HOMEFRONT HEROINE: WOMEN IN BUSINESS
CABINET MAKER
Ada and Blanche Birch worked as cabinet maker’s assistants to her father Frank Birch. Birmingham born Frank Birch had moved the family to St Martin’s by 1891. Frank and his wife, Edith, had seven children their eldest daughter, Ada (1879), was born while they were living in Birmingham. The other children May, Frank, Edith M., Winnie, Mary Blanche and Harold Birch were born in Oswestry between 1883 and 1902.
By 1901 Frank Birch had a business at 43 Bailey Street, Oswestry working as a cabinet maker and home decorator. His daughter Ada was working as a saleswoman in the family business. By 1911 the family moved to the Hawthorns, Weston Lane, a 12 roomed house. Ada and her sister Blanche were by now both helping in their father’s business.
Kelly’s Directory for 1917 lists Ada and Blanche at 38 Bailey Street as oil and colour (sic) dealers
Ada and Blanche never married, Blanche died in 1964 leaving money to her spinster sister May Birch.