Annie Pougher (1868-1945)
Mary Ann Ayscough was born near Caistor before her family moved to Grimsby. Her father drowned when his ship, the Robert & Charlotte, went down with all hands off the Northumberland coast.
She married tailor Thomas Garnham at just 16, making the collars for his suits as a dressmaker until he set her up with her own shop in Fylde Street. They had four sons together before his early death.
She then took in lodgers, brothers George and Will Pougher, and went on to marry George, eight years her junior, at his home town of Tadcaster.
In 1907 George won a Daily Mail competition, the prize being a 14-acre farm at Little Ponton, near Grantham. Annie helped run it for three years until George died of a brain tumour.
She tried to keep the farm going with three of her sons, but by now she also had three daughters by George, and it proved too much. She was forced to give it up.
She sold up and took over a boarding house in Commercial Road, playing host to celebrities appearing at the Empire Theatre in George Street. Guests included Will Hay and Elroy the Legless Wonder.
Her daughters helped run the house by day and worked as usherettes at the Picture House by night.
Annie retired to a flat on the High Street, above Shepherd’s tailoring, before eventually moving to a small terraced house in Redcross Street, where she spent her final days.
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