John Lloyd Jones my Great Grandfather seen here sitting outside a public house or perhaps a working mans club that exhibits his name over the door way. I feel sure that it is his father sitting on his right and this would mean that he was John Jones my Great-great Grandfather and the little boy stood next to the charabanc driver may well be my Grandfather John William Jones. There may also be uncles and brothers of John Lloyd Jones there too. I still do not know were this place was and all the census forms and marriage certificates always refer to his job as a Landscape Gardener. There are no clues to the whereabouts of this licensed premises but I do know that the Charabanc/Daimler was registered in the Manchester district. They are all dressed up ready to go on a trip or have just come back from one. They look like they are wearing carnations and so I have assume that it may be rememberance day.

[colourised from an original black and white photo]

Here is a letter, written by my great granfather, John Lloyd Jones, in 1927, to his grandughter Norah Hayward - It mentions him wanting to buy a hotel, which proves he already had been in the business, as above photo.

69 Coke Street
Cheetham Hill
Manchester

December 17th, 1927.

My Dear Granddaughter [Norah Hayward]

I am sure you will think it very unkind of me not writing you for so long but do please excuse me and I will write you more often.
I am indeed pleased to know you are a good girl which proves it by your staying in your present situation such a nice time which shows that they value your services.
I hope your little sisters [Mabel and Doris Hayward] are in comfortable circumstance and well and happy also your Dear Mother who I should be so pleased to see and hope to be able to get over to your Uncle's [John William Jones] at Knightwick early this coming summer and then I can see you all.
Where is you mother [Fanny May Hayward] living at now I was so sorry to hear that her Home had been broken up and I do think it a shame for however humble it was still home and there is no place like home.
I can't say how very sorry I feel for you all.
Your auntie •Lizzie should have left her home alone.
My intention was to make a home for her but after promising to help me to get a business your auntie refused when I had got the chance of a first class Hotel and I was only short of £100 to walk in it was £300 to go in and I could find all the other and she would have been paid back long since for the House is a gold mine.
However I have nothing to thank her for and don't wish to see her again.
I had a severe illness last spring but pulled through with good nursing but left my chest weak I have to be careful.
Well my dear little girl I should love to see you also your other sisters and dear mother now give my fondest love to them and hope you and all will have a happy xmas and jolly and prosperous new year. I return love your ever affectionate Granddad J. Lloyd Jones.
Please remember me to all at Knightwick And I will write them soon and hope to see them.

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Information:-

•Lizzie was Esther Elizabeth Grubham [She was married twice first to Nathaniel Flowers and after his death to Bawden Wootton]
•Lizzie was my grandmother Lucy (Grubham) Jones's sister and lived most of her life at the Laurels at the top of Ankerdine Hill, Knightwick. The Laurels was the ancestral home of my great grandparents Philip Grubham and his wife Eliza (Berry) Grubham.

Norah's mother Fanny May (Jones) Hayward was John lloyd Jones' daughter and her brother was my grandfather John William Jones, who was sub-postmaster at Knightwick Post Office.

Fanny May Hayward married George Joseph Petty on the 3rd December, 1928 the year after this letter was written.

Could John's letter refer to a break up in Norah's parents marriage! I do not know when her father Charles Hayward died, his last child Doris Winifred Hayward was born on the 18th May, 1920. In the 1921 census Charles Hayward was 66 years and 8 months old and when Fanny May married George Petty in 1928, she was a widower. So Charles died somewhere between 1921 and 1928. Perhaps the break up of the home referred to in this letter was because of his death and that with out his income perhaps they all finished up at Knightwick with my grandfather, John William Jones; Mabel and Doris definately lived there for many years.
When Fanny married George Petty, Norah lived with them.

One of the photos I have of my great grandfather John Lloyd Jones, is of him sat outside his own pub, I have never found out where it was. The charabang outside this pub was registered in Manchester. Every where you read anything about his ocupation it is always gardener, or seedsman or landscape gardener but never once does it say landlord, so frustratingly I only had the photo to prove he was once a landlord but now with this letter reffering to him wanting to buy a hotel it confirms that he did have an alliance in this area as an occupation.

John refers in his letter that he had had a severe illness and five years later, in the December qtr., 1932 in Manchester, he died aged 75.