Mary Ann (Poppy) PLAYSTED [6031]

  General Notes:

MARY ANN (POPPY) PLAYSTED
Biography by Susan Hendrie.
Mary Ann (Poppy) Playsted was born Jan-Mar Quarter 1878 at Arundel Road, Littlehampton. Her parents were Henry Playsted (born 15 July 1843, Wadhurst) and Lydia (nee Lydia Smith Tapner) from Crowhurst. She was the second eldest of four children, her siblings being Elizabeth (born 1871), Henry Smith (born 1873) and Annie Sarah (born 1875).
Mary Ann's parents married on 6 June 1870 and on the census the following year are found living with Henry's uncle Edgar, formerly a farmer at Wadhurst but now describing himself as a "Nurseryman" at 2 Louis Villas, Tunbridge Wells. The newly married Henry gives his occupation as a "Carpenter Joiner", an occupation his grandson would follow.
Circa 1873-5 Henry and Lydia were living in the village of Lyminster (aka Leominster), a small hamlet to the north of Littlehampton, West Sussex, but had moved to Arundel Road, Littlehampton by the time of the 1881census. It was here that Mary Ann was born and where her father continued working as a carpenter and builder until his untimely death aged only 44 in the Oct-Dec Quarter 1886.
Henry's death clearly caused financial difficulties and the family had to move out of the house. The 1891 census shows poor Lydia working as a live in Cook at 44 Broadwater Down, Frant, now a leafy suburb of Tunbridge Wells. Her daughters, Elizabeth (20), Annie Sarah (16, Dressmaker's Apprentice) and 13 year old Mary Ann were living with their widowed great uncle Thomas Smith, aged 77, (living on his own means), back in Lyminster. Brother Henry (aka Harry), now aged 18, is found living with uncle William Nimrod Playsted (Carpenter Joiner) and wife Emily at Monks Orchard Lodge, Wickham Road, Addington, Surrey. He gave his occupation as Carpenter Joiner too.
In the June quarter of 1895 Mary Ann's sister, Elizabeth, married Charles Hargrave and in the July-Sept Quarter Henry Smith Playsted married Florence Fanny Mitchell in the Bromley Registration District.
By the 1901 census 23 year old Poppy (as Mary Ann was now known) Playsted was earning her living as a Milliner and boarding in the household of widowed Milliner and Dressmaker, Emma Hitchcock, at Nos. 7 & 8 Old Market Place, Sudbury in Suffolk. Next door, at No. 9, lives William Alston, the widowed father of her future husband Percy (Pat). The 26 year old Annie is now a Lady's Maid to the family of Charles & Annetta Wakefield at Belmont House, Hillingdon while Lydia is living with daughter Elizabeth who, with her husband Charles, is the owner of a Fishmonger and Poulterer business in Tarrant Street, Arundel. Lydia is employed by her daughter as a Cashier. Henry (carpenter & joiner), his wife Florence, and their 4 year old son Lionel Henry William, are now living at 92 Rymer Road, Croydon.
No amount of searching on the 1901 census can find Percy , however, he clearly was not far away as Percy Walter Filbee Alston (Furniture Dealer) married Mary Ann Playsted (no occupation given) on 13^th August 1902 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church, Lower Addiscombe Road, Croydon. The witnesses were Poppy's brother Henry and sister Annie.
The choice of Croydon for the marriage was almost certainly determined by the fact that by the time of the wedding Poppy's mother and unmarried sister, Annie Sarah (now a dressmaker again), had moved to Croydon, the 1911 census showing them at 113 Morland Road. Poppy and Percy's address on the marriage certificate is given as 3 Morland Terrace, Morland Road, Addiscombe, which is a part of Croydon. This would have been a temporary residence for the wedding, not living together!
Poppy and Percy went back to Sudbury after their marriage and the 1911 census finds them living at 8 Old Market Place, the house that Poppy had lived in as a boarder! (Perhaps an Alston family property?) He gives his occupation as "House Furnisher" and they have two sons, Leslie age 6 and Percy 9 months. Living in is Lilly Crick, the Domestic Servant.
Henry and Florence by this time have moved to 6 Amberley Grove, Croydon with their only son, Lionel, now 14 and still at school. Henry works as the Assistant Foreman at a joinery. Sadly, only child Lionel did not live long enough to create a new line of Playsteds. On 20 September 1917 320922 Lance Serjeant Lionel Henry William Playsted 2nd/6th Bn. London Regiment (City of London Rifles), age 21 was killed in action having served in France and Flanders. He is buried at Menin Gate, Ypres.
Henry Smith Playsted, Poppy's brother, died in the December Quarter 1948, in the NE Surrey Registration District, his wife Florence living on until the March Quarter of 1955 and dying in the same registration district.
In 1913 Jan-Mar Quarter Annie Sarah married Frederick Smart in Croydon Registration District. She died in 1958, registered in the Worthing Registration District
Poppy's mother, Lydia Smith Playsted, died Jan-Mar Quarter 1928 in the East Preston Registration District.
Elizabeth Lydia died July-Sept Quarter 1945 in the Worthing Registration District.
Poppy (Mary Ann) died in the July-Sept Quarter 1951 and Percy died in the Apr-June Quarter of 1969. They had two children, Leslie William Llewellyn and Roy. (For the careers of these two brothers see Alstons - Ashbury Furniture).
Ref: suehendrie


Mary was of Arundel SSX.

Death Registration Jul Qtr 1951 aged 72 Sudbury Ref: 4b 747

  Other Records

1. Mary Ann (Poppy) Playstead.
Poppy's business premises Old Market Place Sudbury (smaller shop to right), her marriage certificate 1902.

Mary married Percy (Pat) Walter Filbee ALSTON [6029] [MRIN: 2010], son of William Alfred ALSTON [6025] and Fanny Amelia FILBEE [6028], on 30 Aug 1902 in Methodist Church Croydon SRY. (Percy (Pat) Walter Filbee ALSTON [6029] was born on 24 Dec 1880 in Sudbury SFK and died on 30 Apr 1969 in Sudbury SFK.)