52 Ancestors 52 Weeks 2026 Week 2 - A Record That Adds Colour

 While scrolling through the Brighton Past group, I came across a post from a second cousin who had shared a 1933 painting of the Wadey family home in Circus Street. Until that moment, Circus Street had been little more than a name in my research. I had seen photographs of nearby streets from the same era, but none of Circus Street itself. The houses were demolished in the 1930s during “slum clearance” and to make way for a new municipal fruit and vegetable market.

That painting changed everything. For the first time, I could see the street where generations of my family had lived and worked. It quite literally added colour to a place that had existed only in records and imagination.

The Wadeys of Circus Street

My research had already taken me back to the early 1800s, and by the 1850s the Wadey name appears regularly in Circus Street—usually beside the occupation “chimney sweep.” The painting confirmed what the records suggested: this street was central to the family’s story.

The name painted on the wall, W. Wadey, belonged to my great‑grandfather, William Wadey, born in 1861 in Circus Street itself. He was the son of Stephen Edwin Wadey and Mary Ann Johnson, and he lived with them at No. 7 until his marriage to Rosina Gravett in 1887. The newlyweds moved to 12 Marine Gardens, but by 1909 William and Rosina were back in Circus Street with their growing family.

A colourful character

William’s personality emerges not only from family stories but from the occasional newspaper report. In February 1889 he appeared in court after a disturbance at the Little Yacht Beerhouse in Sussex Street—a Tamplins pub that later closed in 1930. It’s a small detail, but seems to make the man real behind the bland census entries.

A family of chimney sweeps

William and Rosina had ten children, though one tragically died in infancy. William spent his working life as a chimney sweep, eventually becoming a Master Chimney Sweep. He held long‑standing contracts with Brighton Council, including the prestigious task of sweeping the chimneys of the Royal Pavilion for over 30 years

The trade continued through the generations. William’s sons followed him into the profession, including my grandfather Stephen, who was still sweeping chimneys into the 1950s. I can even remember Wadeys—my first cousins once removed—still working as sweeps into the late1970s. It was more than a job; it was a family tradition.

An interesting post about Brighton sweeps can be found here soot-oh-sweep

William’s final years

On 30 November 1932, William was involved in a serious accident in York Place, struck by both a car and a tram. The local paper reported abrasions and a broken arm, but complications set in, and he died two weeks later in hospital from pneumonia.

A street brought back to life

For years, Circus Street was just an entry in parish registers and census returns. That single painting changed my perspective entirely. It gave shape to the houses, colour to the walls, and life to the people who lived there. It connected me not just to my great‑grandfather, but to the street that shaped generations of the Wadey family.