magnolias and laurels and ash and rowan are unlikely to have all those different trees growing there before the diggers moved in. Indeed, some developers plant the trees to match the names and beautify the housing estate afterwards.<\/p>\n

One curious street name is Paradise.<\/p>\n

There are (among others) Paradise Lanes in Blackburn, Peterborough, Walsall\u2026 Paradise Streets in Liverpool, London, Oxford\u2026 Paradise Roads in Richmond and Dundee.<\/p>\n

And while some of these places may be heavenly to those who live there, others\u2026 well, in Newcastle, there is a sign for a Paradise House under a railway arch that can\u2019t be anyone\u2019s idea of the promised land!<\/p>\n

\"Paradise
A sign in Newcastle upon Tyne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The entrance to Paradise Court, in Carlisle doesn\u2019t look exactly idyllic \u2013 but then Cumbria County Council explains the origin of the name in this city walk guide<\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paradise Court takes its name from a field in Harraby, Paradise being a medieval name for an enclosure.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Cook’s Adventure.\u00a011 March 1887<\/span><\/h2>\n

Caroline Lavery. Paradise Court, Castle Street, sought to recover \u00a34 5s 10d wages from Mr W. H. Scott, Red Gables, Chatsworth Square.<\/p>\n

Plaintiff stated that she was engaged by Mr Scott as plain cook, with a salary of \u00a322.<\/p>\n

Caroline lasted just a few days, before Mr Scott told her she \u2018did not suit them\u2019. Their complaint was over a fowl \u2013 she said it was cooked all right, but there was no sauce because there was no milk.<\/p>\n

Asked if she\u2019d been in service before, she said: \u201cMrs Green\u2019s, Croglin Rectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Judge asked: \u201cWhat the defence? Is it that she cannnot cook?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Brown, for the defence, said: \u201cShe went there on the Monday, and nearly every meal that she put forward was wasted. On the Friday, Mr Scott told her that her cooking was very bad, and wished to see if she would take more pains and endeavour to do better. She said she would try to cook food in proper manner. On Saturday, things were worse than before, and, when Mr Scott spoke to her, she said if he was not satisfied she would leave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Scott said he would give her a week’s money, and she should go on the Monday morning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A dramatic exit<\/h3>\n

And that\u2019s where the story becomes more interesting than a cook who (allegedly) couldn\u2019t cook.<\/p>\n

On the Sunday night, she told the servants that she meant to have a “fiver * out of Mrs Scott.<\/p>\n

(This was dismissed by Mr Johnson, for the plaintiff, as \u2019servants’ tittle tattle\u2019).<\/p>\n

Mr Brown said that when Mr Scott went to give her the agreed week\u2019s wages, she said it wasn\u2019t enough and she wanted a month\u2019s wages and a month\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Scott then told her not to leave his service, and after the house doors were locked, she leaped through the window and got off. (Laughter.).<\/p>\n

A technicality<\/h3>\n

The Judge pointed out that technically, then: \u201cShe was never dismissed at all\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSupposing she is fit to cook at the best hotel in England, if this true, she left of her own accord.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(To plaintiff): \u201cDid you go out the window?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir.\u201d (Laughter.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Plaintiff: \u201cBecause Mrs Scott ordered me out of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Brown: \u201cMr Scott bolted the front and back doors and would not let her go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Judge:\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWhy did you go out of the window?\u201d<\/p>\n

Plaintiff: \u201cBecause the front and back doors were locked.\u201d (Laughter.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr Scott said I was no cook at all and he had better have a change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMrs Scott ordered me out at once, and she sent a page-boy out to bring a policeman. I was so much upset that I came out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Scott was too ill to come to court.<\/p>\n

The unanswered question<\/h3>\n

Mr Johnson (to Scott): \u201cHow many cooks have you had?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Brown: \u201cI object to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Judge: \u201cThis is the only cook we are talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case was struck out, costs being allowed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Caroline Lavery<\/h4>\n

\u2018Lavery\u2019 isn\u2019t a common surname; nor was \u2018Caroline\u2019 all that common in the late 1800s. So it seems safe to assume that the Caroline Lavery, 27, cook on the 1891 census was the above.<\/p>\n

She is recorded as having been born in India. And in 1891, was a patient in the District Infirmary, in Port Road, Caldewgate (Carlisle).<\/p>\n

Born in Lucknow, a British subject, she had come to Cumbria at some point after 1881 \u2013 when she was recorded as a \u2018cook domestic servant,\u2019 at a house in Tranmere, Cheshire.<\/p>\n

Cumbria doesn\u2019t seem to have worked out too well for her! Or perhaps, given her start in life, she just felt she had no \u2018roots\u2019 tying her to any one place. For in 1901 she was in another hospital, hundreds of miles away \u2013 in Kidbrooke, London. Only this time, she was working there as a cook, not a patient. She had also cut 12 years off her age, but that may just have been an error by whoever filled in all the details for what was a very large institution.<\/p>\n

Perhaps she had realised there was \u2018safety in numbers\u2019 working in a hospital kitchen \u2013 people would be less likely to notice if her cooking was not to the standard a family like the Scotts would expect.<\/p>\n

The Cumbrian Characters<\/h2>\n

\u2018Mrs Green\u2019s, Croglin Rectory\u2019<\/h4>\n

In 1881, the rector of Croglin was Josephus Henry Green (MA, rector of Croglin AND farmer of 15.5 acres), 46. Mrs Green was his wife Elizabeth. (With them were a Lawrence, 18, Lydia, 20, and two domestic servants). Josephus died in 1889 and Elizabeth and the two adult children moved to Ulverston.<\/p>\n

\u2018W H Scott\u2019<\/h4>\n

William Hudson Scott was a lithographic printer, and part of famous family business. In 1891, he was 48 and still living in Red Gables, Chatsworth Square (number 16), with his wife Louie (n\u00e9e Louisa Owen), 33 \u2013 who had been born in Notting Hill, London.<\/p>\n

However, Louie was NOT the Mrs Scott of the court case.<\/p>\n

The first Mrs Scott, too ill to appear in court, had in fact died in 1889.<\/p>\n

William married Louie\/Louisa in January 1891 in Liverpool, where she was living at the time (according to the marriage certificate).<\/p>\n

The first Mrs Scott was Alice. Oh, and 1881 shows us that William employed 200 men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When William Hudson Scott died in 1907, his estate was valued at more than \u00a384,000.<\/p>\n

I may well come back to Hudson Scott business in a future post.<\/p>\n

With William and Louisa in 1891 was William\u2019s daughter, Lucy M, aged six. And four female servants\u2026 including Mary Thompson, 55, cook.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One hopes she was better at cooking chicken!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They paved paradise and put up… well, not a parking lot, in this post about the origins of a place name, and the story of a cook who jumped through a window. Paradise on Earth It is one of those sad ironies in life that builders and developers name streets after features they have destroyed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[208],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courts","tag-carlisle"],"yoast_head":"\nThey paved paradise\u2026 a cook\u2019s tale - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A look at why 'Paradise' is a fairly common street name. 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