By Carol Saul
This article was published in the December 2025 edition of Soul Search, the Journal of The Sole Society
We acquired these Codd and other bottles for W. Saul & Co, Bournemouth many years ago when we were living and had connections in the area. Last year I decided to see what I could find out about the company and the SAULs in Hampshire.
There didn’t seem to be a lot of company information online. However, I made contact with the Dorset Antique Bottles facebook page and am indebted to collector and researcher Michael Squires for supplying the information below.
According to Michael, William SAUL was born around 1828 in Sibsey, Lincolnshire. He says: that: ‘the company of W. Saul & Co., Mineral Water Manufacturers, was established at Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, in 1895. By 1907 William had almost certainly retired from the business and his son Sidney James SAUL had formed a partnership with Leslie PETTEY, trading as “Saul & Pettey”, and also as “Lambert & Co.”, a branch based in Cotlands Road that they had previously purchased, and then, following the purchase of new machinery, entered into a partnership with Percy LAMBERT to run this part of the business. The partnership of “Saul & Pettey” ended in 1908 [there is a notice in the London Gazette] and this also ended the partnership with Lambert. The company then traded as “Saul & Co.” at 22a Holdenhurst Road and 134 Cotlands Road. The Cotlands Road branch had closed by around 1912 and the last directory entry for “Saul & Co.” at 22a Holdenhurst Road was in 1914 – like many smaller companies they went out of business during WW1.’ There are numerous newspaper advertisements prior to this for: “Sauls High Class Table Waters. Obtainable everywhere.”
William SAUL was born on 11 October 1827 in Sibsey, Lincolnshire, to William SAUL and Mary JEFFEREY. They thus link to the extensive SAUL tree for that area that is managed by John Slaughter.
But why did a seemingly well-to-do farmer move from Lincolnshire to Hampshire in later life and exchange his occupation to that of a manufacturer of mineral water?
Looking at the census in 1841 William is a 13 year old pupil at Carrington Parsonage, a boarding school for boys run by Rev Thomas Mitchinson. Meanwhile his father, a 40 year old farmer, and family, are in Sibsey. By 1851 William is back farming with his family.
By 1861 William’s father had died and he was the 33 year old head of the household and farmer of 4900 acres at Turnpike, Sibley. Living with him were his widowed mother and two sisters. In all these census returns there are several servants and sometimes mention of farm workers.
Also in 1861 William’s 30 year old brother George and family is a farmer in Sibsey. One of George’s children was William Osbourne SAUL.
William Osbourne is first found in Hampshire in 1901 as a 41 year old chemist in Southbourne, Bournemouth, having been a chemist’s assistant in Dover in 1891. In 1881 he is a pharmacy student living with his uncle Benjamin SAUL in Camberwell.
William married at the age of 36 on 9th June 1864 in the parish church in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was a farmer and his bride was 26 year old Elizabeth Ewen THORNS. They had 8 children: Mary Elizabeth [1865], Martha [1866], Annie Eleanor [1868, Lucy [1869, William [1871, Ellen Jefferay [1873], Gertrude [1874], and Sydney James [according to the GRO -1880].
In 1871 William was still farming in Turnpike, Sibsey, and employing 16 men and 4 boys. The family also had a Cook, a Housemaid and 2 Nursemaids.
I wonder if William’s move coincided with the sale of the lease on his property IF he is the W. SAUL mentioned, along with others, as occupying unnamed property in Sibsey to be sold by auction in 1875? [There are many SAULs in the area.]
A report in The Hampshire Chronicle, 27 December 1879, shows that William had now moved to Manor Farm, Woodmancott [various spellings]. This report concerns the theft of three sacks of oats and one of barley by a carter he employed. “This was one of those cases which so often occur, the prisoner having stolen his master’s corn for the purpose of feeding his master’s horses, with the intention, no doubt, of making his team superior in appearance to the others on the farm.” William asked the Bench to deal leniently with the man as he had a sick wife and children at home, and he had prosecuted him as a caution to others. So, a considerate employer.
Hence in 1881 William and family are found at The Village, Woodmancot, Hampshire. [This is ‘Woodmancot with Popham’.] He is farming 1150 acres and employing 14 men and 8 boys. With the then large family are a Governess, Cook, Nurse, Housemaid, along with a Nursemaid and Dressmaker.
There are sale notices in the Hampshire Chronicle in June and July 1884 for an auction of “a valuable flock of Hampshire Downs comprising 1050 ewes and ewe lambs” on behalf of Mr William SAUL of “Woodmancott, Hants, about 3 miles from Micheldever station whose farm lease is expiring”, although in 1891 he is at Manor Farm, Woodmancote, aged 63. Between 1891 and 1896 the family moved to Bournemouth as on 21st April 1896 daughter Annie Eleanor married Dr Charles AYMER in Bournemouth.
Thus in 1901 we see that William has again uprooted some of his family and they are living at Northlands, in Bournemouth, where at the age of 73 he has a complete change of occupation and is an employer of a mineral water company. His 21 year old son, Sidney James is listed as a worker in this company. Sidney married Bessie Gertrude BURTON on 22 May 1907 at Moordown, address Northlands, Fortescue Road, Bournemouth, and occupation of Mineral Water Manufacturer. I have found no trace of Sidney James after this and of Bessie Gertrude only in 1911 as a visitor in Eastbourne. Sole Society records query possible migration to Kenya.
In 1911 William, still living at Northlands, Heron Court Road, is now 83 and of no occupation so presumably retired. His 71 year old wife Elizabeth and their 45 year old daughter Mary Elizabeth Thorns SAUL are living there along with John Bycroft SAUL, listed as a 27 year old “cousin” and also a mineral water manufacturer.
Due to the significant age difference I looked for “cousin” John Bycroft SAUL.
William’s father, also William SAUL, 1796-1858, was brother to John Bycroft SAUL’s grandfather George SAUL – 1805-1873. John Bycroft’s father, George Frederick SAUL, was an apprentice Ironmonger in Boston in 1871 but by 1881 was an Ironmonger with his own business in Lymington, Hampshire,John Bycroft being born there in 1883.
John Bycroft SAUL was a solicitor’s articled clerk, aged 17, in Lymington in 1871. Interestingly, although he is a “mineral water manufacturer” in 1911, in 1910 he is a solicitor in a Lymington newspaper report concerning the Will of his father, George Frederick Saul, the Ironmonger.
In 1913 John Bycroft was fined for speeding on a motorcycle, with sidecar, at the “very fast rate of 20 mph” and gave his address as the Salisbury Hotel, Boscombe, a splendid looking building in online photographs.
He was in the machine gun corps of the Kings Own Light Infantry during WW1 and awarded the military cross.
At some point after WW1 he moved to Rochford where he married Juliana Margaret WATSON in 1926 and was a solicitor there in 1939. I have not found him in 1921.
He returned to Lincolnshire before his death in January 1946 and a newspaper report states he lived at Latimer House, Heckington and was deputy clerk to the Sleaford Petty Sessional Magistrates, and a partner in the firm of Messrs Peake, Snow and Jeudwine, solicitors. Another report says “formerly of Rochford, late of Gregson, Saul and Golding, solicitors, Southend. He left £8693 to his widow Juliana.
William SAUL died in 1912 aged 84. No Probate record found. An obituary in the Bournemouth Guardian does not mention his working life or family, just his personality and interests including cricket and shooting. When his daughter Elizabeth died in 1937 she left only £93 3s 4d.
So – I cannot answer my question of why the move from Lincolnshire to Hampshire and the momentous change of occupation in later in life! But there are more of these SAULs in Hampshire and much to be uncovered.