Charlotte Alderton, nee Kettle, was born in Hadleigh in about 1843 but spent most of her life in St Clement’s parish, a poor, dockside district of Ipswich. We know something about her life because her husband, a disabled former Thames bargeman, wrote a memoir of their lives together.  It is unlikely that Charlotte herself was able to read and write fluently, if at all, and without Joseph’s narrative she would be truly ‘hidden from history’.

As a young woman, she was a silk binder and would have been paid poverty wages.  Her married life was spent running a household, caring for her family and taking on paid work when it fitted in. Her husband was often too ill to work and the money she brought in from mangling, shop work and ‘waistcoat work’ was an important part of the household budget.

Charlotte’s husband’s proud boast was that, whether they could afford it or not, there was always enough money in the kitty for her nightly treat – half a pint of beer.

John Alderton, the actor – Upstairs, Downstairs – is one of her descendants and owns the family memoir which he is hoping to make into a film. 

Sources include  Joseph Alderton’s Memoirs (unpublished – courtesy of John Alderton)