General Chat

At that time,in the north of England (and I presume many other areas), a "Court" was not a building or a street .......

.......... it was an area behind houses, surround by other houses, forming a quadrangle. The houses surrounding it were back-to-backs ............ one house faced the street and had a number on that street, the house facing the court had a number on the court.

So you might find an address such as 3-5 Court Andrews Street ..... which meant house number 3 on the 5th Court off Andrews Street.

I delivered the Christmas post for 2 or 3 years from about 1959-1962, and the route I was given had quite a few such "courts" on it .................. you had to find the little alley way between 2 houses on Andrews Street that gave entrance to a court.

In Oldham, those little alleyways were known as "ginnels"

I have just been looking at a Victorian Ordnance Survey map of Exeter (link below if you want to look for yourself), and I can't find Darbys Buildings. However, there seem to be a lot of roads called "something Court", so it looks as though that one might be findable on a proper street map of the time.

Good hunting! :-)

https://tinyurl.com/y7m5r2ok

I think you might find that 150 years ago Exeter was quite small and there would be only one building called Darbys Buildings so no street name would be needed.

I have lots of ancestors who lived in Co. Durham and quite a lot of them had addresses that were just a "building" and then the town name., sometimes not even a number before the "building" name.

You could contact Exeter Library and ask if they have any old town maps from that time that they could check for you.. Unfortunately I can't find an email address but this is the postal address:-

Castle Street, Exeter EX4 3PQ
Phone: 0845 155 1001

Kath. x

RockyMountainShy - I'll try to speak to a work colleague who was born & continues to live in Exeter (Devon).

The small city did get a bit of bashing during WWII.

*Chortle*
There's a Darly/Daryl and a Derby area of Exeter, but. apparently, no 'Darby' :-D :-D :-D :-D

You do realise some of these enumerators weren't the sharpest tools in the box.

Have you found the streets looked at before and after 'Darbys Bgs' ?

Now I realize that the people that took the 1861 census didn't think in their wildest dreams that someone half way around the world would be peeking at them 157 years into the future.
BUT No. 4 Darbys Bgs is no way to write down an address It says very clearly at the top of the column, Road, Street &c., and No. or Name of House
Ok so I assume Darbys Bgs is a apartment block/condo/townhouse type thingy, and John and his family lives in #4 but WHAT STREET is this building on. 10 years earlier he was living on Exe Street, 10 yrs. later he is living in Chapples Court which is I assume another apartment block/condo/townhouse type thingy ok so he is in Exeter but I hate to say this, EXETER IS NOT A SMALL VILLAGE IT'S HUGE

Please can anyone tell me what street he is on :-S