Kate and Isabel Hoyland - My Great Aunts

Kate and Isabel Hoyland were born in Sheffield in 1869 and 1872. Their parents were Charles Hoyland (see "Three Generations of Brush Manufacturers" posted on 23/2/2009) and Hannah Selina ne Wynne. They had one brother, Charles Haywood Hoyland (my great-grandfather), and one sister, Hannah (see "Hannah Mayor" posted on 10/8/2009). Kate and Isabel never married and were able to live comfortably from the proceeds of their father's business. They were still living with their parents when they were in their twenties, according to the 1901 census. This was at Norwood House in Dore outside Sheffield.

Their other sister, Hannah, an artist, had married another artist called Fred Mayor, against the wishes of her parents.

After their father died in 1905, Kate moved to Surrey, and at the 1911 census, age 43, was living at Burghley Road in Wimbledon. She was head of the household and had visitors there on the day of the census including Hoyland nephews Charles (17) and Stanley (5) and niece Louise (16), plus a widow age 41 and a servant. Amazingly, Isabel was then living on Busheywood Road in Dore. Was this the same house that Mum and Dad moved to with John and me sometime around 1947/8?

I guess it was soon after 1911 that Isabel left Sheffield to join Kate in Surrey. When we moved to London in the 1950's, we were told they were living in Esher. It was during our time in London that we used to meet our great great aunts when they treated John and I (with parents in tow) at Christmas to tea and a show in the West End. I can remember a production of Toad of Toad Hall and possibly A Midsummer Night's Dream. At this time, the sisters were in their eighties and still thriving. It seems that they both died in 1960. Kate had reached the ripe old age of 90 and Isabel was not far behind.

15th April 2026

I now find that the RSC production of Toad of Toad Hall played at the Princes Theatre (now the Shaftesbury Theatre) at the end of 1954 and into January 1955. I would have been just eleven.