This family was ‘in -service’ at a number of big houses. The 1891 census finds Steven Edward Whenham a single man as a boarder in the gamekeeper’s cottage at Gwsaney Hall. He was 22 yrs old and listed as a gardener- originally from Kent.

By 1901 Steven was a married man of 32, still a gardener, living in Rhdygoleu with his wife Ruth and their children –Joseph Edward was 4, John A 3 and Stephen E 1.

In the 1911 census they were living in the cottage at Leeswood Hall where Steven is still a gardener. The family had grown and  consisted of wife Ruth, Joseph Edward is 14 and a farm labourer,  John 13, Stephen 11, Mary 8 were all at school and Horace 6 and Ruth 3 were at home.

ancestry.com lists soldiers who died in the Great War and states that Joseph enlisted in Mold but his residence was Hartley, Wintney, Hants. (Which would explain why he joined the Hampshire Regiment).

His younger brother Stephen also served in the war.

The family address on Joseph’s Commonwealth War Grave certificate is The Lodge, Pentre Hobyn – another large hall on the outskirts of Mold.

Joseph Whenham is also listed on the Leeswood Memorial

and the Rhydymwyn Memorial