‘Page 1 ofl mmraraty From: "mmraraty To: ; Sent: 23 March 2007 13:09 Subject: Bridge Dear Mr Peirce, John Anderson has forwarded your email to me this morning, with an invitation to reply. Union Lane is indeed the same as (now) Union Road - the Location of Bridge Union Workhouse (1835 - now converted to a series of small private dwellings). No. 10 certainly still exists. l‘m fairly sure it still has the same number as it had in 1908. l am not certain whether what follows relates to your family, though there is a high probability. The 1901 Census returns for Bridge list one family of the name Peirce. Their names are: Anthony C aged 48 General Labourer Rose 41 Frederick 20 General labourer George H 15 General labourer Alfred J 13 Charles R 10 (sic) Martha M 7 RobertA 3 All at this time are living in a cottage, part of a row of four built in the early 19th century, called 'Bricknoggin‘. This is now a single private House beside the ford in Bridge (Mill Lane) called Bridgeford House. lf the so-recorded Charles R is the same as your grandfather Charles Henry, he would have been rather young (though not impossibly so) to have had a son by May 1908. The census was taken on March 31. There is no Peirce recorded in Union Lane, at any address. There is no surname Gosling in Bridge at this time. WH Wass was indeed the district Registrar for quite some time in the early 20th c. ln 1901 however he is recorded as the Workhouse Porter. It may well be the case that your father and uncle were taken into the workhouse in Bridge - their mother would still have been very young. It would have been a very common fate for children in such circumstances, especially towards the end of WW1. There are Workhouse records, though l have not seen them, and am unsure about their location. There are in Bridge churchyard four Peirce's commemorated (these are in the 'new' section, opened in the 19th century - the whole churchyard was closed in about 1982) they are Ada Peirce died Nov 16 1917 aged 44, also Albert Peirce died April 19 1937 aged 59 kerbstone and small stone These do not seem to correspond at all with the above. Frederick Peirce died May 30 1910 aged 28 tablet (as above) Rose Peirce died April 22 1916 aged 62 stone tablet (again, doesn't square with the age given above, but surely the same?) The census for 1891 does not record the name at all. There is today one lady named Pierce in Bridge. Her telephone number is 01227 (Canterbury) 830844. Her (late husband's) connection with yourself is however likely to be very distant! l'm sony the records I can give you are so meagre. It is a long way to come. However, I think you will enjoy a visit to Bridge in any case. Best wishes Maurice Raraty 23/03/2007