History of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston-on-Sea
Thomas Cockrill
| Parents | William Cockrill Sarah Scott Cockrill, nee Ballard |
| Born | Bulls Lane, Gorleston. (Monday 28th March 1859) |
| Married | Ellen Elizabeth Blenman Approach Road Methodist Chapel, Victoria at the Park, London (Wednesday 29th April 1885) |
| Children | Winifred Sarah Scott Cockrill |
| Died | Blackheath, London (Wednesday 2nd June 1943) |
| Buried | Gorleston Old Cemetery. |
Thomas Cockrill
Tom transferred from the local school to Yarmouth Grammar School as his parents, upon the advice of his masters, intended Tom to become a schoolmaster. Tom soon became rather disillusioned with the poor prospects in teaching. In 1882, his elder brother J.W. Cockrill became Borough Surveyor for Great Yarmouth and was willing to employ Tom as an assistant in his department. So Tom determined to train and work hard in order to assemble enough money to marry and set up his own home. Tom married Ellen Blenman in 1882 and their only daughter, Winifred was born in 1889.
Around the time of the birth of Winifred, Tom began to consider that the time had come to leave Great Yarmouth. There seem to have been several reasons for this conclusion. One consideration was that John Cockrill's two sons were coming of age and they were likely to supplant him in the Borough Surveyor's office. Another consideration being that Tom had been an assistant now for over seven years and had coped with a six month spell as Acting Borough Surveyor when his brother had been off sick following food poisoning.
Tom applied for several posts in a variety of towns and eventually chose to go to Haverhill, Suffolk, where the Town Council were intending to install the town's first mains water supply and main drainage system. While at Haverill Tom became involved in a dispute with the Town Council over the rates of pay for manual workers in the Borough Engineers Department. The pay in Haverill for such jobs was lower than in Great Yarmouth. The Haverhill Council claimed that their manual workers should be paid in line with those, employed in the factories in that agricultural area. However, Tom stuck to his guns and the Council Workers pay was increased. Tom and his family were at Haverhill for about eight years during which time he superintended the laying of all the water and sewage mains in the Town and made several other Town improvements. His wife was involved in the social life of the town and was much in demand because of her fine soprano voice.
In September 1899 Tom and family moved to Biggleswade where Tom was to be Borough Surveyor and also to be in private practice. They lived in London Road, Biggleswade, initially at No 21 and then at No 25, his offices being located in the Market Square. The family continued to be prominent in their involvement with the Methodist Church. He designed a good many village chapels and school rooms, a large extension behind the Biggleswade Methodist Chapel and many houses were built or altered around the town under his auspices. Indeed it was said that in 1940 one could not look around the Market Square and fail to find a building not touched by him in some way. The years in Biggleswade from 1900 to the start of the Great War were very busy and fulfilling. From 1914 onward until his departure from Biggleswade in 1932 the town saw very little private building and therefore less work for his private practice.
Thomas and Ellen Cockrill's Golden Wedding (1935)
In 1932 Tom and Ellen modernised their holiday home, 137 Lowestoft Road, and semi-retired there. Tom continued with a small private practice working from an office at 25 Regent Street, Great Yarmouth. Tom and Ellen remained at Lowestoft Road until Ellen died, they had been married fifty-one years. Soon after that Tom Cockrill went to live with his married daughter, Winifred Pickard, in London.
